In the beginning there was neither matter nor energy, neither was
there  space nor  time,  force  and  form  were not.    Yet  there  was
Something.   Poised between Spirit and Void, without form or qualities,
pure potentiality,  the  first physical  manifestation  had  existence.
Scientists call it the  Primordial Singularity, occultists call  it the
Cosmic Egg.

It changed, and the first moment of time came to be.  It
expanded, and space was born.   Not the space we know, but  one of many
dimensions, and that space was filled with the first Force.  So intense
was that Force  that space  itself altered. Dimensions  folded back  on
themselves, while others expanded mightily.  The first Form came to be.
As the infant  universe expanded it changed subtly, and as naturally as
snowflakes  forming  in  the  air,  the  first  material  manifestation
precipitated out of nothingness.  Neither matter nor
energy as we know  them, but yet both.  The Element Fire was born.  The
universe continued to expand, and the one Force became two forces, then
three  and finally four.  Matter and energy became distinguishable, and
the Element  Earth was born from  Fire.  A hundred  thousand years went
by,  and the  universe  continued  to  expand  and  cool  until,  quite
suddenly, the fire died,  space became transparent to light,  and there
were great clouds of cool gas, moving freely.
The  Element Air  was born.   The clouds  began to  draw together, then
break apart into smaller clouds, and  smaller still, until a limit  was
reached,  and   a  hundred   thousand  clouds  collapsed   inward  upon
themselves, swirling and twisting,  flattening and smoothing, rippling,
and organizing themselves.  The Element Water was born.

One cloud, like many of its siblings, took on structure like a
great pinwheel, with  spiral arms stretching out  from its center.   It
was  Galaxias, our Milky Way.   Within its  turbulent swirling, smaller
eddies formed and contracted,  tighter and tighter.   At the center  of
one a spark grew bright then another and another.  The first stars were
lighted,  and shown  in a  universe grown  dark.   Many of  them burned
prodigally for  a time and  then exploded,  hurling the ashes  of their
burning outward, ashes such as oxygen and carbon and
nitrogen; star  stuff, life stuff.  Generations  of stars came and went
over the billions of years, and  out in one of the spiral arms  a cloud
of  gas and  dust began  to collapse like  so many  others before.   It
contracted, and  a  new star  lighted,  with a  disc  of dust  and  gas
circling it.  The disc became lumpy  as grains of dust and crystals  of
ice collided  and stuck together.   The lumps touched  and merged, ever
growing in the light of  the young star.  Finally, nine  bodies circled
the new star,  which would one day be  called Sol, or simply,  the Sun.
Third out from the  sun a rare event  had happened.  Two young  planets
had collided  and merged violently,  forming a  single planet.   In the
violence of  that  collision, part  of the  surfaces of  both had  been
ripped off and hurled  out to form a ring of  molten rock which quickly
drew together  to form a giant satellite.   The Earth and  the Moon had
been born in a passionate joining.

As the young Earth cooled, great volcanos belched forth gases from
its still  hot interior.   An atmosphere  of steam  and carbon  dioxide
formed and then  clouds appeared.  The first  rains began, pouring down
on the rocks and  washing down into  the low places.   The oceans  were
born.    Water  evaporated from  the  oceans  and fell  again  as rain,
dissolving minerals from the rocks and carrying them into the sea.  The
early ocean became richer  and richer in dissolved minerals  and gases.
Lightning in the young atmosphere formed new substances
which added to the complexity of  the mix.  The dissolved substances in
the  oceans became  more and  more  complex, until  one  day a  complex
molecule attracted simpler  compounds to  itself, and  then there  were
two, then four.  Life was born.

From its simple origins, Life grew in complexity, until one day a patch
of green appeared,  drawing energy  from the Sun,  and exuding  oxygen.
Within  a short time the atmosphere changed  radically.  The sky became
blue, the air  clear and rich in oxygen.  As the Earth had shaped Life,
so  Life began  to shape  the Earth.     Delicately balancing  and ever
re-balancing between the furnace heat of her sister Venus, and  the icy
cold of her brother Mars, Gaia, the Living Earth, had come to be.

The  first animals  appeared  and swam  in  the oceans.    Then
venturesome  ones  crawled onto  the  land.   The forms  taken  by life
changed.   Fish appeared, and  dragons walked  the land.   Tiny  furred
creatures  supplanted the  great  dragons, whose  descendants now  flew
through the skies, clothed in  feathers.  By and by some  of the furred
creatures came  down from the  trees and began  to walk about  on their
hind legs, and then they started picking things up.  Soon they were
using the things  they picked up.   Then they  started talking to  each
other.  After they had been talking for a while, they started thinking.
Some of them even started  thinking about where they had come  from and
where they were  going.  And  they began to  wonder how everything  had
come to be – and why.