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.