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.