Gate: Ten of Cups
I stepped through the vision gate and found myself on a red brick path through a thickly forested wood. On either side of the path, emerald green grass grew in patterned lines between the route I was on and the forest’s edge. The grass felt more than decorative to me because of its intricate alignment with the path as well as its elaborate design.
“I wonder who planted the verge,” I said to myself as I wandered down the forest path. “I hope they’ve returned from time to time to see how beautifully the grass grew.”
When I reached a part of the path where the grass changed from growing in lines to a complex squiggly design like a coiled serpent, a living and moving tree emerged from the deep woods and approached the red brick road. I felt some trepidation at this spirit’s appearance though I was unsure why I felt this way. So, I cautiously moved to the far side of the path as the tree came within arm’s reach of where I stood.
I waited for the spirit to speak but, when the tree simply stood and waved its branches at me, I felt compelled to say something. “Hello, friend,” I said. “My name is Heidi and I’ve come to this place seeking its true nature. What brings you to my neck of the woods?”
“I am Oak,” the tree responded in a deep baritone. “We have met before and I consider very few in the myriad worlds as my friend so I insist you call me something else.”
“Oak?” I said, taking another step back so that my heels rested on the grass on the opposite verge of the tree. “From the Garden of Venus?”
“The very same,” said Oak. “You must be very foolish indeed to venture my way again. I will pull you from this path, if I can, and return you to the woods where you belong. Why do you insist on exploring realms where you are not welcome?”
“To be honest, only a few beings I’ve met in my journeys thus far have any issue with my presence in their worlds. That has been mainly you and the shadows,” I said. “And good luck turning me from my desired destination. I will resist you, Oak, if you try to take me from this path for I go where I will when I wish to do so and I will not be deterred.”
The tree growled by grinding the wooden edges of his carved lips together in his trunk and began reaching across the path with his long branches, sweeping first one way then another, in an effort to drive me from the red brick road. I dodged Oak’s initial attacks and began to run down the path in an attempt to flee from his wrath. The tree followed in a rage, tearing up the lovely patterned grass with his gnarled and twisted roots.
“Why won’t you just lead me where I am meant to go?” I asked, moving as quickly as I was able ahead of the marauding tree. “No one else has treated me thus. Maybe you should go back to being the kind of tree that stands silently and observes rather than trying to control your reality by mistreating others.”
“I cannot travel on the path itself because the guardians do not allow it, but I will hunt you relentlessly from the edges,” he said, reaching towards me once again. “Stop pretending to be a woman and return to the trees, you errant sprite. You do not belong here and you make us all look ridiculous when you insist that you do.” As I ran ever onwards, one step ahead of the angry oak, I noticed the tree was quite careful to not touch the bricks and began to ponder ways that I could use this to my advantage.
“Maybe this is a lesson from the powers that be for you, Oak,” I said, increasing my pace upon the bricks. “Maybe you are meant to walk this forest path too but you’ve forgotten this truth because you’ve become too preoccupied with keeping others out.”
“A lesson for me?” he said incredulously, increasing the strength and speed of his relentless attacks. “No, foolish Heidi, it is I who have a lesson for you. Leave this unnatural path and I will teach you the meaning of sunlight on leaves, water in soil, the language of root, stem, and branch. These secrets are well worth the sacrifice of abandoning your misguided exploration.”
“I’d love to learn the forgotten secrets of the natural world if you would teach them to me, Oak,” I said, pressing onwards. “But not at the present moment. I will walk this path and then, when I return to your sphere of influence, you can instruct me in your ways and I will teach you what it is like to have a body, to breathe, and to walk on brick.”
“If I learned those things, I might forget who I am and rush upon the paths meant for others to their detriment and mine,” he said, slowing his pursuit of me at long last. “If you will not cease this fruitless brick walking and I cannot turn you from your goal, then perhaps it would be better if I led you to those around the path who could help you remember who you once were. Memory is a useful tool for controlling ones such as you. Come this way, stubborn sapling!” With that, Oak veered away from the brick path and began to move deeper into the woodland.
“This could be a clever trick to turn me from what I desire,” I said to myself as I considered what to do. I peered ahead to see if the end of the road was in sight but the red brick path seemed to go on and on into the far distance. “Well, what’s the harm in it,” I said at last. “If I do not like where Oak takes me, I’ll just come back to this point in time and continue onwards. Maybe this detour was meant to be.” Decision made, I followed the tree into the woods by taking the path made in the dirt churned up by his furious passage.
After passing through the trees for some time, Oak led me to a clearing in the forest in the center of which were two wooden puppets, wandering to and fro in the waving grass. Their legs were long, skinny and made up most of their body like a stork which kept their torsos above the tall vegetation of the glade. Their meandering and repeated motions through the grass made me think that they were looking for something.
I smiled in welcome to the puppets as we drew nearer to them, making sure to remain out of the reach of Oak’s branches in case he changed his mind about guiding me through this world. “These are some of the guardians of the wood,” said Oak, grumpily when we reached their side. “And my friends, a designation that I do not take as lightly as you.”
“Greetings, traveler,” said one of the puppets. “We are animations of the great wizard of the woods. We guard this place and any others he requires from unwanted influences or disturbances. Are you wanted or unwanted?”
“In life or in general?” I asked, tilting my head at the question. “My name is Heidi and I’m pleased to meet you both.”
“Definitely unwanted,” Oak said. “At least by me.”
The puppets took a step back and whispered to each other behind their hands for a moment. Then, the other spirit stepped forward. “Unwanted by the trees is not the same as unwanted by the wizard,” he said. “She may remain for now. Come, influence or disturbance and we will seek further guidance as to what the wizard may desire.”
“I wash my leaves of you, Heidi,” Oak said. “Remember I tried to keep you from harm and you insisted on continuing your epic farce anyway. What happens next is your fault and no one else’s.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Oak,” I said. “May the next time we meet be a far more pleasant experience than this one. I grow tired of butting heads, or should I say head to trunk, with you.” The tree turned from me in silent anger and faded back into the woods as if he had never been in the first place.
“Come, come,” said the puppets. “Right this way, uncategorized influence or disturbance.” So saying, the puppets gestured in unison for me to follow them and walked backwards on their stilt-like legs out of the glade and back into the trees. After a short journey through the forest, we arrived at the entrance of a large red mushroom shaped abode.
“Why, I’ve been here before!” I exclaimed. “Is this the home of the wizard who works with thought? I think he called himself, ‘Nobody,’ once upon a time.”
“Yes, that is our creator,” the puppets said, nodding in perfect unison. “He is away on an errand now, but since you know him and one of his secret names, you may go inside if you wish. We were instructed to let Nobody’s visitors pass.”
“Allow nobody’s visitors to pass?” I said. “I’m not sure those orders mean what you guys believe they mean but very well. I’ll go inside and see what the wizard’s been up to with his chemistry set. What do you all do when he is away, beyond guarding the woods?”
“We grow,” said the puppets and as I watched they seemed to get incrementally taller, moving an inch or so above their previous height.
“That’s incredible,” I said. “If you grow so fast, then how are you not taller than the trees already?”
“The wizard sands down the bottoms of our legs when he is home so that we do not outgrow our purpose and function,” one of the puppets said. “As you can see from our lofty statures, he has been gone for a while.”
The other puppet opened the door to the great mushroom and ushered me inside. I beheld the now-familiar table full of test tubes and instruments of science sitting dormant and unlit in the wizard’s absence. On a smaller table nearest to the door, there sat a piece of dessert cake and a note. I was astonished to see my name written on the top of the piece of paper and I picked it up.
“Heidi,” the note read. “Please enjoy this thought form treat. I left a journal with my latest studies near the fire for you to peruse if you are so interested. My compliments.” I happily consumed the chocolate cake and headed towards the wizard’s chair on the far side of the mushroom lab. As his note had detailed, a brown leather journal sat next to the arm chair and a fire cheerily burned in the hearth.
“I wonder who kept the flame burning all this time?” I said as I sat and picked up the book. “Must have been the puppets.”
The wizard had marked a place towards the middle of his journal with a red ribbon bookmark, so I opened to that part and read: “My studies on thought forms have been most enlightening but I have come to the conclusion that there are beginnings to thoughts that I have been unable to observe. From whence comes a thought? As all things, it must have a start. So thinking, I have gone forth from my lab to find a progenitor thought, a phrase that I have devised to describe this hypothesis. If I can find a thought in its very rawest form, then I may have more ability to shape its final expression than if I catch a thought in the middle of its evolution. I will return when and if I find such a thing.”
His handwriting stopped there. I put the marker back in the journal and closed it.
As I placed the wizard’s book back on his side table, a new thought ran through my mind. “I wonder if Nobody’s ‘progenitor thought’ might be similar to the star I pulled from my mouth and presented to Hades,” I mused. “Since I visited the Divine Mother in her dual temple spaces, my ability to manipulate my own energy changed though why this is so I do not comprehend. The wizard is a scientist, unlike me, so maybe he can get to the bottom of this mystery. At any rate, I will give him a gift in exchange for the treat he so kindly left for me. A favor given deserves a favor in return.”
I found an empty glass bottle among the chemistry implements and attempted to pull another star from the Mother out of my mouth, but I had no luck. “Strange,” I said. “I would not have thought a gift from the Giver and Gatherer of Form would be limited to one instance. The goddess demonstrated to me that she had an infinite amount of forms. I think I should look for her presence in my spirit somewhere other than my mouth.”
I closed my eyes in the wizard’s home and thought back to how I felt in the presence of the Divine Mother as she spilled stars from her basket over my head and the warm feeling I felt when she put a star upon my tongue. I held onto that feeling, building it with my memory into something more, a living reminder of the goddess’ favor within myself. The feeling became all encompassing and then, when I opened my eyes, I found I had a bright light shining from my heart. I touched my hand to this new energy source and pulled a shining spark from my chest that glowed just as brightly in the darkness as the star I had consumed from the Divine Mother’s hand and then given away to Hades.
I coaxed this heart energy into the vial as I had observed the wizard doing with his thought energy so long ago. Then, I pulled a page from his journal and scribbled a note with a broken pencil I discovered upon the work table. “Perhaps this will help you in your studies,” I wrote. “Thank you for the treat.” And I signed my name.
Leaving the note upon Nobody’s table, I exited the mushroom house and found the puppets waiting for me on the threshold.
“Your wizard has gone on a long journey as you said,” I told them. “It seemed like he was expecting my arrival. I wonder how he knew I’d pass this way again.”
“Oh, he is a great traveler, our creator, and he always returns, but usually sooner than this,” one of the puppets said. “Come, since he isn’t here to tell us if you should stay or go, let us introduce you to one of the forest’s residents who has also been here as long as us.”
They teetered away on their spindly legs and led me back to the brick path which my presence upon had so infuriated Oak. We traveled for a bit until the ground began to shake and quake under my feet.
“What causes the vibrations?” I asked, stumbling to my knees.
“The caterpillar eats! You’ll see…” they exclaimed and extended their hands to help me back up. Carefully, we continued forward, fighting to retain our balance when the brick path shook and having more success at this effort sometimes than others.
Suddenly, the path ended before an enormous green caterpillar. He was larger than the trees about him and his bulk stretched for some distance in either direction of the brick path. The caterpillar was continually tearing leaves off of the trees nearest to him and consuming them with gusto. As fast as he ate and as many leaves as he consumed, there always seemed to be more leaves appearing around him so that he didn’t need to expend any energy at all to find food. He ate and ate the abundant foliage, shaking the woods about him with his multi-armed motions.
The puppets marched fearlessly up to this mammoth caterpillar and yelled to him in unison. “Hellllloooooo!” they cried out. “We have brought someone for you to meet, Leaf Quencher!”
“Eeeeh?” the being replied, still ceaselessly crunching leaves.
“It is hard for him to hear ones as small as us,” the puppets said. “Perhaps it would be easier to talk to the caterpillar if you were larger. We need to be getting back to the wizard’s glade anyway. Farewell, uncategorized influence or disturbance.”
I waved goodbye to the puppets as they returned to their home down the red brick path. Then, I visualized myself growing like a vine reaching towards the sun and soon I was standing beside the caterpillar and of a size with him.
“Hello, friend,” I said, when my rapid growth stabilized. “Who are you and why do you eat so much?”
“I am ‘He who was Promised’,” said the caterpillar. “I must build and conserve my energy to become a butterfly. I am very good at this task as you can clearly see.”
“Nice to meet you, Promised. My name is Heidi,” I said. “You certainly seem big enough to me to embody a butterfly. In fact, you would be the biggest butterfly I have ever seen if you were to retain your current size in your new form. What is keeping you from transforming?”
The caterpillar looked at me glumly, his arms ceasing their restless motions. “I have forgotten how,” he said sadly. “So, instead of giving up, I just continue to eat and hope I remember one day how to do it.”
“I will help you, if you want, for I remember what a butterfly looks like,” I said encouragingly. “What color do you see yourself becoming?”
“Red,” he mumbled around the remaining leaves in his mouth.
“Okay,” I took the foremost of his insect legs in my hands. “Together, we shall see you becoming a beautiful, red butterfly. Are you ready, Promised?”
“I have been ready for ever so long, Heidi,” the caterpillar said. We shut our eyes and I imagined a butterfly in front of me while allowing the energy from my heart to shine out of my spirit and onto Promised. There was a stretching, pulling feeling from my center and his legs fell out of my hands. I then opened my eyes and beheld the largest butterfly imaginable. When he twitched his wings, they shook the forest even more strongly than his eating motions had done. I fell over onto the brick path in the initial gust after Promised’s evolution.
“Come on, what are you laying around for!” the butterfly said, elation in his tone. “I can finally go home and you’re coming with me!” Promised picked me up in his strong arms and flew high into the air above the woodlands.
We eventually landed on a branch with five or six other butterflies, as large as Promised was. They were all different colors of the rainbow and none of the patterns upon their wings looked alike. The branch with its occupants jutted out from an enormous tree and extended over a crystal clear lake. As these enormous butterflies moved and shifted on the branch, it caused innumerable ripples on the water’s surface below them.
“What is this place?” I asked the butterflies as Promised put me down and I sat on the branch with them.
“The Pool of Destiny,” they replied as one. “Our every movement causes changes and shifts in fate. When we alight, worlds tremble. When we flex, the skies fall.” As I watched the miniscule movements of the butterflies stir the pool, I held my breath in concern that I might cause ripples of my own.
Suddenly, something grabbed my spirit from behind and pulled me by grasping my shoulders and neck. I tumbled backwards off of the branch into the water with an enormous splash, sinking quickly below its formerly still surface.
Through the clear water, I glimpsed a whale-sized goldfish opening his mouth. Then, I was swallowed in a flash of light and found myself in a well-appointed room, like the interior of a submarine with cushioned surfaces and a table set with fine china for a fancy dinner.
“What a mess,” I thought. “I was trying to prevent ripples upon the Pool of Destiny and somehow ended up in it. I hope Oak doesn’t hear about any of that as I’m sure it’d make him more angry with me than he already is.” Then, I heard movement from an inner room, some clanking and small noises as if someone was handling dishes. A moment later, the wizard from the woods emerged from the goldfish’s interior.
“Well met, Heidi!” he exclaimed and settled down at the table with a plate of warm food. “Imagine finding you here.”
“I can imagine many things,” I said. “But I didn’t expect or imagine this. Wizard, what are you doing here? Your journal said you went to find a progenitor thought so why are you beneath the Pool of Destiny?”
“My path to a progenitor thought brought me here,” he replied. “As you can see, I have been detained somewhat in my quest in the belly of this fish. But, all is not lost. I found a progenitor thought inside of the goldfish and have been able to create this comfortable living quarters as you can see. It’s only a matter of time before I find another one.”
The wizard poured a cup of tea for himself and offered one to me which I declined. “I’ve heard that the Great Mother has baskets of progenitor thoughts,” he said. “I wonder where she gets them from.”
“A spark from the Divine Mother?” I said. “I left you one of those back in your workshop.”
“Really? A progenitor thought in my mushroom? If only it was here,” the wizard mourned. “I could have us home in a moment.”
“I can just make you another one, I think,” I said. “I’ve only done it once so I’m not sure I have the knack yet.”
“Could it be that easy?” he asked in disbelief.
“Sure,” I said. “Just imagine yourself loved, safe, and blessed by whatever you believe holds reality together.” I took a moment to reignite a happy memory in my spirit then, with a gesture, I reached to my heart’s center and pulled forth a spark.
The wizard’s eyes lit up like two flames in the dark by reflecting the energy in my hand. “What have you done, Heidi?” he said. “A progenitor thought! How is that even possible?”
“I think anybody can produce them if they really want to, believe it is possible, and have someone or something that makes them feel happy and loved,” I said. “Maybe the beginnings of a thought are the impossible brought into reality through hope for a future of being loved just as you are, if that makes sense. It might be the power of unconditional love affecting reality. I honestly don’t know, but maybe someday I will.”
“Do you think I can work this magic too?” asked the wizard. I nodded and handed him the spark from my heart. He reached to the center of his own chest and, after a few moments of focused breathing, pulled out a spark that matched mine. He was practically dancing with excitement now. “What a breakthrough, what a moment!” he declared. Then, the wizard smashed the two sparks together and we were instantly back in his workshop in the woods.
“What will you do now, Nobody?” I asked as he moved quickly about the room, fiddling with his equipment.
“More tests and more practice is needed to determine if this new energy source is replicable and renewable,” he said. “However, if these are truly progenitor thoughts, this changes everything! But first, since you were of such help to me, let me be of some service to you.” The wizard went to a door that I hadn’t noticed on the side of his mushroom workspace and opened it. “Go within, Heidi, and you will find my library. I have written every tome. It is the sum total of all of my research and knowledge in the inner worlds.”
I went to the doorway, anticipation quickening my steps. “Before I go, wizard, may I know your real name?” I said. “I think it’s only fair as you know mine.”
The elderly spirit focused on me for a moment and then nodded his head as if coming to a decision. “The young ones have always called me ‘Merlin’,” he said. Then, he went back to pulling sparks from his heart and putting them into various vials and tubes spread throughout his workshop. I didn’t wish to disturb him further, so I turned and entered the wizard’s personal library.
Shelves with books lined the floor to the ceiling and the hidden vault appeared larger to my eyes than the chemistry room. I ran my fingers along their spines and wondered what book I should look at first as there were so many to choose from that I didn’t know where to start. As I considered my predicament, a volume removed itself from the stacks and flew through the air towards me, placing itself in my hands. Its title read: For the Care and Nurturement of Oaks.
I blinked and suddenly found myself back on the brick pathway of the woods and Oak stood beside the path once more, observing my presence with a look I didn’t understand but an unmistakable menace in his bearing. “Please don’t hurt me,” I said, raising my hands and displaying the book from Merlin’s library. “I walked the brick path to its conclusion and return to you with a peace offering from the wizard. Can we not share the knowledge of the inner worlds with those who seek it? I will freely share what I have found with you as you may recognize it as your own and find some good in it.”
“Of course I recognize it!” the living tree exclaimed. “When my grandfather’s grandfather was a sapling, the wizard in the wood walked among us and learned the history of this realm.” Oak’s branches waved and trembled in his excitement as if stirred by a newly sprung breeze. “Contained within those pages are secrets and mysteries that we, the descendants of those ancient tree spirits, have forgotten through the passage of time. How on earth did you find such a treasure?”
“It was a gift from one who called himself ‘Merlin’,” I said. “Oak, I know our first and second meetings were unpleasant and you wished to keep me out of your garden and in the safe parts of the woodland. But I hope that our relationship will continue to improve in the future because I know in my heart that I will return to this path and I can’t stand the thought of facing your anger yet again in the future.” I smiled at the tree in encouragement. “As a token of my good intentions and as a pledge for a better tomorrow, I give the wisdom of your forefathers and mothers back to you. Perhaps we can read it together and relearn what the world has forgotten.” And I handed Oak the wizard’s book.
He stood in stunned silence and stillness for a moment. “Thank you, Heidi,” said Oak finally. “Maybe I have more to learn from you than I thought. I will neither halt nor hinder your progress upon your chosen path any longer. Return to me when you are ready to learn the secrets of root and branch and sunlight upon both.”
“I’ll look forward to it, Oak,” I said and hugged the guardian tree.
There the vision ended.
The Light Congress 