Gate: Three of Pentacles

A Star-Filled Sky

I stepped through the vision gate into darkness which stretched in all directions. Beneath my feet, water appeared and I walked on its surface. Above, a sky full of stars appeared and shone down upon the water, causing a brilliant reflection in the water that dazzled my eyes in that dark place. I walked through that realm for some time with stars above me, stars below, and a living void in-between.

Then, for no reason I could tell, some of the stars fell from above and descended towards the water. As the light of the falling stars moved closer, I realized these beings weren’t stars at all but brightly glowing fairies. More and more descended from on high and landed upon and around me until I was completely covered in their shining light.

I held up my hand before my face and saw that it glowed from within with the light of the fallen fairy spirits. “Wisdom, are you in this place with me?” I asked, wiggling my fingers experimentally. Other than their new blindingly bright light, they functioned as normal.

“We are here,” spoke the Wisdom within my heart. “Something about you looks a little different, Heidi. Don’t tell us what it is, we’ll figure it out in time.”

“You’re always teasing me,” I said, bringing my hand back down to my side. “I hope I get the joke someday. Where are we?”

The Divine Mother’s Domain

“Welcome to the realm of the Divine Mother, the Giver of Form,” Wisdom replied in their many voices. “Her fairies have indicated that you may be received into her presence at this time. Come, we shall take you to the Mother so that you may know her as we do.”

“Everybody has a mother,” I said. “Whose mother is this?” The fairies began to laugh, emitting the sound of tiny bells chiming in unison. “What’d I say?” I asked as their sparkling light grew even stronger around me.

“She is not a mother, Heidi,” Wisdom said gently. “She is The Mother, the Divine Mother of All Creation.”

“The Mother? Everybody’s Mother?” I said. “Then how come I’ve never heard of her?” The fairies went berserk, zipping in all directions and creating complex patterns in the air around me that were reflected in the shining water. “I didn’t mean to upset anybody with my ignorance,” I said, shielding my eyes from the hypnotic lights. “I may not know the Divine Mother now but I will know her shortly. Wisdom, which way do we go?”

“The way to the Mother of All is through the void beneath your feet,” Wisdom said. “You must allow yourself to enter her waters of creation.” As Wisdom spoke, I lay down in the sparkling water with its fairy light and rolled over so that my face was in it. Then, I began to sink.

I had trouble perceiving anything within those shadowed waters after the brilliance of the stars at the entrance. But then, a glowing and pulsing umbilical cord appeared within the water with me. I followed it into the darkness and depths until I reached the end where it went directly into the trunk of a tree which was made of the same material as the cord. The branches on the underwater tree shifted and moved under its own power with a fluidity like water. One of the branches lowered from high above and offered me a piece of its glowing fruit.

“Taste of the Fruit of Understanding, Heidi, so that you may enter the Mother’s realm,” instructed Wisdom. “We know you’re not a big fan of fruit but perhaps this will be to your liking.”

Fruit of the Divine Mother

I took the fruit off the branch of the glowing tree and examined it. At first, I thought I was looking at an orange but the sphere was smushy like a sponge and had no skin to contain its purplish flesh. “It’s like the biggest and weirdest looking grape I’ve ever seen,” I said. “Well, here goes nothing.” I opened my mouth wide and consumed the fruit with large bites. The flesh of the fruit was sugary, more so than anything comparable I’ve ever had in the waking world. When the fruit was consumed, the tree shuddered and quaked once. Then, I was pulled directly into the tree by a power outside of my own.

My vision dissolved into pulsing light that gathered about my feet in vines resembling a pumpkin patch. The trailing vines led to a throne made of the night sky with the stars reflected on its surface and a figure made of the light of the vine, tree, and stars was seated on this dark throne.

She wore a garment shaped like a flower bulb with an Elizabethan collar made of delicate lace with beads of the finest pearl sewn in geometric patterns around her neck. As I watched, the goddess gave off a continuous cloud of the fairies from her person. Every tiny movement or gesture sent brilliant balls of star light in all directions. She shone with those lights in that dark place where the void surrounded all and blanketed the realm in a comforting darkness and silence. I stood for a time, transfixed by the sight of the Giver of Form in her place of power.