A Brief Word on the Chronicle of Caine

   It is unimportant that this part of the Book of Nod is not comparatively accurate with the standard biblical canon. What is important is that we have, perhaps for the first time, a personal viewpoint on the events surrounding the days after the Fall. Caine tells us in his own words what his motives were, and although it is quite possible that this story exists only to shape our idea of him, we can assume that there must be some element of the truth his tale. His account is, after all, the only eyewitness report we have to rely upon.

   Ah, our dear Father. In some Islamic myths, the translated Satan figure is thrown from Heaven not because he hates mankind, but because he loves God too much to bow to any other but God, and he will not serve man. It is perhaps that Caine shares in this love he so loves his brother that he cannot think of any other worthy sacrifice to the One Above. Surely Caine could not have had any other reason to sacrifice his brother. He could not know death, having been born before Death was something humanity had experienced.

  Other figures of that time also play instrumental roles in the Book. Surely it is not purely mythological transliteration that causes Lilith to appear in this story, for she is a figure in the oldest of the Hebrew Midrashim. Having been cast out of Paradise first, she would recognize Caine for one who had been in the light of heaven and subsequently cast out. There are those among my colleagues who believe that this stanza should represent the idea that Lilith, mother of magick and demoness herself, taught the first Disciplines to Caine. Others see her role as being a midwife to our Father's awakening to his own magickal potential. What remains to be discovered is the fabled „Cycle of Lilith" which supposedly describes the time Caine spent with Lilith as her servant and lover. Was it merely a dalliance, or could it have been some kind of mystical apprenticeship, during which Lilith gradually drew out of Caine tne limitations that the Divine had placed upon him and slowly Awakened him to his own magickal powers? The fact that she shows trepidation at his drinking her own blood from the Awakening cup might point to her lack of total understanding as to what, exactly, this might do to the First Son of Adam.

   We cannot afford to speculate whether the cup causes a hallucination in Caine or whether Caine is actually physically transported to a wilderness somewhere in the Darkness. This is not understood, neither is it explained by the translation of the original text. The original phraseology essentially means "breathed in" or "moved." Both meanings of the word point to either explanation. And we cannot gain much in the debates: it matters not whether Caine was physically transported. Like shamanic visions recorded as a result of ritually consuming hallucinogenic, Caine's experience was as real to him as any journey might be to you or me. My childe, Beckett, continues to restate his opinion that the Chronicle of Caine is a vampiric parable. I totally disagree, but Beckett is a beloved childe. I will include his studies and findings here, below.

  Because of the literary distance between the current translations of the text (Dr. deLaurent's translation included) of The Book of Nod, the original intent of the Book has been lost. It is my theory, based on my own researches, that the stories of Caine and Abel, Caine's curse, and his subsequent meeting with Lilith are parables created to tell the tale of the first Kindred in such a way that even the simplest of us can understand them. Through my own scholarship, and drawing upon the work of the fundamental Caine scholars in the world (including some captured writings by a Black Hand worshipper of Caine), I have created a story which I believe harkens back to the original parable of Caine.

   In the time after humanity went from a hunter/gatherer society to cultivating farm animals and developing agriculture, there were two tribes, named for their chiefs. They were called the people of Caine and the people of Abel. The people of Abel were herders and animal husbanders, and were more primitive than the people of Caine. They worshipped a great Sun God, who was a warrior who lived in the sky. The people of Caine were agricultural, and were more civilized than the people of Abel. Because it was so important to time the harvest, the people of Caine worshipped the Moon Goddess, the Dark Mother who was both the fertility of Earth and the mystery of the Moon.

  Yet, not all of the people were happy. Chief Abel attacked Caine's people, telling them that they were inferior and cursed because they did not hunt like their Sun God hunted. Caine's people did not know much about fighting, but Caine taught them how to use the sharp things that they used to till the soil to kill. When Abel's people came back to torment them again, Caine's people fought back. All of the men, women and children of Abel were killed.

The Sun God of the people of Abel then called them cursed as a people, and laid a blood-curse on all of them that they would wander without a home in the wilderness. He burned their villages and salted their fields, and told all to turn away from the people of Caine The people of Caine were unable to recover. They wandered in the curse for many weeks, until they had no food to eat and had many troubles. Then the priestess of the Dark Mother, who lived beyond the Moon, came. The priestess offered Caine's people respite, succor and surcease. She taught them magic, taught them how to hunt, and taught them to drink blood.

   The Sun God came to Chief Caine in dreams, and told him and his people to return and subjugate themselves to the will of people of Seth. Chief Caine refused. Then the Sun God told him that all the people of his tribe would be cursed forever, and it was so. But the Dark Mother said that there would always be a way to overcome this curse: if the people of Caine would come to Her, through her mystery, she would free them from the curse of the Sun God.

   In this parable, Caine’s people (and Caine) represent our need for civilization, the Humanitas that we constantly seek. Abel’s people (and Abel) represent our animal natures, our wild selves, the Beast that lies within us. The Dark Mother represents the mystery that guides our very existence: the magic of our blood, the power of Disciplines. We must seek the mystery of Dark Mather while dealing with the legacy left behind by the Sun God - the curse. Ergo, "A Beast I am, lest a Beast I become.” Golconda is held out as a final goal, perhaps balancing all these things and showing the transcendence of the Beast Within.