Gate: Six of Cups

I stepped through the vision gate into a desert where the sun shone brightly down upon shining golden sand and scrubby desert vegetation.  Beneath my feet, a path of cobblestones made of marble rose through the sand, marking a way forward through the endless dunes. I followed this path, moving from one stone to another while shading my eyes from the brilliance of the sun which was so bright it was almost oppressive.

“I seem to end up in desert regions quite a lot,” I said to myself as I continued forward. “I wonder if that has any meaning, beyond the obvious, for me.”

After a long hike through the monotonous landscape, a tall monolith that was made of the same stone as the path appeared, unearthing itself from the shifting sand.  The monument rose high into the air and sparkled with embedded minerals.  At its base, a dark doorway appeared, leading into further shadows.

“That looks rather ominous,” I said. “It would probably be a good idea to take a guide with me into the depths. Is there anyone around who will brave this doorway with me?”

An enormous serpent rose from the sand to my left and arched his huge body over me.  Then, he drove his head into the sand on the far side of the path, creating a tunneled walkway with his bulk and shading me from the sun. The desert leviathan’s scales were emerald green and shone with an inner light that emanated from him and made the lifeless sands around the path come alive with an impossible springtime hue.

“Hello, sand snake,” I said. “My name is Heidi. Thank you for answering my summons. What is this place?”

The leviathan’s head rose from the sand to gaze at me steadily from outside of the marked path. “Welcome, wanderer,” the serpent rasped. “You see before you, the Plinth of Resurrection, the birthplace of the god Osiris-s-s-s-s.”

I sighed. “Not that guy again,” I said. “He was so unfriendly and loud. Why can’t he find another world to torment and leave this one in peace?”

The serpent’s reptilian eyes stared unblinkingly into mine. “It is not incumbent upon a god to be welcoming to those who stumble into his seat of power,” he said. “Nor should such things be expected.”

“It’s one thing to be aloof,” I said. “It’s quite another to threaten someone’s bloodline with eternal domination and suffering.”

The serpent’s coils moved more tightly around me, narrowing the tunnel forward. “Not all who walk the paths of the inner worlds have good intentions,” the leviathan said. “Until a seeker declares themselves, it is wise to exercise some level of caution, don’t you agree?”

“I suppose this is wise,” I said. ‘If not welcoming or bridge building. What will I find within Osiris’ plinth?”

“Expect change, evolution, and growth within the sacred space of the resurrected god,” the serpent replied. “Those who enter this place are never the same ones who exit. As life challenges change a person’s spirit, so too does this place alter the perceptions of those who may have been wandering in the shadows of ignorance and fear.”

“I hope this alteration is for the better. I will enter the monument for I do not fear change,” I said. “Though I dislike being alone. Will you travel this path with me?”

“Yes-s-s,” the desert guardian said. “But you must not deny the godhood of the spirit within. If you do, it will go ill between you. Again.”

“I will be as respectful and polite as he is with me,” I said. “I promise.”

“Very well then,” said the serpent, shrinking in size, changing scales, and becoming a normal-sized and patterned cobra who slithered easily on the stones next to me.  Together, we approached the glimmering monolith.  A chill breeze, in stark contrast to the desert heat, emerged from the plinth as I ran my fingers over the frame of the open doorway that was richly carved with Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Beyond the entrance chamber, the cobra and I discovered a hall which was also carved and decorated with writing that I could not decipher. The ceiling of the space was painted a blue so deep that it was the indigo of the night sky and bright lights shone from the monument’s surface as if primal energy was emerging from the painted symbols. The very space was alive with the presence of a living god.

The cobra and I traversed this hall, the hieroglyphs along the walls lighting up in our passage. After some time, we arrived at a large, echoing chamber, at the center of which a beam of light descended from high above and illuminated a precisely carved stone table in the middle of the room.  A dark stone statue with the head of a bird and the body of a man lay on this table.

As my feet touched the floor of the chamber, my cobra guide disappeared in a bright flash and the statue upon the altar began to move.  With a loud grating sound, the stone statue sat up and turned into a spirit of flesh and blood. The resurrected god wore a white linen tunic with brightly colored embellishments along the neckline and sleeves. He held symbols of power tightly in both hands which he uncrossed from his chest as he rose to his feet.

“Hail and welcome back to the land of the living, Great One,” I said. “I apologize for disturbing your eternal rest. My name is Heidi and I’ve come to this place seeking your true nature and wisdom.”

“I am Osiris, who was dead and now alive,” the god said. “I remember you well, seeker named Heidi, though it has been ages since I saw your face.”

“It hasn’t been that long, for me at least,” I said. “Merely a handful of weeks of lived time.”

“Weeks?” Osiris said, placing his staves upon the altar. “No, Heidi, it has been lifetimes.”