Gate: Seven of Wands
I passed through the vision gate and found myself in a world shrouded in the color pink. The garden walls and ground were pink as was the sky. In some ways, I felt as if I had entered a gigantic womb. As I came to this realization, I was pulled forward suddenly and the walls rushed past in a blur like I had entered a wind tunnel.
I was propelled through this pink tunnel until I exploded outwards into a void of space that contained neither light nor shadow. I floated in this void for a time, experiencing a feeling of being and nothing else, until I perceived something large rising from the depths below. Curiosity reentered my spirit at this being’s approach and I moved towards the rising enigma upon the horizon.
It took some travel to get close enough to see the emerging spirit taking the form of a giant centipede. After a view heartbeats more, I realized it was my friend, Time, coming out of the nothingness of the void to fetch me back to the worlds I knew. He reared back on his enormous form until his head floated in front of me and I could see his energy gleaming from his dark, oblong eyes. “It is time, Heidi,” he said. “Climb aboard and I will take you where you need to go. You have dwelt in this formative space for your appointed time and may now return to those who remember and love you.”
“I thought I would feel lost out here, Time,” I said as I climbed upon the giant centipede. “Instead, my experience in the formless void was one of simple existence and nothing else. I think I may actually miss this solitude in time as much as I missed those I love during my time away. Thank you, my friend, for bringing me home.”
Faster than light, Time rushed away through the void and swept me back into the pink world and its comforting womb-like feeling. The centipede moved so quickly that reality blurred and once again we moved through a long tunnel towards a new space. Suddenly, Time stopped so abruptly that I was thrown from atop his head onto the ground. Then, giving me a jaunty wave with one of his forelegs, he vanished.
“Hello..!” I called into the lighted mists that began to gather around me, concealing the pink garden from my sight. “Is anyone there? I have only newly arrived and am seeking my friends and ancient companions. Are you a friend?”
“We are…” came a gentle, whispered answer from the mist. Tendrils of pastel pink vines grew from the ground and surrounded me, softly moving against my skin and each other. They wrapped about my legs and torso until I was so swathed in the growth from the garden that my physical form was difficult to separate from the plants.
“Who are you?” I asked, pushing the vines from my eyes so that I could see. “I’m Heidi and Time brought me to your doorstep.”
“We are the Garden of the Mother. You have met us before…” sighed the vines. “Welcome back to the worlds of form, Formless One.”
“All are formless until they are given shape by the Creator of All,” I said. “Thank you for the greeting all the same. Is the Divine Mother here? I missed her peaceful presence in the void.”
“She is everywhere,” whispered the plants in unison. “She is even within the void. The Mother is the foundation of all things. There was no need to long for her when she was with you the entire time.”
“Despite any feelings of solitude I may have had during my experience in the void, I suppose this must be true, otherwise how would I have been able to return to this form,” I said, meditatively. “Garden vines, will you take me where I need to go in this world?”
“We will take you, we will take you, we will, we will, we will,” whispered the vines as they picked me up and carried me through the surrounding mists. The Garden proceeded at a much slower pace than the centipede, but even so, in mere moments, they set me down gently next to an enormous rose that pulsed in the midst of the garden hedges. “Behold, the Heart of the Mother’s Garden,” they said. “This is a sacred place for all mothers and those who give shape to forms of all types.”
“This Mother’s Heart is beautiful,” I murmured, admiring the shining petals of energy and prismatic red light. The mammoth rose floated above a thorned vine, pulsing from within with a glowing light. “It has thorns,” I said. “I didn’t expect it to have thorns.”
“Of course, it has thorns,” whispered the garden vines. “Roses like motherhood and intimate relationships can be prickly. You reach out to hold the beauty of the experience but are surprised by the difference between the viewing and the having.”
I laughed at this comparison. “You are right, Garden Vines,” I said. “Relationships can be very prickly.” A power outside of my own pulled me from the entangling vines and I found myself rising in the air and shrinking at the same time. I was soon directly above the Heart of the Garden and my form was so small that I entered its blossom as easily as a bee. The rose petals moved towards me in a kaleidoscope of hypnotic patterns and shapes.
“Have fun in your journey, Heidi,” the vines whispered as I entered the rose. “Be well and be happy.” My sight within the rose shifted from pastel pink to a rich red, the color of blood. I landed in the midst of the flower and its walls formed a vase-like chamber on either side of me.
Suddenly, rose petals filled the chamber in a whirlwind of motion. They spun and swirled through the air, releasing a delicious fragrance and covering everything, including me, in a blanket of silken petals. “Hello,” I said as I rolled a petal between my fingertips and the swirling cloud settled within the space. “Is anyone there?”
“We are, I am, we are…” I heard and beheld the petals swirling together on the other side of the chamber to form a woman-like spirit. I could not see beneath the petals to her physical form, but where she should have had eyes there were only two blinding spots of bright light like stars.
“Hail, Great One,” I said. “My name is Heidi. Who are you?”
“We are Rose. We live in the Heart of the Mother’s Garden,” they said. “We are the Many that are One. Are you also Many that are One?”
“Well met, Rose,” I said. “I feel like I’m only one but someone brought me through the formless realm to this place in time and space. No matter my designation, I am eager to learn whatever it is you have to teach me. Are you willing to instruct me in your mysteries?”
Rose’s whirlwind of petals moved about me in an embracing gesture. “We would not teach just one thing, but many. We will do as you ask and also as we wish,” the Rose said. “This is possible. Anything is possible.” As the spirit’s pillar of petals moved closer to me, the mass of rotating petals formed hands which cupped together and light pooled in her floral palms, the same type of bright light that flowed from her eyes.
“Heidi, see the egg in the womb, the One from the Many,” Rose said. “A potential for human life floating in a formless void. After your most recent experience, this should feel quite familiar.”
I looked into the light and saw an ovum existing in a vacuum of space. A cloud of sperm moved towards this egg in an energetic mist. “You believe the Many that are One are in competition to reach the egg, don’t you?” Rose asked.
“Lady Rose, that is what I was taught as a child, that the most fit of the male energy reaches the egg first and the rest dissolves back into nothing,” I said. “I imagined the process as a sort of competition for existence.”
“The Many that are One already know who will reach the feminine potential before they leave the male’s body. It is not a race; it is a joyous procession,” said Rose. “Rather than competing for existence, the Many that are One move through reality as guardians and guides for the One from the Many.”
In the pool of light within Rose’s hands, I saw the cloud reach the ovum. Such was the preciseness of my sight, I could see the exact moment one of the male energies separated from the rest and entered the egg. The unity of force and form began to glow in the void, becoming a new being who had not existed before that moment in time.
“How is it that something so small has consciousness, Lady, that the male energies could be aware?” I asked.
“All particles have consciousness. And, since the Many that are One stay with the One from the Many for the rest of his or her life, they are able to move backwards and forwards upon her timeline as required,” she said. “Their consciousness surrounds you and guides you at all moments in time, though most are unaware of it because their presence is a constant throughout physical existence from the very first moment to the last. Look, Heidi. Look and see the truth of our words.”
I gazed into the spirit’s hands once more and saw myself with a cloud of living light around my body. The light particles moved under their own volition, zipping to and fro in my existence without my knowledge or acknowledgement. “What you see, the visible light or aura about your form, are the remaining physical evidence of the Many that are One,” said the Rose. “We do not leave you nor are you ever separate from us, Heidi. We are always together, always.”
“I did not know this, Rose,” I said. “My teachers in physical reality are more concerned with the observable mechanisms of life rather than spiritual truths. I wonder what else is universally true that I am completely unaware of.”
“There are many things that are not known that could be known, if only someone would ask,” the Rose said as the light in her hands faded. “We are here to share with you and all seekers these hidden truths. As I said, it is one of our reasons for existence to act as a bridge between physical reality and all others.”
“Rose, what do you believe the purpose of life is?” I asked. “I look for meaning in my life but have trouble seeing it sometimes. I would like to know your view on the matter.”
Petals burst from the chamber floor and clouded my vision in their swirling redness, but then moved away so I could see the Rose standing across from me once more. “The Many that are One experience life through you. Their purpose in life is to live and expand into their evolved expressions, joyously,” the Rose said. “As a caterpillar becomes a butterfly or a flower blossom opens and absorbs the energy from the suns of existence, so too is the purpose of the Many that are One to learn and grow as you do.”
Rose’s petals exploded outward again, but then sucked back together to form a doorway shaped like the opening of a woman’s vagina. From this slender doorway, a grown woman stepped from the shadows beyond the doorway into the inner chamber. She glowed with the unearthly light from Rose’s eyes but she had a human form and shape like me.
“I am the One from Rose’s Many,” the spirit said. “I have many names, but you may call me, Love or Venus. And I believe that the purpose of life is to love and be loved.”
“Venus, your Many from the One said that their purpose of life is to learn and grow,” I said. “I’m confused. If you are in essence one being, how can you have different purposes?”
“There is no confusion,” replied Venus, lifting her arms above her head in blessing. “I am the One from the Many and I have my own destiny,” she said. “It is this way with all beings who walk the paths of physical existence. You have heard Rose’s purpose and I have now told you mine. Love and be loved!”
As Venus raised her hands over me, I began to rise from the chamber contained within the Heart of the Garden. I emerged from the bloom into the pink world and continued to rise higher into the air until the garden receded into the far distance and then disappeared. I continued to float, existing in a void of space once more, until I found myself approaching an ovum that was far larger than me. It appeared to my sight as an unlit gray ball in, what seemed to be, the infinite nothingness of space. I entered this sphere as simply as walking through a door.
All was still within the egg, but I felt watched all the same. “Hello?” I said into the empty space. “I am here to love and be loved as I learn and grow. Is there anyone else here?”
A gentle breeze moved through the ovum, bringing some light into the darkness and revealing more details of the place. I soon realized I was wading through a sea of faces which were stacked up against each other so closely along the wall and floor that I could not see the sides of the egg. As I moved among them, I felt that these faces were the egg somehow, its very building blocks at a cellular level.
When I realized I was standing on some of the faces, I rose up into the air and floated towards the very center of the ovum in order to give everyone contained within the space to exist in comfort. The silent faces turned towards me, following my motions as I levitated, but their movements were minute and would have been impossible to perceive if they had not had freedom of motion of their eyes which slid easily around in their frozen visages. When I reached the very center of the space, one of the faces rose from beneath me, taking on more detail as the spirit emerged from the floor.
The emerging face had an Elizabethan collar as I had observed on the Divine Mother, but each scallop contained a face that mirrored the center one rather than patterned lace. This being was dark gray like the rest of the ovum and moved very little.
“We are the Feminine Energy,” she said stiffly. “We await the Many that are One. Are you the Many that are One?”
“Funny, you’re not the first spirit to ask me that today,” I said, moving closer to the face. “I am only myself at the present moment and not the many. I’m sorry if this is a disappointment to everyone here but it is the truth. Feminine Energy, what do you believe the purpose of life to be? Do you exist to simply await the arrival of the Many that are One or do you have other reasons for being?”
The central face looked at me as did all of the faces on the collar at the same time. It was an unnerving experience because they were completely devoid of expression and moved together so perfectly that it was as if they were one being and not many. “Listen well to our words, Myself. Consider the seed,” said the faces in unison. “What causes a seed to grow?”
“Sunlight, soil, and water,” I replied. “In the appropriate proportions.”
“What does a seed grow into?” asked the Feminine Energy.
“A seed grows into the type of plant that is it,” I said. “Its parent determines its potentials.”
“This is so. Through energetic interactions with others, you would call these ‘relationships,’ the seeds of potential that are contained within the spirit blossom and grow,” said the Feminine Energy. “If the seeds of potential do not receive the energy of beneficial interactions, then their patterns will remain dormant and will never be. Do you understand why this give and take of relationship is so important, Myself?” I shook my head negatively.
“It is important because the exchange of energy and ignition of potential is life itself,” the spirit continued. “All spiritual seeds like ourselves want to grow. The purpose of life, as we, the ovum, see it, is to experience these relationships be they internal or external and then to evolve through this energy exchange into the being that the potential was born to be. In this way, the physically embodied fulfill the contract of your existence.”
“Contract?” I said. “What has the law to do with the purpose of existence?”
“Before birth, there is a contract or purpose for existence that you formed with the Creator of All or the One though you may not remember it,” the Feminine Energy said. “But do not be concerned, Myself, about your memory difficulties around this purpose. It is quite common to forget this truth in order to experience joy in the remembrance of it. The Many that are One always remember this primal agreement and assist you, guide you, hold you together throughout the whole of your existence throughout time so that, in the fabric of your being, even if you return to the void, you remember it too.”
The speaker with her regal collar began to sink back into the floor and was reunited with the others in the ovum to complete the grid-like pattern. Once whole, the egg began to whisper in many voices from all the faces. “We cleave with The Many that are One to form the One from the Many,” they said. “We are the Feminine Energy. We are the blueprint for all things, the contract from the Divine. We remember so that you do not have to.”
A tremendous crash came from the apex of the space and all of the faces and I turned to view the crack that appeared in the ceiling which led out to the void. The Lady Rose squeezed through the opening in the exterior of the egg, then her whirling petals dispersed in all directions throughout the interior. A single petal from the Many that are One floated to each of the faces of the Feminine Energy within the ovum. The faces of the seeds of spiritual potential opened their mouths and, in one coordinated movement, each swallowed a rose petal.
There was a blinding flash of light and the faces of the egg disappeared, becoming a smooth, united surface. In the center of the egg, the rose called the Heart of the Garden flashed and pulsed at me with its brilliant inner light. I heard myriad voices coming from the rose: “To love and be loved… to learn, grow, and experience life with the Many… to be the synthesis of the two, the blueprint of the Divine…”
I found myself floating away from this new flower and exited the egg to return to the void around it. My size increased until I observed the rose chamber in space was actually a seed that I held in the palm of my hand as I stood within the pink world of the garden. I released this seed where it began to float in the air, then I was pulled backwards out of the vision gate.
Strangely, in my inner vision, the seed that contained the new rose exited the gate with me to exist in my waking world. I watched as the seed floated directly to my hand. I held it for a moment, marveling in its existence outside of the Inner Worlds, but then felt prompted to consume the seed. Obeying my inner guidance, I put the potential upon my tongue and swallowed it.
There my vision ended.
The Light Congress 