Gate: Three of Cups
I stepped through the vision gate onto a black, shiny surface like rock made of polished glass. I attempted to walk forward to explore the realm but my feet were held to the ground by a power I could not see and I began to sink through the shadowy substance. Pulled by an unknown force, I fell through the unnatural ground into further darkness.
When I could perceive my surroundings again, a pulsing glow beating like the rhythm of a giant heart appeared. The shifting light was calling my name and compelling me towards it. “Heidi, Heidi, Heidi…,” said the light to the beat of my own heart. “Come to me. Come to me. Come to me.”
“I am here,” I said. “I have come. Who calls me?” Rather than reply in words, the light summoned me ever forward with its brightness through the gathering shadows. As I drew closer, I saw in the midst of the light there was a cave and shining vines of starlight and mist concealed the entrance. I moved those gently aside and entered a glowing cavern filled with more of the hanging vines made of light.
“Heidi, come to me,” whispered the voice through the lighted vines.
“I require a guide for I can’t see you,” I said and a small flower blossom popped up from the cavern ground next to my feet. She had stick feet and arms made of flower stems and was filled with the light from the cave and vines. The flower began to energetically run in circles around me, tracing a pattern only she knew. “Well, hello, Flower,” I said as she rushed past. “My name is Heidi. Who are you?”
“I am Daisy, Daisy, Daisy,” my guide sang and continued her manic movement about me.
“You move so quickly for a flower, that I find it hard to believe you truly are one,” I said. “Be that as it may- Daisy, where am I?”
“The Womb of the Mother,” the living flower replied. “She calls you, don’t you hear?”
“Yes, I hear but I can’t see the way forward,” I said. “Would you take me to her, please?”
“Yes, yes, yes. Come with me!” Daisy took off, running down the path ahead and further into the cave. I followed as quickly as I could but there was no matching the extraordinary speed of the flower. I was quite a ways behind her when she turned to me with a smile. “We are here!” she declared as we passed through another entrance into a huge, echoing cavern.
On the floor of the cavern, crowds of living flowers like Daisy ran around with ceaseless energy. They congregated at a point of pulsing light in the center of the cave and then moved outwards again, back and forth endlessly like waves upon a shore.
At the very center of the cavern, I beheld a glowing figure with the appearance of a giant queen bee who towered over the flowers. The mammoth spirit was producing eggs shaped like squares or building blocks of light. The flowers rubbed their blossoms on the side of the bee and removed the squares as quickly as they were produced. The movement was infinite, quick, but soothing in some manner that felt familiar to me while at the same time being brand new.
“Heidi, come to me.” I heard again, the voice coming from the queen bee herself. I rose above the floor of the cavern and began to float towards her head which jutted up into the heights of the cave. “Come to me, come to me now.”
“Mother, I am here,” I said. “I passed through shadow following in the footsteps of Daisy to find you. What do you require of me?” Up and up I traveled until I was at the level of the queen’s eyes. Then, I was pulled by her energy towards her until I found myself absorbed into her head and my vision dissolved into light.
Within the mind of the Divine Mother, I saw myself as an infant in a womb of light with a glowing cord connecting me to the infinite. I quickly grew from a baby into the woman that I am now and my vision dissolved once more.
When I could see again, the Divine Mother was standing next to me in the void of space. She was in the now-familiar shape of a woman made of light with long trailing hair. The goddess wore a sparkling garment of light with long robes that dragged on the ground behind her.
“Walk with me for a time, Heidi,” she said and began to move forward. I tried to follow the goddess but I kept dissolving into either light or shadow and couldn’t keep pace with her movements while holding my form together. “If you follow me on my cloak, you will find this journey easier,” she said when she noticed I was struggling. “I will provide you with form through the formless.”
“Thank you for your help, Mother,” I said. “I’m sorry I keep falling into light and shadow.” The shining cloak that fell from the Divine Mother’s shoulders elongated and formed a path for me through the void. By treading upon her garment, we were finally able to walk together for a little while without my sudden disappearance from her reality.
“I have a gift for you, Formless One,” the Divine Mother said. “For consenting to walk with me.” We stopped suddenly and she reached into the air of the void about us. A tree appeared and she plucked a large, round fruit from its branches. “Take and eat of the fruit of another of my trees as you did so long ago,” she said. The Divine Mother handed me a pomegranate which she split open with her own hands.
“It is very kind of you to think of me, Mother,” I said. “I feel unworthy of your generosity of spirit for who needs more than one fruit from your endless orchards, not I.” As I spoke, I took the shining red fruit and ate three seeds from its thick rind.
“Is that all?” the goddess asked. “Only three?”
“I don’t want to consume it all at once,” I answered. “This is a sacred gift from you and I would savor it.”
“Oh Heidi, don’t you understand?” the Divine Mother said. “You are the seed. You are the fruit. You are the tree. You are all these things. I can give you ever so much more. Don’t limit yourself to three. See the abundance of all creation!” The goddess walked over to the trunk of the tree and gestured upwards. Its branches were weighed down with fruit, each pomegranate at least as large as the one I held in my hands.
“Mother, if I am the seed, fruit, and tree, what are you?” I said as the pomegranate I was given melded into my spirit.
The goddess smiled. “I am the cells of the seed, the cells of the fruit, the cells of the tree,” she said. “I am you, your form and foundation.” The Divine Mother moved past the tree. “See Heidi, the orchard of ideas, forms, and creations that I have prepared for you and all who seek me.”
Trees like the one the goddess had plucked the fruit from appeared from horizon to horizon. They were all laden with fruit like our tree, waiting to be enjoyed. “I have given you enough in this place for you to explore for ten thousand life times if that is what you desire,” she said. “I am the abundance that provides choice.”
She moved through the orchard, touching first this tree then that. Pomegranates spilled from the branches and split open on the ground, revealing piles of seeds waiting to be discovered and devoured.
The Divine Mother stopped in the center of the endless trees and her hair lengthened so that it filled the sky. Her feet became roots that reached deeply down into the earth. She became a pillar of light that filled the sky and infused the ground, forming the foundation of the orchard and all that I could see. “Heidi… come to me,” the goddess spoke in her new form, her voice coming from both below and above.
“Mother, I am here,” I said. “I have planted your seeds in my spirit and await your wisdom and understanding. What lesson do you require me to learn?”
The goddess’ laughter echoed through the trees. “You ask me for one lesson and I give you thousands. Come and join with me,” she said. “Through the unity of our spirits, you will learn far more than my words can teach you.” I walked through the shining trees upon the sacred ground imbued by the presence of the Divine Mother and embraced her pillar of light in the center of the orchard.
When I could see through the blinding light of presence, I found myself floating deep beneath the surface of an ocean. I rose to the surface of the water and a whale broke through next to me and jumped over my head. I heard the laughter of the Divine Mother as she moved through the water as a leviathan of the deep. Her tail playfully slapped me in the face as we frolicked among the waves together and I went under the surface again.
The ocean’s powerful current drew me along and I was washed up on the shore through a power outside of my own. As I adjusted to life on land once more, I saw I was not alone upon the beach. To my right was a mermaid statue made of bronze and to my left was an obsidian statue of myself laying in the surf.
The mermaid statue was heavily pregnant and a light began to emanate from her swollen, bronze belly. It split open with a final burst of light and a cube, like those in the cavern with the queen bee, came out of the statue. It flew to me and hovered before my eyes.
“I am another gift from the Divine Mother,” said the cube. “I am the Organization that underlies this vision journey. Ask me what you will, I am here to serve.” The spirit flickered and glowed with the light from the orchard of the goddess.
“Once upon a time, I met a glowing cube who called themselves ‘Organization’ within the Giant of Thought,” I said. “Are you any relation?”
“There are organizational intelligences at all levels of reality in all the worlds,” said the cube. “Undoubtedly we are related though I have always existed here, in this realm.”
“If I ever pass that way again, I’ll be sure to mention you to them,” I said. “Organization, what is the purpose of this particular journey? I have stood upon this beach before because that is the mark I left on reality as I moved through, laying in the surf.”
The spirit started spinning and the light pouring from it split from one hue into rainbow colors. “Seeking, creation, learning, purpose, innate wisdom, experience, divinity, evolution….” The words kept pouring forth from the cube in quick succession as the inner light of its being strobed across the beach and its lifeless statues.
“Wait, slow down! That’s plenty of purposes,” I said. “I knew I shouldn’t have had more than a few of the Mother’s seeds. How on earth am I going to remember all of her wisdom?”
“You asked and we delivered,” said the cube cheekily as they continued to spin and glow upon the beach.
“I’ll say you delivered, far beyond anything I ever dreamed,” I said. “Let’s streamline this journey to focus on one concept from the Divine Mother. That’s really all I can handle right now. Organization, please take me to a place in this world that will teach me the most at this time.” The cube glowed brightly once more and came directly towards me. The spirit went into my heart and my vision went dark as the sea and statues disappeared from my sight.
When I could see again, I was the pomegranate being handed from the goddess to a spirit who had my form. I saw myself raising my body to my lips and consuming three pieces of my fruit. As I descended into my stomach to become one with the being who looked like me, I found myself rising from the shadows of the mirrored rock which stood on the threshold of this realm.
I looked upwards from the ground I had emerged from and stars appeared in the darkness above, shining and twinkling in the void of space. They swirled and moved in patterns like living dancers and I found myself swept up in their power, joined their ranks, and became a star myself. As a star, I moved through the heavens in a ceaseless dance of ecstasy and simple being.
Then, my dance was halted when I found myself being pulled from the freedom of the sky in a net. I saw the Divine Mother taking my shining light from her star net and putting me into a basket with others who had also been pulled from the sky by the goddess. As she did this, I saw a spirit who had my form sitting in the boat with the goddess, asking her questions about her true nature and purpose in reality.
“I did not even recognize myself the last time I was here,” I thought to myself as my vision dissolved into light once more.
Next, the Divine Mother was pulling me from her basket of stars and casting me out into the universe. I saw a spirit shaped like myself standing on the mountain next to the goddess, asking her about the nature of reality as my star self tumbled to the worlds below. “Why can’t you see me, Heidi?” I thought as I fell further than I ever believed possible. “I’m right here. Why can’t you see me?”
I blinked and I found myself in the forehead of the Divine Mother when she appeared as a spider of light, basking in the adoration of her companions. As her third eye, I saw a spirit shaped like myself approach us in her egg-shaped temple, the Womb of the Mother in another world. We gathered the other Heidi into our arms and moved upwards into the light of creation to share our true nature with her curious heart.
Finally, I was the third eye in the forehead of the Mother as a spider made of shadows, dwelling among the hollow reeds and mournful breezes of her other temple. Again, I saw a spirit who looked like me coming out of the darkness and fear of that sacred yet forbidding space. Again, we gathered the seeker who was me in our arms and moved upwards into further knowledge and oblivion.
“You are me and I am you,” the goddess said in my mind as my vision dissolved into the formlessness of the void.
“Please Mother, don’t leave me in the darkness that is outside of your light and presence,” I said, reaching about myself but finding nothing as my sight deserted me.
“I am here,” said Organization as they stepped out of my heart once more. “We will help provide form for you in any further transitions through the void. We are determined to never lose you to the formless ever again.”
“But I wasn’t ever truly lost, was I?” I said, welcoming a companion into the space that was my heart. “I was either fruit upon a tree in a sacred orchard or dancing in the sky with the stars or existing with the Divine Mother in her own spirit.”
“Because I was here with you this time,” Organization said. “Once upon a time, your story went much differently.”
“Did it?” I said. “I really can’t remember anything beyond this current existence.”
“Allow me to refresh your memory,” the cube said as one of their sides turned into a type of cosmic television screen. The flickering lights of Organization revealed experiences from a different timeline of another world to my wondering eyes.
There my vision ended.
The Light Congress 