Believe it or not, I recently found a book containing a recipe for primordial broth—the same that supposedly started life on Earth.

It was a lazy Sunday. The sun was pouring in through the curtains and streams of light dispersed across dust particles resembling milky lint. Cigarette smoke hung in the air, sharing my leisurely mood. I left the stock on low heat, marinated the tofu, and went out for a walk.

I was pondering over the meaning of it all. Just as I was about to grasp the solution to this mystery, reaching out with the finger of my imagination to the intersection where all vectors of causality meet, atoms of truth supposedly crystallizing into the ultimate fractal of being, I tripped and fell. Annoyed, I got up, brushed the dust off my knees and noticed out of the corner of my eye a strange shape protruding from below the offending tree root—the real perpetrator of this attempt on my life. It turned out to be a book, its spine inscribed with symbols I could not understand.

A bird started from the tree and as I placed my eyes again on the tome, the symbols arranged themselves into legible words: “Tohu va-Vohu presents ways of organizing matter into life.”

Leafing through the volume, I discovered it was full of chemical formulas, mathematical equations, and biological schemata interlaced with text. I threw the book into my backpack and headed to the friend whom I usually consult on occult and scientific matters. He did not fail me. What follows is a summary of what I learned from the book, so that you too, can try to create life at home.

In the Lipid House

The introduction read: 

“Are you a primordial deity, but your existence feels incomplete? Are you tired of thought experiments and clay figurines? Do you dream of organic toys that do not have to be wound up? Do you feel like you could use some form of cult worship? This book is for you! Just remember that the process is difficult to stop;