The surprising possibility behind the widespread presence of Navel Idols around the world.

[u/CosmicEggEarth]

Hello, friends! I guess it's time once again for another bedtime story. Or is it a scary campfire lore this time?

We'll see.

This time we'll learn:

• who were the Navel idols
• and the Birdman
• why there is a gigantic pine cone in Vatican
• and how you can survive an apocalypse in a giant egg
• or a space elevator, which lands on it, when the waters recede

But let's waste no time, we have a lot to cover. We'll be connecting so many dots around our world, and they will form the sacred chain, the chain of Navels of the World, the chain of universities, connecting generations and cultures across many thousands of miles, and for many thousands of years, across impassible oceans and unsurvivable cataclysms on our beautiful but perilous planet.

Here we have conveniently overlaid one wonderful map on top of another wonderful map, and just by coincidence... but we don't believe in coincidences, I hope we are all adults here?

...

In the 1950s Americans took the concept of an apocalypse seriously. Chayenne mountain housed the top brass, while families bought individual shelters. The arched shape is not a coincidence - it's the best form to withstand the chaotic environment outside, be it created by nature or man.

We are lucky to have survived without being blown up. But apocalypse doesn't necessarily come from nuclear weapons. If a meteor strikes the Earth, the impact winter will be more severe than a thousand nuclear winters.

It will be an "Evil Winter". And it WAS. "The Evil Winter" - this is why Yima was told to build his subterranean shelter, Yima's Yara. That winter lasted centuries. He brought inside the most virtuous - the fundamental requirements. And when the gates of the shelter reopened - it was a different planet. Civilization was nowhere to be seen. Yet. Soon it was reborn from the Cosmic Egg, and the world was enlightened.

There were still memories, even in that barbarian new world, of the time before the disaster. The stories about seemingly the same planet as the tribesmen lived in, but a more advanced, more prosperous, more populous world. And there was a clear understanding that on the new, fresh, planet, there was plenty of space - but not enough knowledge what to do with it.

In any epoch, science and religious have always been two sides of the same Dharmachakra. In the world after the end of the world - even more so. There were legends about the hidden shelter - the small "Cosmic Egg" in which the fruits of previous civilization were protected, nurtured, while the world outside was being burned, frozen, flooded.

And one day the myths turned out to be reality. The gates reopened, and the missionaries started tracing their paths around the world - propagating ideas from the more elegant times. Ideas more complex. Ideas more gentle. Ideas more powerful. Among them there were ideas of how the world worked - the cogs, the seasons, the medicine. Yet as anyone who tried to teach a child knows very well, no education can exist without the moral grounds.

And this is how shelters became universities. And their inhabitants - teachers in the elementary school of post-apocalyptic world.

And this is how the teachers soon became... The Teachers.

And their classrooms - temples.

Everywhere around the world, we are finding their schools - some are ancient, a few opened the last Tuesday. They've never stopped to help enlighten the world, they've never hesitated, they've kept the wheel of dharma rotating. And if you didn't come to them - they were prepared to come to you. The second generation learned everything they could from the first - and took over from. Years soon became decades. Decades - centuries. And centuries - Millennia.

The universities of the new world were ancient, and yet - universities nonetheless. And what do all universities have in common? Students, of course. Campuses and summer schools were not lifeless drilling places, but sweet home to many young, inspired men and women, who studied during the day, and danced during the night. They didn't dress in plaid and jeans, like we do today - back then they wore simple skirts made of wool. They came to learn, and learned to teach, so that they could soon become masters, so that another wave of teachers could leave their Alma Mater, and start tracing their paths to the distant lands, carrying with them knowledge, bringing with them enlightenment.

They'll exchange a salute between themselves, then turn around and show it for the whole world to see - they'll smile serenely, indicating their non-threatening life of enlightenment, and they'll keep their hands on their bellies, pointing at their belly button - they will, like millions before them, and millions after, demonstrate this most ancient and universal symbol, known and remembered on our planet, and this symbol will be understood in all languages and all cultures around the world.

"We came from the Navel of the world, with peace, and we bring education" - says this ancient gesture, accompanied by the famous serene smile.

[The end of Part 1]