Gate: Five of Pentacles

The World of War and Strife

I passed through the vision gate and found myself walking through a barren landscape where the ground was composed of red clay. I picked up some of the ruddy dust in my hands and it felt powdery and dry under my fingertips. When I went to drop the clay, some of it remained on my palms so, as I ventured further into the realm, I wiped my hands on my jeans leaving long, reddish streaks behind.

A clamor of metal and screams came from ahead and I followed the noise to a cliff that looked high over a vast plain where two armies clashed. Their swords met with deafening clangs and screams of terror in a never ending war though what the war was over was unclear to my sight.

“This is such a shame,” I said as I finished cleaning my palms and stood with my hands clasped behind my back overlooking the field of battle. “I bet these warriors have families, sweethearts or, at the very least, parents who must wonder when their son or daughter is going to come home again. If my child, even fully grown, was upon this plain, I would want this war to cease immediately. I bet they wish the same, whoever they are.”

Just then, an enormous clay golem with glowing red eyes and large spikes protruding from his elbows burst out of the dust of the plain and stood beside me upon the cliff’s edge.

“Well, it’s nice to have some company in this forsaken place of perpetual struggle,” I said. “What is your name, my friend?”

“Ruthlessness,” the golem rumbled in a bass voice that caused the small rocks of the area to vibrate in his resonance.

“Ruthlessness, is it?” I said. “Thank you for coming to my aid but I require a gentler guide than you at this particular juncture.” The massive earth elemental nodded in acknowledgment of my feelings and sank back into the ground from whence he came.

I stood awhile all alone in the cacophony of the plain then a door opened in the air and a woman, with black, shoulder-length hair and clothed in armor like a mighty warrior, stepped through it.

“People sure know how to make an entrance around here,” I observed. “My name is Heidi, great warrior. What may I call you?”

“Ananda,” she replied shortly, but not unkindly, and walked away. I followed my new, less threatening guide further into the dusty, war-filled world in which I found myself.

Before us, a magnificent city manifested out of the ground. The buildings rippled and changed as Ananda and I watched, appearing one way then folding back into the earth and rising again in a completely different configuration. I marveled at the perfection of the unfolding as well as the speed.

Entering the City of Mars

“Welcome to the City of Mars, Heidi,” Ananda said. “You see before you the birthplace of war, conflict, and change through unending struggle.”

“Why does the vista move?” I asked. “And why does the lord of this realm go by Mars and not Ares?”

“The great god of war shapes this world with his thoughts and secret dreams,” my warrior guide replied. “Also, he tells us how to address him so perhaps you can ask him why he prefers one name over another.”

“I will be sure to do so, if I ever have the honor of standing in his presence,” I said.

Ananda laughed at my words though I was unsure what she found so funny as we passed through the rapidly shifting city. After many dead ends and sharp turns, the warrior led me to a hovel built of red mud with a low doorway in its side that I had to bend over to enter without striking my head.

“Be careful at the threshold of the City of Mars,” Ananda advised as I entered the hovel. “I’ve taken an injury there more times than I can count.”

I sighed suddenly with a sadness I did not expect upon my entrance to the god’s home. “War is one of the great evils of the world no matter which side you find yourself on,” I said when I could clear my throat of the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. “Even practicing for combat causes death. I personally know at least one warrior who never made it to the field of battle, falling beside those he was training with. I hope wherever he is now that John is at peace.”

Ananda turned to me in the semi-darkness of the hovel and I saw the brightness of her eyes beneath her helmet shining at me like two stars. “I promise you, Heidi, your lost warrior friend is at peace,” she said. “You have my word on that and, in this world at least, my word still has great meaning.”

As my guide spoke, the closeness of the hovel started to change and, instead of being in a small clay home, I now found myself in a great hall with a glowing bonfire that lit an empty throne made of carved wood that stood at the far end of the space. Long tables lined both sides of the hall and within the longhouse’s shadowy ceiling intricately carved tree trunks of wood held up a roof of thickly woven straw.

“This looks nothing like the place we entered,” I said, looking about myself in surprise.