The great golden doors open slowly, their higher reaches lost in the formless mist.  
Beyond them, the Hall of Akashic Records stretches out into infinity, bathed in a
sourceless white light. The Hall has been known by many names, through many
lifetimes. It has been called Nature's Memory, the Cosmic Mind, the Collective
Unconscious. It is a compendium of all the souls that ever lived, a record of their lives
and deeds.  Each soul is born, and lives, and dies anew -- and with each birth the
sum of all the incarnations gone before infuses the soul with new potential, new
promise.

The Hall of Akashic Records transcends time and space.  It is without boundaries,
outside religion and human experience.

It is not real.

It just is.

Alabaster plinths rise above the swirling mist in serried ranks, marching through
archways carved of moonlight. On each plinth lies a Book.  Each Book represents a
soul, presently incarnate, wrapped in a thin, silvery glow.  They all look alike to the
casual glance, but here and there among the ranks, subtle color plays through the
glow in hues of gold, and red and green.

In this place and time, seven souls concern us.  Of these, one glows with the steady
burn of gold -- an old soul, veteran of uncounted past lives.  Another gleams with the
green of young leaves, psychic potential apparent to those with eyes to see. And one
shines with a rare sapphire light, the youngest of the Seven, its pristine pages yet
untouched by word or deed.

The pages turn.  A new chapter begins...



~~~~~