Gate: Seven of Swords
I entered the vision gate and found myself on a path made of pink chalk that stuck to the bottom of my feet. As I moved forward down this path, the chalk became a natural forest floor with soft green grass. I wiped the chalk from my feet upon this natural sponge and, as I did so, ancient trees appeared on either side of me.
I approached one of the largest trees whose branches reached invitingly close to the ground and began to climb it. “Ow,” I exclaimed as a long splinter lodged itself in my thumb. “I’m only passing through here, I mean you no harm,” I told the tree. It seemed to hear me because I experienced no further hindrances in my journey upwards in either additional splinters or lack of branches to climb.
I eventually came to the top of my tree where all of the trees in that timeless place had grown close together and, above the forest, formed a magnificent canopy of green like a cape placed over the rolling hills of the landscape. This blanket not only held the forest together but concealed any sacred or hidden spaces in the woodland from unwelcome visitors.
Above this profusion of growth and interconnected branches, a swarm of monarch butterflies fluttered above the trees. They danced and swirled together, creating beautiful patterns in the sky with their wings and motions. One fluttered in front of my eyes for a moment but then departed to join its fellows in the dance. Before my wondering eyes, the butterflies fused together and became a being shaped like a woman in the sky.
The lady of the monarch butterflies was very beautiful but hard to perceive because, as this woman moved, she trailed rainbow lights behind her hands and body so she was surrounded by a perpetual cloud of multi-colored light, the brilliance of which dazzled my sight after my time spent below the woodland branches. After a time, the being of the sky noticed my observing presence.
“Hello, small one,” she said, floating in my direction. “What are you doing here so far from the forest floor?”
“Lady of Light, I am here to explore this realm and to discover your true nature,” I replied. “My name is Heidi and if I had known I would find someone as extraordinary as you above the trees perhaps I would have climbed one sooner. That being said, there are many diverse and interesting beings to meet below. Have you ever visited the forest floor?”
The spirit of rainbow light laughed, sending butterflies in every direction across the sky. “Visited the forest floor?” she said. “That is where I am from and where we all begin, Heidi. You are a silly person to not have known that.”
“You started upon the pink chalk path and are now a being made of light in the sky?” I said incredulously. “That is quite a transformation. You must tell me how it was accomplished because I know others who may want to do this too.”
“Life takes us where it wills and I’m not certain I can set your feet or others on such a path if it is not meant to be so. But, because you have found me this day, I suspect there is something I can teach you at the very least. I am called Aurora,” said the spirit. “Come with me to my home in the sky and learn my true nature.”
The being gestured towards me and I found myself bathed in the rainbow light from her hands. Under her illuminating light, I effortlessly floated from my perch in the trees and followed Aurora above the forest and through some puffy, white clouds that brushed my face with their cooling mist. The spirit’s rainbow light made her easy to follow though, to my eyes, continuously difficult to perceive in any close detail.
After a journey of some time but zero effort, we arrived at a colorless dwelling in the sky and entered through its cloud and trellis gate. Within the Lady of Light’s home, everything was white: walls, chairs, tables and floor. As Aurora moved within her home, it came alive with rainbow colors from the movement of her body and everything sparkled with the brilliance of her inner being. I imagined dark glasses upon my eyes to shield myself from the goddess’ sparkling visage which she saw and found endlessly amusing.
“No glasses for me, Heidi?” she said as butterflies formed from her mirth and swirled around the interior of the palatial home before exiting through the outer gate to explore the sky outside. I shrugged my shoulders in response which invited further laughter. “Sit here, please,” Aurora said, when her laughter ended. Then, she indicated a chair made of shining white wood and walked deeper into her home. “Would you like a story or a snack?” she asked when I was seated.
“It’ll have to be a story,” I said. “I’m not sure a snack in the sky would sit well or at all in my earthly stomach.”
“As you will it, Heidi. Here is a story just for you. Once upon a time,” Aurora said. “There was a girl who was alone. To keep herself from becoming lonely in her solitude, she told herself stories. One day, as she looked down from above and contemplated her loneliness, she saw a handsome young man riding on a horse. He was all alone too.”
“The girl whispered through the winds to the man and told him her stories,” Aurora continued. “He was enthralled by their uniqueness and beauty.”
When she reached this point in the story, Aurora turned and moved a curtain that had concealed the far wall of her house. Behind this covering, a man was bound to a kitchen chair by his neck and hands.
“My lady,” I exclaimed in surprise. “You have a captive in your home. This is not how civilized beings behave and certainly not something I’d expect from a spirit in the sky.” I rose from my chair and moved to free the person from bondage.
Aurora ignored me and continued her story. “So, the girl took this man to live with her in the sky and hear her stories forever,” she said. “She was never lonely again nor was he though he was unaware of this fact until she left, one day, forever.”
As I struggled to release the man from his bonds, Aurora’s light within her home changed from rainbow colors to the black and dark blue skies of a severe storm. “Do not let him free, visitor to my domain and many others,” the goddess said. “I need him for my happiness.”
“You have no right to keep someone here against his will,” I said. “Those who listen to stories, even those tales from the sky, must do so of their own free will and not under duress. This forced observation is a crime against nature herself.” So saying, I untied the man with a simple touch of my hand and his binding ropes fell away. The unfortunate being tumbled to the floor of Aurora’s kitchen in a heap. “Are you alright?” I asked as I took his arms and helped him rise.
“Where am I?” he asked weakly, brushing his dark hair back from his brow.
“Do not be alarmed, my friend,” I said. “You are in the sky with the personification of the dawn and we are experiencing a storm of pent up emotion.” As the man rubbed his eyes as if awakening from a long sleep, I transferred my dark glasses to his face. “You’ll need this when her anger passes and her natural brilliance returns. How did you come to be in this place?” I asked.
“I was on a quest for my king and country, and saw a light descend from the heavens. It was as if a star came down from the sky and walked upon the path before me. The light entered my spirit and I felt tired, a state beyond any exhaustion I’d ever experienced before. I closed my eyes, to rest for a moment only, and then opened them again just now,” he said. “The dawn isn’t a person, at least in my lived experience.”
“Not a person?” the goddess declared, her light vacillating wildly between rainbow light and rain clouds. “What a silly thing to say, as if you don’t recognize your own mother.”
“You’re his mother?” I asked in some confusion. “Then why the enchanted sleep and bindings? I’m certain he would have come to visit you in time if he had known you were lonely.”
Aurora sighed deeply as if in resignation and the colors within her home resumed the brightness that had led me to her doorstep. “You, Heidi, don’t know the first thing about mothers if you believe a thing like that,” she said. “All children grow up and leave their childhood homes, if they’re lucky, leaving their mothers behind.”
“And fathers,” the man said. “You do not look like my mother, my lady, but if you were you would know that I was on a quest of great importance for my king is my father and it was his express wish that I explore his realm to carry knowledge of his fairness and civility throughout the worlds.”
“What makes a ruler fair?” Aurora said in a wistful tone. “A life of loneliness separated from the one you love is not fair.”
“Nor is a life of unconsciousness and bondage,” I said. “Maybe we can find a middle way through this trouble in which we find ourselves.”
“If we can find a middle way, it must be quickly,” the prince said. “For it is time for me to continue on my father’s quest. I have been delayed for who knows how long here among the clouds.”
“Hmmm,” I said, bowing my head in thought. Thankfully, inspiration struck me in that moment in the goddess’ home. “Here’s an idea. Aurora, do you consider butterflies an aspect of your true nature?”
“I do,” she said, raising her hand and releasing a few butterflies into the air between us.
“Allow one or two of Aurora’s butterflies to enter your heart, prince,” I said. “In this way, the goddess will always be with you in all of your journeys and, through them, she can experience your life and send you her love though she will remain in her home in the sky. The connection will not be pretend but real for she has said the butterflies are an extension of her own being. Is this an acceptable solution?”
“Though it is not as desirable as having his physical presence with me,” Aurora said. “I will agree to it for, though he may not recognize me, I am his mother and always wish the best for him in all of my incarnations. In addition, the butterflies I share with him will carry all of the stories I told him while he slept within my home in their being so that, if one far day he does remember me again, they can speak my words to him once more and bring him comfort in my absence.”
The prince raised my glasses from his face to gaze directly into the visage of the goddess before him. “Are you really my mother?” he said. “I lost her so long ago I have trouble remembering her face at times. But for the love I still bear for her in my heart, I will carry your sigil within my own spirit. We will give strength and support to each other like this but also forge an eternal bond of fellowship and familial love that neither time nor distance can alter or break. I wish, my lady, for you never to feel loneliness again.”
“And I shall not,” Aurora said. “Neither shall you, my beloved son.” With those words, three butterflies alighted from her fingers and flew directly into the prince’s heart. For a moment, the man’s spirit was suffused with the brilliant rainbow light of the dawn and he was too blinding to see. Then, the light settled and he appeared as a mortal once more.
“I must be on my way, sadly,” he said when his transformation was complete. “If you wish to accompany me, Heidi, you may do so. It is a pleasant thing to travel the paths of the worlds with a companion if even for a short while.”
“I will go with you while I am in this world though I can make no promises to the duration,” I replied to the dark haired man. “I do not like to travel to distant places without friends either. What is your name, prince?”
“Lancelot,” the prince said. “My mother named me, Lancelot.”
“I like your name quite a lot,” I said. “Not just for the sound of it but also for the epic stories that come to mind when one hears it.”
“That was what I liked about it too,” Aurora said as the prince and I moved through the rooms and hallways of her home towards the exit. When we reached the outer threshold, the goddess put a single hand on the prince’s arm. “Are you sure, my brave and handsome son, that won’t you stay with me in the heavens and continue to dream of your exploits? I would shape my life around you and we could share so many lovely moments together.”
“If the gods allow it, my lady,” Lancelot said, taking her hand. “I will live my life in service to my father and fulfill whatever quests he may require. Then, when my journey upon the earth is complete, I will join you in the sky and then we will speak all of the words that may be in both of our hearts and realize the promise of family and love that has been started this day.”
A single tear fell from the goddess’ eye and formed a rainbow bridge across the clouds of that heavenly place. “Let it be as you said, my son,” Aurora said quietly. “Go and live the life you were born to live. Remember my love walks with you in all things in your very soul and easily traverses even the distance of the vale of death.” The two beings embraced in the sky and the prince and I resumed his quest once more.
Lancelot and I followed Aurora’s multi-colored path through the clouds and soon found ourselves in front of a new castle in the sky that was surrounded by mighty battlements and ramparts of clouds that appeared to my eyes as stone.
“I recognize this place,” said the knight. “This is the dwelling of the sky giants. They jealously guard the plunder they have taken from others and live in fear that those they have stolen from will come to take their treasures back. My father has been dealing with their ilk for years untold.”
“I am unwilling to fight with giants,” I said. “For I have only now visited the sky from the forest floor for the first time and I would like to come again unmolested if possible. Why don’t we give them a gift? That way, they won’t feel like sending us away and may even allow us inside.”
“A fine idea,” Lancelot replied. “But I have nothing to give them beyond my presence and knowledge of my father’s doings. They know the majority of that already being who they are.”
“I may have something,” I said and visualized a basket filled to the brim with large, golden apples. Upon the fruit’s skin, letters of gold could be seen, gleaming in the light from the sun. “We will give them these: the Apples of Hesperides. I can’t remember where I picked them up but, as I understand it, some value these quite highly.”
“Those are a kingly gift,” the prince said. “May I take one for my father? He’s never asked me to fetch one of those storied apples for him but perhaps he would desire it anyway.”
“Best be safe and take three,” I said. “I do not know when I will see you again and I would hate for you to have to spend your precious time on earth on a quest for something that has already been found.” I tossed Lancelot a few of the apples which he easily caught. The prince took a bite of one of the treasures and put the other two in his pockets for his sovereign.
I turned my attention from the prince and knocked on the door to the castle as loudly as I could but it was so large that my efforts made very little sound. I moved to knock again when the door suddenly opened with a crash.
A monstrous giant stood within the doorway. “Who comes to our palace,” he grumbled and then saw me and Lancelot. “Foolish girl! Wandering prince! I will eat you both with one bite,” he declared. Then, the giant grabbed us and brought the prince and I close to his face to pop us into his mouth.
“Wait!” I cried. “Have mercy upon us, giant of the sky! We bring you these apples, a lost treasure of the ancient world. I’m sure that you will find them to be much tastier than squishy mortals like us.” I held up one of the golden apples. It glittered and shone in the sun and on the surface of the giant’s greedy eyes.
“Hum, hum, hum,” he made a pleased sound deep in his throat. “What have you brought me?” The giant reached down and delicately plucked the basket from my arm. He placed Lancelot and I back on the clouds, surprisingly gently for one of his size. “No one ever brings anything to us, we always have to wrest their fortunes from them by force or conquest,” he said. “Not only will I not eat you, either of you, but you are both welcome to come inside if you wish.”
“And your companions will agree to this arrangement?” I asked. “It would not do for us to pass you, the door’s guardian, only to be gobbled up by your brothers in arms later.”
“I was only frightening you, silly mortal,” he said. “Those of this castle do not consume princes, only men of clay and lesser realms. Now enter and prepare to be dazzled for this castle has never been seen by your kind- the earth bound who walk on the ground unblessed by the sky.”
Lancelot and I followed the giant into his domain. As we went deeper into the sky castle, we saw a large goose surrounded by glittering eggs the same color as our gift of apples, tables piled high with food and other treasures like gleaming cups made of precious metals with utensils and plates to match, and more open doors revealing endless bounty, all taken from the earth and stored in the clouds. Though the prince at my side because of his station in life was used to such wonders, I found myself marveling at both the astonishing variety of the giants’ treasures as well as their uniqueness and beauty. I held my tongue to maintain some sense of decorum as our sojourn continued.
Our guide brought us to one final door and pushed it open with a mighty heave. Within, in a room as large as a theater, a crowd of giants, all as enormous as the one we had been following, faced a stage on the far side of the room. It was filled with dark and stormy clouds the colors of which I had recently beheld in Aurora’s home during her emotional turmoil for her son.
Some of the giants were among these clouds, shaping and piling them together like children in the world’s largest sandbox. The majority of the giants were in the crowd, reaching their hands towards the stage. Occasionally, a flash lit the room and a current of energy passed between the crowd and the building and changing clouds beneath the hands of the giants upon the stage.
“You see before you what no other mortal has ever seen,” said our guide. “The sky giants are creating a storm.”
The activity between the crowd and the dancing formation on stage continued in its flickering motion and hypnotic movements. The energy moved back and forth within the clouds, then into the giants, and then back into the clouds again. Great crashes of thunder began to sound, created by the giants who lifted and stomped their feet on the floor of the room and stage.
When the activity reached a fevered pitch, a bright light burst into being at my side and I turned my face towards Lancelot just in time to see one of Aurora’s butterflies exit his spirit and enter the theater of the sky giants. Though the butterfly started its flight as a small creature of a size with the prince and I, it soon grew so that a single wing was as large as a giant’s hand. It trailed the rainbow light of Aurora as it moved throughout the room, bringing a new light and energy to the sky giant’s storm creation.
The giants all noticed this new being at the same time and an eerie silence took hold in that raucous place. As the dawn’s light touched the giants’ faces, the storm clouds began to clear upon the stage and soon there was nothing left in the room but shining light in rainbow colors and a burgeoning sense of peace.
While the butterfly had their attention, I found my eyes drawn back to my companion who was suddenly growing as swiftly and surely as a sun-starved plant exposed to healing sunlight. The prince grew until he was of a size with the giants and, when he took a step into the room to stand in his mother’s rainbow light, all eyes turned towards him.
One of the giants stepped out of the crowd towards Lancelot. “Our thanks, young prince. You returned Aurora’s light to us,” he said. “We were trying desperately to make a storm to summon her into our presence once again but all we needed, apparently, was you. How did you accomplish this magic when none of us knew how to do it?”
The prince looked down at his feet to where I stood in his shadow and I shrugged my shoulders at him to indicate that I was as clueless as anyone else in the room, figuring my words would no longer cover the distance between my mouth and his ears. He reached into his pocket and removed my dark glasses which had grown along with him and placed them over his eyes so that the new light he had brought to the darkness of the sky giants’ hidden theater would not blind him with its brilliance and make him forget the storied culture of his origins.
“Let me tell you a story of my mother and her great love for her family,” he said, when he adequately protected his sight. “And perhaps together we will discover how the rainbow light of mercy returned to your castle theater. Once upon a time, I was on a quest for my father…”
As the prince spoke, I found myself floating away from the storm room and through the ceiling of the castle into the sky, leaving Lancelot among the storm giants to share the story that was his own to impart.
I blinked and was back on the ground within the ancient forest and stood upon the pink chalk path. A wind began to blow and the chalk blew away to reveal a field full of wildflowers. I lay back in these flowers and gazed at the sky with its castle, now hidden away in the clouds. My idyll was broken by the sound of creatures of some type moving towards me through the undergrowth.
“Stay back,” I called out, a sudden fear gripping my heart. “The sky giants have my apples now. I have no further treasure to take or consume.”
There was a brief pause and then a family of badgers broke through the foliage on all sides of me. I viewed these creatures with some astonishment until one said, “That’s fine. Badgers don’t like apples anyway, do we?” The creatures nodded their heads in agreement with one another and began to nip at each other’s heels and tumble about in play within the field of wildflowers.
I laughed at their harmless antics until my vision ended.
The Light Congress 