Gate: Five of Cups

I stepped through the vision gate and was standing on packed dirt in an empty field.  All was silent and still until, quite suddenly, I perceived a commotion like the tread of many feet upon the ground, the approach of a massive army.  At first, I thought the sound must be caused by a group of spirits all moving together but as I looked closer towards the disturbance, I realized the source of the noise was a huge, brown centipede.

The centipede was massive, so long that I could not see his beginning or his end, and his head was the size of a car. I approached this creature with some trepidation.

“Hello!” I said, waving a hand in greeting. “My name is Heidi and I have come to this place seeking your true nature.”

The spirit did not respond in words but waved his various legs at me in what I assumed was a friendly gesture. Then, far quicker than I would have imagined possible, the centipede darted at me, lifting me off of my feet with his head like a dog tossing a toy into the air. I landed upon his back and grasped at his sectioned body before we shot forward at a tremendous speed.

“Nice to meet you too,” I called to the centipede as we hurtled through his realm like a comet moving upon the surface of the Earth.

Suddenly, a tree branch came out of nowhere and I was swept off the centipede’s back, tumbling to the bare, packed ground.  Around me, tall blades of grass appeared, each as thick around as a small tree trunk, and they had human faces.  They bent towards me, murmuring unintelligible words like a living forest.

“Hello, spirits of the field,” I said, pushing aside a few blades of enormous grass. “My name is Heidi. Who are you?”

As I waited for a response, the grass blades moved and swayed in a sudden fierce wind that came and went with storm-level intensity. For a time, I observed nothing but complete silence and the hypnotic motions of grass rippling like a sea of plant life.

“We are the Blades of Eternity,” the grass suddenly whispered in unison. Then, another gust of strong wind bent them backwards and forwards as if in a graceful bow.

“Be welcome among us, Heidi,” whispered a single blade of grass. This wish was echoed by a dozen other blades of grass nearby. The wind gusted, the grass danced in the breeze and, once again, they settled into peaceful patterns of predictable motion.

“Blades of Eternity, I am very pleased to meet you all,” I said. “What is your purpose in this world?”

“We move in the breath of the giant and cut his thoughts down to size as required,” sighed the grass blades. Then, they bent and swayed with the intermittent winds once more.

“Cut thought?” I said, finding myself moving with the grass in the next breeze as if I was part of the field myself. “How is such a thing possible? Thoughts are not physical things, at least where I come from.”

“Sharper than steel, stronger than the earth, the Blades of Eternity stand against that which is unmanifested,” said the grass. “That is our purpose for being. We fear neither time nor decay or death.” Again and again, the grass moved with the gusts of wind and returned to their upright positions.

“The wizard of the wood called unmanifested thoughts, ‘progenitor thoughts,’ but we found those sparks within our hearts, not moving in the wind,” I said. “Can I see these uncut thoughts? I don’t see anything happening in this field besides your dance.”

“Anything is possible,” the grass sighed and suddenly a giant appeared, towering above where I stood among the waving blades. He paused now and again as he neared me and kneeling down, he puffed out his cheeks and blew gently across the grass. Despite his gentleness, his breath came from his lungs like a hurricane blast, scouring the fields, and causing the repeated swaying motion of the tree-like grasses with human faces.

After a final out breath, the giant spotted me upon the ground and scooped me up with an enormous hand.  “Hello…” I started to say but before I could speak another word, he popped me into his mouth and swallowed me whole. I fell for a time and my vision blurred so that I could perceive nothing other than my progress down the giant’s throat.

When I could see again, I found myself in total darkness within the belly of the giant. “We need some light in here,” I said and imagined a lit candle in my hand which appeared as quickly and simply as a thought. Using its calming, flickering light, I began to explore my surroundings.

The world within the giant appeared as craggy interconnected caverns made of stone.  Just beyond the circle of my candlelight, shadowy spirits approached the edge of the light until I could dimly perceive a flash of bright eyes, but they would come no closer. 

“Is anyone there?” I called, moving towards the shadows as they darted away into the further depths of the cave. “My name is Heidi and I come from another world seeking your true nature. I won’t hurt you; I just want to know who you are.”

After some time spent in a fruitless game of chase with the shadows, I sat upon the cave floor. “If you’re shy, that’s fine,” I said. “I am too. Is there a guide in this place, preferably someone with a voice who can speak?”