E19

Earth Temple

Wednesday 25th January 1995 (9:00 pm)

Earth Temple Air Temple Water Temple Fire Temple

Rob: Everywhere seems overcast and damp. The forest is still and every sound is magnified.

Barry: It seems foggy.

Rob: I smell the wet vegetation.

Barry: There is a blazing torch at each of the four quarters. They stand on poles that are halfway between us and the stones.

Rob: The Green Man's face is partly hidden by mist. His foliage is still aging. Fennier appears and sits and looks at us.

Barry: The kestrel appears on the stone to the right of us. I can hear the faint sound of bells from the forest.

The figure of a woman steps from the mist. She has a heavy cloak and is old.

Rob: Across her forehead is a metal band A thin headpiece of unadorned gold.

Barry: She waits outside the circle. She seems very torn.

Rob: She has no authority.

Barry: I follow her towards the circle of trees.

Rob: The kestrel follows you, hovering above you.

Barry: She walks along a gently rising path. The vegetation on the trees is starting to decay.

Rob: I take down the wolf mask from the Maypole and Fennier and I follow you.

Barry: As she walks, vegetation seems to age as she passes. She moves silently leaving no footprints.

Rob: I get the senses of the wolf. She moves through the forest like a black tornado.

Barry: I see her as a large dark rock rolling through the power lines.

Rob: Where she has passed, small animals die.

Barry: Power lines seem to stretch and snap as she goes.

We're approaching a clearing. In it is a tumulus. The tree is growing from the top. The mouth of the cave is barred by thorns and looks impenetrable.

Rob: At night she sleeps on a bed of earth. She is Atropos. She is appropriate to Malkuth as an 'ender'. Malkuth being the end of decent.

Barry: I see her almost as though she is peeling an onion, cutting the layers back one by one. The image I see is one that I've seen before, of circles joined together with a dragon in the middle. It forms a sphere. These circles seem to be a different aspect of yourself, linked buy some universal energy.

Rob: Why has she brought us her?

Barry: She appears to be saying that the ending of this cycle is the recognition and facing of the shadow contained in the cave. We have looked hard and long at the Earth. She is also a part of the earth. Dying and decay are part of the cycle. The shadow seems linked with this end. We have the means to face the shadow, which will not end in its defeat, but it's integration.

Rob: How will we penetrate the thorns.

Barry: Animals hold the key. The wolf and bear have thick fur. The boar will know a way through. The kestrel is small and can get through. These animals are parts of us that need to be integrated. We both know what we face. Maybe integration is not possible yet.

Rob: I find myself in a deep pit with steep granite walls. The pit is full of hatred, self-loathing and anger.

Barry: I am deep within a swamp, up to my knees in thick mud. Around me is an impenetrable forest of stunted trees. There is no place to hide, and no help available. I can see us side by side I am standing above. To my left I can see me in the swamp and you in the pit. You are far down, but there are handholds for you to climb up. Just as in the swamp there are small bits of land to walk on, food and shelter.

Rob: And a path, though not easy to see, through the forest.

The handholds represent knowledge and acceptance etc. I understand and accept my anger.

Barry: I accept being alone with no shelter, the assurance of the path I have learnt.

Rob: I choose to mould my anger to become resilience, to become confidence.

Transmutation.

Barry: My fear could be moulded to become reliance and confidence and the drive to follow the path, without which I would become sucked into the swamp.

There are many swamp pits, without the drive it is not possible to escape.

Rob: A bright light like a star appears. It has sixteen points. One large cross in between those two sets, and within those one smaller I see us standing before this star. It grows in size until we become absorbed by it. I feel bathed in a gentle light.

It is time to move to the next temple and begin a new cycle and return to Earth another time. We should put our knowledge to use and think and act on it. The next element is water to lead us on the path of self-knowledge and enlightenment.