Gate: The Tower
I stepped through the vision gate into a world at war. Planes soared overhead, filling all below them upon the earth with terror as mothers grabbed their babies from their cribs, holding them close to their hearts in a desperate attempt to keep them safe from harm. Young men sacrificed themselves upon the altars of their countries, leaving behind families and lovers who wept over their untimely graves.
As I watched all of these nightmares, the planes began dropping their bombs all around me. I knelt in the desolation, put my hands to my ears to block out the noise and the horrors and started to scream…
“Heidi!” Someone shook my shoulder and I realized I was gazing into a snow globe where miniature planes spun around the statue of a small girl who looked like me when I was a child. “Heidi, wake up! You’re having a nightmare.”
Michael, the guardian of my Treasure House of the Imagination, appeared dressed in his armor and was the speaker who was saving me from my own dreamscape. “Thank God you found me, Michael,” I said, shaking my head to clear it of the scream and lingering shadows. “What a terrible entrance on that particular vision gate. We should put a warning sign on that one.”
The angel gently took the snow globe from my hands and put it in a chest that stood on a pedestal in the center of the room. “We did, Heidi, because we knew you and those who walk in your footsteps would go through it,” he said. “Since we couldn’t eliminate the gate itself without harming your spiritual development, we did our best to contain it and I stood watch over it to bring you out as soon as I could. At least, this way you and the others can walk through the entrance and put down the experience when you’re done with it. I’m sorry you lived that nightmare again.”
“Whatever happens to me is allowed by the Creator of All and I do my best to believe that they have a purpose in mind for allowing any suffering in the universe, even mine,” I said, dusting off my hands as if I could remove the lingering fear from my heart and mind that way. “Let’s get out of here, Michael, and turn our attention to happier things.”
Michael offered me his arm and we moved through the Treasure House together, stopping now and then to admire the wonders it contains. As we passed through the various hallways and rooms, I caught a glimpse of the Hall of Animal Spirits and heard a great commotion coming from that direction.
“Is something important happening over there?” I said. “Usually this place is as quiet as a library or museum.”
“We have a newly arrived guardian spirit who’s been desperately waiting to speak with you and patience has never been his strong suit,” the angel said. “But he can wait until you’ve traversed the tower. Check that, he must wait.”
“Why ‘must’?” I said. “Time has ever been my friend. We could visit him first and face the tower gate later.”
Michael sighed and shook his head. “You don’t remember how any of this works, do you Heidi?” he said. “Just trust me on this. Go through the experience first and then speak with the guardian.”
“Ok Michael,” I said. “Though I’m not convinced the order of these things is as important as you do, I will act as you think is best.” The angel and I turned our faces from the noisy hall and continued on our way.
We reached a door at the end of another hall and it swung open before us, revealing a gleaming metal tower covered in spikes that reached high into a stormy, lightning-filled sky. I shivered at the sight and took a step back from the vision gate.
“Looks almost as awful as the entry gate to this moment in time,” I observed. “I wish to see this experience in another, less threatening way.”
The angel waved his hand over the doorway and the sky cleared, filling with impossible numbers of rainbows and puffy clouds. This beautiful vista was the background for a tower made of pink, spun sugar and decorated with candy of various types. “You shall see this realm with the eyes of an innocent,” said Michael. “Have fun and be safe.” He ushered me through the door and closed it.
In the new world, I stood upon a path made of gumdrops that led to the foot of the sugar tower. A small cookie shaped like a man raced past me singing, “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread man!” A goose with glasses and a sleeping cap passed overhead and she honked as she flew past with a number of goslings following in her wake.
“I’m in a nursery rhyme or child’s fantasy,” I said to myself as I waved to the geese and walked down the gumdrop path, fighting the urge to skip as I did so. One of the paving candies popped out of the ground, forming stick-like arms and legs as he did so, and bowed to me with a regal flourish.
“I’ll guide you to the tower, Princess, if you’ll have me,” said the gumdrop in a squeaky voice.
“I’m no princess, Sir Gumdrop, not really,” I said and took his white gloved hand. “But I can pretend to be and you shall be my knight in shining armor. Lead away!” As the gumdrop and I walked towards the tower, the entire gumdrop path behind me tore itself from the ground and soon a veritable army of candy men were following along, singing to themselves and dancing as we moved through the fantasy world. After a journey that felt more like a dream than an army on the move, we reached the spun sugar tower and I knocked at its lovely gates.
Despite its fantasy appearance, the gate swung open with a terrible, rusty screech like metal, slowly revealing complete darkness and the sound of familiar, mocking laughter. “She’s here before me again,” I said with a sigh. “She always arrives before me.”
“Who?” asked the gumdrop as his fellows from the road hid behind me in a fright.
“My Shadow,” I said as she appeared in the doorway, wrapped in her customary darkness and displaying fiery red eyes that danced in demonic glee.
“No need to come in, Heidi,” Shadow said. “I have things well in hand here at my tower.” She gestured behind her and I saw the shadows of the gumdrop army gathered in lines just as the gumdrops stood behind me. Unlike my army, Shadow’s soldiers growled and shrieked, carrying tiny forks with sharp tines that they waved menacingly in my direction.
“Shadow, I have come to take back this tower and all who live within it,” I said sternly. “I am Light and you are Shadow and are not supposed to act outside of my will. Why can’t you be like everybody else’s shadow, harmless and mirroring?”
Shadow laughed in my face. “Please come in and bring your fierce friends, Heidi. I know just how much you love a good fight,” she laughed again and waved her hand over the tower. Instead of spun sugar, the metal walls flashed back into place and grew foot long spikes that shot out of the sides into my gumdrops, pinning them in place and to the ground. The sky became cloudy again, lightning flashed and thunder sounded, indicating the arrival of a massive storm.
“There will be no fight,” I declared. “And I am coming in now. Your summoned storm shall expend its energy and pass. My fellow soldiers-in-arms shall come with me while their shadows bow to their authority just as you shall bow to mine, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Shadow snarled in response.
“I would like to see you try it,” she said, drawing a sword which was made of the fire of her eyes from a sheath at her side . “I’m your Huckleberry.”
“There’s another thing you’re getting wrong,” I said. “Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were the best of friends, not enemies. If you’d only act like a true shadow, we could be friends too.”
“I do act like a true shadow,” Shadow said, waving her sword in my eyes. “It is you who don’t act like a true light source.”
“What on earth are you talking about,” I said. “I can’t be other than I am and it should be the same with you. Haven’t you ever watched shadows move beneath the sun? You really are getting this existence thing all wrong. You don’t even try to pretend we are one being.”
At my words, Shadow started to laugh harder than I had ever seen her laugh before. She laughed so hard, she dropped her sword and her fearsome vision of the tower started to combust, the stones of the tower changing from earth into the fire that fueled her and came out of her eyes. Hailstones made of fire as well began to fall from the skies, hitting my gumdrop army with a devastating effect. “You are the most ridiculous being in creation,” she said, holding her sides in mirth and derision. “I cannot believe you would even dream of challenging me for the tower, you stupid child. Go back to your winged fly and ask him for help. You will never defeat me alone and as you are now.”
I felt an unstoppable anger filling me and at that moment a massive hailstone landed upon me, smashing against my unbreakable form and surrounding me with the haloed light of Shadow’s nightmare energy. “I am no child and you make a massive mistake to label me as such just because I abhor war and the horrors that come with it,” I said. “You shared with me your energy so now I shall share mine with you. Shadows can’t withstand the light of presence. I am here now and grown. Witness my adult wrath.” I raised my hands and a bright light began to shine out of my body, becoming stronger until I was a pillar of light, blasting the darkness of the tower with the energy and rage of my heart.
The shadows of the gumdrops dispersed but my Shadow stood awhile longer, blinking fiercely into the brightness streaming from me. The tower itself turned back into spun sugar and the fire storm, which had been raging, ceased. Peace returned to the skies. “About time you got here. I hope you appreciate what I’ve done with the place,” Shadow whispered hoarsely and then she dissipated into mist and was gone from my reality.
I gathered the gumdrops who survived the encounter with my shadow together and we entered the spun sugar tower. A long ramp led from the tower door to the heights above and along the walls of this ramp, there were pictures, panel after panel showing scenes from my life. The earliest art work nearest to the ground floor were of my birth, then early childhood, adolescence and so on, moving through the natural progression of time.
As the gumdrops and I climbed, we discovered holes in the wall that blotted out some of the pictures and erased others entirely. As these gaps were discovered, my gumdrop soldiers flung themselves into the spaces and became part of the wall so the tower was whole once more as they healed the gaps with their presence. As we moved higher, we found more and more broken places. I felt a type of numbness entering my heart at the realization of how much unacknowledged pain and suffering had occurred during my spiritual development which Shadow had known but had kept from my conscious mind. I held my tongue and kept climbing, leading the remnants of the dwindling army ever upwards.
Eventually, we came to a turn in the ramp where a whole section of wall had been removed and the gumdrops and I looked down a dizzying drop to the ground. “What happened here, Princess?” Sir Gumdrop said. “This could have been life ending for you.”
I moved back down the tunnel and looked at the pictures leading to the dangerous portion. “This was the time of my pregnancy,” I said. “I was shadow-filled in heart and mind, both before and after my daughter was born. During the pregnancy, I was like a ship lost at sea and filled with nausea so often I lost track of what it was like to feel like a healthy and whole person. Afterwards, I was so despondent and hopeless for the future that I could hardly care for my new baby let alone myself. Later, I was diagnosed with post-natal depression and other related mental illnesses from the trauma of it. But, this trial happened many years ago and my daughter is a guiding light in my life, one of my reasons for living. Why haven’t you, the guardians of this realm, fixed the walls before now?”
“The Shadow wouldn’t let us in,” Sir Gumdrop said as dozens of his fellows rushed to repair the wall with their presence. “I’m sorry, Princess. We are all sorry for what you endured. She was too strong to retake the tower without you among us.”
“I didn’t know how close I was to annihilation either,” I said. “Shadow kept this knowledge to herself.” As my tears began to fall, Sir Gumdrop took my arm, lending me his strength as he accompanied me further up the ramp, surveying the ravages of the shadows upon my life. There were holes here and there, but the worst of the damage seemed to be when I was transitioning to be a parent.
“I never saw myself becoming a mother,” I said softly. “But then, when it was clear that I was going to be one, there was a huge explosion of emotions and repressed memories that I was completely unprepared to handle. I had to grow up to be an adult for my coming child.” I ran my hand across a ragged edge of the wall. “I’ve never felt so alone, before or since, and I fear I did a terrible job of it.”
“It could have toppled the tower but it did not,” said Sir Gumdrop, patting my arm comfortingly. “There’s no need to dwell on what’s past, Princess, for the Creator of the Universe moves all things at their appointed time. You did the best you could, don’t torture yourself any longer with regrets. Please don’t.”
My tears dried as the tunnel began to narrow and the pictures stopped but claw marks appeared along both sides of the wall as if my Shadow had reached out and scratched her mark into the tower with her bare hands. “I was here,” the claw marks whispered as Sir Gumdrop and I passed them by.
“The soldiers of your legion can’t heal that,” Sir Gumdrop said, wringing his gloves together in concern. “Your Shadow is so strong, Princess. What are we going to do?”
“Shadow and I are one being, despite what she says and how she acts,” I said and put my fingers where Shadow’s had touched. “Therefore, I can heal what she has harmed. I was here too.” The claw marks disappeared beneath my hands as I ran my fingertips along the grooves.
Holding my hands out to my sides to heal the walls of Shadow’s mark, I led the gumdrop army on until we ascended the last turn of the tower and arrived at a platform high in the air where the scratches were worse than anywhere we had yet discovered. I spent some time walking in circles and healing all the damage I could see from Shadow, finally moving to where the remaining gumdrops were gathered around a large throne in the center of the space. A dusty figure in the shape of the largest gumdrop of all reclined on this chair and soft snores issued from him.
“Princess, behold your King Gumdrop!” announced Sir Gumdrop and all of the candy fell to their knees in obeisance to the throne.
The King had snow white hair that fell from his temple beneath an elongated, metal crown and had a long white beard that covered his knees. The beard was so long, it reached the floor upon which the throne sat and the King continued to snore, unconcernedly and completely asleep amidst the adoration of my gumdrop army.
“Sire, wake up. The army and I are here to attend to your will,” I said to no effect whatsoever. Braving the monarch’s disapproval, I reached out and gently tapped the King’s arm with a few fingers, dust rising in clouds off of his figure. In response to my touch, the Gumdrop King sat up with a snort and a few throat clearing coughs.
“Who is there!” he demanded and blinked in confusion. “What do you want now?”
“King Gumdrop, the legion and I require nothing beyond your awake and aware presence,” I said and bowed my head in respect. “We have reclaimed this tower from the Shadow, rebuilt the walls, and removed the scars from both.”
“Shadow? Shadow? I know no Shadow,” the Gumdrop King huffed and puffed, every movement releasing another flurry of accumulated dust. “One moment, I was performing my duty as the guiding intelligence of this tower and then next I heard a song such as I had never heard before. I suppose it must have been a lullaby to dull my senses, send me into the forgetfulness of sleep and prevent me from absorbing the lightning strikes from above, the inspiration of the divine.”
“Say that again?” I said. “Are you a lightning rod, Great One, as well as a king?”
“I resent the reduction of my divine presence and function to a mindless piece of safety equipment,” the king said. “But I will forgive your trespass against my great dignity for waking me from my long sleep. Observe my power and true nature, Tower Champion. I can feel a strike building right now.”
From the clear blue sky, the storm clouds gathered as quickly as they had to my Shadow’s summons and with a sizzle and blinding flash of light, a bolt of lightning came directly through the ceiling and struck the Gumdrop King’s crown. The energy ran through his body into the throne beneath him, branching out into the walls of the tower, filling them with the fire from the skies and then quickly dissipating again.
“I convert the strike with my presence and form so that the arrival of divine inspiration doesn’t harm the structure when it hits,” the king said when the waves of power had ceased. “Sir Gumdrop, how did you find the ramp up? Report, soldier.”
“There was substantial damage at one juncture, Sire,” Sir Gumdrop said in efficient clipped tones. “But otherwise, the scars from the Shadow were mainly superficial and could have remained but the Princess in our midst cleared those as well. We repaired the gaps in the stone, but the art needs repainting.”
“No structural repairs required then,” said King Gumdrop. “That’s a relief since I may have been sleeping on the job.” The king raised himself from his throne with a grunt of effort. “Come with me, Princess whoever you are.”
“My name is Heidi and we can drop the princess title, I really don’t mind,” I said. “Where are we going, Sire?”
“To an entertainment,” he said. “It has been ages since I’ve seen one and it’s so important to maintain morale while fighting the shadows of the world.” King Gumdrop led me to a door in the wall that I had not seen on my clean-up rounds earlier.
The gumdrop army gave a cheer and rushed through the door into the huge auditorium which appeared magically beyond. As they passed the threshold, they changed from anthropomorphized candy into slightly built but formidable elves who tumbled and danced their way down the aisles.
King Gumdrop took my arm and when we moved through the doorway, he turned into a tall and stately elf, retaining his long white hair and beard. His elongated crown became a miniature tower on his brow, mirroring his restored fortress. “Would you care to sit with me, Heidi?” he said. “You can go with the soldiers if you want, of course. Your choice.”
“It would be my honor and privilege,” I replied. “What a happy surprise to find a king at the top of Shadow’s Tower.”
“Your tower now. Mustn’t forget that,” said King Gumdrop, walking me down the aisle of the auditorium.
The air of the auditorium crackled with anticipation. The king led me to a seat in the very front row which provided an excellent view of the stage area. The moment we sat down, the heavy curtain drew away and the lights dimmed.
“Sire,” I whispered. “This isn’t going to be a play about war, is it? I’ve had quite enough of that for one vision.”
The King chuckled and said, reassuringly, “Any depiction of conflict on our stage will be gentle enough that you won’t be disturbed. Remember, Heidi, you walk upon a path between two great powers of the psyche, the emotions and the mind. Whenever two forces such as those meet, there will be some adjustments required.” He patted my hand as elvish players rushed onto the stage from the wings.
“We are the thoughts of the mind,” announced an elf who was wearing big, thick glasses. The other actors about him were carrying implements of construction like hammers, measuring tapes, pencils, and lumber. “See our organization and structure. See our innate perfection and grace.”
There was a commotion as the elves began building a flawless copy of the Gumdrop King’s Tower on the stage. The work continued as another group rushed from the other wing.
“We are the emotions,” sang a beautiful elf dressed in rainbow robes. Other elves followed her in a looping, graceful dance. “Feel our beauty. Sense our purpose and power.”
The rainbow elves tossed glitter and streamers and the general effect was to produce a fog of color and sparkles upon their side of the stage. Shining balls of light flew between them so that it seemed lightning moved among the storm clouds. The emotional side of the stage became a gorgeous tableau of blended art and motion while the thoughtful side produced a faithful replica in all respects of the tower.
The two groups completed their work on their respective sides of the stage and lined up to face each other, directly in the middle like opposing armies preparing for war.
“Move your people aside so that we may build unmolested,” announced the Leader of Thought.
“Sir,” sang the Head of Emotion. “You have taken as much space as you are allowed. Venture to our side of this stage and we will decorate your tower with our feelings.”
The Leader of Thought looked frustrated. “But our tower is perfect as it is,” he said. “We have no need of your melodrama, only more space to grow our structure.”
The Head of Emotion looked equally annoyed. “No construction is complete without our input,” she said, dropping the song from her voice. “This tower is so drab, so emotionless. Our acts will only improve upon it, I assure you.”
The Leader of Thought took his hammer and gestured at the top of the tower. It grew until one tiny piece of it jutted over into the emotional side of the stage. “How’s that?” he said with a wicked grin.
“You presume too much, Sir, and I warned you of our response to your encroachment,” announced the Head of Emotion and she waved her hand. A small storm cloud of rainbow hue appeared over the other elf’s head. With a miniature lightning strike, the thick glasses were knocked off of the Leader of Thought’s face and a smudge of glitter appeared on his cheek.
“How dare you put your unwelcome emotions upon me!” the Leader of Thought yelled and a struggle broke out between the two groups in an explosion of motion and sound.
The thought elves built in a frenzy, constructing more and more intricate loops and whorls into the tower while the emotions swirled around them, beautifying it with touches of lightning coming from tiny storms of rainbows and sparkling glitter which emerged from their dance.
At first, the thoughts and emotions tried to prevent each other in their work with a lot of petty back-and-forth taking place between them. But then, as it became clear to both sides that what they were building was better and more beautiful with the contributions from all, they began to cooperate. A thought elf took the hand of an emotion elf and soon all of the actors on stage were paired off and creation continued on in balanced and complementary pairs.
With a few more flourishes and lightning strikes, the gorgeous tower was completed and the company joined hands to line up along the front of the stage. The King rose to his feet and led a standing ovation as the auditorium burst into whistles of appreciation for the play and I clapped along with the rest.
Then, the King left the audience and led me onto the stage to admire the tower from a closer vantage point. The actors and actresses bowed as we moved among them and I congratulated the company on their unique performance.
“It was like nothing I have ever seen in my journeys,” I said. “Well done, everyone.”
“Marvelous, just marvelous,” declared King Gumdrop and there was a crack of thunder from outside the tower, announcing the beginning of another unexpected storm.
A lightning bolt came through the ceiling of the auditorium and struck the King on his iron crown. He moved the energy from the lightning bolt down through his body and into the tower but he had been still holding my hand when the bolt struck and the energy filled me too.
I expected to feel pain from the enormous onslaught of energy but instead I felt as if I had been sleeping my way through the tower and wasn’t actually awake until the moment the lightning had moved through me. I laughed at the realization and raised my hands so that by channeling the lightning I made a cloud of glowing energy, somewhat similar to the colorful storms of the elves of emotion. I threw my cloud into the air where it burst over the heads of the watching elves and shaped itself into a chandelier made of crackling lightning and colors. They applauded as the newly-formed light fixture filled the hall with brilliant new light and energy.
“Lovely addition, Heidi,” King Gumdrop said, kissing my hand. “Too long has your Shadow festooned this arena with her favored darkness.” The king led me back down the aisle to the door back to the tower. This time, when we passed the threshold, he retained his elvish shape, abandoning his child-like fantasy form of a candy king.
King Gumdrop the elf reseated himself on his throne. “Because of your actions here today, I shall share with you my personal view of the lands about this tower, Heidi,” he said and gestured at the wall. “Isn’t it magnificent?”
I looked where he directed and part of the tower wall disappeared. We gazed down upon a world shrouded in puffy clouds so thick that I couldn’t see the ground. “Sire, you have a lovely position in the sky, but I don’t see anything upon the earth,” I said.
“Clear the emotions from your mind,” he advised. “They cloud your view. See as I see.” I breathed deeply for several moments, repeating my calming mantra to myself all the while.
All at once the clouds dissipated and I suddenly saw the ground far below us, a pristine unspoiled wilderness of forests, rolling hills and flowing streams of clear water. But then, just as quickly as the clouds had cleared, they were back and the tower was again shrouded in mists.
“The skies aren’t empty around here for very long, are they?” I said. “I caught a glimpse of paradise but it was so fleeting that it makes me want to try again.”
“A brief glimpse is how I usually see it too, Heidi,” said the King. “For it is the constant interaction of thought and emotion that fuels this tower and maintains the vitality of the world below. Be at peace, the skies will clear again for us some day.”
The moment he finished speaking, lightning struck the King again but now that he was seated on his throne and separate from me, the energy flowed easily into the tower. Rather than dissipating as the earlier strikes, this one lit up the walls with a bright glow that kept growing stronger and a rumble began to shake the structure at its foundation.
I threw up my hands for balance as the entire world rocked and swayed with the energy of the lightning strike. “What’s wrong!” I cried out as I struggled to stay upright.
The King laughed. “Nothing is wrong! It’s merely time for some renovations of my own!” he exclaimed and his throne was propelled into the air by a force I could not see as the ceiling became vaulted, stretching up into the skies and the tower started growing as surely and straight as a tree.
A whole new section of ramp came into being where the tower had expanded. The walls of this ramp were decorated with bejeweled depictions of my friends in The Light Congress, Badger and Snake and other woodland creatures, and all of the adventures that we had had together up until this point in time.
“Farewell, Heidi! Please do come and visit again!” called the King from high above as a section of the wall I had been using to support myself vanished beneath my hands and I was suddenly falling from the top of the tower. I felt no fear or panic as I pretended to have wings and my fall changed from an unexpected disaster into a graceful glide like a bird.
As I spun in mid-air to wave farewell to the King of the tower, I watched the structure continue to grow and the land all around it buckled as well. Then, I saw a mammoth unicorn rise from the ground beneath the tower and realized her enchanted horn composed the tower itself. She stamped her hoof once on the ground and then sped away, disappearing into the perpetual roiling clouds of the Tower Realm.
I was abruptly pulled back through a gate that appeared behind me in the sky while my attention had been distracted by the actions upon the earth. “Well, would you look at that?” Michael said appreciatively as the unicorn ran further into the distance. “A little innocence applied to the lens of conflict served us quite well in that respect.” The angel shut the door to the world with the tower contained safely within.
“I’m sorry to rush things, but the new arrival can’t wait any longer, Heidi,” my guardian said. “He’s been making an absolute racket and the temple guardians have threatened to throw him out.”
I heard an elephant trumpeting loudly from within the Hall of Animal Spirits which was only a little way away from the tower gate. “Is he safe to approach?” I said. “I’ve never met an elephant in vision before. He’s not going to trample me or anything?”
“Take your Badger and Snake,” Michael advised. “Best to be cautious when interacting with new-to-you spirits.”
“Friends, I need your help,” I called out and Michael disappeared as Badger and Snake popped into my existence. As soon as we moved together into the Hall of Animal Spirits, my vision was shrouded in a thick, impenetrable mist. Badger and Snake supported me by taking my arms, one on each side.
“Who does this guy think he is?” Badger said in a bit of a huff. “We come and go as we wish, not in response to someone’s temper tantrum. I can’t believe you’re granting him an audience, Heidi.”
“There’s no controlling Elephant because he’s very strong, one of the strongest spirits I know,” Snake whispered to me. “This is someone who could be a very helpful ally so hold your tongue, Furball,” he said louder for Badger’s ears.
“Call me Furball one more time and see what happens Snake,” Badger retorted.
“Please, at least pretend to get along for my sake,” I said. “I need both of you and your strengths to face the unknown.”
Before either of my guardians could reply, an elephant burst from the mist. He was enormous and gray with six foot long tusks curving around his powerful trunk. His four legs were like the trunks of trees and the Temple of the Imagination shook in his arrival.
As the elephant trumpeted again, my friends blocked his progress towards me, throwing themselves between me and an unstoppable force of nature and strength. “Out of my way, peons,” the elephant said. “I have waited long for this day and you have no right to stand between me and the one who walks with you.”
“Please don’t insult my companions,” I said. “I’m sorry you had to wait so long for me but Michael insisted I visit the tower first and banish the shadows there before coming here. My name is Heidi and I come from another world seeking the true nature of this place and the beings I meet within it. Who are you, Great One?” I reached past my bristling guardians to lay a calming hand on the elephant’s seeking trunk.
“Heidi? Is it really you at long last? I have come to offer myself and my brethren in service to you,” said the mighty beast as he knelt surprisingly gracefully in supplication. “Please do not refuse me. We have traveled far to arrive at this exact place and time.”
“Have you, Elephant? I’m sorry the journey was arduous. Be at peace for all are welcome in this hall and I never refuse to speak to those who wish to speak with me,” I said. “In return, I merely ask for the same free and open communication between my people and yours. You may now pass through the gates I hold and have established in my imagination. May the paths I walk be as open to you as the paths you walk are as open to me. This is my gift to you for seeking me. What gifts do you bring to the Temple of Imagination and Hall of Animal Spirits?”
“I have heard of your loyalty, bravery, and fair speaking, and I bring you more of the same in quantities that you have never imagined,” the elephant said. “My people are able to travel for hours in any direction or world that you may require. Personally, I bring Herculean strength to the management of your feelings, thoughts and the creations that stream from both. Point me towards whatever you desire and I will charge ahead of you with all the courage and fortitude needed to complete the task for I am Elephant. I do not turn from my desired destination for any force outside of my own free will. All this I bring to you, Heidi, if you allow me to walk with you. Do you accept my pledge of fealty?”
“I have no kingdom for you to swear fealty to beyond a solemn promise to me to do your best to be a Servant of Love and to demonstrate unconditional love for all creation as well as you can,” I said. “I accept your pledge of fealty in the spirit it was offered and grant to your kingdom the same from my most secret heart. We need all the help we can get in the war against the shadows. Be welcome to our number, Elephant.”
The mist cleared from my vision and I discovered Badger, Snake, Elephant and I were standing next to a bubbling, frothing spring with a tall banana tree growing over it. The tree dropped one of its overripe fruits into the spring and a banana scent was released, tempting me towards the flavored waters.
“Drink from our spring, Heidi and honored companions, and be accepted as part of the herd,” said Elephant. “May your strength be as unflagging as the one who put the stars in motion and as true as the Brotherhood of the Elephant.”
I cupped my hand to the frothy waters while Badger and Snake did the same. The fruit had fermented and turned the spring into a banana beer, delicious but potent. I drank deeply as a dozen or more gray figures in the shape of elephants emerged from the mist to drink as well.
“You are one of us,” Elephant declared as Badger and Snake’s forms began to change into elephants themselves and a dancing, stomping celebration began.
“One of us, one of us,” the herd chanted as I was pulled above the dance and began to view the celebrants from a distance.
I moved back even further and now instead of gazing down at a yellowish banana spring surrounded by a herd of dancing elephants, I was looking directly into the eye of a new stone elephant in the Hall of Animal Spirits. The eye of the elephant was made of a gold gem and it sparkled like the sun.
“Please walk with me always,” I whispered to the elephant statue. “And thank you for the mammoth party, I wish I could have stayed longer. I loved your banana beer.” As I turned to exit the hall, I found Michael waiting for me with his hand outstretched for mine.
“In the future, will you let me know in advance if there are any major changes in the Treasure House of the Imagination?” I said as I took his hand. “Like a whole herd of elephants moving in and wanting to speak with me? A spirit like his or theirs for that matter should never have been kept waiting so long that his patience wore thin.”
“There was a major change in your Treasure House, my most noble lady elephant,” the angel said, managing to keep a completely straight face for one beat beyond his words. Then, under the influence of the elephant’s beer, Michael and I laughed long and loudly together until we drew the frowning attention of one of the temple guardians.
There my vision ended.
The Light Congress 