W07

Water Temple

Wednesday 10th May 1995 (approx 9:45pm)

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Barry: The temple is filled with a luminescent mist. I can still see the waterfall, but fog deadens its sound. It seems welcoming and protective. A thicker bridge of fog leads from the altar to the waterfall. I can hear faintly the sound of pipes blending almost as one with the running water and shell wind chimes.

Rob: A voice is telling a story of the cycle of water. I find we can stand on this bridge and walk over it. As we do the fog thickens and deadens all sounds but for the pipes. The temple disappears.

Barry: Walking on the bridge is strange. It is springy like inflated tyres. The fog feels protective. This is one of the few ways of experiencing water immersed deep inside it.

Rob: The fog parts briefly to reveal a beautiful woman then closes again.

Barry: The fog parts again on our right. We are in a small circle of stones. The sky is dark. A heavy storm threatens. It will be powerful.

Rob: Those in the circle are making it. They are hooded figures, chanting.

Barry: There is rain at the edge of the circle.

Rob: Thunder rumbles.

Barry: Lightening lights up the background.

Rob: The figures stop and raise their hands, three fingers stretched pointing upwards. There is an altar.

Barry: The rain around the edge of the circle washes away the ground. Deep channels open up in the mud, large stones etc are moved along by the rain. The rain is washing the stones etc downstream. This is being directed by the figures.

Rob: We see it again, this time from a distance. Now there is a pillar of rock and the hooded figures. Lightening strikes the rock which splits apart. This night presages a great change connected with this element.

Barry: The fog closes, and we are in silence, except for the faint flute sounds that lead us on.

Rob: The flute sounds are coming from several directions, circling us. The fog slowly swirls anti-clockwise around us.

Barry: It appears that light is coming through the fog. The water splits into a rainbow. We bathe in the multi-colours. They are swirling and very disorienting. Through the fog we can see the shape of a dark island ahead across a bay. We are standing on a fog bathed causeway.

Rob: The island has many names, it is mythical. It is Lindisfarne, Lavondyss, Albion�

Barry: Lyonesse, Avalon.

To step from the causeway would be to be plunged into the sea of forgetfulness.

Rob: This is a fey island, surrounded by the sea of our imagination.

Barry: Below the waves near the shore are the shapes of buildings and temples that can only be seen at low tide.

Rob: Somewhere a bell sounds three times. We find ourselves on the edge of the island.

Barry: A figure stands bathed in fog. You recognise the eyes. It carries a golden staff, which gives it form.

Rob: We are welcome here, and I feel my heart lighten.

Barry: It say that we recognised a number of the rocks in our own river, and we can navigate past these downstream. It asks what we seek from the island. It is our spiritual home that we will return to.

Rob: Wholeness.

Barry: Our own grail is upon the island.

Rob: Only the pure may touch the grail. We must purify ourselves many times before we can touch it.

Barry: We can learn much from the grail legends. We can seek the aid of the elements that we have been reluctant to do in the past.

Rob: Ask and you will be given, seek and you shall find. The figure tells us that we must not set foot on the island on this occasion, and we must return along the causeway.

Barry: The water is rising, a viscous fluid. We go into the fog, lead by the flute sounds. I can feel gigantic figures in the fog towering over us. The have helped form this fog tunnel.

Rob: Ahead is the figure of the woman that we saw earlier. She is clad in blue, a silver crescent on her head.

Barry: She carries silver pipes.

Rob: And wears a pearl necklace.

Barry: There is a black cat at her feet.

Rob: She challenges us.

Barry: She has black and fathomless eyes which contain the secrets of the universe.

Rob: She has shiny black hair.

Barry: A guide?

Rob: No, not a guide, she challenges us. She is the power of our combined anima and her challenge is to remove the projections and integrate. She has a cup in her hands which she holds above the scales. As she pours liquid in they balance.

The fog closes in until all that we can see is the scales and then they too go, and we can hear running water.

Barry: We stand in front of the altar.

Rob: I take a cup and drink deeply, it contains the same dark red liquid that poured from her cup.

Barry: The cold liquid leaves a warm feeling inside.