The 13th Path, Gimel, The High Priestess

The Uniting Intelligence

Visualize yourself alone on a long expanse of desert on a very dark night. You are meditating in the slight chill. The blackness is so heavy that opening your eyes is nearly the same as having them shut. You are aware of the breeze and the slightly shifting sands beneath you; your senses tell you little else. Suddenly, however, you become aware of a faint light somewhere in the corner of the sky. You focus on it until it grows brighter.

Eventually, it brightens enough for you to barely make out the outline of two very large pillar-like structures on either side of you. From the sky above these pillars, you feel a Presence begin to descend. The light, which you thought was a star, seems to be contained within the center of this Being. As it gets closer to your head, you recognize that it is the Queen of the Heavens bathed in deep sky blue. She has a large, heavy scroll on her lap, and her gown seems to dissolve into soft waves which have no definable boundaries.

She continues to descend until you no longer perceive her; her spirit has entered your body, and you hear her inner voice speak ever so softly and clearly:

Contained in this Scroll is the history of your entire life, and of all lives. Every actions, every thought, every sigh, every heartbeat is perfectly remembered by my Immaculate Heart and recorded in this Ancient Archive.

I am the Keeper of the Flame and the Revealer of the Three Realms. Your can never see Me in my true form, because I am beyond all form, and I am behind all veils. When the last veil is severed, the Realm before birth, the Realm of incarnate life, and the Realm after death become one.

Now I speak to you to ask you to respond to the call of redemption. From the home, which was once sweet to you, from the friends, and family that you have loved, from the great story, which you have enjoyed, I ask you to remove yourself. In the name of the Great Central Sun, which is my own Son, I ask you to participate in the mighty work of emancipation, from which springs preservation. If you are able to do this, the Scroll will go up in flames. Heed my word well, for I Am the Last Call.

With this, Her message is over, yet you still feel Her as a living presence. The night rolls up around you, and you walk through a tunnel with the stars cut out like crystals from the fabric of the night. At the end of the tunnel there is your destination, brilliant silver light.

The distance to this light is immeasurably far away, but because of your visitation with the Queen of Heaven, you do not despair. Taking your first step in a long journey back to Source, you know that She will be with you the whole way, and that as you travel across the great expanse, each stop with be recorded in her Book of Life.

You hear the sound of flowing water. Looking down, you see two channels running along both sides of the path, one flowing toward the light and the other away from it, both containing water as blue as the robes in which She was dressed. You kneel down and take a handful of the water that is returning to the Source and drink. The spiritual substance this liquid is made from flows through you, giving you added strength.

Following the stream of water from which you drank, you walk through the sand that carpets this night tunnel. The light ahead never varies in intensity, and though you walk for so long that time becomes meaningless, the light does not appear any closer. More curious than tired at this point, you stop for a second to drink.

When you ride this time, your hands still wet from the flowing stream, the stars that decorated the tunnel walls coalesce into a picture. The Queen of Heaven in Her many visages surround you now. Eve stands with an apple in her hand, the serpent coiling at her feet looking at her, entreating her to take a bite. A few steps beyond, you see Diana take aim with her bow and arrow toward your goal. She releases the arrow and it travels at what might be the speed of light; in a fraction of a second it co-mingles with the light at the tunnel’s end. Isis stands above the parts of Osiris’ body readying to resurrect her husband-brother. And then, you see the Virgin Mother, her face in quiet ecstasy as she sublimates herself to become the God-Bearer; a halo of stars shining around her body.

At this point, you look back, but only once. Images of your childhood, your parents, teachers, and events you considered important in your life are portrayed in a silent motion picture behind you on the tunnel’s curved walls. These people and experiences are what forged your personality, yet you realize that they have not made you who you really are; the life you have led up to this point has been like these shadows, a mere projection.

You turn forward again and find a camel kneeling, ready to be mounted, to take you the rest of the way. Once you are on its back, the animal rises slowly. He takes you only a few short steps, but the streams on each side widen and flow with greater force. The smell of jasmine drifts up to you. Further on, you pass next to a grove of almond tress covered with white buds. Buttercups grow along the banks of the streams. A soft wind lifts your hair, and there is a smell of salt from a hidden sea.

You hear the Queen of Heaven once again: You have done well. The camel has taken you the distances you could not walk. Just beyond this oasis is my door, the veil between the Realms. Dismount and enjoy the fruits of this place. Make yourself ready for your final steps.

You do what she tells you, amazed how far you traveled with the aid of the camel in such a short time. Patting the camel’s haunches in thanks, you set off to explore the oasis. As beautiful as it is, you have an urgency to continue for you know that you are close to your true home, you’re not quite there. You say a quiet prayer to be shown the rest of the way.

A moonbeam shines down and lights a path from the oasis to where the two streams now spread in a mighty delta. Mugwort grows thick on islands formed by their deposits of silt. You pick a leaf, crushing it between your fingers, smelling its pungent odor.

Then the moonlight hardens as it touches the ground and forms thirteen steps of moonstone. The silver star, the light you have been following all along, shines like a beacon just beyond the last stone. You take one step, and then another, following this moon-forged path, ready to enter into the realm of the radiant light ahead.