The 15th Path, Heh, The Emperor

The Constituting Intelligence

Imagine that you awaken before dawn in a dark house. Sitting up, you are aware that a creative force has touched you while you slept and has left you with a burgeoning sense of expectation.

Electricity pulses through your body, and though it is dark, you realize that you are in an unfamiliar place. The power of the dream has transported you to a new reality.

You feel like a seed implanted into a new world and sense that this house is vast, well-built, and full of grandeur. As your eyes adjust to the dark, you begin to make out a window on the wall across from you. A warm breeze wafts from it. You leave your bed, your feet touching the solid wooden floor. You give thanks for the firm foundation that the house provides and make your way to the window.

The window has no glass. You stand and wonder what might be before you, the world beyond a mystery. As thought these thoughts summons it, a low musical tone flows through the house. You find the music as strange as the house, but also comforting. Reaching your arms through the open space, you greet the unknown as though it were your lover.

Inexplicably, the first words from the Gospel of John come to your lips: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You feel enveloped by the warm breeze as you utter them. Light appears on the horizon, its rays rushing across fields and gardens that belong to this great house until your face basks in its warm light.

Though the light is intense, you do not need to shield your eyes. In fact, your vision has never been better. You feel your body transform, arms become wings, your skin sprouts feathers, and you look at what lies before you with the eyes of a hawk.

You launch yourself through the window, caught up by the warm draft that the sun has provided, and fly over fields of tiger lilies. Rivers the color of scarlet ribbons catch the rays of the sunlight.

Making an arc in your flight, you turn to see the house from which you emerged. It is a mansion of many rooms. A sense of excitement fills you because you know that the light has illuminated your world. When you choose to return, there will be eternity to explore your house and the treasures that lie inside.

For now, though, you are content to glide in ever higher circles, strong and confident that the more you soar, the more the pattern of the land and the architecture of your house will make sense to you. You see that the foundations were carefully planned, and you recognize designs that would have been impossible to see if you had stayed in the house.

The wind and the light, the warmth of the day, feel like Love holding you aloft, lifting your wings. You fly even higher until you are surrounded by swirling clouds that take the light into themselves. You fly in a pearly mist as opaque as the darkness you woke in, but you are still without fear. The light has ignited a small fire that burns bright as a ruby inside your heart; in the mystery you have reached, Love is still kindled there, guiding you to the stars.

You fly for a long time until you break through into blue-black space. Above, the planet Mars, sparkles like a large red star above the curve of the Earth. Below, lies the mist that looks spun by dreams. The clouds part and with your hawk’s vision, you see where your journey begun, the house that was so large it had felt like its own world.

You trace the arc of the Earth until a constellation appears in the shape of a five-pointed star. The constellation slowly spirals; the fires of its stars hold power but will not burn you.

You seem to fly through Eternity to reach them, and yet it is only a moment. You are now close enough to thread your way through the Endless Knot. As you reach each star, it becomes a chalice. Transforming back into your human form, you drink deeply from the purest water you have ever tasted, until you are ready to fly again.

Somewhere in the midst of your flight, in the long dark path from one star to the next, the scent of gardenias overtakes you. You sense that you fly through an opened window in space.

The movement of your body stops. You are standing, your human form solid and real, hands grasping the windowsill, your eyes looking up to the constellation that your body has charted. Besides you, a vase of gardenias rests on the sill.

Though darkness has fallen beyond its walls, light fills your house. You turn to explore the first room of your mansion.