It was a cold night, dry, with a bright moon touching everything with silver. The waves were splashing and receeding, and I was aware that they were full of life, as was the sand beneath my feet and the air around me. I started walking up the path, through the sea grass into the woods.
I saw a branch of the path go off to the right; I followed it, even though it was narrow and lined with dark trees and black undergrowth. It led through the trees to a small black pool, of murky dark water, filled with roots and black mud. A tiny rivulet of water ran in at the left and another ran out on the right, down to the sea. I could tell the water and mud were filled with living things that seemed nasty to me, with too many legs and squishy bodies; they were creeping and wiggling in the mud. But I knew that they were not evil, just living things different than I who only wanted to live and raise their children.
I knew that I had been called down a dark path for some reason, so I decided the surrender to it and see where it led, trusting in my guides to not lead me astray. I laid down in the black, brackish water, on my back, and crossed my hands over my chest; I sank into the water and down into the mud.
A very large, wet tentacle came out of the mud and wrapped around my chest, and pulled me down into the dark wet earth. I was drawn down, surrounded by earth and darkness, towards what I sensed was a huge tentacled creature with a gaping mouth. This cthonic lord of the under earth did not speak, but simply swallowed me whole.
I slid down its throat and emerged in its cavernous water-filled stomach, swiming in a limitless void of dark water. I remembered the silver moon-ring that had been gifted me by the Smith, and draw it out of my mouth. In its silvery light, I saw that there were many things swimming around in the distance, looking like pale insects and deep sea fish.
A large creature approached, who looked like a giant scorpion make of bone, with a face like an old man made of bone and chiton. He smiled somewhat cruelly and said "So you have arrived." I said something about wanting to know the way out, and he said "Its too late, you are dead already." Then he touched me and I saw that my flesh was peeling away and leaving just bare bone. In moments I was just a skeleton. I felt no pain or fear, just wonder. Afraid of losing my moon-ring, I put it on my left wrist.
He looked over my bones, then produced a large quartz crystal. He said "Here is a new heart for you," and placed it in my ribcage. I looked at it, and felt it beat with soft pulse of light, then asked about the way back. He replied "The only way to be reborn is to die again."
I saw a large, blind snake-like thing coming up towards me. It found my feet and started swallowing me, until I was completely within it. As I traveled down its throat, I felt my flesh grow back over my bones, until I was alive again. Then the flesh of the snake split open, and I found myself laying on the ground under the trees, lying in a stream of cold clear water running downhill, with my head downward and the water running past it. I could feel the moon-ring still around my wrist bones, under my flesh, now invisible, and I could feel the crystal in my chest just behind my heart, pulsing with my heartbeat.
I called to the scorpion-man and asked him what his name was. I heard his voice, "You can call me Yaah-waah, bacause that is the sound people make when they die and are reborn. I am the midwife of this rite of death and rebirth, you are lying now at the birthing-place of the earth."
I thanked Yaah-waah, and the guardians of the directions, and my guides for taking me on this journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment