Gate: Ace of Wands
I entered the vision gate and found myself standing on a beach in the moonlight. The sand glowed with a white, unearthly light that came from the ground as much as the sky. The sea water with its foamy waves was as dark as the void and concealed all within its depths. I stood on the edge of the sand where the waves met the land, listening for a time to the soothing susurration of the sea. As I walked into the water, it receded before me, leaving all manner of treasures in its wake.
The first thing I found was a beautiful sea shell with a miniaturized version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus inside it, rendered perfectly. As I continued forward, I discovered a diamond the size of my fist. When I looked inside this diamond, I could see myself inside of it, gazing at an infinite amount of my own reflections in its walls.
Then, an ancient treasure chest, partially buried beneath the sands, was revealed by the retreating sea. When I opened its shell-encrusted lid, a tao symbol floated out of the chest from on top of a pile of arcane symbols which all moved under their own power like living beings. As I went to close the treasure chest’s lid, the tao rejoined the symbols in the chest and the whole thing sank beneath the sands once more.
I was enjoying the search as I continued to push forward through the shining sands and the dark water swept itself away from the shore. Suddenly, spirits in the shape of human figures began to emerge from the retreating water and they swept towards me in a rushing crowd. These beings had no discernable features, they were made simply of light and the shadowed water from which they came.
I heard them murmuring as they came closer: “Welcome, Heidi, to the shores of your subconscious mind. We, the Light Congress, have come to greet you and to explore the treasures that you have unearthed on this journey.”
I held up my hand in greeting as the crowd swept over and through me, bringing a renewed feeling of life to the staleness left in the retreat of the sea. “Thank you for walking this path with me as both guardians and guides,” I said. “I could not have made it this far without your help, all of you. Let’s see what lies beneath the waves, shall we?”
The Light Congress scattered and cries of delight began to come from all around me as the figures moved quickly over the sand, unearthing further objects that had been left behind by the sea. One group of half a dozen spirits was working together and located an enormous anchor jutting from the sea floor. On the side of the anchor in block letters, the word ‘Hope’ was etched in its metal. My friends followed the chain leading from the top of the anchor to a scuttled pirate ship.
The spirits laughed and sang sea chanties as they unearthed and righted the ship, restoring it to its former glory. “Remember sailing with the pirates, Heidi?” one called to me.
“We remember you,” another cried with a jaunty salute.
“Put your backs into it, friends, we sail for the nearest island!” the sailors yelled in unison and gave a spirited cheer.
“As if I could ever forget any of you,” I replied and smiled at the memory. “I never dreamed I would sail with the pirates nor how much I’d love the adventure of it all.”
“Friends, come over here!” someone yelled. “I found the Castle of Skye!” An ambitious project began on the beach as the Light Congress unearthed the beautiful turrets and walls of the castle of Love from the glowing sand.
“How funny,” I said as I helped shift some of the concealing earth from the castle gates. “I thought we found Skye up in the clouds but here it is beneath the sea. How did that happen?”
I left the group uncovering the castle in order to press on towards the distant dark waters. As others of the Light Congress joined me, one of the figures of light found a simple crown on the beach. He brushed it off and handed it to me with an ornate flourish. “I presume this is yours,” he said. “Where do we go now, Heidi?” The crowd, which had been animatedly chatting and working, paused and turned towards me.
“Deeper in, my friends,” I said. “With so much help, perhaps we will find something together that none of us have ever seen before. This could be the start of a very great adventure.” A flurry of excitement followed my words and, after a quick vote, it was determined that the Light Congress and I would continue onwards together.
An enormous clam was the next treasure left behind by the dark waters and one of my friends brought me the pearl from its depths. I gazed into its mirrored surface and saw my friends, Badger and Snake, swirling within its pearlescent surface and fighting as usual. “Come out of there!” I said to their reflections. “We need all the help that we can get!”
“Of course, Heidi,” Badger said as he burst out of the pearl. “I belong with you, not trapped and scruffling this lizard.”
“What’s the task today?” Snake said gamely. “You’ll need my help, I expect.” They assumed their human forms and traveled before me, digging through the sand with the other figures of light and clearing any insurmountable obstacles from my path.
Treasures were discovered more rapidly now, one after another, on every part of the beach. I saw a golden chest with two statuesque angels on its lid being carried away by Badger and Snake. They held onto wooden poles that passed through the sides of the artifact. “The Ark! The Ark!” I heard the crowd murmur as my friends proceeded through their midst.
Someone pressed a glowing chalice that shined with runes into my hand. “Odin’s cup, we’ve been looking for that for awhile,” she said and ran back out to discover more.
“Please return this to the god’s keeping,” I said and handed the treasure to a friend nearby. Then, I moved forward with the rest of the crowd, continuing the search.
After an unmarked period of time, I found myself almost alone on the forward edge of the search party as the Light Congress became entranced with the treasures we had already discovered. They danced and celebrated on the shining sands with the artifacts from the uncharted lands beneath the Sea of Consciousness. Undeterred and unwilling to turn from our path, Badger, Snake, and I pressed onwards towards the dark waters which, no matter how far we walked or how much we discovered, seemed further away than ever.
“A skeleton,” I heard the cry. “We have found a birdman’s skeleton.” Unlike the other lost treasures, the bones rose under their own power from the sands, covered with flesh, and the god Horus was suddenly walking towards me and my most stalwart friends.
“Well done, Heidi and Light Congress all,” he said. “You have come so far and learned many mysteries and forgotten things. See all the joy you have brought? You have done much good in your journey and I am very pleased with your progress.” He studied me for a moment. “Yet you continue onwards and inwards. What else are you seeking?”
“Please walk with us while we seek a deeper insight,” I said, never stopping my pursuit of the retreating sea. “Maybe the next discovery will be the key to this journey. Do you know what lies further within the Inner Worlds, Great One?”
Horus shook his head once. “I do not have that knowledge,” the god said. “We see what you see. We learn as you learn. We grow as you grow. Our evolution occurs alongside yours. If it is your wish to continue, by all means, go on. I look forward to seeing what you discover in time and I know others who will be interested in such things as well.” An enormous pyramid made of the same glowing sand as the sea floor unearthed itself before us. “This is where I leave you,” Horus said. “I am going to visit my father, Osiris.”
“Please give my best regards to both your father and his wife,” I said. “And be well, Horus, until we meet again.”
“May you find what you seek, Heidi,” he said. Then, with two quick steps, the god moved through the wall of the pyramid and was gone.
In the departure of Horus, the treasures beneath the Sea of Consciousness began revealing themselves with no further effort on the part of my friends and I. The Temple of the Imagination exploded from the sands to my left. Then, Mount Olympus and its smooth, unending slopes emerged on my right. The Light Congress spilled towards both of these locations, exploring their limitless mysteries and secrets to their hearts’ content.
Sleipnir and a unicorn were spotted in the distance behind us and a race began to see which of our number would reach them first. I laughed at the playful antics of the group as the fabled creatures easily outpaced all of us, moving from the sands back to the dry lands and continuing on together towards the distant horizon.
Despite our relentless progress, the waves seemed so far from me now that I felt an intense fear that my friends and I would never reach them. I turned from the engaging activities and companionship of The Light Congress and began to run towards the waves, Badger and Snake pacing me in a final push towards the unknown. We ran as if our lives depended upon the search, yelling encouragement to each other when our strength began to fail. Finally, when I could go no further even with my dearest friends carrying me in their arms, the retreat of the ocean slowed. At long last, I stood with my feet submerged in the Sea of Consciousness, holding hands and facing the dark unknown with Badger and Snake on either side of me.
Whispers began to emerge from the water but the voices were so quiet and distant that I could not understand the words being spoken. I bent down and gathered some of the shadowed water into my hands and drank it in an effort to understand the message of the sea. After making the ocean a part of myself, the secret speech of the waves flowed through me and I realized the water had an intelligence all of its own.
“Badger, do you hear them?” I said, looking for the speakers in the waves. “Snake, do you hear the whispers from the sea?”
Badger squeezed my hand. “Tell us what you hear, Heidi,” he said. “They don’t speak to us as they speak to you. Tell us their words.”
I opened my mouth and the whispers in my mind and heart from the Sea of Consciousness began to roll off of my tongue: “What do you want, Heidi, what do you want? We can give you whatever you want. Why do you pursue us when we can give you whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you want…” The water spoke in many voices and echoed eerily in my throat.
Snake caught me as I fell to my knees on the edge of the water and it began to flow away from me once more. “Yes, what do you want, Heidi?” he said. “I’ve been wondering that myself for some time now.”
“I want to know the meaning of this journey and the vision that started it all,” I said in my own voice. “I need your help to find the way. I beg you, Seas of Consciousness, don’t leave us here in the darkness of confusion and ignorance.”
“Why didn’t you speak your desire?” whispered the waters as they retreated. “We could have given you the key at any time. You needn’t have come so far.”
“What’d they say to your request?” Badger said, kneeling beside me in the sand.
The sand began to boil and a golden key unearthed itself from the sea floor. “They said I needed only to ask for what I searched for and they would give the knowledge to me,” I said, picking up the key. “It is as simple as that, Badger. I so loved this journey. I wonder where they will lead us next.” The waves of the retreating sea were again so distant they were just a beckoning line on the horizon when I handed Badger the key from the intelligences within the water.
The Divine Mother’s familiar voice spoke to me this time instead of the Sea of Consciousness. “You are on a never-ending journey, Heidi,” the goddess said. “Your future holds endless adventures, endless wonders, and endless explorations for both you, your loved ones and your world. You have put your feet upon the path that is life itself. Welcome to eternity.”
A door with a golden lock appeared in the air before us. Badger took the key from the sand and it fit the door perfectly. Then, he put my hand upon his, we turned the key together and opened the door to another world.
Badger and Snake moved before me across the threshold. “Let us go first to ensure your safety,” Badger said and slipped through the doorway.
“Somebody has to keep an eye on that furry idiot,” Snake said and winked at me as he followed Badger into the unknown.
Some of the Light Congress gathered before the new gate while others remained on the beach, exploring and cataloguing the newly discovered treasures. I took a deep breath and passed through the doorway into the unknown with the beings of both light and shadow entering behind me. We emerged from the retreating Sea of Consciousness into paradise.
Pristine wilderness spread before my sight in every direction in a land where fairies and creatures made of light and cloud danced in the sky while the grass, trees, and wildlife itself moved and spoke. Everything and everyone in existence had consciousness and intelligence and could communicate freely with us in a manner that each individual could understand. The very smallest particles in the air seemed to embrace us as we moved through the atmosphere. All in creation had the same message and they spoke it to my friends and I: “Welcome home.”
The Light Congress entered this new realm with cries of joy as tears of relief from laying down a burden I didn’t realize I carried began to fall from my eyes. A path made of sand continued from the doorway deeper into this new world and I began to follow it, looking for Badger and Snake among the dancing and singing throng. As I took the path made of familiar material through the unfamiliar place, seeking those I loved, my heart beat with the words of beings of this world, “Welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home.”
My steps slowed as the path ahead began to twist in on itself like the inside of a giant shell. Though I wasn’t moving in a circle like I would in the real world, I was continuing forward in a spiral that moved deeper and didn’t go anywhere even as the landscape and beings around me continued to change. It was a journey of discovery without effort, movement without motion. The path circled and circled itself as I continued looking for my Badger and Snake.
I never tired as I moved deeper into the new world in peaceful and hypnotic circles, and felt no fear as the light began to slowly fade. The paradise and its inhabitants began to disappear from my sight but the path remained clear to my eyes, so very clear, so I continued onward, my heart calling out the welcome from creation itself but also a song of longing for my companions, Badger and Snake. Finally, I reached a place where the void came into manifestation in this new world and even the sand beneath my feet disappeared, leaving me without a way forward or friends or a love to call my own.
I fell to my knees and tears began to fall down my face. “Why do you weep?” a new voice said from the void. “We thought you would be so happy here. Why aren’t you happy?”
“It is all so beautiful, really, but I don’t want to walk the paths alone without someone to share it with,” I said with my eyes closed tightly. “Thank you for this experience, every moment, all of it. But, please, where is the Light Congress now? I need Badger and Snake and I won’t stop until I find them again but I don’t know where to go anymore. They walked before me into this world, I watched them go, so where are they?”
“Look over there, Heidi,” replied the disembodied voice that suddenly sounded so like my own. “Did you bring that with you? I’ve never seen its like before…”
I opened my eyes to see what the voice was talking about and my vision ended.
END OF BOOK I
The Light Congress 