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 and the blades of grass seemed to wave at me as I passed by. “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 a branch’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 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 from 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. You appear much too young for where you stand. What are you, twelve? Children do not take this path nor brave its trials. This has been decreed for both their safety and ours, the woodland folk. Why do you insist on exploring realms where you are not welcome?”
“I look like a girl of twelve? Your sight is way off for I am a grown woman, wife and mother besides. To be honest, only a few beings I’ve met in my journeys thus far have any issue with my presence in their worlds or upon any of their paths. My greatest trials have been mainly your overly-protective stance in the Inner Worlds and the threatening shadows,” I said. “At any rate, 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.”
“We shall see about that!” the tree growled 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 as he chased me.
“Why won’t you just lead me where I am meant to go?” I said, 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.”
“You will not hex me with your suggestions of stillness and pretendings, child. 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.
“I am not pretending to be a woman; I am a woman. You are pretending to be a person who cares about my well being when you’re really an angry tree who only cares about keeping other spirits out of his part of the worlds. 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 gatekeeping and maintaining your natural state.”
“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 of spiritual evolution for those who are strong and mighty enough to brave its dangers 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 and returning to your proper place in creation.”
“I’d love to learn the forgotten secrets of the natural world if you would teach them to me, Oak,” I said, pressing ever onwards. “But not at the present moment. I will walk this path and then, when I return to your sphere of influence in the natural spaces, you can instruct me in your ways. In return, 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. “But I do want to know my true nature and remember all that I’ve forgotten.” 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 the wood. “Here are some of the guardians of the woodland realm,” said Oak grumpily. “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. My parents wanted me; whatever the worlds desired is up for debate.”
“Definitely unwanted,” Oak said. “At least by me and those I speak on behalf of.”
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.”
“Keep your eyes on her, puppets, she’s a menace. 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 really don’t deserve your anger, Oak, for trying to be someone who understands the mysteries of creation,” I said. “May the next time we meet be a far more pleasant experience than this one and I hope we both share our true natures with each other freely and gladly. I grow tired of butting heads, or should I say head to trunk, with you. I love the woods, your home, as much as any place in the myriad worlds as well as all those who dwell within it. I wish you could find it in your heart to return the sentiment.” The tree turned from me in silent anger and faded back into the woods as if he had never been harassing my steps 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 into the trees. After a short journey through the forest while the puppets pointed out different areas of interest and beauty for my contemplation and future explorations, 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 and this growth reflects our new wisdom and understanding in reality,” said the puppets and as I watched they seemed to get incrementally taller, moving an inch or so above their previous height.
“If you grow so fast, then how are you not taller than the trees already?” I said. “I wish I learned as quickly as you two.”
“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.”
“Does it hurt when the wizard reduces your height?” I said. “I would hate to think this process is painful to you.”
“The wizard is a wanted influence,” said the puppets. “What is pain?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I was thinking like a person with a body rather than putting myself in your shoes as a puppet made of wood.”
“Think nothing of it,” said one puppet. “The center of the universe is the thoughts of God.”
“I remember that hypothesis,” I said. “I still don’t agree but if you both had emotions then maybe your mode of existence would be painful to you and I’m sure nobody wants that.”
The puppets looked at each other and back at me. “Nobody certainly does not want that,” they said. “How could you think such a thing of our wizard?”
“Forgive me,” I said. “We’re having a communication problem like I did with the undines in the above ground river. Your wizard’s secret names make speech so confusing.”
“Go inside while we discuss your status of influence or disturbance,” said one of the puppets. “We feel nothing so your words do not injure us and thus require no apologies but our words could definitely injure you with your curious experience of living in a body of flesh and your pernicious ’emotions’. We were not created to be cruel therefore you must temporarily remove yourself from our company.” The other puppet opened the door to the great mushroom and ushered me inside, closing the door behind me with a click.
“At least they’re honest,” I murmured as 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, I discovered a piece of dessert cake and a note. I was astonished to see my name written in large letters of beautiful calligraphy on the piece of paper and I picked it up.
“Heidi,” the note read. “Please enjoy this thought form treat which I suspended in time for you. I hope my guardian animations were not too vexing. They are like children to me and I delight in their company though others have found them to be annoying comical distractions to the weighty concerns of existence. 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. That’s a dangerous task with a body made of wood.” The salamanders dancing in the fire spit a few sparks into the air which I took to be a sign of their agreement.
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 starting place and genesis. 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 or prove to myself that the search is folly.”
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 form’ might be similar to the star I pulled from my spirit and presented to Hades,” I said. “I don’t know. The wizard is a scientist, not an artist like me, so maybe he can get to the bottom of this mystery in an empirical way rather than wandering through visions and dreams like I do. At any rate, I will try to 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, bidding me to remember her presence at all times and in all things. I held onto that feeling, building it with my memory and imagination 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 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. Though the form from the Mother had been like a shining stone and this new form was a spark like electricity, the energies contained within both were similar.
“It is like my eyes are playing tricks on me,” I said, watching the energy shimmer in my palm. “This feels the same as what I was given before even though it looks new. I shall pretend it’s the same and see where that takes me.”
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. “It may be an expression of a progenitor emotion. Thank you for the treat.” And I signed my name.
“I hope the puppets are done with their discussion,” I said. “I think it is time to continue down the woodland path.” Leaving the note upon Nobody’s table next to the vial of heart energy, I exited the mushroom house and found the puppets waiting for me on the threshold.
“We cannot agree on what you are,” they said in unison. “One animation says influence, the other disturbance. You said wanted, the Oak said unwanted. Categorizations may not be made by opinion only evidence. Therefore, we shall observe you further to get to the truth of your true nature.”
“You may observe me if you desire to do so but I wish to continue down my previous path because I feel that is the next place that I am meant to go. Your wizard has gone on a long journey as you said and on a quest that I feel has significant ramifications for all in the Inner Worlds,” I said. “How lucky are we to move in his orbit while he makes new discoveries.”
“Define: luck,” said the puppets. “Define: orbit.”
“It’s just a figure of speech tying the observed movements of the heavens to unexpected events on the ground,” I said. “It seemed like your wizard was expecting my arrival because he left a note addressed to me. I wonder how he knew I’d pass this way again.”
“He is a great prognosticator, our creator, and he always returns, but usually sooner than this,” one of the puppets said. “We accept the solution of further study to your categorization. Since the wizard 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. He is of significant interest to observe.”
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 our feet.
“What causes the vibrations?” I asked, stumbling to my knees.
“The caterpillar eats! You’ll see and understand,” the puppets said and extended their hands to help me off of the ground. Carefully, we continued forward, fighting to retain our balance when the brick path quaked, having more success sometimes and less other times.
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 carelessly crunching leaves and moving the entire ecosystem with his effortless consumption.
“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 to search his fields for new discoveries. Farewell, uncategorized influence or disturbance.”
I waved goodbye to the puppets as they returned to their home down the red brick path. Then, I imagined myself growing like a vine reaching towards the sun and soon I was standing beside the caterpillar and of a size with him.
“Hello, caterpillar,” 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 and have the imagination to help you move from one form to another,” 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 pretend you are a beautiful, red butterfly. I will see and hold the new form in my mind and heart while you see and feel the change in your spirit. Maybe the change will stick and become your new reality. 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 had done. I fell over onto the brick path in the initial gust after Promised’s evolution.
“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.
“I can fly with you, if you tire of carrying me,” I said, admiring the woods below from the sky.
“Butterflies have strength that you can’t even begin to imagine,” Promised said, then paused and looked at my face while he held me in his arms. “Well, maybe you can, imaginative woman. Allow me to ferry you to my home and be your wings in repayment for helping me with the great change.”
“No repayment required for playing pretend and imagining new forms,” I said. “But I very much enjoy the view up here so let’s continue as we are.”
We moved through the skies above the woodland realm as effortlessly as a breeze and 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 the enormous butterflies moved and shifted on the branch, they caused innumerable ripples on the water’s surface below them.
“What is this place?” I asked as Promised put me down and I sat on the branch with the other butterflies.
“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, 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 as if grasping an unseen chain about my neck. I tumbled backwards off of the branch into the water with an enormous splash, sinking quickly below its formerly still surface. I looked upwards to see all of the butterflies scatter in every direction, Promised included, clearing the branch as if something very large and invisible claimed their stations above the pool.
“What a disaster,” I thought as I sank. “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.”
I turned my eyes from above to study the clear water around me and I glimpsed a whale-sized goldfish opening his mouth and heading unstoppably in my direction. 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 for two.
“I’m intruding in this place and don’t belong,” I said, comparing the finery around me with my water-soaked and disheveled appearance. “I hope the residents in the goldfish don’t mind that I crashed their dinner. Maybe I am an unwanted disturbance like Oak says. I never wanted to be.”
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. Nobody, 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, to the refreshing waters of the Pool of Destiny,” 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 but I don’t think those are thoughts, I believe they are progenitor emotions.”
“There you go thinking again and calling it emotion. You should say what you mean, you feel you left a progenitor emotion in my mushroom. If only it was here,” the wizard mourned. “I could have us home in a moment.”
“I feel like you purposefully misunderstand the things I believe because I don’t say them as precisely as you. But never fear, I can just make you another one, I think, and then you can study it and figure out what it actually is,” I said. “I’ve only done it once so I’m not sure I have the knack yet.”
“Could it be that easy?” the wizard said. “I don’t think so.”
“Why can’t it be as simple as smiling when you’re happy or crying when you’re sad?” I said. “You like experiments so let’s try it. Just imagine yourself loved, safe, and blessed by whatever you believe holds reality together. Allow that feeling to grow and grow and then something happens. It’s like the feeling takes on a life of its own.” I took a moment to reignite a happy memory in my spirit, the look on Promised’s face after he turned into a butterfly, then, with a plucking gesture, I reached to my heart’s center and pulled forth a spark. “Voilà, a progenitor emotion.”
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 emotion manifested upon demand! How is that even possible?”
“I think anybody can produce these powerful ‘progenitor’ emotions 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 an emotion, or thought in your parlance, are the energies of the worlds brought into reality through your spirit like a bridge of sorts. My bridge consists of hope for a reality where I am loved just as I am and I use my memories of happy moments and how I felt within them to realize the emotion in the present from the past. 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. “Can the same be done with stable thoughts rather than unpredictable emotions?”
“Of course! Let’s consider the method of using your spirit like a bridge,” I said. “Call it an experiment rather than visualization to appeal to your rational-based mind. Think a thought that is important to you. Think what you could do if this thought became manifest in your reality. Really imagine it and see yourself existing in this new place, a world where progenitor thoughts are available for the taking like apples from a tree that is your mind.”
The wizard composed himself, becoming very still and I could almost hear the wheels of his powerful mind at work as he moved through his thought experiment. After a few moments, he reached to the center of his own chest and, after a few seconds more of focused breathing, pulled out a spark that matched mine. When he opened his eyes and saw the thought manifest in his hand through the portal of his heart, the wizard almost vibrated with excitement.
“You did it!” I said and handed him the emotion-based spark from my own heart. “I always believed you could.”
“What a breakthrough!” the wizard declared. “I shall use this moment to produce an unquantifiable number of these progenitor thoughts. Where have you been with your imaginative methods, Heidi? All the wizards of the woods, not just I, could have used this ages ago to make collective reality so much better.” Then, the wizard smashed our 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 or emotions, 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. “I love libraries. Thank you for allowing me to wander through yours. But before I go, wizard, may I know your real name?” I said. “I think it’s only fair as you know mine.”
The ancient 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. “You may do the same.” Then, he went back to pulling sparks from his mind through 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 workshop. I ran my fingers along their spines and wondered what book I should look at first. “There are so many to choose from,” I murmured to the shelves. “Where should I start?” As I considered my predicament, the wizard’s library helpfully provided the answer when a volume removed itself from the stacks and flew through the air towards me, placing itself in my hands. Its title read: For the Promulgation and Nurturement of Oaks.
I blinked and suddenly found myself back on the brick pathway of the woods and my nemesis the angry 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 of the wood’s library. Can we not share our unique knowledge of the inner worlds and our true natures with those who seek them? I will freely share what I have found with you as you may recognize the secrets as your own and find some good in them.”
“Of course I recognize that book! There are none among the oaks who wouldn’t,” 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, categorizing and organizing the knowledge and learning of all who dwelled here in an effort to add to the accepted and recorded facts of the known worlds.” 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 following such an accursed path?”
“It was a gift from one who called himself ‘Merlin’ and I don’t think it’s fair to call the path cursed just because trees can’t walk on brick,” 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 and known parts of the woodland. I appreciate your care for my wellbeing but it isn’t required. Despite appearances and my unique way of moving through reality, I really am a woman grown and not a child to be shielded from all the dangers the worlds have to offer to seekers of the deeper mysteries. 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 to explore it further and I can’t stand the thought of facing your anger yet again in the future.” I smiled at the tree. “As a token of my good intentions and as a pledge for a better tomorrow for all, I give the wisdom of your forefather and foremother trees back to you. Perhaps we can read it together and relearn what the worlds have forgotten about your people.” And I handed Oak the wizard’s book, perching it in the branches that I imagined were most like his hands.
Oak stood in such silence and stillness for a moment it was as if he had lost his powers of speech. I started to feel concern for his existence as a living and moving tree until I realized that he was taking a pause to compose himself and hadn’t changed into a plant I could no longer communicate with.
“Thank you, Heidi,” said Oak finally. “Maybe I have more to learn from you than I thought and you are a positive influence rather than a problematic disturbance. I will neither halt nor hinder your progress upon your chosen path any longer and keep my thoughts about the appropriateness of your appearance to myself. Return to me when you are ready to learn the secrets of root and branch and sunlight upon both. But not too soon because your presence makes me incredibly angry and I’ll need some time to send this emotion back into the earth where it can take its rest.”
“I’ll look forward to it, Oak,” I said and hugged the guardian tree as he batted me away with his branches. “I’m sorry my existence makes you angry. I’ll try to make myself scarce for a while.”
“Remove your hands, sapling! Where’s your sense of decorum?” said Oak and turned from me, taking the wizard’s book about oak trees back to the ones who had originated it.
There the vision ended.
The Light Congress 
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