Sunday, March 14, 2010

The 32nd Path, Tau, The Universe (The World)


The Administrative Intelligence


On a summer evening, you descend a sloping path into a narrow canyon striated with folds of ancient rocks. The walls of the canyon are bare except for their layers of color. By the time you reach the bottom, the sun has set and you walk in twilight to a small temple made purely of onyx, which rests in the middle of a cypress grove.

There is a spring to the left of the temple, which allows for the trees to grow, as well as the nightshade that hems the temple’s perimeter. As the evening grows darker, the fluted white blossoms of these plants are just beginning to open. Compared to the barrenness of the canyon walls, you have found a flourishing oasis.

On either side of the temple’s vestibule stand statues of Demeter holding a shaft of wheat and her daughter, Persephone, with a pomegranate. You walk between them and come to a platform, also made of onyx. The sky is dark now, without stars, but there is a brilliant full moon whose light reflects on the smooth dark surface of the platform and pillars that surround you.

You lie down and let the warm night hold you and listen to the spring bubbling from the ground. This gentle sound relaxes you, so when the platform lowers into the earth, you willingly go with it. You have come to this temple for revelation and are ready to take whatever journey is needed.

You close your eyes and sense yourself sinking into the darkness of your body where you begin to see the atoms spinning, each a small world in the vastness of space. When you open them for just a moment, the moonlight is gone. The only source of light now comes form two spiraling rods supporting the platform, creating an electromagnetic pulse, one rod pulling energy form deep in the cavern and another sending it back to its source. You shut your eyes once again as you continue the descent but open your spirit to allow this energy to flow without resistance.

Finally, the platform stops and you feel as though you have taken a long restful nap. You awaken immersed in complete darkness. The soft splashing of waves and mild motion of the platform feels as though you are floating. The platform, in fact, has transformed into a small barge and is carrying you on an unlit sea.

You float for a long while, and when your eyes have adjusted to the lack of light, emanations appear. You seem surrounded by a swarm of crocodiles, the water full of their rough brown heads, sharp teeth and eyes, but recognize them for what they really are, pure illusion, and so your barge sails among their bodies with ease.

To your surprise, though, a fish with the head of a goat leaps upon the boat, its body lit by a violet luminescence. In its mouth is a key. You take the key and the fish slips out of your hands and jumps back in the water.

In front of your barge, the visage of an angelic young man appears. You look to your left and see a bull, behind you there is a lion, and to your right, an eagle with its wings unfurled. Your barge stops so that if lines were drawn from these images they would intersect where you sit.

Above this invisible cross of energy, you have a vision of Christ healing a blind man and a sick woman. You also feel His healing power, and it is as though a door opens. There is a sudden gust of wind and you take a deep breathe of fresh air.

The sight awes you, and as the vision slowly dissolves, a flaming torch appears in front of the barge. You must step across to reach it. Thinking that with Christ all things are possible, you place a foot on the water to find that the sea has solidified and become earth.

You take the torch and meander though narrow passageways until you enter a spacious crystalline chamber where the light of the torch is reflected and magnified. Touching one of the walls, a white substance comes off on your fingers. Licking them, you discover that the chamber is made of salt. There are three statues of gnomes, also made of salt, guarding doors carved into the wall across the chamber from where you stand. You walk over and, after a moment’s hesitation, choose one of the doors and place the key the goat-fish gave you into its lock.

The door opens easily, swinging into a garden full of fragrant jasmine. Taking the key, you explore this garden until you find a plain lead box lying in the midst of the bushes with a cross that is deeply engraved into the lid. You find that your key unlocks this as it did the door. When you raise the lid, there are some parchments lying at the bottom, brown with age.

Carefully, you pick up the top one and taking care not to rip the paper, open it to find your name written on it. The remaining papers detail the plan of your life. As you read, you see that what has and will unfold is steeped in purpose and meaning. Joy fills you, and your life's path that the papers clarify becomes illuminated inside your heart, an embodied gift that will always be there to guide you.

You feel a gentle tap on your shoulder. When your turn there is Persephone, the temple guardian comes to life. She takes hold of your hand and the two of you dance as your both emerge from the underworld. While spinning with you, she transforms into her mother Demeter, now pregnant with her child. She then becomes a crone with eyes that understand everything about your personal story.

The old woman kisses you and, once again, you are standing in front of the temple in the middle of the cypress grove. The moon shines down on the entire canyon and the path to the top looks like a ribbon of white lace. Before you make your ascent, you turn to the temple and bow, giving thanks for being made ready to walk the other paths that lie before you.

The 31st path, Shin, Judgement


The Perpetual Intelligence

Imagine the letter “shin” above your head taking the shape of a molar on fire, a bright living flame that enters the top of your head and descents like a stream of scarlet fire filling you with Divine Light.

Your inner self expands, and you feel your consciousness stretch beyond your physical body, extending outward through time and space until it seems as though the whole universe is contained within your being.

You take some time to bask in the wonder of this experience, knowing that within your small self lies the vastness of God, that there can be no separation.

With this realization, you feel yourself contract and discover you are in a banquet room, warmed by a huge fire that glows in a hearth built of a circle of stones in the middle of the room.

Along the walls torches burn with the same scarlet light that entered your body. The crackling of their flaming tapers and that of the wood kindling in the hearth are the only sounds you can hear. The temperature of the room is quite warm, and you feel feverish, as though your body is cleansing and becoming purified.

On one side of the hearth, a statue of a lion faces you, and his eyes glow with the brilliance of fire opals. You wonder how these lights have been kindled and sense that this beast is alive and could step easily from its perch if it so desired. You feel no fear, though.

A table materializes, piled high with all of your favorite food. Lamps flicker every few feet illuminating the bounty. The banquet expands with the room as far as you can see in both directions. You know that this room represents the part of you that is eternal and that this feast has been prepared just for you.

You feel as though you have traveled a long way and become ravenously hungry and begin to sample the offerings. As you feel yourself digesting this miraculous cuisine, you sense how nourishing it is and your body responds with newfound strength. You wonder how you have survived in the past without the type of subsistence you are receiving at this moment. What is even more wondrous, you know that this food will sustain you forever and regenerate your body, no matter how little or how much you eat of it.

The lion transforms into a real animal with hair and flesh, stretching and yawning. It looks at you with such sincerity that you find yourself kneeling in its presence.

Follow me, it tells you in a gentle voice, and then disappears into the flames.

Warmed inside and out by this room, and given courage from the food you have eaten, you trust the lion and step into the flames. The smell of burning copal surrounds you, and you feel the dross of your false self melting away. You feel uncomfortable and for a while, the fire burns, but in time this sensation passes and you feel renewed.

You step out of the flames and discover that you are in a field of red poppies. Your body feels lighter than it ever has, almost as though it could take wing and fly away. The sky is scarlet, matching the color of the flowers that surround you. You realize that it is early dawn. In this sphere of existence, the day is always beginning. The sun’s rays always glow on the eastern horizon and are always present to give power for spiritual renewal.

As you study them, the rays form the shape of a serpent. The snake rises above your head and opens its mouth. As with the lion, you feel awe but not fear. A fang hangs from its mouth and you sense the potency of the serpent’s bite and know what it will be like. Because of the feeling of liberation you have already experienced, you prepare yourself, knowing that after the serpent has done what it wants with you, the transformation that you undergo will be even more glorious than the previous one.

The serpent leans closer. Its breath is sharp, but instead of biting it whispers, Rauch Elohim. A great wind comes out of its mouth. You feel the fire of transformative passion: the power held by the banquet room, the power in the lion’s spirit and body, and the power in the fire that did not kill you. Passion passed down through the eons and now extends to you, making you a part of its manifestation.

The serpent fades away, leaving only its fang hanging above you in the air. The tooth becomes a trumpet. The archangel Gabriel appears, with flaming wings and wearing a dark blue robe. The angel brings the trumpet to her lips. The music she plays sounds like a melody made from sparks and flames and the whole world around you glows with intensified radiance.

The sun’s rays descend like tongues of fire, and in your inner ear, you hear the annunciation: You have become a new container, unfolding with new life. Christ Consciousness, the fruit of Holy Fire, lies within you. Listen with your inner ear and converse with the Holy Spirit. Your Holy Guardian Angel is at hand ready to guide and protect you.

Wafts of lavender come up from the ground and you see shoots of this plant growing and intermingling with the poppies. Gabriel’s figure disappears in the clouds that have formed to cool the land from all this intensity, but you feel a new presence descend. Gabriel’s music has prepared the way for your intermediary, made from the fabric of your highest energy, who has come to be a co-creator with you.

The 30th Path, Resh, The Sun





The Collecting Intelligence

On a balmy evening under the silver light of a full moon, you stand in a walled garden holding a golden chalice in your hands. The night is so quiet that you hear your heart beating, keeping time with the pulse of the summer night.

Your body is very much a part of the deep grass your feet sink into, the laurel tree that grows by the gray wall, even the clay from which the bricks were fashioned. Moonlight bathes you, and you feel your intuitive powers keenly.

Raising the chalice in your hand, you say this prayer:

Dear Eternal Mother, Lead me on the way to the path of the Sun. Let your great understanding guide me to wisdom and my liberation. Let the child in me be reborn. Amen

You lift the chalice to the sky and liquid moonlight flows into it. A cross of rainbow hues rises from this mixture and hovers over the garden, shining spectral light over your body. You feel a slight shift within and then bring this elixir to your lips.

As you taste the last sweet drops, the moon transforms and the sun bursts brilliantly from it as though breaking through a porcelain shell. The garden comes alive with light, birdsong, and the humming of insects beneath the blue sky that has been newly painted above. Peacocks now roam near you, displaying their full plumage.

At the bottom of the chalice, you see sunflower seeds, the residue of the elixir you have just consumed. Pouring all but one in your hand, you scatter the seeds along the bottom of the wall. Within moments, sunflowers shoot up to the sky, each like a small sun all its own.

Far in the distance, perhaps as far as the wilderness outside the garden, a lion roars. Something in the deep resonance makes you desire to find this creature. The thought of coming face to face with the lion seizes you with joy, not fear, and you know that this will be your quest.

You twirl on the grass to celebrate the miraculous explosion of life that has been born around you and the possibility of an encounter with this mysterious beast. This sunlight has become a part of you, regenerating the core of your being, giving you strength for the destiny you have chosen.

The pungent smell of laurel leavens wafts down. You pick a leaf and put it in the chalice, and decide to explore this magical realm, you own special garden. You find a faint trail through the tall green grass and descend a hill, adding parts of the flowers and plants to the chalice, gathering other herbs that you happen upon.

A blood red flower especially interests you, and so you bend down to study it. The petals are hot when you touch them. You carefully take a few of them and drop them into your chalice with the rest of your collection. The addition of these flowers makes the contents smolder and you set the chalice down.

The mixture bursts into flames much like the moon did when the sun came forth. In the midst of the fire, a baby dragon is born. The dragon stretches its wings, cries quietly, and then waddles over to you. You carefully pick up the little creature and gaze into its amber eyes.

The dragon flaps once or twice on your outstretched palms and then lifts on pearly wings into the sky, circling around your head, and then flying toward the south. The lion roars again in that direction. You follow entranced with this magical realm and the guide you have created.

The dragon leads you deeper into the garden to a grove of what must be a thousand ancient trees. As you enter, your intuition tells you that you have come upon sacred space. Though you experienced joy with the dawning of the sun, you realize that this was only a reflection of the exultation that waits for you.

You walk a long way through the corridor of trees until you see the dragon fly to a golden temple glittering so brightly you must shield your eyes. The dragon disappears into the light, and then, at the top of the steps, the lion appears sitting regally on a large stone. Light permeates the entire temple, radiating out from him and the sacred rock that generates the electric pulse to which the whole garden has been tuned.

The lion transforms into a man and the scent of roses permeates the air. Realizing Whom you are encountering, you fall to your knees. Earlier, you had thought the world and your very essence had been reborn, and though you indeed had undergone a transformation, you understand now it was only in preparation for this encounter.

The Divine Man, God made Flesh, Love opening its heart to the world, has come to meet you in this beautiful garden.

You hear Jesus’ gentle words: I am the Resurrection, the Eternal Body of Light, the Logos made the world. I am the Word, the Light and Life inside of you, the divinity that indwells in your being.

The world breaks open like a rose blooming, petal after petal, a part of the eternal becoming of the universe. At this moment, there is no past or future. There is only always, only the Source: a place of understanding and wisdom, compassion and love, where all things are created.

The next moment you are alone. The King had journeyed into the wilderness just beyond the garden wall. You now wear a crown, amazingly light for something made of the purest gold. When the time comes, you will follow the King into the wilderness, carrying His light with you, for you have been reunited with the essence, the Christos within. For now, though, you begin to dance.

The 29th Path, Qoph, The Moon


The Corporeal Intelligence

Visualize yourself sleeping soundly in the soft sand next to a pool of deep blue water that ripples in gentle waves near your body. A full noon passes in and out of the clouds intermittently shining its light upon your sleeping self. As you watch this scene, you feel pulled into your body and become the one sleeping.

You hear the rain before you sense it on your skin, a soft tapping on the ground all around you. Then its rhythm intensifies; what feels like the cool touch of fingertips running up and down your body brings you to consciousness. Still in a dreamy state, you sit up and raise your face to the sky and breathe in the scent of the newly washed earth.

You have the profound impression that you are waking from having touched something of the eternal in the deepest part of your sleep. You wonder if you are now in a dream, but your arms and then your legs fell real and substantial. You are convinced, though, that this quiet evening beside this sapphire pool is something you created from your encounter with Divine Darkness.

You turn toward the pool and wash your face, hands and feet. As you do, the rain stops and the sky becomes clear. The sand, stones and the trees behind you shimmer with white lace. You are at peace and feel no hurry to leave, even if you knew where to go, so you sit watching the water reflect the moon’s face and then break it apart upon its gentle ripples.

The moon in the water changes before your eyes, shrinking to a half moon. A large fish rises, with scales so bright they must have caught all the light expelled as the moon grew smaller. The fish balances on the water with its back fin and then transforms into an angel, with scaly wings instead of feathers shining with incandescence.

You must leave here now, the fish-angel says in a voice made more for water than for air. Here the womb surrounds you. Give birth to yourself and follow the path that lifetimes have crated to find the truth of your existence.

Where is the path? you ask, but wings become fins once more as the avatar of this pond blends again with the rippling water.

There is a rustling behind you. When you turn to look, a sheepdog stands on a path that starts just where you are kneeling. You laugh, as you have been on the path all along. You call the dog to you, instinctually knowing that it has come to guide and to protect, but instead of heeding, the dog barks once and disappears over a rise. You take a small stone from the edge of the pool to remember this place, put it in your pocket and follow.

The path winds through some tall grass, and though your mind tells you that the rain stopped a long, long time ago, judging that the moon has now waned from half to a quarter, the grass is still wet and the smell of rain lingers.

You walk to the top of the rise and acres of carefully cultivated fields roll out before you. Even in the orderly nature of these fields, you sense a numinous quality to them, as though they are at once very old but also newly created.

The sheepdog leads you past poppy fields and hibiscus, both magically flowering at night, rows of wheat and barley, and vineyards with plump grapes on the vines so ready for harvest you become slightly intoxicated from their bouquet.

You wander through these fields, following your guide, until you feel another significant amount of time has passed. Has it been days, or weeks, or years? You don’t know, so pause and look at the sky once again.

The moon has now changed to crescent and the shadows that lay just off the path have grown darker. When you take your eyes from the sky, you find you are not alone. A young woman dressed in a gown fashioned from black feathers stands in front of you. She hands you a chalice filled with wine and a piece of bread. Her voice is gentle but you hear her authority all the same

Drink and eat these for the next part of your journey. I am the Divine Mother, the Queen of Heaven, who links Heaven and Earth, Father and Son by my Love. I am the mother of the Living God within you. Drink this for the path will be darker from this point on. Let this Wine kindle the light within. Eat the bread so you will be sustained by my Son’s own body, knowing that His Divinity resides in you.

You thank her for her gifts. As you sip and eat, you feel the bread and wine become one with your body and blood, sense a new life entering and renewing you. The same mystery that you brought with you from sleeping by the pool, but could not then bring to consciousness, now transforms the consciousness of your cells. You are becoming a new creation, even on a lonely road in the midst of a dark night, Christ-consciousness is lighting the path within.

You hand the cup back to her. She places it by her heart and then lifts from the earth, metamorphosing into a black swan whose body blends into space and the stars above.

The sheepdog is still there, its white coat brighter than even the moon. You follow this light through two gray towers from where you hear voices of men and women: some arguing, some crying, a few praying to be released from their stone imprisonment. You sense that you once lived in one of these towers, that your voice has fallen discontentedly from it before you were awakened by the rain by the pool.

As you stand there and look to what is beyond, the sheepdog finally joins you and sits at your feet. The moon has disappeared all together and you no longer see the way to go. The sky, though, is not longer black, but crimson, and the smell of roses surrounds you. The unknown offers you this aroma as comfort, one familiar thing along with the faithful sheepdog, before you step into what has yet to be manifested.

The dog places a paw on your pocket reminding you of the stone you brought from the pond. In your hand, the stone is now a translucent pearl that shines with the same light as the loving guide who waits patiently at your feet. You hold the pearl in front of you and take the first step beyond the towers, into the infinite and possible, knowing that love is there and will never leave.

The 28th Path, Tzaddi, The Star

The Natural Intelligence

You awake swimming at night just below the surface of the dark violet sea, the realm of Binah, the Great Mother. Starlight reflects in shimmering waves of light penetrating the first few feet of the water’s surface. You have become a merman, or a merwoman, and know that you have been swimming in these waters for incarnations.

You also are aware that the small crystal you wear around your neck is made of the same star-force that shines above, and you flick your tail in joy.

Below you lay Mystery, where thought forms merge with the primal elements of Creation, and then drift through the layers of the subconscious. The water is warm and you relax on the surface of the waves, feeling the support of the Eternal Depths.

You come up to the top of the sea and are surprised you can breathe air as well as water. Floating on your back, you let the waves take you where they will. Occasionally, you roll on your belly and look down at the marvelous creatures sharing the current with you. Phosphorescent fish pass by, casting their small light next to the starry pattern from above.

But then, water around you begins to churn and several small winged creatures appear in the foam. These water sprites have transparent bodies that seem to me made of air, salt, and foam, and they blink like fireflies. They laugh, and their small voices cry out, The Queen is rising to greet you.

Then, in the midst of the empty surface of the sea, rises a scallop shell carrying the Great Mother, manifesting as Aphrodite. She lies languidly on her shell and the sprites descend to attend to her, combing her hair, holding a mirror up for her to contemplate herself, others lighting the foam of the liquid path. You bask in her great beauty and wonder if she is aware of your presence, but then she looks from her mirror and motions for the sprites to leave.

You have enjoyed your play, and that is good. But now you must go within the find the truest treasure that lies within the fabric of my body. As you are made from my body, the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. It is time that I give you new birth for you have the knowledge of its transcendent nature.

The Goddess lowers a cupped hand into the sea, and when she raises it, she slowly lets the water flow back through her fingers. The water becomes murky, and you can no longer sea the marvels beneath you. The starlight above also disappears, as Aphrodite continues her instructions to you.

It is now the time to search inward. Meditate and release the great flow from where your Self arises. Fix your mind on the star above and bring your greatest gift to the surface.

She vanishes and you are alone. You float in darkness as her words sink deeply into body and mind. And then, one star emerges in the opacity surrounding you. The faint light it casts allows you to see a small boat floating far away on what may be the horizon. Through it will take effort, you decide to swim toward it; the only sound the movement of your arms and the splashes of your tail. Once you finally touch the boat, your tail slips from your pelvis and your human legs begin to move to keep you afloat.

Climbing aboard the boat, you find a fishing reel made of olivewood that has an iron hook at the end of the line. You bait the hook, not knowing what you might catch, and then let the boat gently rock while you decide what to pull from the sea as you contemplate the one light left to you, the silent star in the sky. The quiet allows you to sink deep inside of yourself and search for greater stillness. You breathe, feel the waves rise and fall, and sense a peaceful presence guiding the boat along the current. You are patient, letting yourself drift, trusting what needs to be asked for will be known at the moment you can receive it.

You feel you are at the point of bringing something up from your subconscious, an image not quite formed but riding on a trail of energy uniquely yours. You remember the crystal necklace and take it off to wind it around the hook. You lower the bait into the sea. As you let out the line, you realize you are floating toward the dawn.

When the sun has completely risen, you back in its warmth until you feel a tug on the line. Your attention turns to the gifts you are about to receive from the force that supports and protects your small vessel. You pull in the line. As you peer over the rim of the boat, the murkiness clears and your treasure emerges. When you bring it into the boat, it is as wet and slippery as a newborn. You clasp it to your heart.

Land appears and you use your mind to guide your boat toward it. Once you reach the shore, you leave the boat and walk in the sand on unsteady legs to a line of palm trees heavy with coconuts. They point to the oasis where you will stay until the time comes for your gift to manifest in the world. Peacocks feed spreading their tails like jeweled fans, reminding you of the beauty of your gift.

Have you found paradise? You find the spring that feeds the oasis and drink long cool draughts, reveling in your natural self, the beauty of your naked form. You feel aligned with the Divine Child, who was given birth by Staris Mari, the Great Mother Sea. Peace washes over you as he realize He is working through you with this gift, and also with other presents you now know you have been given, to make things healed and perfect in the world beyond the oasis.

The 27th Path, Peh, The Tower

The Exciting Intelligence

During a night without moon or stars, you stand at the top of a tall tower. Bellies of dark clouds skim the battlements. You feel imprisoned by the weight of a heavy crown on your head. The clouds feel as oppressive; the atmosphere so thick you can hardly breathe.

Your feet and your legs are weary from standing on the hard stones. Longing to be someplace new, you try to speak your desire to the impending storm, but find that you are mute. You see no way out of the tower’s interior and find that its great height imprisons you as well.

What good is it to rule this place if you have no freedom? The dreariness of your future, which you can only perceive as limited, full of hunger and thirst, and dull as the gray stones that entrap you fills you with despair. Words of protest surface and you try to scream, only to find that your fury is locked deep inside of you and cannot be released.

At this time, you see flashes of lightning. As they rip through the sky, you see several towers illuminated far off in the distance. One by one they ignite. They burn brightly for a brief time, and then collapse. A few seconds later, thunder rumbles so loudly that the tower shakes. A few battlement stones break off and fall to earth as you are knocked down to your hands and knees.

Where the stones were torn form the tower, a winged creature with a lion head, the body of a goat, and a serpent’s tail hovers over you with feathers that burn crimson with fire. The chimera’s eyes also smolder, while the rest of its body writhes before you.

You feel electrified with fear that this beast will snatch and throw you off the tower, your body to break so far below, or that the lion will devour you. Instead, the beast cocks its head and steps so close that the sulfur that reeks from its body fills your nostrils.

I smell your fear. I smell your despair. You wonder why you are trapped here? Every stone below you is of your own making. Each stone was made with desperation, of self-hatred, and guilt. The mortar was created by your false beliefs. You are indeed the sovereign of this lonely spire.

I have not come to consume you, as you fear because you conceived me. I am manifested by your shadow, and made from the myriad ways you deceive yourself. Yet, you called me to you even in your inability to speak, and by facing me, your transformation begins.

The chimera’s scream pierces the sky as it flies into the storm clouds. Lightning zigzags across its path and hits the tower. The electricity convulses through your body as you fall headfirst into the abyss.

You experience complete darkness and flat in the black space, but eventually the smell of cinders brings you to consciousness. You wake and tower has disappeared. Before you now bubbles a fiery lake. The ground beneath you is composed of jasper and garnet, hard red stones that dig into your body. You sit up slowly and wonder if this searing world means you’ve descended to Hell.

As soon as this thought passes through your mind, laughter surrounds you. Up from the lake rises the god Krishna, playing his flute and dancing on the burning water. His music is the first comfort you have experienced in what feels like eons, and, slowly, his music soothes your rattled spirit.

When tension has left your body, Krishna stops playing and speaks. You stand at the edge of the fount of creation. Join me in the dance of your new life.

Though you fear being burned, you step onto the lake to join him. Krishna puts his flute to his lips and fire surrounds you. Yet, instead of fearing its destructive power, peace and hope grows inside of you.

Krishna transforms into Horus, a young god with a falcon head, holding the sun between his hands. Just as quickly, Horus becomes the god Mars, a robust man holding a flaming sword. As you swirl by him, kicking up sparks with your feet, he hands you the sword.

All power of transformation comes from this lake, and the flames of this sword will always be renewed. The energy of the tower that you were trapped in has been consumed and transformed. Use this fire to propagate your new existence. Spread its flames on the new fields your thoughts and words will sew.

You choose to stop your dance and find yourself in a field of dark green grass that cools the soles of your feet. The flaming sword is clasped in one hand, and a small blood red stone, still hot from its source, gleams brightly in the other. These are the only sources of illumination you have, for the stars and moon are still absent; above is only a void tinted scarlet.

You see the letters IHVH inscribed on the stones, and the significance of having danced with the many faces of the Father-God become apparent. Remembering what you have been told, you finally find your voice.

Let there be light, you say into the emptiness. Your word ring clear and true.

The sword flies from your hand into the sky and becomes the sun. The scarlet above you unfolds into blue sky. Clutching the stone, you spea k again, from the depth of your being, now healed and transformed, and from here you begin to recreate your world.

The 26th Pin, Ayin, The Deceiver

The Renewing Intelligence

You are walking in the early morning along a worn pat in a lush garden thinking of a great tragedy that has affected your life. Doubts of God’s efficacy and mercy grow. You are so caught up in your thoughts that you fail to notice that the sky has turned from black to indigo and sunrise is close at hand.

Though there are signs that the garden has been cultivated, such as clusters of rose bushes and a path that has clearly been traversed many times, much of the garden has been left to nature. The dew has formed on the plants and the scent of musk rises up. You wonder what animals may be sleeping beneath the tick foliage.

The path ends at a wall of hemp that reaches well above your head. Your part the plants and walk through them. When you are in the middle of these bushes, you fear that you could become lost. Something moves out of the corner of your eye. You halt, and a satyr slowly comes into view sauntering through the leafy growth. His goat-body intensifies the odor of musk, but he either does not see or has chosen to ignore you as he brings his panpipes to his lips.

The melody he plays is bittersweet; joy and sorrow permeates the air as strongly as his earthy scent. He leads you away from the safety of the garden, to where it blends into wilderness, but his music is so enchanting you make the decision to follow.

You go into a field of thistles that sting your legs and hands. The satyr’s melody is joined by distant music of other goat-men far in the distance on a jagged hill made of black diamonds. He scampers off to join them and the plaintive music slowly fades away.

You feel something slide over your feet, and when you look down you see a serpent intertwined around them. There is now enough light to see that the reptile’s scales sparkle like the diamonds of the satyrs’ hill as it unwinds from you and slithers off to the west. Trepidation fills you, but you are compelled to follow.

The prick of thistles brings to your awareness that you are following in the footsteps of Adam and Eve. This barren plain was once as lush as the garden you have wandered from. Making your way through the stinging plants, you follow the snake until you come to the one lone tree in this plain of thorns.

Fruit shaped like dark blue teardrops, the color of the garden’s early morning sky, gleam from the branches of this tree. Even in this place of desolation, the smell is more fragrant than the ripest peach. This mysterious fruit will be the most exquisite thing you have ever tasted. You pick the most succulent fruit from the tree, but as soon as your mouth fills with its juicy pulp, the serpent strikes your wrist.

The plain disappears. Four stone edifices completely surround you, boxing you in so that you can only see the sky and feel the broiling noon sun that is directly overhead. The fruit has vanished, and instead you tightly grasp the heavy branch on which the fruit hung. You put the branch on the ground and first touch the stone in front of you. In time, you explore the other three pillars. Your mind races as you wonder how you will be able to free yourself from a fortress so impenetrable.

Images then begin to cover each stone face, projected from an unknown source. You witness the bleakest moments of your life and experience the deepest pain of those you love. Then faces of men, women, and children of all races, ages, and from different times in history, in the midst of plague, famine, and war, come to you in quick succession, atrocities you don’t want to see. You circle. It is impossible to turn away. At the brink of tears, you do not have enough power to even close your eyes.

Finally, you see your own dead body projected on all four pillars, and as you watch it decompose, sorrow moves through you. The image slowly disappears and these words form:

There is nothing else but God, who creates both light and darkness.

You are seized with anger. Your mind fills with the same doubts you had in the garden. Why is there evil? Why does God allow suffering, especially of the innocent? Why does injustice exist? How can we love God in the face of all of this? Does God even exist?

Your yearning for justice overwhelms you. Enraged, you pick up the branch and strike the stone over and over.

The letters change and a new message appears: Every secret will become know.

Christ on the cross slowly comes into focus. Your hands are now empty. The branch has transformed into the beam on which his wrists are nailed. Once again, you want to turn your head away, but his eyes meet yours and your anger ebbs, replaced with pure love that flows into you like a balm. The pillars around you vanish as though they were made of mist, but His image on the cross remains.

You kneel before him. The bonds of time have been broken. He assures you there is a hidden meaning behind the veil of suffering, and that you stand on the threshold of acceptance that “all will be well in the fullness of time.”

The sky turns to indigo again, and you realize that a whole new morning has begun. Back in the garden, you watch the sun rise like a golden lamp, illuminating the leaves, grass, and flowers. Brilliant colors surround you and the air fills with the music of birds. The serpent glides past your feet and disappears in the wink of an eye. You thank the serpent and the goat-men for leading the way to restoring the faith that you have lost.

The 25th Path, Samekh, Temperance

The Tentative Intelligence

You are dressed in white standing beneath a full moon and hold onto a bow with a quiver of arrows that hang from a strap down your back. A lion, hidden in the tall grass from which you have just walked, roars once.

You turn to see if he has followed, for you have spent years searching for this powerful beast. The weapons you carry are not for protection from him because you know that you will not be harmed by the lion’s power, only transformed.

Your quest has lasted many years lost in the tangled growth behind you. Now the lion is near, and though you long to see him, he remains elusive. You consider going back into the grassland to resume your search, but you are stop yourself to listen to the echo of barking dogs that suddenly fills the night.

A young woman, dressed in white just as you are, steps from the grassland close to where the lion roared. Three hounds follow at her heels. Her whole being appears spun from moonlight, as do the dogs’ bodies, which now sit obediently at her side.

She calls your name, and speaks with a cold, mysterious voice. I have followed you all the way on your journey. I have protected you from predators who hunted you in the dense grass. You were unprepared to come face to face with the lion that reigns there. Now that you have found your way to a clearing, take an arrow and shoot it toward the west. You will find the path you must follow to prepare yourself to stand before the King.

She and her hounds dissolve into mist, as does the grassland you inhabited for so many years. You turn as you were instructed, reach into your quiver, draw out an arrow, and put it in your bow. There is no discernable target; still you aim the arrow and release it. The feathers on the arrow catch the moonlight; a silver streak arcs high and then descends toward the earth. A light begins to burn where the arrow has landed, and you walk to it as the night fades away. By the time you reach the landing place, dawn has come.

You bend down and pick up the arrow. At the touch of your hand, it turns into a thyrsus, a twined staff with grapevines and leaves and a pinecone head. You feel lightheaded and place the bottom of the thyrsus on the ground to support you.
Heliotrope, thick as the jungle of grass that you were lost in, spring up around you. Their large heads point up to the sun. Their fragrance makes you euphoric. With both hands on your staff to steady yourself and watch a staircase grow out of the flowers. A large building waits at the top of the steps; its stones reflect the sunlight like prisms. Relying on your staff’s support, you begin to climb toward this rainbow structure, counting sixty steps from the base to the door.


Once there, you knock. The door flings open and the brightness that greets you makes you shield your eyes. The angle Michael stands before you in glowing white robes shining with the splendor of the sun.

You are to be commended,
he tells you.
Are you ready to cross this threshold to the laboratory of transformation?

Yes, you answer with a trembling heart.

Once inside, you pass many rooms where men and women are engrossed in solitary experiments, sitting or standing at their tables, mixing and sorting various compounds and potions. The hallway is filled with odors both foul and sublime.

You follow Michael for what feels like miles, and just as you are convinced you will follow him forever, he points to a door.

This is your place for purification. You will find the tools and substances you need to do your work.


Michael hands you a key and then begins his return down the long hallway, each of his footprints leaving sparks that dance across the floor. Once he is no longer in sight, you unlock the door and go into the room.

Three chalices stand on the table. One is full of water, another with fire. The third is empty, there for you to mix the elements. You look around the room and find minutiae from your life. Some are object you have possessed. Others seem to be made from the etheric stuff of memories, dreams, and ideas. Other items seems very old, holding onto energy of a distant past you no longer remember. It is the essences of these substances from which you will create your elixir.

Before you begin your work, you lean your thrysus on a table to use later and open the one window in your room. Far below, you see the grasslands where you searched during the dark night that lasted for years. The lion’s roar is carried to you by the wind, and your mind fills with images of a great stone rolling from a tomb.

The window catches a sunbeam, and the shaft bathes the room in sacred light. You kneel down on the stone floor, graceful for its illumination. Chalices sparkle on your worktable. The water of baptism and the fire of the Holy Spirit wait to be combined, creating for you a new life. After you have given your thanks for being guided to this sanctuary, you rise and begin your work.

The 24th Path, Nun, Transformation

The Imaginative Intelligence

Imagine yourself in an oasis on a balmy desert night. You are standing in the threshold of your tent looking out at the Milky Way, which shines so brightly that you feel the stars might be just within your grasp. You contemplate these stars that spread across the sky like precious jewels and then look back upon the riches in your tent.

You have been very comfortable in this place and have accumulated many beautiful objects that have given you pleasure over the years. Yet something has stirred in you as your eyes wandered the star strewn path, something unsettling, a little frightening but so compelling that you feel a lack of something inside of you which you cannot yet name.

You walk to the tall mirror that stands amid trunks of clothing and jewels and look at yourself, dressed richly in turquoise robes lined with carnelian trim. You contemplate yourself and sense the hard work you have done to create the wealth you possess. Then you see yourself as a child and realize that the child you ere is no more, that he or she somehow has been absorbed in the person you are now. You watch the child in the mirror grow into an adolescent, a young adult, into a middle aged person, and then, finally, as an elder grown beautiful with the lines of age cast on your face.

Each stage of your life seems like a separate incarnation hat somehow continually transforms into a new, older, and wiser self. Then, without fear, you observe your corpse, and the gradual dissolution of y our physical body until all that reflected is your skeleton. Breathing deeply, your heart opens as compassion fills for the impermanent nature of your being and for al life that lies out its brief span of time on Earth.

You look around at the luxurious rugs that cover the floors and walls of your shelter, at the furniture and all the gold and silver ornaments you have collected. You feel the texture of the fine robes that clothe you and smell the scent of the candles burning and giving light. You are comfortable and know that you have the choice to stay here in the safety of the oasis, but the stars are singing a song of liberation telling you that change is the foundation of existence. Your chance has come to be reborn, to begin the first steps of a new path which will lead you to greater glories than these possessions which have comforted you but which you have outgrown.

You disrobe and walk naked into the night, away from the sheltering palms of the oasis into what you have always feared: the stark and barren desert. Before you leave the perimeter of trees, you see a scorpion scurrying under a pile of stones. You bend down and take a small pebble from the top of the pile. The pebble is the one thing you know you are free to bring with you from the life you are leaving, the thing that will have the most power for your journey ahead. The scorpion has led you to this touchstone and you bring the small rock to your heart as you leave home forever.

You follow the starry path over desolate ridges and dunes. The night seems endless and your body feels worn away by the dry air and the wind that never stops blowing. You climb high on a hill and finally rest. Looking back for the first time, you see a fire burning off in the distance. You know that these flames are now consuming all that you once were, all you called your own.

And then you hear the thunder, and it’s as though the Milky Way itself has broken open and is spilling the waters of heaven upon Earth. At last, you let go and your body dissolves, breaking down into the elements of which it was made, There is a great silence as you return to Ein Sof, the Father, where your origin is found, to which you return to and then are born again.

You awaken, recreated into a golden fish that swims down a rivulet that lows into a larger stream. The stream then becomes a great river. The stone you brought with you from the oasis has become a part of your fish body, your foundation: a skeleton that is supporting you in this watery world.

Billions of golden fish appear and swim with you. The part of you that is conscious rejoices in the fecundity of creation. You swim until you arrive at a sea where reefs of red coral lace the bottom, providing you a new home. Swimming in and out of the reef, you experience great joy, feeling free in this new universe where you have journeyed.

Amid the coral, anemones wave their heads, opening and closing as they feed. You play among them, somehow eluding their hungry mouths, and slowly find yourself transforming again: fins into feet and arms, gills into lungs that still can breathe the salty waters of this sea.

Light is now shining above you and you feel the warmth of sunlight descending, traveling on currents searching for you. The water gently radiates the shade of aquamarine, the part of the rainbow where blue and green hues blend together. Below you are treasures, shining shells that are scattered along the silt bed of the sea floor.

One shell glows with an Inner Light. You feel compelled to pick it up and put it to your ear. The voice of the Divine Mother whispers your name and the salt of your tears joint the eternal sea as she speaks: It is now time to swim to the surface once again.

You make your way slowly and then climb onto the soft sand lining the shore. Just beyond the beach is a field of heliotrope; thousands of flowers with petals bursting forth like the rising sun. You realize that this Sun is eternally in the East, always rising, always renewing.

Once again, you find a scorpion at your feet. It scurries to the flowering field. As soon as it disappears, an eagle burst forth through the golden petals and spirals up into the air. Perfect love has cast out all fear as you begin your new incarnation.

The 23rd Path, Mem, The Hanged Man

The Stable Intelligence

Begin this meditation by letting your body and mind feel suspended. Darkness surrounds you as you float in the womb of the Eternal Mother, Binah. The only thing in you awareness is the beating of her heart. This cadence provides a peaceful rhythm with which your own hearts blends, a quiet pulsation that gently moves the water around you.

You float in a dreamless sleep with your mind quiet and still, yet a part of your consciousness is aware that you are in this timeless place. The deepest part of yourself seeks what nourishes the womb, the miracle of existence, the Light which created even this enclosed cavern where your embryonic self floats, forming the new body that is yours, the one created by Atonement.

Suddenly, like a birth pang, a bright cross of light flashes and you awaken, an amphibious being in an even great sea, and aquamarine world that sparkles beneath the light of the noonday sun. Water nymphs laugh and splash around you and you find yourself playing with them for a while, joyfully moving in this new expansive space. You then find a trident stuck in stone that is covered with small barnacles and sea plants. Tugging at it allows you to unsheathe the three-pointed spear.

Doing this act unleashes a tidal force so extreme and unexpected that the idyllic world you were playing in disappears in silt that swirls around you like a vortex. You brace yourself with the trident, and the turbulence forms the face of the god Neptune.

Neptune’s hair curls with eels, and he wears a crown of spiky coral with fish swimming in and out of its spires. You sense his attitude is no-nonsense, and that this manifestation, as disturbing as it may feel, preludes a message that is of utmost importance. His eyes hold the pure aquamarine hue of the waters that so briefly nourished you, and you focus on them because the color hold the message of love encoded in the serious words you are about to hear.

There is but One Will, Neptune says. It is time for you to leave the dream of the sea. True freedom is following Divine Will, listening beyond ego’s desire and the phantasmal castles of thoughts and projections.

After he says this, the watery world evaporates. You now are on land, touching your neck for the gills that gave you the power to breathe in the sea god’s realm and find they have disappeared. You have transformed once again and want to protest this change. Memories of frolicking and freedom you had just moments before Neptune’s appearance come back and desire overcomes you to return to the sea, to refuse to be a creature of land.

Neptune stands on mussel-covered rocks and the sea that you felt so much a part of is now separating the two of you. He raises his trident, a thousand times more massive than the one still in your hands, and calls out to you from his perch.

The limitations of time and space create lessons for your spirit. By holding to the Holy Wood of the Divine Tree which makes my trident as well as your own, you will be grounded in the Logos. Let the consciousness within guide you to see that or own inner life is limitless and that it is your ego that keeps you from being whole.

With this your surroundings evaporate into a salty mist that acts like a mirror. You peer into it and see lifetimes portrayed, like endless wheels within wheels, spiraling forward and backward, a continuum of struggles, both small and large, each moment is a dark mirror that holds different degrees of opacity as your soul struggles with consciousness. You wander through the images, using your trident like a dowser’s stick, and it leads you to viewing what you need to see.

You once again feel suspended in front of this pane of mist, floating as you did in the womb, connected by a mere thread to the hubbub of pictures that flash before you. The lives merge into archetypes and projections of various savior gods are superimposed upon images of your suffering. Osiris is torn apart, as is Dionysius in a field of grain. Oden hangs from the World Tree. Mithra takes the form of a bull whose neck is sliced by the sacrificial knife.

An earthquake as strong as the tumult that disturbed your idyll under the sea shakes the world you are now standing on, as well as each that have formed in the mist.

The trident in your hand becomes a cross and the energy from these manifestations is pulled into the wood. Light beams around you, hot as radiation. All myths have joined together to become the One Myth, the One Truth, that God manifested into human flesh, God from God, Light from Light.

You see the letters IHSHVH— Yehasha— Joshua-Jesus, sharing the realm of manifested existence and its ultimate consequences— God willing to sacrifice Himself to open a doorway to revelations of the Eternal. The Kingdom of God is NOW at hand.

Master Jesus then appears before you as Resurrected Man, the Eternal housed by his Body, the same Eternal Light that rests within you. Death is overcome, as is time, and the ultimate judgement has surrendered to the truth that there is ultimately no separation from Love.

With this revelation, you once again float upon a silent sea. This time you have been born fully adult and sit upon a lotus. You now hold the Eternal Light like a candle in your hands. Surrounding you are other points of the same Light as numerous as stars, floating on the sea of the Divine Mother who gave birth to All.

The 22nd Path. Lamed, Justice

The Faithful Intelligence

You find yourself sitting one dismal gray day at a desk in the middle of a classroom filled with bags and suitcases. Though there are rows of desks, you are the only pupil, and all the baggage in the room is yours.

The Teacher is a large man with long white hair and a beard, dressed in a gray robe, the same shade as the clouds that pass by the windows. His demeanor is severe.

Behind him, the chalkboard is filled with illustrations, notes, and mathematical formulas. As you study it, you realize that this is the map of the life you have lived so far.

Using a type of stick that you have never seen before to point to the equations on the board, the Teacher tells you: These are the factors hampering you.

He then points to the sum: This is the result of their interaction in your life.

You feel scolded and want to protest, but then the Teacher walks to your desk and looks directly at you. Though his face is still stern, you see that He is looking at you with love.

He hands you the stick He has been holding, and says: This is the ancient ox goad. The one upon which the letter lamed was formed. Though I give you m promise to be faithful not matter when the path of your life leads you, use this goad for guidance and balance to find the middle path of wholeness.

The classroom dissolves, and you now stand on the edge of a rocky cliff. Far in the distance, a golden sphere shines. Instinctively, you know that this far off place is so sublime it must be the heart of all existence, and so you say a prayer for what appears to be impossible: to transverse the great chasm that separates the outcropping on which you stand from this radiant realm.

As you pray, a narrow bridge made of emerald expands in front of you like a thin green tightrope. You realize that the ox goad will act as your balance as you cross over this narrow band. Thought you are anxious about the safety of this undertaking, your desire to cross over is so strong you willingly take your first step on the slick stone.

When your foot hits, the emerald walkway is so reflective that you see yourself, and this undermines your equilibrium. You feel unsteady and ask that protection be sent to you. In answer to your prayer, you hear the fluttering of wings. Three white doves descend and take their stations, one behind you and one on each side. You feel steadier and thank the birds, ready to begin the long walk over the chasm.

You put one foot out and then another, aware that only empty space lies underneath. You feel grateful for having left so many heavy things back in the classroom, yet you become increasingly aware that in order to successfully get to your destination there is more that you need too release.

With this realization, the emptiness around the pathway disappears, and you find that you stand in front of an ancient pyramid. Like the bridge, it is made of emerald, and you can see the reflection in the dark green hues. The doves accompany you to the portico and then are transformed into three beautiful women with wings. You hear wind howling now and looking through the entrance of the temple you see that a storm is gathering inside.

The women tell you that they are harpies and each says her name:
Stormswift.
The Dark.
Swiftwing.


You ask them if you must go into the temple; they nod and lift you in the air. Dread rises inside of you, but you grasp your ox goad tighter and are comforted. The three carry you inside.

Lightning flashes overhead and the form of the Hindu God Yama appears in the clouds, bearing swords in his many hands. He asks: Is your mind free enough to pass into the heart of creation?

With great effort, take a deep breath, calming your mind. Though you are scared, you empty your mind of thought and attempt to just “be” beneath his image, regardless of the outcome of his manifestation.

Slowly Yama fades from the sky, but as he disappears, the figure of the Egyptian Goddess Maat forms. She holds a scale in one had and an ostrich feather in the other.

Pointing, she inquires: Is your heart as light as my feather?

In your mind’s eye, you see the joy that waits in the golden sphere. You say another prayer to let go of whatever you still hold onto that would prevent your entrance there. You pray again, and something like a soft breeze passes through you; energy shifts as trauma, hate, worry, and despair lift from your body. Rain begins to fall like baptismal waters, and you feel your soul washed clean.

The three winged-women lift you once more and carry you deeper into the pyramid now that you have passed the needed trial. A gold scale waits just like the one that Maat carried. You feel your etheric heart freed from your body and watch it placed on one side of the scale, with Maat’s feather on the other.

The scale slowly balances. You have nothing to do but submit to God’s will. You watch the scale, and then you finally see that now your heart is indeed as light as her feather.

The pyramid disappears and once again you stand on the bridge with the ox goad in your hands. You look back at the immense distance you have traveled. The origin of your journey appears as a gray sphere in the distance.

The sphere on the Son is now before you. Jesus stands at the gateway to the golden land awaiting you. He regards you for a long time, and you know he is seeing your history and the walk you were willing to take to find Him.

When he speaks, your heart fills with joy.

Nothing is impossible with faith. Enter my kingdom, and be filled with Eternal Life.

You no longer need the safety of the ox goad, and so you relinquish it and step into His Realm.

The 21st Path, Kaph, The Wheel

The Intelligence of Desirous Quest

Imagine that you have gone back in time to the days of King Arthur. You sit at the Round Table dressed as a knight, your armor heavy on your body. The walls around you are filled with tapestries and vaulted windows that look out to a forest of cedar trees. The scent of these trees drift in through the windows while you wait with the other knights for Arthur’s entrance.

The seat across from you is empty, and you study the cross that is carved on its high back, and you realize that this place has been left empty for the king. The table is engraved with occult and astrological symbols. Reaching out, you trace its wavy lines with your fingers and then feel a tingling on both of your palms. Turning your hands over, you see that the symbols have formed a circle on each palm. These lines will now determine your destiny.

Arthur’s footsteps are heard down the hall and expectation fills the room. A light kindles in the eyes of the other knights, matching your own anticipation of the wonderful news you are certain Arthur brings.

When he enters the room, all stand until he takes his seat. He is dressed in a robe of the deepest violet, and you are surprised that as a young as he is, he inspires such trust.

Arthur speaks with authority:
I send you on the quest for the Holy Grail. Search only for what centers and sustains you. Though you will find the Grail at the heart of all matter and learn that it is close at hand, you still must travel far to attain it. When you do discover this sacred cup, a greater riddle awaits which will lead you to find your true Self, the one who exists behind all the masks you have worn, and all the personalities that have clothed your true nature.

As you ponder his words, the table vanishes. You are now alone in the midst of space, beneath the rim of a great spinning wheel. The wheel appears to generate its own electricity, and sparks of gold and silver are flung from it, each creating a new sun that quickly is subsumed by the emptiness around you. Soon the heavens sparkle with stars that rotate in their own orbit around the fiery disc descending toward you.

You feel the wheel’s radiant heat, not knowing if you will be destroyed. As it comes closer, only your armor melts away into vapor. You are not harmed; instead, a sense of freedom replaces the fear you had.

Four figures stand on the spoken of the wheel, each ninety degrees apart from the other: a golden eagle spreads its wings, an ox bows its head, a lion roars, and on the spoke closest to where you stand, an angelic being reaches down and takes your hand.

You hear the rushing of wind as you are lifted to the wheel. The rim beneath you undulates with warmth. You sense you are riding on a living being.

The angel hears your thoughts, and says:
Yes, you stand on the great snake Typhon, the serpent of Maya, the father of all illusion. His body coils and uncoils, vibrating and creating the force that sustains the material plane. Your task is to transverse this spoke of the wheel to find your balance along the way to reach the Morning Star that shines at its center, beyond illusion, to the heart of existence itself.

The angel’s eyes shine with love, reminding you of the light you saw in the eyes of the other knights who are now on their own individual quests.

The spoke of the wheel in front of you is dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli. As you step on it, you sense a consciousness engrained on this path that has been made of the memories of all who have walked it before you, searching for deeper meaning in their lives.

Winds continue to swirl and though they buffet your body, your eyes remain focused on the shining heart of the wheel. Below you, galaxies spin and universes are born and die. Time becomes meaningless, and the simple act of placing one foot ahead of the other is all that matters. With each step, you are getting closer to what is truly eternal and authentically alive.

Finally, you approach the guardian who protects the eye of stillness within the wheel. As in a hurricane, the winds here are strongest, swirling around the calm center. You are finally brought to your knees in order not to be pushed back to the rim of Maya. Lightning sparks and thunder bellows so strongly that you are afraid it will deafen you.

And then, in the midst of this chaos, a quiet voice inside of you asks: What does it mean to be human?

Looking up, the face of the Sphinx stares down at you.

You have no answer other than to show your palms and the lines of your destiny. You see that the symbols have rotated to signify the part of the journey you have completed.

Pass through, the Sphinx tells you and then leaps to another spoke of the wheel to wait for yet another traveler’s approach.

The wind dies down and you stand on shaky legs. Only one step is necessary, though, to lead you into a garden. Pine trees grow on a hillside nearby. Saffron plants burst forth in yellow clusters. A stream, as blue as the path you have just finished walking, gurgles over shimmering rocks.

You follow the stream until you see an old man standing beside it holding an emerald cup. When you reach him, you realize that you are again meeting Arthur and wonder what journeys he has traveled to meet you at this spot. You marvel at how much he has aged. His eyes are deep blue, like your path on the spoke, holding memories of incarnations, and quests, and the dreams of each seeker he has sent to find this mystical place.

This is the grail? you ask as he offers you the cup.

Look inside, and then drink, he says.

You humbly grasp the cup and gaze inside and see that its interior is bejeweled with amethyst. The letters TVK form, signifying cross, nail, palm of the hand, the Creator with the Midst, and you realize what it has taken you to be led to this place of peace. Deep within the cup swirls a violet vortex, the pattern of creation in all of its perfection, spiraling, unfolding, and then coming together until it forms a cross, the signature of God’s love for humankind.

You put your lips to the brim of the cup and drink the offering of eternity.

The 20th Path, Yod, The Hermit

The Intelligence of Will

You are immersed in darkness. Within this darkness, a spermatozoid swims and joins an egg, and as soon as it is fertilized, the egg glows like the soft flame of a candle. You watch cells divide, each possessing its own inner fire, until you see an embryo with a beating heart, a fast pulsing of the original flame that was lit upon your conception.

Still in darkness, you place your hands over your own heart and imagine it beating inside the dark cave of your body. There is syncopation with the quick drumming of your unformed self that you can still see in your mind’s eye, and the steady, slower beat that now casts the rhythm that your adult body obeys.

Light grows slowly around you as you watch a moon being born. You find that you are alone on a snowy mountain top, your embryonic self now resides in each of your cells. The only sound you hear on this peak is the steady throbbing of your innumerable hearts, each beat creating a star overhead. Soon the dark heavens are strewn with their small lights.

You are amazed to have gone from the darkness of inner space to this peak covered with snow where you are peering into the immensity of heaven. One star falls, streaking the sky, and its bright fire reminds you of what lies kindled inside your being.

A person dressed in a long blue robe with a cowl appears beside you, so old you are unable to tell if this is a man or woman. The ancient holds a lantern that casts light in a wide arc so that you see more of the mountain. The Hermit speaks softly, but you feel the mountain shudder slightly with the vibration of his word:

This is not a dream. The life you have led up to now has been an imitation of the truth that has always burned inside of you. The mystic Cristos forms anew being who is both yourself and the greater Self that has lead you to this awe-inspiring place. Though your path is unique, you are one with all there is.


The stars above you dance as you incorporate the meaning of these words into your body and mind. Around the darkest part of space, the stars form an outline of a great dragon. Without their light to indicate its form, this creature would be invisible, yet somehow you know that the undulations of the dragon’s body chart a secret path back to the Source.


Take your lantern; I will kindle its fire by the light I have carried. With this light, create your world.


You are about to say that you don’t have a lantern but then look down and find one near your feet. You pick it up, and the Hermit’s free hand takes hold of the flame and then lights your lantern’s wick; the two lights join and illuminate the entire summit.

You are now master of this mountain, the Hermit says, and then steps onto an invisible staircase in the sky that leads to the tail of the dragon. The Hermit turns back only once, holding the lantern high, and you finally see the steps he is walking upon.

Time passes. You stand vigil on the mountain. In spring, some of the snow melts and forms yellow-green pools the shade of peridots. You look into them and see the lantern’s light reflected. You make a sun to shine, and at your feet a carpet of grass spotted with tiny white snowdrops and narcissus blooms. You create summer and then autumn, where the foliage flames brilliantly around the cedar trees that grow lower on the mountainside.

You create yourself over and over again: sperm, egg, darkness, light, the eternal rhythm of heartbeats creating pattern after pattern, and you manifest deep peace within yourself. You send thoughts of peace to the world that lies beneath you. One moment, no different from the rest, you look down at your hands and find that they are wrinkled. You realize that it is finally your time to follow the Hermit who had waited for you to join his spirit in the dragon path in the sky.

Winter has come and the snows fall again; once again it is night. Shining you lantern from the summit, you can now see a winding path curving up to where you stand. Distant memories rise of living amid the hoards of people in the valley. How easy it was to be led by the group mind then. How unconsciously you life unfolded.

The bleating of a lamb wakes you from these reveries, and you follow the cries over a ridge. There in the fresh snow next to the lamb lies another lantern.

The lamb comes back with you. A few lights now appear on the path. You light the new lantern with your old one; you find that you, too, can carry fire in your hands. The whole mountaintop glows brighter, lighting the way for those who are on the way.

The lamb bleats again, and you look up into the dark fabric of sky. Once again you can see the ladder to the dragon made of stars. Yet, you wait. More seasons pass until the first traveler reaches you. You offer your hand for the last step.

You deliver the same messages that the Hermit who greeted you gave, and then you see the lamb step into the sky. You follow and feel an invisible hand reach out for you. You are given a staff for your left hand, the wood pulsating with divine energy.

You steady yourself with the staff and hold your lantern high. All encompassing ecstasy fills your heart that continues to beat with the eternal rhythms of the universe. Taking your first step onto the dragon’s path, knowing that you are not alone, you have become a channel for Christ, Who walks as a lamb before you, leading you into the ultimate mystery.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The 19th Path, Teth, Strength

Intelligence of the Secret of All Spiritual Activities

Imagine that you are sitting lotus style on a wooden platform looking toward the east. The sky is still dark, and you feel the cold of the early morning through your clothes. You are able to just make out the edges of the terrain that stretches around you.

A vast field of sunflowers extends in every direction, but your focus is on the horizon where a soft glow of fire burns above a line of volcanic mountains. You wonder at this sight, knowing that this eruptive power, so far away, both destroys and creates life.

A small fire burns in an incense holder next to you and the fragrance of frankincense permeates the air. Breathing deeply, you become conscious of the speed of the Earth as it spins toward the rising sun, feeling that you are moving toward something divine, being carried by the Earth toward this mystery.

The red line before you sparks more brilliantly as the first rays of the sun merge with the light cast by the ridge of the volcanoes. A dancing figure of a woman rises out of its glow. The goddess Shatki performs her elemental dance as the tongues of volcanic fire and the rays of the sun merge to create the new day.

The intricate pattern of Shatki’s fire dance entrance you. As you watch her, feelings of grief rise as though her movements draw out what needs to be mourned in your life. You do not resist because the grief is accompanied by a cleansing of your spirit. Tears may or may not fall, but with each of your exhalations your grief transforms into peace. The whole world is quiet as you rest in this space until Shatki’s form fades into the brightening sky.

From the stillness of your heart, you hear: Nothing is lost, but only transforms. The time has come to move closer to your destiny.

Now that it is daylight, you know you must leave this place where you have rested for the night. You pick up the burning incense to take it with you.

At the bottom of the platform, you walk into the field of sunflowers. It takes very little time for you to feel that you are lost, as all you can see are rows and rows of sunflower stalks. As you make your way through them, you lose the sense of confidence you had on the platform, now unsure of what you are really doing or where you are going.

Confused, you ask yourself these questions: Which way should I walk? Does the direction matter? Should I even be going toward the mountains of fire?

Feeling overwhelmed, you stop to see if you can find your bearings, but just a moment later, something slides by your feet. Looking down, you find a small yellow serpent coiled with its mouth in its tail. Knowing that you must keep moving, you bend down and ask which directions you should go.

The serpent slowly uncurls and the slithers away. You follow in the same direction, step by step, still carrying the incense to remind you of the brief sense of wholeness and peace you felt before you stepped off the platform.

A roar of a wild animal breeches the silence that has surrounded you. You freeze with fear. The serpent speaks to you in a sibilant voice:There is nothing else to do but to trust that the path you are on was meant to be whether you are devoured or not.

You take another step forward as the serpent disappears into the flowers. You hear a larger animal approaching, but there is nothing else to do but to continue walking and meet your fate. The beauty and elemental force that radiates from this animal is awe-inspiring. You take a deep breath; sending the fear that wants to paralyze you into the earth, and then with a trembling hand, reach for the lion’s mane.

When your fingertips touch the coarse hair, they burn. Your entire being then feels inflamed as you look into the animal’s eyes.

The lion speaks to you, and you hear both love and power in his voice: Light will shine on all things hidden. All secrets will emerge from darkness and what is in the shadows will be illuminated with truth. The sun has risen, giving light to all things on Earth, light that can penetrate the darkest place of a human heart. The secrets you have carried are the fuel for your transformation.

This is why the lion has searched for you. You can now recount the things buried in the deepest places of your soul that you were not able to access as you watched Shatki dance. You share these newly revealed secrets with the lion, and when you are done, there are tears in the lion’s eyes.

He turns and roars again, so loudly that the earth shakes and every cell in your body vibrates. By the time the last reverberation fades, the sunflowers have changed into a garden of roses, surrounding you with every hue imaginable.

The sun is at its zenith now and warmth penetrates your body and soul. Even the embers of the incense grow stronger; smoke rises once again, this time creating a rope to weave the roses upon. You pick red roses to form a wreath and then follow the lion t edge of the garden where you set the smoking incense down. The lion bows his head to allow you to put the wreath around his neck.

You pick up the incense again, and the lion leads you away from the garden up into the foothills that lie beneath the smoldering volcanoes. You climb for a long time until you reach cedar trees, the last living things that grow around you.

From this vantage, you look down at the path you have taken. The roses and sunflower field transform back and forth into each other with each breath you take. You can no longer see the platform where you started this journey.

The lion waits patiently as you add some dry needles of cedar to the frankincense. The fragrance created from the combination revives you for the ascent. The two of you begin to climb again.

Finally, you reach the lip of volcanic fire. You have known all along what will be asked of you but have not known what your answer will be. The lion steps into the molten lava and turns to wait for you. The fire does not harm him, and he tells you: You have my eternal protection now.

The yellow serpent is at your feet again and follows the lion into the lava. Its body moves slowly through the fire until it climbs up the lion’s flank and weaves into the wreath around his neck.

You have reached the source of the Limitless Light, which both destroys and renews. Knowing that the lion’s power and love will never leave you, knowing you will be restored to your true Self, as the serpent reunited with the King, you carry the small light that led you all this way and merge into the eternal flame.

The 18th Path, Cheth, The Chariot

The Intelligence of the House of Influence

Begin this visualization by seeing yourself stroll through a field full of apple trees. The scent of ripe apples fills the air. An old wooden fence completely surrounds the orchard. As you walk toward it, you realize that this orchard belongs to you. There is nothing you would like more than to stay here, but when you reach the fence, you are compelled to climb over.

Once your feet hit the ground on the other side, the apple orchard disappears. You now stand on an immense plain filled with small gray stones. The sun beats down, and you don’t know which direction to go. Though you are alone, you hear a multitude of voices whispering on the wind; voices of your parents, brothers and sisters, friends, past teachers, spiritual leaders, and politicians whirl around you, all of them saying what you should do, where you should go, which direction you should turn. These voices rise and their exhortations blend until you can no longer distinguish one from another.

You feel the weight of all the expectations the speakers have placed upon you. Contemplating the barren stone plain, you feel weary, weighed down by both the droning voices in the air and the endless wasteland before you.

You feel lost and darkness clutches at your heart. Not knowing what else to do, you kneel and begin to pray with the stones jabbing into your knees. You whisper in your desperation: Thy will be done. Of myself I can do nothing.

The voices slowly subside and you are surrounded by silence so profound that you can only hear your breath and your heart beating. Near your knees, a beetle crawls over a rock, the first living thing you have laid eyes on since your journey away from the apple trees began. You gently scoop the beetle into your hands and close your eyes. The air has cooled and night has fallen by the time you open them again.

Stars burn with amber light, but by now your throat is dry and you desperately need to drink water. As your thirst grows, the plain of stones transforms into a body of water stretching to the horizon and as far as you can see in both directions, is ebony surface reflecting al of the stars glowing in the night sky. You lay the beetle down in the ripples that touch your feet and watch t swim away. You then scoop u handfuls of water and drink deeply from this lake, the water quenching your thirst.

Across the shimmering expanse, a constellation has formed low on the horizon. The stars are in the image of a narrow door, but then they rearrange themselves and their pattern change into a cross. To your astonishment, once this image is set in the sky, it flies straight toward you across the water.

The innermost star burns larger and brighter than the rest; by the time it nears you it burns like a small sun, an image of a crescent moon with a severe face embossed upon its fiery surface.

At this instant, you grow fearful afraid the star’s energy will burn and consume you. A shell, like a crab’s, grows quickly over your torso. You want to retreat completely inside this shell or turn and run.

But you hear a quiet voce cast from the center of the star. Do not be afraid.

Your entire being responds to the world and, after taking a deep breath, you feel calm again, much as you did while walking in your field under the apple trees. You take a step into the water. The shell around you shatters, and as the shards fall, they turn into water lilies as let yourself merge into this dark lake.

The cross is close and its heat intense, but as you step closer, the severity of the moon face alters into that of a woman’s whose smile is kind and gently. The stars shift again into a new design; the cross becomes a chariot pulled by two powerful sphinxes.

The smell of salt rises; the giant lake has transformed into an ocean that holds the tears of all who have ever lived. The chariot stops right in front of you, and the woman from the moon steps out to greet you, Her aura burning with amber light.

She kisses your forehead and reveals that She is Holy Spirit. She tells you, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and you feel your third eye open as you envision a glimmering temple casting off golden light. You know you are seeing your true home across the water, one that She has prepared for you. She takes your hand; your body fills with holy fire as you step onto the chariot with Her.

The sphinxes pull the two of you back across the ocean. As you ride with Her, the wind gently blows your hair and the stars are brighter than you have ever seen them before. You look back from where you came.

I have always been with you, she tells you, and I will never abandon you. I am the stars and the moon and the great water below us. I exist in all the tears that have filled this dark sea, and I am the balm that heals the source of these tears.

A band of light grows on the horizon. Fire spreads through the water without either element quenching the other. From this confluence, incense rises. Myrrh comes from the depth of the water, reminding you of the birth of the Christ Child and the gifts He received. You are nearer your own gift, your rebirth, as you fly closer to the dawn.

Holy Spirit kisses you once again; your third eye expands even more, and you find that you are walking down the steps of your temple into the midst of the apple field. Going to the nearest tree, you reach up and pick a golden apple. As you bite into its flesh, you understand that you are free. The fence that was once there no longer surrounds you, and you have no need to fear what lies beyond your orchard.