Meeting
So much, so much learning. Change is a whirlwind, an unstoppable force. To journey two as one, to journey at a distance, to see the land, to begin to open my eyes, to breathe underwater and Inworld. The Quest is recorded. That day wasps and owls and all sorts of beasties filled the skies and earth. Phil walked the land. I safe in our Circle of Light. Time to step up, to change, to become. I journey later to Horse, later to the Grove, but now, to Nyfian, who knows the LightHawk.
I overlay walls with portals, symbols with energy, and effortlessly charge space and self. We are one in sacred space. Immediately Crow comes to join me and Ceridwen takes my hand, as I realise I am dressed in a plain white shift.
“He is right,” she says, “This house is a waystation. It is a place to prepare for a jump. We do that now. The initiation we clouded and obscured before Georgia can be clear now. Come. There is no time left.”
At once we are in the spiral grove and Cernunnos is there. He grabs me almost roughly and holds me tight and breathes me in deep.
“The love we give is ours to hold; what I give to you is yours,” he reminds. Then he touches my emerald heart. “The shield is for using!” he chides.
He lets me go. Ceridwen holds a ladle of water from the well.
“We are One in Light, the light, the Circle of Light” she repeats quietly.
The water is poured over my head and I am in the heart of a waterfall. Then back, and Cernunnos hand holding a flame swims into focus. I open my mouth and am in the raging heart of the fire. Again, water, fire, water, fire, then water a last time.
“We temper the sword; the soul in fire and water,” says Cernunnos.
I look down. The rainbow flows all over me.
Cernunnos says: “The rainbow is fire in water. This is what has been hidden from you to hide from them: the fire in you.”.
“Nyfian.” I say.
Ceridwen holds out a key; “One key, many doors. It will take time to unlock the future,” she says.
I dive into the well and Salmon takes me down, to the hugeness of Whale. One eye smiles.
“Hold on tight,” he says.
I hold a flipper and ride the express to the deeps.
Rushing water. The lights under the ocean become stars once more, and then there are only stars and void, no up, down or direction. Only them and I and Void. I reach for her hand.
“No we cannot, yet.”
A film like a mirror forms between us. Longing. Song.
I say softly: “Nyfian?”
She smiles and we sit crosslegged. I make tea between us, and she smiles in delight at the ritual of it.
I ask: “LightHawk?”
“I am a guide for her at times, like you are, aren’t you?” My smile. My blush.
“Follow the heart’s path,” she reminds.
“Change comes,” she says, and a new wind takes the words, echoes them, echoes and echoes, rising until the universe begins to shake.
We wait for it to fade. My eyes are wide.
“Ah,” she says, “To say it is a mantra. It is so close now. In this place we must whisper it.”
“What can we do?”
“Stand against the Dark. Heal and initiate who you can. Train. There is not much time left.”
I feel the acceleration of sand in an hourglass.
“I can tell you no more. The books are being written and the songs sung as we speak. This is but a small rebirth on the fractal path of boom and collapse, the inhale and exhale of the universe. A cosmic sigh.
Stand strong for Tira. Above all, do not allow her to be left behind with her flock. You and LightHawk are of her deputies, her Mistresses of Arms.”
“And Phil?”
She casts a soft look to his sleeping form: “Let him be. He will become. Give him all the love and energy you can spare.”
I bite my lip.
“And Dev? LightHawk?”
“A great adventure. A quest and a bond formed in the hottest fires. You have played many times before. This time you will both make it right.”
“Heart’s path?”
“Heart’s path. The fire in your water.”
“And you and I, sister?”
“We will be One again, soon.”
We place our hands against the glass. Ache. Longing. Time to return. I see that all I touch on my return is smeared and lit with the rainbow. This is my gift. This is what was hidden from them. This they do not know and cannot follow. I return to the Grove.
Cernunnos bows deeply: “My Lady of the Rainbow.”
“My Lord of the Forest.”
Ceridwen and I embrace. We take our leave and wend our way up the hill home, Crow flying point overhead. I thank and return, thank and return.
Council Journey