Visions of Urbana 4.9: Why Phi?

Philip K. Dick

" 'The Secret Commonwealth,' " Elias said.  "I never believed it existed."  He glowered at the girl, baffled.  "It doesn't exist; that's the whole point!"
     "It exists," she said.  "And here.  Come with us, Mr. Asher.  You are welcome.  But there I am not as I am now.  None of us is.  Except you, Emannuel."
     To the boy, Elias said, "Lord-"
     "There is a doorway," Emmanuel said, "to her land.  It can be found anywhere that the Golden Proportion exists.  Is that not true, Zina?"
     "True," she said.
     "Based on the Fibonacci Constant," Emmanuel said.  "A ratio," he explained to Herb Asher, "1:.618034.  The ancient Greeks knew it as the Golden Section and as the Golden Rectangle .  Their architecture utilized it. . . for instance , the Parthenon.  For them it was a geometric model, but Fibonacci of Pisa, in the Middle Ages, developed it in terms of pure number."
     "In this room alone," Zina said, "I count several doors.  The ratio," she said to Herb Asher, "is that used in playing cards: three to five.  It is found in snail shells and extragalactic nebulae, from the pattern formation of the hair on your head to-"
     "It pervades the universe," Emmanuel said, "from the microcosms to the macrocosm.  It has been called one of the names of God."

--from The Divine Invasion by PKD

The first known calculation of the (inverse) golden ratio as a decimal of "about 0.6180340" was written in 1597 by Maestlin in a letter to Kepler.

"Strange," she said, "I'm old enough to be your mother.  And yet you are older than I am.  There is a paradox; you knew you would find paradoxes here.  My realm abounds with them, as you were just thinking.  Do you want to go back, Yahweh?  To the Palm Tree Garden?  It is irreal and you know it.  Until you inflict decisive defeat on your Adversary it will remain irreal.  That world is gone, and is now a memory."

     "You are the Adversary," he said, puzzled, "but you are not Belial."

     "Belial is in a cage at the Washington D.C. zoo," Zina said.  "In my realm.  As an example of extraterrestrial life-a deplorable example.  A thing from Sirius, from the fourth planet in the Sirius System. People stand around gaping at him in wonder."

--from The Divine Invasion

Belial is also mentioned in the Fragments of a Zadokite Work (which is also known as The Damascus Document (CD)), which states that during the eschatological age, "Belial shall be let loose against Israel, as God spoke through Isaiah the prophet." The Fragments also speak of "three nets of Belial" which are said to be fornication, wealth, and pollution of the sanctuary.  In this work, Belial is sometimes presented as an agent of divine punishment and sometimes as a rebel, as Mastema is. It was Belial who inspired the Egyptian sorcerers, Jochaneh and his brother, to oppose Moses and Aaron. The Fragments also say that anyone who is ruled by the spirits of Belial and speaks of rebellion should be condemned as a necromancer and wizard.

Belial, Wikipedia

   

  "Tell me, now," he said "who you are."

     "Let us go," she said, "hand in hand.  Like Beethoven and Goethe: two friends.  Take us to Stanley Park in British Columbia and we will observe the animals there, the wolves, the great white wolves.  It is a beautiful park, and Lionsgate Bridge is beautiful; Vancouver, British Columbia is the most beautiful city on Earth."

     "That is true," he said.  "I had forgotten."

     Together they walked across the verdant ground, among the vast trees.  These stands, he knew, had never been logged; this was the primeval forest.  "It is exceedingly beautiful," he said to her.
     "It is the world," she said.
     "Tell me who you are."
      Zina said, "I am the Torah."

   
     After a moment Emmanuel said, "Then I can do nothing regarding the universe without consulting you."
     "And you can do nothing regarding the universe that is contrary to what I say," Zina said, "as you yourself decided, in the beginning, when you created me.  You made me alive;  I am a living being that thinks.  I am the plan of the universe, its blueprint.  That is the way you intended it and that is the way it is."
     "Hence the slate you gave me," he said.
     "Look at me," Zina said.
     He looked at her--and saw a young woman, wearing a crown, and sitting on a throne.  "Malkuth," he said.  "The lowest of the ten sefiroth."
     "And you are the Eternal Infininite En Sof," Malkuth said.  "The first and highest of the sefiroth of the Tree of Life."
 

     "Clues," Zina said, "I kept giving you clues.  But it was up to you to recognize me."

     Emmanuel said, "I did not know who I was for a time, and I did not know who you were.  Two mysteries confronted me, and they had a single answer."

     "Let's go look at the wolves," Zina said.  "They are such beautiful animals.  And we can ride the little train.  We can visit all the animals."

     "And let them free," Emmanuel said.

     "Yes," she said.  "And let them, all of them, free."

     "Will Egypt always exist?" he said.  "Will slavery always exist?"

     "Yes," Zina said.  "And so will we."

     As they approached the Stanley Park Zoo, Emmanuel said, "The animals will be surprised by their freedom.  At first they won't know what to do."

     "Then we will teach them," Zina said.  "As we always have.  What they know they will have learned from us; we are their guide."

--from The Divine Invasion