Ante-scriptum: The content of this post must be taken as a personal truth of mine and not as a universal truth.
In it I talk about things that
I identify as memories and about things which people I trust said to me but cannot be verified.
End of the ante-scriptum.
Meneldur, what you ask would require an incredibly complex answer and I think we are going to need to talk about
very delicate topics.
Some of them might hurt the feelings of deeply religious members of the forum, if there are any.
I now turn to them: everything I've ever said and will ever say - except for my encounter with people who said (and showed) they were Eldar - is part of a personal gnostic experience or has been reported to me by people who had one.
It is not meant as an attack on any religion or belief.
Meneldur Olvarion wrote: ↑Tue May 15, 2018 1:22 am
Have your contacts explained why an Elda's spirit would 'jump' to a human [...]
Wouldn't this 'jumping' tend to muddy the distinction between the two [...]?
No.
Because it is not the entire spirit of the Elda that is relocated into a human body (otherwise the Elda's body would die), it's just a little part of it.
The transfer process is supervised by the Valar.
But an
entirely comparable process, I've been taught, takes place spontaneously (or rather: by the will of the One) when a human being is born for the first time.
Because the spirit of a human being, according to my memories, is nothing but a very little part of the spirit of an Elda.
This is how Eru created the Second Ones, men.
He took a tiny part of the spirit of every Elda and He used it to give life to a human.
The process was undetectable, so, for a long time, the Eldar never realized that the creatures they often mocked were nothing but very little Eldar.
Their younger brothers, in every way.
It took time, but - according to what Nilwen said - they eventually understood it.
One more thing: according to what I learnt in Valinor, after a human being is born for the first time, his spirit will continue to exist in Amar through many lives.
When a man dies, in other words, he is reborn as another man's son.
In the majority of cases, the man doesn't remember the name he had in the previous life, or the place(s) where he lived.
But he remembers what his heart (or "inner mind") has learnt.
If he has learnt, say, a profound truth about God or life, he will remember it.
If he has learnt the value of love, he will remember it, and so on and so forth.
Men exist for a reason and their existence is - due to its true nature - full of suffering.
If men never died they couldn't bear this suffering, they couldn't bear all the pain.
That is also why death has been called a "gift": because its presence eases the pain.
I suppose this begs a big question: why all this pain? Why Eru (according to Mildir and friends) created men in the first place?
I cannot but answer to this question by quoting a renowned Valinorean book: The
Eruvóhision or, in English,
The Misteries of the One.
This book was written by Eönwë in his language and I know some important parts of it by heart.
This is one of them (I'll put the English translation in bold under each line of the original text I remember, which comes from a Quenya version of the book):
I nélë ëa, ve terhlanieva, i nalu yan Eru iciltúra ar anoconúra tanfaryat’ óhetien erë fexë ócastuyalerya vena hanuma larcavë.
Pain is, ultimately, the price that the One has chosen and accepted to pay for eliminating one defect of His structure as soon as possible.
I fexë suna ya ipemmistuss’ imbë márië ñumyë.
Such defect is the promiscuity between good and evil.
Monwa nayuryantë yav’ ilmin atto et úterhlanna terhlanna, ter i atta, tertulië minië hanyanë.
It has been necessary in order that each one of them might begin to turn, through the other, from indefinite to definite.
I tyerë suna terhlantaleva anahilië hanyuva ata nai ar ammanya lémemë terhilyuva nai sátuna nayuvar eltet.
Such journey of definition can continue, and will indeed continue in a better way, if they are separated.
I tyerë suna terhlantaleva mínë yav’ Eru se senya hanyanë anistë, ar tev’ elwë ter entë.
Such journey of definition began in order that the One might learn to know Himself and we might learn to know ourselves through Him.
Epë sa ya tyerë mínë márië ñumyë santa nëaner, nan ilminë ministyanë lá ya ëanë.
Before the journey began good and evil were separated, but neither of them was aware of being, nor was it aware of its own nature.
Né ya ipemmistuss’ imbë tet i solma minieva tyerëo sun ëanë, apa fexë terutuluryanë.
If the promiscuity between them was initially the key to the beginning of such journey, it has then become a defect.
Fexë yanan Erunë hormya suna tyexenn’ opevatië sa etaletuyantë ya nélë quanta terien in ter elwë terya.
A defect which the One is so eager to overcome that He is disposed to experience all the pain He is experiencing through us.
An yata sátuna, márië ñumyë nelyuvar út’ er i artanen, ai ata hanyat’ anistyat’ er i artanen.
For once they are separated, good and evil will no longer suffer because of each other, although they will be able to learn from each other.
I surë Arda enivintuyuryuva.
On that day the world will be renewed.
I believe this can answer to the first question: why all this pain?
As regards the second question (i.e.: "Why Eru - according to Mildir and friends - created men in the first place?), which I believe is the one you are more interested in... well, I could answer in my own words, but I prefer to quote Tiriel Feradan.
She is the Prime Mediator of this age.
At the age of 20 I received a message in my mind, a message she sent via
linósanwë (it means that she spoke to many people all at once and she did it through the mind).
This message, as I'd soon understand, addressed all the lightbringers and it was of course in Mithren.
Since I wrote it down in my diary shortly after receiving it, I'll copy it here.
I've always divided it conceptually into five parts.
So, again, I'll put the English translation in bold under each part.
“I-amarth in-adaneth orchuiad na-ngú, ú-hen dredalthad, an o then de dredalthatha hen”
“The destiny of men is to survive evil, not to defeat it, as it shall defeat itself alone”
“Nár edh in-errinnail in-linnor od in i-hin andunia”
“You are the catalysts of the speed with which this is happening”
“Cilthannen anedh ed i-Valaneth an andunianne han ben chegrad ilphen, hegol i-han i-phened in-lú dhin. An aner edh odsannen ve ian-erui gareb o nungoeliad i-ubvador sin, ar e then in-erui gareb on edlengad i-mored sin”
“You have been chosen by the Valar so that this would happen without anything being sacrificed, except for some of your time. As you have been identified as the only ones who could endure this process, and therefore the only ones who could carry out this task”
“Be istar edh galacholiellen edui, Eru gaern i-adaneth an aen i-ngú der hene hannen ed i-maned. Ná hen i-errinnal on i-hádad e-maned ed i-ngú. I-mored lin i-han o hen sediad han na nád.”
“As you lightbringers already know, The One made men so that evil might be through them separated from good. They are the catalysts of the separation of good from evil. Your task is to help them be that”
“Ná han sui, Eru gaern i-daedath, i-adaneth, enhannad na nádad na-ngú ian gonennant i-minenath, i-Edhelath. I-Edhelath, on van i-adaneth obed i-morchanad, nan nár in-nossed na hened i-idial.
An ú-ná ia-húl in-adaneth obed sad did e-húl in-Edhelath. Na sin, be ane han bennen, bannatha hen go hene der in-vaid in-Maun Arnor”
“It is so, The One made the second ones, men, in order to remedy the evil that afflicted the first ones, Elves. Elves, of which men aren’t but the shadow, but the two births are in truth the same one.
As the spirit of men isn’t but a little part of the spirit of Elves. Therefore, as it has been said, they shall walk with them through the roads of the Blessed Realm”
When reading these words, there is something important you have to keep in mind: it is
impossible for an Elda to be the catalyst of the separation of good from evil.
Because an Elda's spirit is by nature good-oriented.
It is so full of light that there is almost no place in it for any darkness.
A man, on the other hand, is a more balanced creature.
I could explain it this way: men are "grey" and Eldar are "white".
And, well, those that some call "demons" (like the Balrogs), they would be "black".
Only a "grey" creature can be the perfect catalyst of the separation of good from evil.
Through its choices, through the everyday life.
In the end, the "grey" creature will decide whether it wants to be "white" or "black".
And this will cause the irreversible separation of good from evil.
Which is the target of Eru, as well as the next step of the evolution of the universe, according to everything Nilwen and my memories tell.
There will no longer be a "grey" universe, where good and evil are seen together.
There will be two realms:
Ilcamar, the realm of light, and
Nurumar, the realm of darkness.
Ilcamar will be "inside", like a core, or a yolk, and
Nurumar will be "outside", enfolding
Ilcamar.
The process of formation of these two realms has a final stage, which the Eldar call
The Schism of Light.
And it is about to take place: it will mark the end of the Dominion of Men, according to what I've been taught.
A curiosity:
Nurumar already exists, it's just incomplete.
It will be complete when it will be entirely separated from
Ilcamar.
I have been taught that you can access to this realm by crossing the event horizon, the boundary marking the limits of a black hole.
I don't know if you remember: the
Silmarillion tells about the
Door of Night, a "gateway" through which Morgoth was expelled.
"Door of night" was a metaphorical way to indicate a black hole, to make it understandable by the ancient Eldar, who did not know what a black hole was.
I still have to answer to your other questions...
Meneldur Olvarion wrote: ↑Tue May 15, 2018 1:22 am
Is this the reason for this edict (the "because before the end of the Dominion of Men they cannot publicly show who they really are")?
Yes.
Also, did this religion have a name that you are aware of?
Yes.
Christianity.
Because the mediator I spoke of is the one we call Jesus.
According to my memories, his true name is Aranwë Erundur.