Gate: Ace of Pentacles
I entered the vision gate and beheld a path between fire, on the right, and water, on the left. The living fire danced and rolled explosively like lava coming from the top of an active volcano. The water roiled and splashed with the movement of powerful, unseen waves. The two elements met above my head but both were equally matched and did not extinguish the other. I marveled at the raw beauty and power of it.
“What an astonishing sight,” I said. “I wonder what’s the source of these two primal elements in this world.” I reached out a hand towards where the water and fire combined and felt neither heat nor cold coming off of their nexus.
“Very interesting,” I said. “I wish I knew more about alchemy to fully understand this path. With my knowledge such as it is, I best explore further and discover the true nature of this realm.” I raised my voice a little in entreaty. “Please Wisdom, I require a guide in this place.”
In response to my summons, two human-shaped figures emerged from either side of the path, one made of fire and the other of water. Their heads met at the convergence of the two elements and they began to spin. In a tornado-like blur of motion, the figures merged into one and landed on the path through the void ahead of me.
I heard an echoing whisper from the flowing elements say the name, “Metatron,” and the being of two opposing natures turned towards me. The figure’s skin appeared to be flowing silver like liquid mercury. He moved strangely in either slow, lurching motions or too fast to be seen. The silver composed of the two elements never coalesced into one form, but continued melting and moving even as the spirit stood perfectly still upon the path.
“Hail, Metatron,” I said. “My name is Heidi and I’ve come to learn about your nature and the truth of this realm, the Kether or Unity of Earth.”
In greeting, the spirit spun around me wildly in his tornadic motion but then settled back on the path, silently gesturing for me to follow. Together, we began moving through the tunnel created by the meeting of fire and water. Elemental spirits moved ceaselessly around us on each side of the path, dancing together and weaving their primordial patterns of existence within their separate spheres of influence.
“Where are we?” I asked after we had traveled the path for a while with no changes to be observed other than the dancing elementals. “And why does the motion of the two elements never cease? It must be difficult to exist in a world of perpetual change. I mean, more obviously volatile change than my usual waking world of perpetual change.”
“You stand at the meeting of fire and water,” Metatron whispered and his voice echoed in my mind. “The combination of opposing natures does not allow for a peaceful entrance to this realm. However, as we travel deeper in, you shall observe some measure of stabilization, probably. I can make no promises at this level of existence nor what your unique way of viewing the worlds will allow you to perceive.”
“Thank you, Metatron, for your guidance,” I said and followed the spirit through further fire and water. “I am not fond of interactions that feel like conflict. This elemental meeting feels somewhat warlike to me so let’s be on our way towards the more peaceful parts of this realm. They must exist for even in the worlds of war and perpetual strife, the spirits can find quiet areas that allow for rest and reflection.”
Metatron turned his ever-flowing countenance in my direction. “I like how you express your unique viewpoint, Heidi,” he said. “Let’s share our sight upon this path and see if we can’t find a new route through the elements together.”
“I’m game,” I said. “How do we do that?”
Metatron held up a single silver hand with his palm pointed in my direction. “Mirror me and speak my words,” he said and I held up my own hand. “See with my eyes.”
“See with my eyes,” I echoed and suddenly my sight flashed with a brilliant silver light. I cried out and brought my fingertips to my eyes and they came away covered in the substance that shadowed Metatron’s form. I looked at Metatron and beheld my own eyes gazing serenely at me from his silvery form. “Did we manage to share sight?” I said, blinking to accustom myself to the change.
“You tell me,” Metatron whispered and gestured ahead.
I looked and at the end of the long path between fire and water, I beheld a doorway which opened into darkness and the void. We passed through this door and onto a wooden platform of joined and shaped planks which jutted out into a darkness as complete as the night sky without stars. The wooden platform changed the moment Metatron and I stepped upon it and shaped itself into two silver ships with stylized Egyptian hawk heads on their prows. “I think this is the darkest sea I’ll ever attempt to sail,” I said as I secured my seat upon one of the ships. “I hope the leviathans within allow us to pass. Here be dragons.”
“Perhaps we are some of those leviathans,” Metatron said and I laughed. “No?”
“I think not,” I said. “Unless I am one of the smallest and most harmless of those monsters of the deep, hidden and ancient spaces. I associate such beings with destruction rather than knowledge and exploration which are two of my major motivations in my journey throughout the worlds. Are you a leviathan of deep waters?”
“Deep water and fire. I thought you knew,” the spirit said simply and I spoke no more about it.
Metatron and I each had a ship to ourselves. “Are you ready, Heidi?” he said and when I nodded in response, he gestured towards the void and our ships left the platform in a blaze of silver light. We began to soar over the darkness and shadows at a tremendous speed, my hair whipping behind me as the fierce air pressure of our journey caused my eyes to water and emit silvery tears.
“We use the boats of Ra to cross the emptiness,” Metatron’s voice whispered in my ear though we were quite some distance apart. “The great sun god favors your steps, leviathan of unknown and forgotten spaces.” I tried to reply to Metatron’s comment but the words were taken from my lips as if they were living things and cast out into the void where they shone for a moment with brilliant light and then dissipated. Our ships were traveling so fast, we left trails of silver light and tears in the darkness behind us and the hawk’s heads glowed bright orange with the heat generated by our passage.
All at once, our journey was completed, the ships were gone, and Metatron and I were standing on the edge of an island made of gray, powdery sand with an appearance like ash. I picked up some of this material and ran through my fingers where it stained my palm in a grayish hue reminiscent of my guide’s visible body.
Suddenly, the sand shuddered and shifted beneath us in a tremendous quake and I found myself tumbling to the ground. As I fell, an enormous human-shaped head made of sand and ash emerged from the gray island. The giant was so large that by the time his feet emerged, he towered above everything else. His crowned head was too far away within the void to perceive his face clearly.
“Metatron, who is this?” I asked as my guide helped me to my feet once more.
“Behold Heidi, the giant Kronos, a sight few have seen and lived to tell the tale. You stand upon the Sands of Time and he is a fearsome gatekeeper,” Metatron said. “We must go forward out of time by avoiding his merciless and ever-watchful eyes.”
“This could be tricky,” I said. “I am not as lightning quick as you and the giant will surely catch me if I try to sneak by. Would you please help me pass this gate in the name of the one who put the stars in motion?”
The being of silver light turned his countenance upon me once more and gazed at me in silence. “Join with me in unity of spirit and I will take you safely past,” Metatron said at last, holding out one ever flowing hand in my direction. “You are the first to ask such a thing of me in some eons. Those who perform a joining of this kind are forever bound to each other in some manner that is not yet fully understood by those who walk through time. I hope you do not regret your request in time or out of it.”
“If I ever do, it will be upon my own conscience for having the idea in the first place,” I said. “But I can think of no other way around Kronos at the current time. Have no fear for me, my friend. I hope you do not regret this unity either for I am still learning all that I was or may become.” I moved closer to the spirit and embraced him, my form blending with his and disappearing from reality. My consciousness moved within Metatron’s and I found myself looking out of his eyes which were once my eyes at the giant Kronos. Through his unique lens of perception, the gray ash of the island glowed and sparkled with its own inner light and wasn’t spent of vital energy as I had perceived it. The giant was altered as well and appeared as a pillar of fire so bright that it was as if Kronos was made of living lightning rather than any physical material. I marveled that Metatron could see anything at all beyond the blinding light of the island’s guardian.
“Kronos, I have returned,” Metatron spoke through our lips. “I, the voice of the Creator and the one who bound you to this timeless realm to serve as a Servant of Time and to mark its days. You shall let me pass without challenge for you are as much a part of this creation as any other. Step aside, Time Guardian.” As soon as the echoes of Metatron’s announcement died away, a brightly-lit golden doorway appeared between the giant’s feet. In a flash of light, Metatron and I passed beneath Kronos’ silent and massive presence and sped through the door into a new world.
In this new place, the light split into a rainbow of colors and then they too started to fade back into the void. I felt the body of Metatron begin to dissolve along with the particles of light.
“Beyond time, beyond light, beyond thought, beyond life,” Metatron whispered. “We go to a realm of pure being, Heidi. Be not afraid.” Our body was now gone and the light continued to dim from our consciousness. We observed a moment of complete silence and stillness in a world beyond Kronos’ dominion.
Then, within the darkness, a white flower appeared like a lotus growing upon the boundless energy of the void. We entered the flower’s center and changed, becoming the seed that the beautiful blossom had emerged from. Together, we descended further into the form and became the thought that created the seed, a blast of energy, light, and potential. Finally, we moved beyond even this abstraction and discovered there was nothing but the void. Metatron and I became nothing but an observing consciousness within space and I took comfort from his presence as I existed silently within him. We were two who were one and that was everything in existence.
Suddenly, I experienced our presence as a tremendous hum of sound, deeper than thought, enclosing all, pure vibration and nothing else. Slowly, very slowly, I began to perceive our sound as ripples on the surface of a body of water that appeared out of the void. The deep humming continued creating patterns which danced and skated across the surface of the water, becoming living and moving representations of our mere presence.
After an immeasurable amount of time, I found I could speak again rather than simply exist. “Where are we?” I murmured into space.
“A realm of pure being, as I promised,” Metatron replied in a whisper. “The birthplace of god.”
“Which god?” I asked.
“All of them,” he said. “All begin here. Some return, some do not.”
“How is it decided who will return to this place and who will not?” I asked.
“Kronos is mighty, as I said,” Metatron replied. “He can be fearsome and nearly unconquerable if one is not willing to ask for help in the passage as you did. Many have been marooned upon his island and stand beneath his shadow, marking time rather than transcending it.”
“I see,” I spoke into the stillness. “I am fortunate indeed to have had you as my guide more so than I knew when I put my feet upon this path. Is there anyone else who has passed beyond Kronos who could further share the true nature of this place with me?”
“Primary communication in this realm is accomplished through being,” Metatron said. “Though perhaps I can find someone who has found their voice as we have and can speak the words of their personal truth with you.”
Metatron suddenly physically manifested in that place as the boundless energy and blinding light of a new star. His presence summoned a shining mountain which expanded in the nothingness of the void beneath his shining light. When he exploded into being and the mountain appeared beneath his boundless energy, I found myself tumbling from the sky towards its steep slopes, appearing as myself again beneath the sun of Metatron’s presence and separate from him.
“Metatron, help me!” I screamed as I fell. “Please Creator of All, save me! Metatron! Anyone!”
Just when I thought all hope was lost, the golden wings of Hafiz appeared on my back and I utilized their power to fly up the mountain side rather than hitting the ground. The mountain itself was unbelievably immense and seemed to reach up into the eternity and vastness of that unbounded space and timeless region. “Thank you, Lords of All, for sparing me. And thank goodness Hafiz gave me these wings,” I said. “That would have been a sad and premature ending to my journey otherwise.”
After some time traversing the mountain as speedily as a Spirit of Air, I beheld a Grecian temple like the Parthenon standing atop the highest part of the peak. Steps of immaculately carved marble led up to dazzling, white pillars with magnificently carved cornices.
“Welcome to Mount Olympus, home of the gods,” a voice declared. A path of crushed rock appeared beneath my feet upon the mountain, leading to that sacred place. Metatron remained as the shining sun of that region, beaming his light upon the gods’ abode but the god Mercury, quite suddenly, appeared beside me in my shadow. “They sent me here to catch you when you fell,” he said. “I see my intervention wasn’t required this time.”
“Hail, Great One,” I said in greeting. “Of course you would be one of the fortunate few who have made their way into the realms beyond Time’s grasp. I am so very pleased to see you again even if I didn’t require catching. A few journeys ago, I was fortunate enough to meet a talented smith who gave me these wings and now I owe him a boon for saving my life if I ever meet him again. Would you lead me to Olympus, Lord Mercury?”
“If you made it this far, it is not for me to refuse you entrance, Heidi,” the messenger god replied and led the way forward upon the path. We went up the steps, not as quickly as Metatron but swiftly all the same, and passed through the doorway of the mountainous retreat. The interior of the Grecian temple was unexpectedly dark outside of the influence of Metatron’s light and shadows shifted and danced on the edges of my vision. As I turned my head in an effort to more closely observe the shadows, I saw additional doorways appearing in all directions within the sacred space.
“In this realm, the gods are aspects of being, pure presence, whom you can talk to and comprehend,” Mercury said as I observed the continually shifting light and shadows which seemed to move in observable patterns but so quickly that I had trouble marking their change. “Is there someone in particular whom you would like to see?”
“This is your home, not mine,” I said. “I’ll rely on your guidance to discover the reason I’m here now. Please take me to the one who can help me most at this time to learn this realm’s true nature.”
The god smiled. “If the choice is left to me,” he said. “Then, you must visit Hephaestus, god of invention and creativity. He is one of the kindest of us and married to Love herself. Please do pass on my regards as I haven’t seen him myself for some time. My helmet and sandals have benefited me immensely throughout the ages.”
I blinked and found myself standing on the edge of an enormous, wooden work table. A giant with a strange set of mirrored glasses was working feverishly upon something that sat on the table. I increased my size so that I was as large as the god. When I did so, I realized I was gazing at Hafiz the smith, but, not wishing to be rude or presumptuous, I used the appellation given to me by Mercury.
“Hail, Hephaestus!” I declared, my unexpected appearance making the god jump slightly in surprise. “My name is Heidi, I come from another world and I’m very happy to meet you at this time and place. Lord Mercury sends his best wishes through me and thanks you for your many gifts to him. What are you up to today?”
“Tell the grateful Lord Mercury that I am working and it takes all my time,” the god said crossly. “Ones as small as you should announce themselves upon arrival rather than bursting in on a spirit’s concentration like that. It’s not polite.”
“I am sorry to interrupt your work, Hephaestus, and for my rude appearance in your work space,” I said. “But aren’t we in a realm beyond time and its pressing concerns? Also, in addition to Mercury’s message, I too give you my thanks. We met once in another world and you gave me a different name, but I think these wings that a giant with your appearance gifted me were your creation and they saved me today from a potentially tragic fate. I owe you a favor in return.”
The god paused in his work and peered closely at my golden wings through his spectacles. “This is definitely my work but I have no memory at this time of crafting them. Whatever favor you believe you owe me will come into play the moment I remember their genesis and not a second before. From the skies, are you, small Heidi? Welcome to Olympus, Bearer of Golden Wings. And you are right,” he said. “I forget timeless reality and its freedoms, such as they are, when I’m in the middle of a project. I am sorry I was short with you but I do not take surprises well nor am I known for eloquence like some of my brethren.” With those words, Hephaestus pushed himself up from the table. He moved with a tremendous limp that greatly hampered his movements in his sacred space. Gesturing for me to follow him, we moved deeper into his workshop.
A floor made of intricately-connected gears moved itself beneath our feet as Hephaestus and I passed through his home. It spun and ticked ceaselessly in the rooms of the inventor god, marking time or some other force of importance to the deity in residence. I found myself moved about the room by the gears and a power outside of my own until I decided to float above the rotating floor and its unknown influence. Levitating with my wings, I was able to follow more closely in the god’s footsteps as the floor had no observable effect on the Olympian whatsoever.
“Hephaestus,” I asked as we crossed the clockwork spaces. “What is creativity and where does it come from? I bet you have a unique perspective on such things.”
“Creation is work,” the god replied. “For me, it comes from beyond the void and enters the realm of being through material forms and physical effort such as the firings of synapses within the world you would call the mind.” The god snapped his fingers at me in an approximation of a firing synapse. “Creativity is the force that causes the mind to make those connections and the body to carry out the divine ideas. It is a gift from the Creator of All to their servants both godly and mortal. I count myself among these favored ones who exude this reflective energy of creation with my very presence.” With a few more steps, Hephaestus and I cleared the geared floors of the workshop and I was able to walk in the god’s shadow once more. We began to pass room after room filled with wondrous inventions, stacked on tables and countless shelves. “Now, which of my creations shall I show you, little winged wanderer, so that you may understand and know my true nature?”
I glimpsed shelves of books, living machines, and other moving objects here and there. Within one mirrored alcove, hanging by chains of delicate metal from the ceiling high above, I beheld an arrangement of planets that was far from the planetary progression of the waking world I knew. In the mirrors around this model, human-shaped figures moved under their own power, living their days in ceaseless invention and creativity, and seemingly unaware of their observation.
My attention was drawn from this intriguing scene by the god. “Heidi, I made this particular invention for ones like you,” Hephaestus said. “Behold one of my triumphs.” He opened a plain chest in a room next to the exotic galaxy model and mirrored space.
The god pulled forth an object made out of silver mesh that shone like Metatron’s ever flowing skin. As he held it up to my spirit, the metal formed itself into a sheer netting shaped like the Tree of Life map, ten circles connected by delicate lines representing the paths and modes of existence between the worlds.
“One of my better inventions as I said, though I was punished for the sharing of it and retain a limp from that punishment to this day,” Hephaestus said. “I don’t know what came over me but, for the first time in my timeless existence in service to the Creator of All, I felt the undeniable call to make the ineffable knowledge and wisdom of the gods available to the beings who exist in time and space. This invention seems to have worked, at least for you. Thank the Lords above that my sacrifice of a whole and pain free body wasn’t in vain.”
I reached out my hand to hold the symbolic net but it dissolved at my touch into a separate mess of metallic threads and fell to the floor at my feet. Hephaestus laboriously picked the threads up and in his hands it formed the structured map netting once again. “You exist in time and this exists out of time, little Heidi,” the god said. “You cannot possess the Tree like an object in space but you can embody it. Here, let me assist you.” The god laid his shining creation on my body where it sank into my flesh and became one with my spirit. “Now the worlds and paths are written on your heart. No matter where you find yourself in creation, you should be able to make your way back home again. Just follow the map.”
“Thank you, Great One. I expect your map will come in very handy in the future. I didn’t know you created the Tree of Life system,” I said, spinning around like a clockwork gear myself with the energy of the god’s invention zipping throughout my spirit. “What fun!”
“No need to thank me. Everyone is a creator of some type or another, you can’t help it if you exist in the worlds or time,” Hephaestus said as the energy began to settle within me and I was able to stand still once more. “See what you have made in your own life.” A vision flashed in my mind and I saw my child happily moving through her day-to-day life in my waking world.
“Your words ring true in my experience. We create all sorts of things in our lives whether consciously or not. You say you were punished for this map of creation, Great One,” I said. “Was the judgement you endured similar to what befell Prometheus?”
“Similar but not,” the god said, shutting the chest that had contained his invention. “Prometheus was confined within the inner realms to serve his eternal punishment here for sharing the flame of knowledge and civilization without permission. I was cast out to spend an unmarked amount of time among the mortals of the many worlds in penance for my efforts to elevate them through other means, which included my innovations and creations. The end goals were quite similar if the mechanisms to get to the result were not. I also think that our prisons, one in the Inner Worlds and one in the Outer Worlds, make our punishments very different as well. Though I was not bound with chains as the titan, I suffered keenly throughout my banishment among humankind.”
“I suppose the powers that be wanted me to understand the immense failings of humanity from a front row seat and its ultimate goal was to discourage me from any further work towards their elevation because of their lack of self awareness and many flaws,” Hephaestus continued. “But in reality, my punishment only served to make me keenly aware of what immense service I and all of my Olympic brethren could be to mankind if we only set our minds to it. It set my feet upon the path of unending creative experimentation for the good of all which is where you found me today. There is so much potential in your waking world. I pray one day those who walk the surface of the earth realize this truth and work together to make their dreams into reality.”
“Your words are making me remember events that have passed, at least in my experience of time. Though you cannot recall doing so, I believe, Great One, that long ago you made these wings for me during your banishment in order to make my travel throughout the worlds more effortless and allow me to act as a speedy messenger between ruling powers,” I said. “I thank you for that great gift but also for your belief in humanity’s ability to find our way here, to a realm outside of time and its limitations. It took much assistance and cooperation from others in creation for me to get here but I want you to know that your faith in humanity was not in vain. More seekers are traveling the paths behind me, Hephaestus, I can feel them coming and a large part of that elevation is due to you, your creations, and your allies in the many worlds.”
“Is it?” the god said with a smile. “Well, that’s a happy thought, I must say. Do not share your beliefs or memories with anyone else in these hallowed halls otherwise they might cast me out again. I was finally starting to get some important work done here and I would hate to have that interrupted again.”
“As you wish, Great One. Thank you again for your time, wisdom, inspiration, and map,” I said. “By the way, what is the purpose of the mirrored room next door? I don’t recognize those planets from my waking world.”
“Oh that? It’s an experiment of Apollo’s,” Hephaestus said. “He asked to store it here and I have so much room that I could hardly refuse him.”
“I have not yet had the opportunity to meet Apollo,” I said. “Is he kind like you?”
“It pleases me greatly that you believe I am kind,” Hephaestus said. “I wonder if those who have felt the sting of my creations which were utilized as weapons of war would say the same.”
“I’m not the only one who believes such things,” I said. “Lord Mercury said the same thing before he sent me to your workshop.”
“He did, did he,” the god said. “What compliments you have brought me today, little Heidi, thank you for that. Is Apollo kind? I’ve never considered the question before. When the sun shines upon the frozen ground, bringing spring back to a world locked in winter, I suppose they would say Apollo is kind. When the sun glares down upon a world deprived of water and shade, I suppose they would say Apollo is a scourge. I say Apollo is Apollo as Hephaestus is Hephaestus. We can only be who we are and leave the interpretation of our character and actions to others.”
“Until next time we meet, Hephaestus,” I said. “I wish you well in all your creations and external interpretations.” I began to shrink to my former size, becoming very small, and I flew into Hephaestus’ mouth which turned into a doorway of light and beckoned me on to another world.
I emerged from the doorway to discover I stood beneath Kronos’ feet on the Island of Time. As my own feet touched the gray sand once more, the giant collapsed back into the island with a tremendous crash. The power of the falling sand propelled me swiftly back across the void and deposited me onto the path of the two elements.
“Metatron, where are you?” I called as I began to head back towards the gate to my waking world. The elementals on either side of the path went berserk as I passed and the elements themselves began to froth and smoke, combining above my head with such violence that they began to obscure my forward progress. I expected to see Metatron step out of the elements into my reality as he had before but all that emerged from the fire and water were thickly concealing clouds of mist.
“Heidi, you need to run now,” Wisdom whispered from my heart when I continued to hesitate on the path. “Run if you want to return to those you love!”
“I didn’t realize I was in any danger of not being able to return to the waking world,” I said as I unfurled my wings and began to fly along the elemental path rather than walk. “My daughter needs me, I can’t be trapped here. Will Metatron be alright?”
“Is that what the guardian spirit of this path told you his name was?” Wisdom whispered. Explosive fire and water consumed the path behind me as I hurried towards the vision gate along the rapidly disintegrating tunnel.
“Yes, he clearly communicated with me that his name was Metatron,” I said, panicking a little in my frantic flight along the path. “Where in heaven’s name did I leave that gate?” I breathed a quick sigh of relief when I saw the familiar stone archway of my personal vision portal appear out of the mist and shadows ahead.
“That’s not his name anymore,” Wisdom said. “Not after today.”
I threw myself towards the gate’s exit as the path fell apart entirely. “What’s his name now?” I said, pausing upon the threshold. “If I ever run into him again, I’d like to know who he is or was as the case may be.”
“The Romans called him ‘Sol Invictus’,” Wisdom whispered. “And so did I.” At the mention of the god’s new name, I was expelled through the gate back to my waking world by an explosion of raw power and fire from an area of the Inner Worlds that had once contained a stable path between two elements.
There my vision ended.
The Light Congress 