Gate: The Tower

I stepped through the vision gate into a world at war. Planes soared overhead, filling all below them upon the earth with terror as mothers grabbed their babies from their cribs, holding them close to their hearts in a desperate attempt to keep them safe from harm. Young men sacrificed themselves upon the altars of their countries, leaving behind families and lovers who wept over their untimely graves.

As I watched all of these nightmares, the planes began dropping their bombs all around me. I knelt in the desolation, put my hands to my ears to block out the noise and the horrors and started to scream…

“Heidi!”  Someone shook my shoulder and I realized I was gazing into a snow globe where miniature planes spun around the statue of a small girl who looked just like me. “Heidi, wake up! You’re having a nightmare.”

Michael, the guardian of my Treasure House of the Imagination, appeared dressed in his armor. “Thank God, you found me, Michael,” I said, shaking my head to clear it of the scream and lingering shadows. “What a terrible entrance. We should put a warning sign on that one.”

The angel gently took the snow globe from my hands and put it in a chest that stood on a pedestal in the center of the room.  “We did, Heidi, because we knew you and those who walk in your footsteps would go through it,” he said. “Since we couldn’t eliminate the gate itself without harming your spiritual development, we did our best to contain it and I stood watch over it to bring you out as soon as I could. I’m sorry you lived that nightmare.”

“Whatever happens to me is allowed by the Creator of All and I do my best to believe that they have a purpose in mind for allowing any suffering in the universe, even mine,” I said, dusting off my hands as if I could remove the lingering fear from my heart and mind that way.  “Let’s get out of here, Michael, and turn our attention to happier things.”

Michael offered me his arm and we moved through the Treasure House together, stopping now and then to admire the wonders it contains.  As we passed through the various hallways and rooms, I caught a glimpse of the Hall of Animal Spirits and heard a great commotion coming from that direction.

“Is something important happening over there?” I said. “Usually this place is as quiet as a library or museum.”

“We have a newly arrived guardian spirit who’s been desperately waiting to speak with you and patience has never been his strong suit,” the angel said. “But he can wait until you’ve traversed the tower. Check that, he must wait.”

“Why ‘must’?” I said. “Time has ever been my friend. We could visit this new guardian first and face the tower gate later.”

Michael sighed and shook his head. “You don’t remember how any of this works, do you, Heidi?” he said. “Just trust me on this. Go through the spiritual experience first and then speak with the guardian.”

“Ok, Michael,” I said. “Though I’m not convinced the order of these things is as important as you do, I will act as you think is best.” The angel and I turned our faces from the noisy hall and continued on our way.

We reached a door at the end of another hall and it swung open before us, revealing a gleaming metal tower covered in spikes that reached high into a stormy, lightning-filled sky.  I shivered at the sight and took a step back from the vision gate.

“That looks almost as awful as the entry gate,” I observed. “I wish to see this experience in another, less threatening way.”

The angel waved his hand over the doorway and the sky cleared, filling with impossible numbers of rainbows and puffy clouds.  This beautiful vista was the background for a tower made of pink, spun sugar and decorated with candy of various types.  “You shall see this trial with the eyes of an innocent,” said Michael. “Using the words of guardians the worlds over, have fun and be safe, Heidi.” He ushered me through the door and closed it.

In the new world, I stood upon a path made of gumdrops that led to the foot of the sugar tower. A small cookie shaped like a man raced past me singing, “Run, run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread man!”  A goose with glasses and a sleeping cap honked as she flew overhead with a number of goslings following in her wake.

“I’m in a nursery rhyme or child’s fantasy,” I said to myself as I waved to the geese and walked down the gumdrop path, fighting the urge to skip as I did so. One of the paving candies popped out of the ground, forming stick-like arms and legs as he did so, and bowed to me with a regal flourish.

“I’ll guide you to the tower, Princess, if you’ll have me,” said the gumdrop in a squeaky voice.

“I’m no princess, Sir Gumdrop, not really,” I said and took his white gloved hand.  “But I can pretend to be and you shall be my knight in shining armor. Lead away!”  As the gumdrop and I walked towards the tower, the entire gumdrop path behind me tore itself from the ground and soon a veritable army of candy men were following along, singing to themselves and dancing as we moved through the fantasy world.  After a journey that felt more like a dream than an army on the move, we reached the spun sugar tower and I knocked at its lovely gates.

Despite its fantasy appearance, the gate swung open with a terrible, rusty screech like metal, slowly revealing complete darkness and the sound of familiar, mocking laughter. “She’s here before me again,” I said with a sigh. “She always arrives before me.”

“Who?” asked the gumdrop as his fellows from the road hid behind me in a fright.

“My Shadow,” I said as she appeared in the doorway, wrapped in her customary darkness and displaying fiery red eyes that danced in demonic glee.