<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16762" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=moz-txt-citetags>>>>
</SPAN>the various Hieros are rather vague on the concept of</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>>>>successive "universes." The word
gets thrown around</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>>>>a lot, almost casually: you
have stacked universes, </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>>>>sequential universes,<SPAN
class=moz-txt-citetags> </SPAN>and so on. How does one
escape</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>>>>a universe when it implodes?
</FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT><BR>>>Since Time collapses with successive
universes, the idea of</DIV>
<DIV>>>"sequentiality" between universes would be either naive or</DIV>
<DIV>>>would mean something totally different from what we mean</DIV>
<DIV>>>by it. If we assume that the Hieros are "causality-based", </DIV>
<DIV>>>then successive universes would be a theoretical model</DIV>
<DIV>>>rather than an observed phenomena. It would mean that the</DIV>
<DIV>>>Hieros have the ability to move between parallel worlds...</DIV>
<DIV>>>some adjacent and others not...like those in "There Are
Doors".</FONT></FONT><FONT face=Tahoma></DIV>
<DIV><BR><FONT size=2>>Apheta makes it fairly clear that causation has
occurred. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>>The Hieros happened, and then the
Hierogrammates happened. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, I agree, the Hierogrammates are
casuality-based beings they can only exist in some relative Time. However, when
you say:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>>The Hieros' old universe is gone, and Briah
has not. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>You are making a conclusive leap here. The story
is that "at the destruction of their universe" the compainions escaped to Yesod.
That is a point in Time within their universe. But what does it mean when you
say "the Hieros' old universe is gone"? Look at your next sentence:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>>Naturally, the Hieros can move from Yesod to
any universe,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>>but only any universe that exists. So the
model of universes</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>>separated by time is a given in her version.
<BR></FONT><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><FONT face=Arial>If the Hieros can move to "any"
universe then they can move to one of various manvantara accessible from Yesod
simultaneously, not only the *next* one. They don't have to wait for the current
universe to end before moving on to the next. So the sequentiality of the
universes is irrelevant to them. They can't go back to a time in their original
universe because it would create a paradox--so in a practical sense, I guess, it
is "gone", but only in a practical sense. That's why I said that
"successive universes would be a theoretical model [for the Hieros] rather than
an observed phenomena." They know their own universe collapses, and can probably
determine that the others will as well. Given what we know they know, the
"successive universe" theory would be a pretty obvious one. Yet, they could not
examine various world's from a place beyond causality. For them, they are merely
moving like Adam Green in "There Are Doors", from one parallel "dimension" to
another--or rather, they are moving in a more sophisticated fashion through a
corridor beyond the dominance of any particular dimension. Immediately
successive universes would be like Green's adjacent dimensions (his guitar
string analogy).</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><FONT face=Arial></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><FONT face=Arial>Does it matter? Only when trying
to imagine the vague "<FONT face=Tahoma>concept of </FONT><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>successive 'universes.'" </FONT></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>