Oracles of Eden
Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W): $19.99
Dust Jacket Hardcover(B/W): $37.95
E-Book: $3.99
What People Are Saying about Oracles of Eden
“Michael grabs you by the heart and catapults you on to what feels like an already begun roller coaster ride. This sensory banquet of a tale spins, drenches, and thrills as it careens its way to the next stage of this brand new, age-old story. You arrive at ride’s end breathlessly exhilarated, stunned and... profoundly grateful.
”
“I was transported to another Realm as this tale unfolds...it leaves the reader with a strong sense of Spiritual Beings existing among us.”
“Wow! Talk about a page Turner! Michael bids the reader to follow him on a fantastical journey that tickles your senses! I would love to see this on the Big Screen!”
“Michael’s creativity and imagination in this fantasy is remarkable! He invites the reader to identify with the characters in the story. The hurts, sadness, betrayal, rejection that we all at some level experience. I read it three times and I could not put it down! Each time I read it something else riveted my attention. I enjoyed it so much, and so will you!”
“Mike Zadai you are a genius! Not only is it a great story that I couldn’t put down until I was finished, but, you have running through it all profound sentences and paragraphs that say so perfectly the Gospel as we know it and that I couldn’t improve. It took me a whole weekend in my Teaching Modules what you accomplished in a few word pictures and spoken sentences! I am going to reread with a yellow marker and steal some of it. Congratulations! I shall recommend it wherever I go.”
Oracles of Eden
Forward
“In your hands is an epic adventure, written with a mythopoeic imagination. To tell an old and familiar tale in a way that fascinates, refreshes, and even inspires, requires an uncommon mind. This is the story of creation, fall, and redemption, told from behind the scenes. Here we enter the unknown universe of the Silver Sea, a place of peace and unimaginable beauty. It is the home of the Image Maker—Abba, Philon and Life Weaver—and of the angels, soaring in breathtaking flight. Love rules, and where there is real love, freedom abounds. Freedom is love’s gift, holding the seeds of tragedy, sadness, and pain, as well as the unspeakable joy and life of sacrifice, fellowship, and oneness.
While the Silver Sea is limitless, there are boundaries and forbidden zones, beyond which lie portals whose magnetic forces can carry one to other dimensions. Raeh is a beautiful angel who loves the edges of freedom, and as one fascinated by that which lies beyond the Canopy, he braves the unknown consequence of crossing into a forbidden world. What he sees there he can never shake. Lured by the hope of obtaining what is in fact already his, Raeh embraces the Netherlife. Innocence and temptation, loyalty and betrayal, blindness, murder, and catastrophic mayhem follow, as does resurrection—and, not least, divine humility and grace. Here I will stop, so as not to steal from you the joy of entering into the tale.
But I will say that Zadai is gifted in discerning the human heart and its secrets as they are at creating new worlds in our minds. As the drama unfolds, you will see yourself, your own strengths and weaknesses, temptations, hurts, and mistakes, lived out in their startling characters. He also knows the surprise of the real gospel, so that just when you think all is lost, you discover the story has an eternal ‘frame’ in the endless love of the blessed Trinity. The Oracles of Eden, is a tale of tragedy baptized with hope, and it is a tale for us—for there is a frame for all our broken stories. And there is more to come.
”
Synopsis
Our story begins in the Silver Sea, a universe previous to our own, where wind-driven clouds create a colorful canopy, marking its outermost boundary. The tribal community of Destiners, their wings majestic and swift, are eagle-like beings which soar freely across the sky.
Slicing through the atmosphere, two brothers test their mettle. Raeh, the younger, is daring and audacious, while Abriel is devoted and assiduous. Swords flying, they duel, clipping cumulus clouds, then Raeh, venturing a strategy, slips into the Canopy’s forbidden zone.
A magnetic force overtakes him and drags him into a portal. He goes end over end traveling the portal’s pathway until he is dropped into an exotic and fragrant jungle. With feathers ruffled, and all aflutter, Raeh is stupefied. He thrills with wonder as ribbons of color spring from plant to plant and tree to tree.
A resplendent being, her carriage light and airy, approaches him. “I am Strophe,” says she in tuneful lilt, “An expression of the Image Maker’s heart, I am music and I am dance.” And after spending some time with Raeh, she reveals to him his calling. She drifts away light as a bubble and drops a musical note. It lands in whispers at Raeh’s feet. “Eat it”, she calls out. He places it in his mouth and it melts lemony sweet upon his tongue.
A nearby waterfall catches his attention, and he undertakes to investigate. Behind the fall’s watery curtain he enters a cavern of breathtaking opulence. He moves stealthily along and comes upon the seven tribal elders convened at council with the Image Maker of old. Raeh is speechless, but then feels a tap on the shoulder and is instantly transported outside the cavern.
He stands face to face, although unwittingly, with the Image Maker’s Son, Philon. Raeh is struck by the featherless, wingless being whose distinction from Destiners he finds suspect. He inquires as to the stranger’s identity, but not waiting for a reply, proceeds to lament his removal from the cavern, challenging the stranger’s actions.
Philon gives no answer regarding his identity, but calls Raeh by name, surprising him. He assures him that the Image Maker is well aware of him and that in due time Raeh will properly stand before him. He urges him not to act in haste, and then cautions him against breaching the Canopy again.
Philon allows Raeh to choose between two portals for transport to the Silver Sea, one the color of goldenrod and the other, metallic red. He mulls over the psychological implications of what he deems a test, and resolutely selects the “fiery red route home”. The ride is wild, and dumps Raeh out on the seashore where he sustains a hit on the noggin, but not before hearing a voice echo from the portal, “I am Philon…” He holds his head, sizing up the painful goose-egg he sustains, and bemoans his choice, “I should have chosen goldenrod!”
He is assailed by a pair of hostile Destiners from the Xcelene tribe when he realizes he has landed in their territory. He takes to the air, and when he thinks he is out of harm’s way, a flying fist sends him tumbling into the sea. He is later found washed ashore in his homeland.
Raeh recovers and makes another attempt to breach the Canopy. He is intercepted by a detail of guardsmen, with his brother, Abriel, chief wingman. Raeh is netted and taken to Natriel, high elder, who reprimands him for his rash behavior. Raeh divulges that he is captivated by the splendor of “that transcendent place,” but Natriel reduces him to night watchman and assigns him to a rugged cliff overlooking the sea.
The night is one of tempest, torrent and tantrum, with Raeh drenched in frustration. The Life Weaver comes to him amid the fury and discloses that a new universe is in the making, one in which the Image Maker requests Abriel and his participation.
Later, briefed by Natriel, the brothers find that they are to become high ranking members of the Chayil, a mighty angelic host, whose presence is to forever be part and parcel to the grand scheme of things.
They are taken to the Hall of Portals, where they are ceremoniously anointed and instructed, then sent on their way, via portal, to their destination.
During transport the two lose consciousness and awaken transmogrified amid a glorious procession of like beings striding forth from the womb of a flaming vortex. Raeh’s appearance and purpose, however, excel in magnificence, and he emerges last—lifted high, and hovering above the throng. Raeh is most gratified.
Orientation follows, with Philon instructing the Chayil as to their majestic design. He invites them to enjoy the cosmos and its profundities, but first explains that each of them possesses an internal Pool—it is the seat of passions wherein dream’s dawn arises. They are apprised of its potency, whether for good or ill, and instructed as to its proper management.
Bestowed with rank and ability, Raeh assumes the appointment of director of the Chayil’s choral host, and the harmonies ring out in the heavens, clear as a cloudless morning and crisp as a winter’s night.
But it isn’t long before Raeh becomes inflamed with grandiose notions and develops a stratagem whereby he might procure a following and, regarding the cosmos, take some of the ample assets for himself. He is confronted by Abriel, but treats him with contempt, killing him.
Raeh incites a rebellion, winning the allegiance of roughly one third of the Chayil. A battle ensues, befouling the ground with angelic blood. Philon strips the blood-guilty of their standing and banishes them to Tyrannous, a planet Raeh is more than happy to call his own, although he cries foul. He confers upon his cohorts the title Muspellum, meaning fiery ones, and casts off his given name, stating that he shall henceforth answer only to Primus—a name more befitting a luminary such as himself.
Primus eventually discovers earth and makes an aerial sweep of what he soon discovers is the Garden of Delights. He is suspicious of its lavish and obviously purposeful design, and is jealous of its quaint, homey appeal. He observes the elaborate and varied animal species and is resentful that he has not been made privy to such a notable undertaking. When he spies the man and woman, Valerian and Aurea, Primus is indignant. His resentment races toward revenge, and he concocts a plan whereby he might win the favor of the curiously, though unjustly favored pair.
Meanwhile, Philon cautions Valerian and Aurea against entertaining any unfamiliar persons, and fairly warns them of the possibility of an unsavory character showing up in the Garden, uninvited. However, when Primus appears—majestic and charming, and flaunting his celestial design—the earth-bound pair is enchanted by the colorful persona of one such as he, and a bond is quickly formed between them.
Like a nimble-fingered tailor, Primus deftly sets to sewing, stitch-by-stitch, until doubt looms large in the minds of his trusting companions; they begin to question the fairness of life, the moral fiber of the Image Maker, and the fidelity of their friendship with Philon. Wishing to be like Primus, they become disoriented, and their hearts turn from home. Tumult and catastrophe follow, and the Garden’s symbiotic tapestry virtually unravels beneath their feet, touching every living thing within the Garden’s pale and beyond.
Seeking to escape the dangerous upheaval, Valerian and Aurea trot blindly behind Primus, who, having convinced them to do so, leads them straight to Manumit, the city which he and his minions construct for such a fortuitous calamity as this. There, Primus and his cohorts fuel the city with slanderous fires of propaganda. They refer to the Image Maker as the Distant Other, and refuting his ways, peddle, instead, the tenets of Intheism—a belief system which he and Lupa (his personal intimate, and High Priestess) concoct to amass to themselves a sizeable collection of proselytes. They tout its tenets as ‘liberating from the choking confines and nonsensical restrictions previously imposed,’ and set forth its primary dogma as ‘discovering the power of consummate self, independent of the Distant Other.’
Over time, the population of Manumit grew, transforming into a bustling city. But life under the dictatorship of Primus, who has grown increasingly phobic and cruel, and rules with an iron fist, is less than liberating, for its inhabitants are by no means free. It seems Primus had achieved his revenge upon Philon.
But, "...there is a will not deterred by events in time and space, nor subverted by schemes or thwarted by powers, but presides over all." The Image Maker incarnates himself into humanity through the person of his son Philon. On Lupa's coronation day, Philon fulfills the ancient writings on the mystical Frame of Story, inciting the fury of Lupa who assumed the Frame spoke of her reign. Primus recognizes Philon, but is puzzled at his frail nature. Taking advantage of his apparent weakness, Lupa commands the crowd to kill Philon, and her orders are carried out.
The death of the Image Maker’s Son unleashes a vengeful fury upon the inhabitants of Manumit and a battle ensues. Primus senses defeat, but longs to destroy those closest to Philon’s heart. He murders Valerian and Aurea and attacks a restored Abriel. Just when it seems Abriel is falling again under Primus’ onslaught, the still heart of Philon beats once more, and having cheated death, he exercises his power over the Muspellum, bringing them to sure defeat.
Though disgraced and thoroughly routed, Primus taunts Philon, contending that regardless of the perceived victory, humankind remains under his dark spell.
But, to his dismay, the Image Maker’s plan is far greater, and his love far deeper than Primus can conceive of. For in the incarnation, Philon had takes the journey that no human could have ever achieved and established forever a place for them in the life of the Image Maker..
With that knowledge, Primus realizes that his cruel actions against Philon were used to his disadvantage. The Image Maker’s love had moved into the collective conscience of humankind and had taken up residence there, ever present and willing to win his creation back to his original purposes.
Philon releases Primus and the Muspellum to Tyrannous, and condemns Manumit to be uninhabited.
The aged Valerian and Aura return with the Chayil to be reunited with the Image Maker. Humankind populates the earth under the new hope of their champion.