One of the exercises we did was to draw three of our SoulCollage® cards and tell their story. It felt very synchronous to pull my "Walking through Walls" card as the first one of the three. Clearly, this theme of needing to break through to the next phase is up for me in a big way. And, of course, pulling my Persephone card is always meaningful for me. The third card pictures the temple of Athena at Delphi.
So, here is the second story I wrote (the first is in the previous post).
She knew
she was a magician. There was magic in
her hands, and at times, when she was very clear and able to release her doubts
and negative thinking, she could send energy through her hands and whatever she
held, and things would move and shift.
When she woke up in a dark mood, she could do none of this unless she
was able to lighten her emotions. The
energy demanded her clarity, her openness, her love.
The piece
of magical work she decided she needed to achieve was this: she wanted to walk
through walls. She procured aardvark
parts from African magicians having heard that they would confer this
ability. She prayed over them, offered
them tobacco and cornmeal and asked for their assistance. The, one day when she felt ready, she stood
under her tall staff, placed her hands on the wall and willed herself to pass
through to another world.
She saw a
field of grass, brown in the autumn twilight, and a cave, which she
entered. The path led down, down, to an
underworld cavern large enough to be a palace, and suddenly before her stood a
woman dressed in red, a powerful woman.
No, a goddess.
“Welcome!”
the goddess said. “It’s remarkable to
see you. Only a very few living souls
ever come here. And you didn’t even
cross the river. In fact, you seemed to just
emerge through the wall.”
“Excuse me
for asking,” the magician said. “But
where is ‘here’?”
The goddess
laughed and held out a broken-open pomegranate.
“You are in
Aidoneus’ realm. You know that
name? No? How about Hades?”
The
magician paled. “This is not where I
expected to end up.”
“Oh, don’t
worry, child. You will not end up here,
at least not yet. Your magic is strong
but needs discipline. I will send you
somewhere where you can learn.
Somewhere…say…a bit lighter.” She
laughed again and touched the magician’s eyelids, forcing them closed.
When the
magician opened her eyes again, she knew immediately that she was back on the
earth’s surface. The wind felt cool on
her cheeks, and the air was crisp and clean.
She saw and felt that she was in the mountains. She stood besides the ruins of a temple. Three columns remained standing in a circle
of broken ones.
“Whose
temple is this?” she wondered. She
closed her eyes again and opened her other senses. There was a presence here.
“Athena,
Athena, Athena,” came the whisper in her mind.
“Athena,”
she said aloud. “Please accept me as a
student, as a devotee. Tell me what it
is I must learn.”
“I am known
for intellect,” came the response. “And
intellect you must have. But mind
without heart is only trouble. You have
cords wrapped around your heart. Your
heart is bound up, restricted, unfree.
Untie the knots and release these cords.
Your magic will avail you not if you cannot do this.”
The
magician bowed her head and wept, for she recognized the truth of this. No brain power, no magic, no mental effort
could save her. Only the hard work of
unwrapping what bound up her heart would do.
When heart energy flowed through her hands she would be able to walk
through walls of blessing. And that
would be the true magic.
