“There is a legend,” [Katerina began], “that every so often the life-force of the Collective begins to weaken because true bonding between couples—and people in general—is not being practiced throughout the infinite parallel worlds that make up the Collective Consciousness. Like all magic, when the magic of loving commitment is not believed in, or not being practiced, it begins to fade and die.
“Without devotion among the people, one to another, the Collective can have no radiance of life. It’s said that the Council of Crones perceived the dwindling lifeforce and though they don’t openly acknowledge the legend, they know the legend also says the Harmony Ceremony must be performed in such times to receive direction from the Collective.
“The Harmony Ceremony is one of very few ceremonial gatherings of the Council in which a member of the Sisterhood lower than the rank of council member or Crone Mother, such as an understudy, will ever be directly involved. In the Harmony Ceremony, the understudy is included as the psychic medium for the Collective. Few understudies over history have been blessed with receiving the message of the Collective.”
“The Council, Crone Mother, and her understudy gather in a special location meditating and chanting for days, or however long it takes for the understudy to be moved by the Collective, whether by vision, voice, or other means. Once the understudy receives some message while in a trance, it is up to the Crone Mother to interpret the purpose within the message, and direct the understudy in the path to take after the Harmony.
“I received the verse of the Sacred Vow, and the Mother said it was to be chanted from within the cottage several times per day while I meditated. She said the vibrational characteristics of the verse would help to heal the bonding rift in the Collective, that it would help restore loving communication and commitment.”
As Katerina went on with her tale, the little path wound its way up a grassy knoll, surrounded by some broadleaf, evergreen bushes. They crested the hill, and Ian was amazed to see elaborate stone formations on a flattened hilltop. It wasn’t a singular ring formation of standing stones, as Ian had seen when traveling in certain countries back home. Although there was some circular distribution of the entire pattern, the arrangement was obviously made by several groupings of independent configurations.
The path they had followed to the hilltop split and headed into several different directions. The new paths connected all the minor groupings, and etched patterns of their own within the larger grouping. In the center of it all, there was a small mounded platform, a few feet higher than the rest of the hilltop.
Katerina waited for Ian to take it all in.
He finally spoke, “Is this our destination?”
“For now. We can stay here, or we can go on if you wish.”
“I’d like to stay for a while, Katerina.”
Ian followed her on one of the paths to the center mound. As they neared the center, the hair on his body stood on edge.
The overall stone layout unquestionably focused energy toward this mound.
He turned to Katerina for explanation, “What is this place?”
“It’s where I received the Sacred Vow.”
Ian could see how one would be brought to some expanded state of awareness in this place. The air was still, yet he heard a roaring in his ears.
“You’ll get used to the sensations in a moment,” Katerina assured him as she spread a cloth on the grass in the center of the raised mound. “Let’s rest a little while.”
Ian’s nervous system was getting a little more charged than he could stand. He felt a need to move from that particular location. Looking about somewhat frantically, he saw a stone grouping that made him feel comfortable on first sight of it. Pointing to it, he asked, “Could we go over there?”
“Sure, if you want.”
Katerina gathered her cloth and they made their way, following the most direct path available to that stone grouping. Once there, they spread the cloth again, and Ian sat with his back tight against one of the upright stones. It faced the sun and was angled slightly backwards, making an excellent backrest. Katerina sat beside Ian, just far enough away that neither of their forcefields pushed the other.
. . .
As night approached, the shadows thrown about by the stones were surprisingly animated. A dramatically highlighted carving in one stone drew Ian’s attention: it appeared to have moved. He hadn’t really paid any attention to the carved patterns until now. It seemed that the placement of the stones and the patterns on them were intended to provide an illusion of movement.
“Katerina, is this movement of shadows on the stones something
that I am imagining?”
“Not at all,” she answered. “The patterns of the configurations, the shapes of the stones and their carvings are designed to manipulate light in times between day and night. The result is a three-dimensional mandala, a visual representation of the Collective.”
Though Ian couldn’t claim to know whether the mandala was an accurate representation of the Collective, the patterns that resulted had a consciousness-expanding effect all on their own. He could imagine that a ceremony involving a number of spiritually progressed women, chanting away as the patterns changed, could have overpowering effects on a person.
“The Sacred Vow verse was the Collective’s communication this time, Katerina?”
“Yes,” she responded. “It’s not always the case, but the legend is that it was also the message received by Crone Tara during the first Harmony ceremony.”
“So, why do you think I received the verse in a dream years ago?” Ian asked.
“Without being aware of what you were hearing, you were more sensitive to the needs of the Collective than even the Council of Crones. Years before the Harmony Ceremony, you were prepared to receive the Call. Without a doubt you are one of only two people identified by the Collective as being capable of helping resolve the fraying network of emotional bonds within the Collective.
“For all history of the Union, the complementary receiver of the Call—the receiver in the Union reality— has also been a member of a mystic order of a nature-based belief. It has always been believed that only masters in such a belief system are appropriately perceptive of the flow of energies in nature—therefore capable of becoming aware of the rift—and of the calls of the spiritual universe for assistance. That was why I thought you must have been teasing when you said you’ve never been a member of an order.
“Though the related legends in the Union orders have sometimes varied considerably from our belief, those orders were always familiar with the concept of the tear in the Collective. They also believed the coming together of two people selected by the Collective would provide a solution to the rift. Each culture had its own protocol and directions to follow once they were in contact.”
Ian returned to the topic. “That explains why everyone in your village was so respectful to me and glad to see me,” he said. “The only problem is, I don’t know if I’m up to performing to their expectations.”
“They all know the legends and are aware that the Council performed the Harmony Ceremony,” Katerina said.
“How am I supposed to be able to help the Collective, Katerina, when I didn’t even know it had a problem?”
Katerina didn’t answer right away. She carefully weighed her words when she said, “You know. It’s only that your cultural experience hasn’t provided you with a means to express and understand what you know. You have already seen that you know much more than you consciously realize and are able to express in words.”
. . .
Suddenly though, her expression softened and she said, “Have you ever heard a myth about the Rejoining of Spirit Mates?”
“Not that I know of. Please tell me the story, Katerina.” Ian made himself comfortable, hoping that his relaxed responses would help her focus on less troubled thoughts.
“There is a belief held by some that, in human form, we are only half the persona we were in spirit—spirit being a nonphysical segmentation of the Absolute Intelligence into an individual consciousness. In spirit, we are both lover and beloved. This love felt by the spirit for its whole self is too pure, too perfect to be perceived by human senses or the human mind. This energy is too powerful to be contained in a single physical form.
“So, should this spirit choose to enter the physical realm, wishing to look into the eyes of love, to feel the touch of love, to know the longing of separation and the jubilation of rejoining, there is a price. When entering into the corporeal reality, they who have been forever one are thrown apart—sometimes across time, worlds, or realities.
“A thread that binds the two remains, but most of the time it isn’t perceivable or comprehensible by the physical being’s conscious minds. Sometimes awareness of the connection can be awakened by studies or activities that make one more aware of the core self. As is often the case, it’s possible that the pair will not become aware—or if they do, they are unable to cross the distance between them. In these cases, their rejoining does not occur until both return to spirit.
“Therefore, any of these persons are only half the entity they were in spirit form. On those blessed occasions when one finds his or her spirit’s true complement, he or she is rejoining their other half, becoming as close to whole as can be achieved in the physical form. The person has the opportunity to experience that which originally seduced spirit into physical form.”
**Disclaimer: For me, truth is personal and the consciousness that created the world before us is so complex that it can and does simultaneously manifest an infinite number of realities that sometimes appear to the human mind to be diametrically opposed to one another.
C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the mystical, metaphysical, and mythical insight that we all possess. The type of perspective seen in this article is also evident in his novels. He sees fiction not as something less than truth, but something akin to a mantra…a means to induce the reader into comfortably ‘allowing’ their personal truth—a living, ever progressing truth, fit to their need at any given time.
His current novel, Sacred Vow is first and foremost a metaphysical love story, a tale of soul mates—twin flames—a journey toward our one true love…in its infinite expressions…bringing together two individuals from disparate realities—but one spirit—to heal the rift in the Collective Consciousness.
Get the full length FREE PDF of Sacred Vow by going to www.cgwalters.com/spirit_story.htm and clicking on the link in the page to download the eBook. This will allow you to save the book to your disk.
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