A Dome Away From Home
Since 1413. We in the Southern Hemisphere have been enjoying the aegis of a vernal rising Virgo. Our time is primarily one of a striving for moral purity and charity. In the mighty Creation tableau, The Master places the Coelenterates (‘hollow stomachs’) as those creatures created, in the great laboratory of Life, in Virgo.
Jelly fish are Coelenterates. A story such as the following for small children of 7 or 8 subliminally sews these moral forces into their souls, strengthening them for later life. How many of our young ones will, as adults, rescue the stranded creatures, rather than stroll pitilessly past?
Most we hope. Stories have been vehicles form moral and other instruction for eons, how much better if they have woven, even if only in metaphor, esoteric – Spiritual Science – knowledge into their many-colored fabric. Even the name, Bililo Billew, is not arbitrary, the consonant B being that ascribed by The Doctor to Virgo.
This is also a movement story; the sense of motion belongs to The Virgin. The ‘quality’ of Virgo is soberness, a stark contrast to Peregrine Prawn and his ribaldry. The reference to shark coloration is a gesture to the need for natural science to be both interesting and accurate in this, before all else, science story.
And the ‘fire’? Well that could be a symbol of things unseen and incomprehensible; the Mysteries of which a story-enriched science curriculum might go some way in parting the veils of.
A coral garden is one of the loveliest places on earth, colored fish of gold, pink and violet dart between rainbow forests. That’s why Bililo Billew was so happy, and that’s why he was so sad when he became separated from the Family.
Bililo was a young Jellyfish; he was almost transparent but tinged with a soft blue. He had a find round, pulsating dome which sheltered his stubby tentacles. He had never been parted from his large family before, all many hundreds of them; but a teasy current sent him drifting off behind a large coral reef. Because Jellyfish can’t steer, being round as mushrooms and dependent on the currents, he floated away.
The night was lonely for the little Jellyfish, but some of the sights delighted him – especially the phosphorescent games of the darting Prawns. They were very fast swimmers, and in their games of chasings, they would streak this way and that, leaving a sparkling trail of blue fire in their wake. Bililo tried to play too, but he was too slow. Peregrine Prawn laughed unkindly at his efforts to keep up. “Ha, ha, ha – Jellyfish should stay with what they do best, swim around in circles – look boys, he doesn’t even have a bow or a stern, no wonder he doesn’t know where he’s going – haw, haw!”
The first creature Bililo saw when he woke in the morning was quite friendly, it was Clawshus Crab, a large, green fellow who peered from his rather cramped hole in the reef. Bililo asked him to come out and play, and after some prompting, Clawshus did. Though crab play can be a fairly slow affair, as our Jellyfish found out – especially in races!
“Beat you to the edge of the reef!” said Bililo happily, and off they went – but Clawshus could only walk – and sideways at that!
“What?” exclaimed Bililo “You live in the sea and you can’t even swim?!” but before he could say more, a swift, rather cold current carried him off – to deeper water.
Usually the Jellyfish Family swam near the surface, where the warm, tropical sun filled the water with light; light that glinted like diamonds from their pulsing domes; but it was dark where Bililo now found himself. A cuttlefish darted by, squirting a cloud of black ink.
“Hop it?! Said Kinky Cuttle “Shark!” he disappeared below to hide behind Giant Clam, who was just closing his door!
“Why should I worry, Sharks don’t eat Jellyfish?!” said Bililo nervously. It had seemed alright when he was safe in the bosom of The Family, but all alone out here, in this dark and cold water…! The shadow of Shark passed slowly overhead. “That’s strange, a white Shark? The ones I’ve seen have always been grey?”
“That’s because you’re looking from below – you’ve always seen them from the top.” It was the muffled voice of Kinky, helpful as usual “Sharks are sneaky fellows, their grey backs blend in with the dark depths when seen from above – yet from below, their white belly makes them hard to see against the light. You take my advice and catch a current out of here.” Giant Clam nodded his agreement. And that’s just what Bililo did.
The current took him to an area of sand he’d never seen before; always there was the reef, with its colorful coral gardens – but now just sand. But that was not all, there was a strange noise, a kind of low roar. The water was less clear too and getting shallower – alarmingly so. The poor little Jellyfish was being dragged into the surf, something he’d not even heard of before – he was so frightened!
The movement grew faster, and he felt himself tumbled and turbulence about. To his horror, he was foam-tossed onto the beach – and into AIR. The water had thrown him high, and not yet dry, up beyond the reach of the strongest waves – the tide began to go out.
Poor Bililo lay there in the sun, certain that his end was near. It was late afternoon, so the heat couldn’t quite dry him out before sunset, which soon gave way to the welcoming, cool twilight. Bililo just lay there, unable to move. As deep night descended, he saw something that almost made him forget his sad state. It was FIRE! Someone had lit one on the beach some distance away. Fire, with a flickering, orange-hot life of its own, was the most unlikely thing a Jellyfish could ever see. There were murmured sounds coming from the fire, and shadowy figures moving round. Bililo dozed off, thinking it quite likely that he would never wake again – but he did.
It was very early morning, the sun had just risen over the Coral Sea, spangling the surface with gold. But it was the sensation of being lifted that woke the Jellyfish. A small Aboriginal boy had found him as he searched the beach for breakfast. Often the tide washed something up, and this morning he as very pleased as he took his prize back to the campfire. But instead of praise, his father only laughed.
“We don’t eat Jellyfish!” he said, “There’s nothing in them, they’re just, well, just a kind of hard water – throw it away.”
“but it might still be alive!” cried the boy.
“Hmmm, here, let me feel him – yes, there’s still life there, but not much. Go and put him back in the surf.” This the dark-eyed little boy did, wading right out beyond the wave breaks so that Bililo would not be washed back onto the beach. He was nearly dead as the cool sea swept him away. Slowly he began pulsing again. But then he turned upside down! After some time, he grew stronger and righted himself; he drifted on.
“And where do you think you’ve been?!” the voice was familiar; yes, it was Father, the biggest Jellyfish of all. Little Bililo tried to explain as The Family all gathered round. The deep, cold water they could imagine – even the sounds of the surf. The beach was almost beyond them; and as for humans, well they might as well have been from outer space. But there was one thing none of The Billew Family could believe, thinking the sun had got to the lost Jellyfish – and that was fire! No, not even Father, who had seen a great deal of the world, could believe that!
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