Grandmother Willow Tree called, and I went to Her, and sat against Her, laying my head in Her lap, on a moonless night.
"Yes, Grandmother?"
"It is time now for the Journey with Clive, the cat. His Kahuna energy will carry you on Paths not opened before. It is a different way to a long ago time, so be careful to stay present, and focused in your intent."
"What intent is that?"
"Gathering awareness to initiate alchemy."
"I'm not sure what all that means."
"Neither do I. It was told me to say to you."
"Oh, ok."
Clive wandered over to the Willow and me.
"Put your hands on me, and let go," She said.
So I sat facing Her, with my hands in Hers, and let go.
And everything disappeared. No tree. No yard. No house. No lights. A nothingness, except for the pressure of a cat in my lap.
After a long time, I felt a light breeze touch my cheek - full of play and moisture and tingling. I found myself sitting facing an ocean. A cheshire-cat moon was rising, brushing silver luminescence across the water and beach where I sat. Clive had wandered off to chase the skittering, scuttling creatures on the surf's edge. The beach was so dark, it took a while to realize that it was made of black sand crystals: children of a volcanic heritage. As the moonlight touched them, they sparkled as if coming to life, and began singing softly their heartsong of Fire.
I sat listening to ocean and beach harmonize in a peace I had never known Outworld.
Though I have heard stories of Hawai'i's black sand beach - and this felt like that 'place' - there was a difference in the timing here. Again, I felt I had gone to a far distant time, a time beyond history, and I let go to the experience, the senses, and energy of this place. There was a clarity to the sea and land and air - visually, musically - taste and texture and tension relieved of all unnatural trespass upon this Web.
I breathed it in - drank of its elixir - not moving until I had integrated it all into my being.
And then Clive jumped into my lap.
"Ooh, my bad. Did I interrupt your nap? Not to worry. Time to get going."
And he sank one claw into my jeans, just to make sure.
"All right, all right, I'm moving. So what's the big hurry?"
But I might as well have been talking to the wind. Clive was several yards distant already, paralleling the surf line, heading what appeared to be west. When he sat down to lick his butt, I understood the sarcasm of his message and began walking after him.
We had walked quite a ways when Clive just disappeared. I hadn't seen any outcroppings or other places he could have escaped to, so I hurried somewhat to see what might have happened. I didn't realize that the beach had risen slightly, but as I came nearer to where I last saw him, the land to my left opened up into a volcanic vent, where sandy cat prints were visible on the obsidian rock leading into the earth.
Clive was nowhere to be seen. The opening of obsidian rocks revealed a tunnel of sorts, large enough for me to clamber from rock to rock, sometimes even upright. There was a small stream in the middle, not lava, but clear blue water, heading for the sea. After a long and treacherous walk, I finally arrived at the place where Clive waited. This was a flat ledge, upon which was growing the greenest grass I had ever seen - moist, alive, singing, glowing in greenness... with a big orange cat napping in its midst. Tired as I was, I lay down myself and napped with him.
Later, we followed the trail farther along until the vent opened onto a spacious land back outside... somewhere. I saw before me a grand vista of a vast meadowland leading to a precipice the dropped to the ocean. The edge of the cliff was more than 100 yards above huge ocean boulders, no beach, just a sense of very deep water, as if the cliff continued down to the deepest part of the ocean. The air is thinly foggy, like the 'pineapple mists' of Hawai'i. Clive and I sat on the edge overlooking the endless sea, just before sunrise.
Soon, Arynx arrives, who is my ancient friend from Lemuria: a curious prehistoric mix of whale and otter. Clive and I follow a narrow ledge down to where her great self lay waiting for us. We head through the ocean, somewhat south-southwest, as the sun lifted itself to rising in the east. After what seemed to be a couple of hours, I notice land becoming visible to the front of us. As we neared it, I could see amongst the verdant lushness of its shoreline, tall structures stretching far and high above the horizon. The sun was glinting in opalescent shimmers from the surface of these 'towers'.
I asked the arynx, "What are those monoliths?"
The arynx paused, completely still in the water, and was silent for a few minutes.
Then she said, "You should not be able to see them."
"What?"
"You should not be able to see them. I am guessing the cat is gifting you this vision through his eyes. How amazing!"
I looked at the Towers, and then at Clive. "Thank you,"I said to the cat.
Although the arynx swam closer, we remained a bit offshore, so that I might ponder more about the Towers. Realization hit like a flash of lightning: the 'Book Tower' was one of these, before the land had collapsed into the ocean. The second insight was that these Towers of Lemuria had been built by their Faery Folk, the 'menehune' who were the indigenous ancestors of this place. So, then, although definitely gifted the vision through Clive, the discernment of its relevance came about also through my own alchemy shift into the indigenous magic of the Faery Realm itself. There was much more here for me than met the eye (and mind). The arynx responded to my thoughts, "Very true, Ishtani, very true."
Clive Notes
Journey with Harley
Journey with Isis
Journey with Little Bit
Big Daddy Cat