Parable of the Eight Sages

There was once a village in which eight sages lived. And one by one, each departed, and journeyed into the great desert, to the City of the Pyramids, to meditate and seek the Truth, until only the eighth and youngest remained. And though he desired to depart as well, he remained, in order to see to the spiritual needs of the people in the village. But finally, after 93 years had passed, he found an apprentice, and taught him all the things he needed to know to look after the villagers, which was only a very small portion of his knowledge and wisdom. And then he departed as well.

When he reached the City of the Pyramids, he encountered the first sage sitting in the opening of a tomb, his eyes staring blankly before him.

“How goes it with you, brother?” asked the eighth sage. “Have you found the Truth?”

“I have found the Truth” replied the first sage. “But I can speak but one word of it.” And he whispered that Word into the eighth sage’s ear.

And the second sage said the same, and so did the third, and so it was with each of the seven sages who had come before, and from each he received a different word, until he had the seven Words of the Truth.

And so he returned to the village, and gathered all of the villagers together (they were 144 in number), and began to speak the seven Words. But the people were not interested.

“Why do you tax our brains with these difficult words, oh sage?” They said. “We are simple people, and content with simple words. Do not worry about teaching us the Truth; we would be satisfied with a good story.”

And so the eighth sage returned to the desert. But his apprentice followed him, and though the sage could walk more quickly, the apprentice rode a donkey, and so caught up with the eighth sage just before he entered the City of Pyramids, and called out to him. (The apprentice, who was not yet a sage, would have been killed if he tried to enter the City itself.)

And so the sage and his apprentice took the seven Words and split them apart, and recombined them, over and over again, until they became a single vast Story. And they returned to the village, and called the people before them.

“We have your story, oh people” said the sage. “But we shall not give to you, if you want it, you shall have to catch it first!” And they split the Story into 144 parts, which fled in all directions, and the people scattered over the face of the Earth, each seeking his own part of the Story. And they were the first alchemists.