At the top of the mountain where the Temple People live and love, there lies a lake of such depth and stillness that it is said if you peer into its surface it will reflect back onto you that which you need to learn and acknowledge is a part of who you are, or perhaps might even become. Curiosity always played a big part in my life, to date at least, even though there have been many times when it would have been better if such leanings could have been overcome. Still on this day, in this season of summer, and here on this magical island where anything could, and usually does, happen, I chose to climb the mountain until at last the Lake lay not far off in front of me. The nearer I got to the sacred waters the slower my approach became. It was as if I was being pulled in two directions, the one diametrically opposite to the other. Musing on such a discrepancy and wondering about my unusual hesitancy, I believed that the fear, for such it could only be, was due to the intuitive knowledge which communicated to me that here and now indeed a new vista, a vision, was about to be unveiled, and yet too there was that part of me which balked and resisted, wanting only to maintain the status quo. Well that is not the way of those who choose to follow the path of the Goddess, who dream of becoming priestesses of the Divine Realm even while still walking in this world. Oh the yearning to learn to live both here and not here, this indeed was the driving force and pull of my life, both then, and yet even now. And so this same deep inner force called me towards the edge of the Lake and even a part way into the healing waters. And so it was that as I stood knee deep in strangely warm water, all of a sudden the calm surface began to ruffle and then broil and swirl, until I believed that the current would grab and drag me down to its depths, where I should be drowned and lost forever. Ah the taste of fear is such a one that it never really leaves your tongue, so that the memory takes on a life of its own and manages to infiltrate and crawl through every little chink in your life. Perhaps it is because once you face your possible death, nothing ever really seems the same again. Ever. But then I didn’t die that day, at least not in the usual way that we understand death. But indeed I did die, in a manner more horrific and horrendous that any I could ever have imagined. This is what happened, and what the mirror which was the Lake, revealed.
After a time which seemed to last forever and yet which only lasted perhaps as long as it takes to tell the tale, the Lake grew calm again. Peering into it and seeing my own reflection, a voice began to speak, in strange tones, the only characteristic that was discernable being that it was the voice of a female, but most certainly not any such that one might meet walking through the dusty roads and streets where humans reside. Perhaps this might be a voice one might encounter in a dream, or if one is far enough risen in the realms of the Priestess, in a sacred grove. But today this voice spoke to me from the depths of a lake, which oughtn’t to have surprised me given that I hail from the magical isles of Ireland, a land which places great store by the sacred waters in the wells which spring up all over the countryside to offer the healing gifts of the Great Mother. But I digress; let me continue my tale. The Voice spoke the following words, words which will linger long in my memory, yes even mine which many say was lost on this adventure undertook with L’Enchanteur across many lands and wondrous vistas.
‘’My name is Love and you have come here to learn the ways of the Divine Feminine, without which you may never become all that you were born and destined to be. Listen to my voice. I shall be your Guide, even when you no longer hear me speak in your language, still you will feel me resonate in the deepest recesses of your soul. Whenever you hear the inner stirrings of your heart, when you listen with your inner ear, it is I who you will hear. Follow where I lead. Sometimes the path will be gentle and to your liking, quiet and filled with light and a sense of well being. But there will also be times of darkness when all the shadows of your soul will seem to be reaching out, attempting to trip you up and hold you down caged in a dimly lit hall of what has oft before been called ‘purgatory’.
‘’But you must needs be brave and find your courage and keep going. On these days it will be enough just to rise up and keep going, looking neither left nor right, but hanging on to hope, a hope that sometimes will be justified, and at other times, not. And in those dark days when you feel alone, bereft and lost, then and only then will you be made ready to follow in my steps. Until you die first to all you are, you cannot discover the truth of who you will become. You are not who you think you are.’’
The image faded, disappearing as gradually as it had materialized. Now there was no image in the mirror at all, no reflection, no, not even my own image. I had come face to face with the beginnings of the truth from which I had spent a lifetime running away from. I was, am nothing. Falling to the floor, I wept.
Soul Sister
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