Gate: Ten of Cups

I stepped through the vision gate and found myself on a red brick path through a thickly forested wood.  On either side of the path, emerald green grass grew in patterned lines between the route I was on and the forest’s edge.  The grass felt more than decorative to me because of its intricate alignment with the path as well as its elaborate design.

“I wonder who planted the verge,” I said to myself as I wandered down the forest path and the blades of grass waved as I passed by. “I hope they’ve returned from time to time to see how beautifully the grass grew.”

When I reached a part of the path where the grass changed from growing in lines to a complex squiggly design like a coiled serpent, a living and moving tree emerged from the deep woods and approached the red brick road. I felt some trepidation at this spirit’s appearance though I was unsure why I felt this way. So, I cautiously moved to the far side of the path as the tree came within a branch’s reach of where I stood.

I waited for the spirit to speak but, when the tree simply stood and waved its branches at me, I felt compelled to say something. “Hello, friend,” I said. “My name is Heidi and I’ve come to this place seeking its true nature. What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“I am Oak,” the tree responded in a deep baritone. “We have met before and I consider very few in the myriad worlds my friend so I insist you call me something else.”

“Oak?” I said, taking another step back so that my heels rested on the grass on the opposite verge from the tree. “From the Garden of Venus?”

“The very same,” said Oak. “You must be very foolish indeed to venture my way again. I will pull you from this path, if I can, and return you to the woods where you belong. You appear much too young for where you stand. What are you, twelve? Children do not take this path nor brave its trials. This has been decreed for both their safety and ours, the woodland folk. Why do you insist on exploring realms where you are not welcome?”

“I look like a girl of twelve? Your sight is way off for I am a grown woman, wife and mother besides. To be honest, only a few beings I’ve met in my journeys thus far have any issue with my presence in their worlds or upon any of their paths. My greatest trials have been mainly your overly-protective stance in the Inner Worlds and the threatening shadows,” I said. “At any rate, good luck turning me from my desired destination. I will resist you, Oak, if you try to take me from this path for I go where I will when I wish to do so and I will not be deterred.”

“We shall see about that!” the tree growled and began reaching across the path with his long branches, sweeping first one way then another, in an effort to drive me from the red brick road. I dodged Oak’s initial attacks and began to run down the path in an attempt to flee from his wrath. The tree followed in a rage, tearing up the lovely patterned grass with his gnarled and twisted roots.

“Why won’t you just lead me where I am meant to go?” I said, moving as quickly as I was able ahead of the marauding tree. “No one else has treated me thus. Maybe you should go back to being the kind of tree that stands silently and observes rather than trying to control your reality by mistreating others.”

“You will not hex me with your suggestions of stillness and pretendings, child. I cannot travel on the path itself because the guardians do not allow it, but I will hunt you relentlessly from the edges,” he said, reaching towards me once again. “Stop pretending to be a woman and return to the trees, you errant sprite. You do not belong here and you make us all look ridiculous when you insist that you do.” As I ran ever onwards, one step ahead of the angry oak, I noticed the tree was quite careful to not touch the bricks and began to ponder ways that I could use this to my advantage.

“I am not pretending to be a woman; I am a woman. You are pretending to be a person who cares about my well being when you’re really an angry tree who only cares about keeping other spirits out of his part of the worlds. Maybe this is a lesson from the powers that be for you, Oak,” I said, increasing my pace upon the bricks. “Maybe you are meant to walk this forest path too but you’ve forgotten this truth because you’ve become too preoccupied with gatekeeping and maintaining your natural state.”

“A lesson for me?” Oak said incredulously, increasing the strength and speed of his relentless attacks. “No, foolish Heidi, it is I who have a lesson for you. Leave this unnatural path of spiritual evolution for those who are strong and mighty enough to brave its dangers and I will teach you the meaning of sunlight on leaves, water in soil, the language of root, stem, and branch. These secrets are well worth the sacrifice of abandoning your misguided exploration and returning to your proper place in creation.”

“I’d love to learn the forgotten secrets of the natural world if you would teach them to me, Oak,” I said, pressing ever onwards. “But not at the present moment. I will walk this path and then, when I return to your sphere of influence in the natural spaces, you can instruct me in your ways. In return, I will teach you what it is like to have a body, to breathe, and to walk on brick.”

“If I learned those things, I might forget who I am and rush upon the paths meant for others to their detriment and mine,” he said, slowing his pursuit of me at long last. “If you will not cease this fruitless brick walking and I cannot turn you from your goal, then perhaps it would be better if I led you to those around the path who could help you remember who you once were. Memory is a useful tool for controlling ones such as you. Come this way, stubborn sapling!” With that, Oak veered away from the brick path and began to move deeper into the woodland.