Emily's House (The Akasha Chronicles) (27 page)

“Wild. I always thought we were created in the likeness of God. But Goddess, I want to see your true form – your true face. Please show me your natural state.”

“My natural state is one that cannot be observed by your human senses,” she softly replied.

I was totally mesmerized by Brighid. Her gown at first seemed like a silky material gently blown about her in a breeze that didn't exist. But the material – and that isn’t quite the right word for it – was like nothing in our world. It was as if someone had spun pure silver into a fabric then woven throughout it an iridescent material in shades of blue and turquoise and purple, then set the whole thing into motion. It was like she was wearing a shimmering iridescent liquid.

Being in her presence made me feel content and at peace. I just wanted to stay there, with the Goddess, forever. There I was with a presence of pure love. There I could create anything I needed or desired.
Why ever leave?

“Emily, you will leave when the time is right. You cannot stay forever in the Netherworld.”

“But why must I leave Goddess? Here – here I am in your presence and I feel a happiness and contentedness I have never felt before.”

Her entire being became even brighter. Then she smiled and said, “Oh yes, and I enjoy your company too. I have always relished my time with your ancestors and the other humans who have found their way here. Such fascinating creatures, humans. Few of your kind realize the wondrous miracle that a human life is – to exist in your glorious bodies. Within those shells of water that house your Aman, you can create. And that – that is a rare gift.”

“But we create here Goddess. In the Netherworld, I have created anything that I want.”

“Here you can think and therefore conjure those things that you would like to have. But surely you must have noticed by now Emily that your creations here are but a pale comparison to the real thing in your own space and time.”

I hadn’t thought about it before, but now that she said it, I realized it was true. I created chocolate chip pancakes in the Netherworld, but they lacked something. It wasn’t quite right.

“I shall enjoy our time together, dear Emily, as I hope that you do as well. But your corporeal world needs you.”

I had learned so much in the Netherworld, done so much, that at times, it was easy to forget why I was there and what I had left behind. At that moment, the faces of Fanny and Jake and even my dad came flooding into my mind’s eye.

“I miss my friends,” I said with a tear coming to my eye. “I think I may even miss my dad.”

“We shall begin your training then, dear one, so you may return to your world and those that you love.”

“I have been here so long – or for just a few minutes – I can’t be sure. But in all this time, I honestly don’t understand exactly where I am. Am I in a dream?”

“No, not a dream. Dreams you create in your own mind and are not shared with others. This we are experiencing together.”

“It feels so dreamlike.”

“The Netherworld – it is what your scientists might call a parallel world. If you think of space, your Earth and the Netherworld exist in the same space.”

“What a mind trip! I’m not sure I understand it. Are there other worlds like this one?”

“Oh there are many other realms though no two are exactly alike. Your world – your planet – it is a fairly rare occurrence in the great scheme of the web of all that is.”

“People from Earth can go to these other worlds, like I’ve come here?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But that’s another question. How exactly did I get here? What happened?”

“Yes, these things seem difficult to humans. You were there, in your world, standing on what felt like solid ground. The next minute, you were here in an ephemeral world of mist and fog. You have these magnificent bodies with your ability to create and then fully experience through your senses the delights of your creations – or the horrors of your creations as the case may be. Your bodies and minds are incredible, but they also limit you as well.

“Humans say ‘I have to see it to believe it’. Instead, you must believe it before you can see it.”

“Are you saying that I needed to believe in the Netherworld in order to come here?”

“That is helpful, yes, to believe. If all humans believed, all could go anywhere they wanted. In order to come here, you had some help though.

“The Sacred Well of your ancestors – it was sacred because it was known to be a place where what your ancestors called the ‘veil’ between our two worlds is thin. Your scientists may find that there is a higher level than usual of electromagnetic energy at the Sacred Well.”

“I don’t think my ancestors knew anything about electromagnetic energy.”

“Oh, they didn’t have those words for it, but they were more in touch with the unseen than modern humans. They could feel the same things you felt – the hair raising on their bodies, the tingling sensation. They knew there was a strange and magical energy in that place.

“And the torc that you wear on your arm – that ancient object helped you to come here as well.”

“The torc is magic then?”

“Magic is your human word for it. It is no mistake that the torc is made of twisted, coiled gold.”

“I never thought of it before, but it looks kind of like – a bundle of wires!”

“There is a reason the transport objects for electricity in your world are made of coiled wire.”

“So the torc is like a conductor?”

“It helps the wearer to achieve the resonant frequency required to come to this realm.”

“Goddess, you have revealed so many faces. Were you visited then by many humans?”

“Yes, I enjoyed my interaction with humans for millennia.”

“What happened?”

“Humans changed.”

“How so?”

“They stopped believing. They stopped having faith. They want ‘proof’. Everything they must see with their eyes. All experiences come through their body now. They have lost touch with Akasha.”

“Yes, I see what you mean. I didn’t know that before I came here. But now – seeing what I’ve seen – knowing what I know. . .”

“That is it. Now you know, not just see.”

“Yes.”

“As humans lost faith, their need for gods and goddesses faded.”

“But on Earth now, there are several influential religions with billions of followers who believe in God.”

“There may be a few that truly believe with their Anam that there is a life after they leave their body and many more hope that there will be such an existence, but even fewer still know that they are infinite beings, part of the web of all things. You don’t have to believe in a god. You are god.”

“I wish everyone could have the experience that I did in the dark wood.”

“All can have that experience and know what you now know, if only they open their heart.”

I had wanted so badly to have these questions answered, and I was so riveted by our conversation, that for a while, I forgot why I was there. But then the vision of Jake and Fanny with my dad on a train came back to me.

“I’m so glad that you have answered my questions – things I’ve wondered about since I came here. But I’m not here with you just to have this talk, am I?”

“You tell me, young one. Are you ready to fulfill your destiny?”

“I don’t feel ready.”

“If you don’t feel ready then you are not ready.”

“What now?”

“Now Miss Emily, you delve deeper into the mysteries of Akasha.”

49. The Dughall Enigma

“We must talk young Emily about our friend Dughall.”

“I don’t think of him as a friend!”

“A wise human once said, ‘If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself’. You have learned much about yourself here in this land of mist and fog, have you not?”

“Yes, Goddess, I have.”

“Then it is time for you to learn about your enemy. Now, what do you think he’s after?”

“Oh, goddess, I thought you knew! You must know.”

“No one, not even a goddess, ever knows what truly lies in another’s heart. I have ideas about this dark one. But you Emily, you must understand him, understand him deeply.”

“I don’t think I want to know anything too deep about him.”

“His quest – if he is successful, it will surely lead to the destruction of your world – and perhaps even this one. If you are to end his quest, you will need to know something of the man that you are destined to meet.”

Brighid told me Dughall’s story. I learned about his enslavement as a child, the horrible life of his mother, his escape and the Umbra Nihili. It was hard to listen to it. I found myself at times feeling sorry for him but then as the story went on, I found my anger rising.

I lost my mom too – okay, she wasn’t a slave and wasn’t killed at the hands of another. But I watched her be tortured by the alien tar being. My dearest one got snatched from me too. I didn’t go on a murderous rampage!

“It is one of the mysteries of humans. Infinitely fascinating creatures.”

“What mystery?”

“That two different individuals, in similar circumstances, can choose such divergent paths. You walk the path of yellow bricks. This one, Dughall, he walks a path paved with the broken and scoured bones of his enemies.

“Now you know his story. What do you think he is after?”

I reflected on the story. It was clear to me that Dughall wanted power and revenge. But there was more to it too. After a while it dawned on me. Maybe he was more like me than I cared to think. And maybe like me, he wanted to be reunited with one he lost. As soon as I thought it Brighid’s robes shimmered ever brighter.

“He wants to find his mother,” I said.

“Yes, smart girl.”

“But why does he want to come here? I have been told – and learned – this is not the place of human spirits.”

“No, it is not.”

“Maybe he is mistaken. Maybe he thinks it is and boy will he be disappointed when he gets here! He’ll find nothing but mist and fog.”

“Ah, that would be the fates playing a cruel joke on one who deserves such a joke.”

“Do you think that is what will happen then, if he makes it here?”

“The portends of the future speak of another possibility.”

“Then what is it? What could he hope to find here?”

“Ah, that is one of the mysteries for which we will need to go deeper.”

“Mysteries? You mean there is more to this place than I’ve seen?”

“Much more to the mysteries, my Youngling. Much more.”

“You will teach me then, won’t you? If I’m to defeat Dughall, I have to know all there is to know about this place.”

“You will learn the mysteries that you need to complete your task. Perhaps someday you will return to learn more mysteries. Now, it is time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time to learn about the mystery of time.”

“Time is a mystery?”

“Time, space. Here, there. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. All just different names for one. If you learn this lesson, you will have a most powerful weapon, one that will help you defeat Dughall.”

As always in the Netherworld each question was answered with a riddle wrapped inside an enigma.

“More riddles Goddess.”

“What is life without riddles young one?”

I thought that I’d seen every strange thing there was to see in this place. I was wrong.

50. Put Your Boat In

“Your scientists say that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light,” said Brighid.

“Yeah, I think it was Einstein that came up with that.”

“Very limiting, isn’t it?”

“Well it’s a limit set by Mother Nature.”

“Nature set no such boundary. The true boundary is the one created by the human mind. Einstein – bright man. Very smart – but very wrong.”

“Wrong? You’re saying Einstein was wrong? So we can travel faster than the speed of light?”

“You can be anywhere that you want in an instant.”

“But how is that possible? We haven’t even made it to Mars!”

“Emily, you have seen the truth of my statement, yet still you allow what you’ve been told to limit you. Did you not see the web of all things?”

“Well, yes I did see it – or sense it really.”

“Yes, you knew what it was and could sense it with all your being even though you had left your human body behind. That is because you are the web and it is you.”

“Yes, I knew that – I could feel that.”

“Why then child do you question your ability to be anyplace within the web whenever you want?”

“You mean right now, if I want to, I could be on Mars – in an instant?”

“Yes, of course you could. But you may want to leave your human body behind for that journey. Mars is not particularly hospitable for humans.”

“But Goddess, how? How can I do that?”

“It’s a choice really, a decision. Your Anam is not limited by space or by time.”

“Wait a minute – time? Are you saying you can also travel through time?”

“Time is a fiction created by the human mind. You have seen for yourself here a world without time.”

“I’m not sure I understand what time is. It seems impossible to go back in time because the past is over. And it seems equally impossible to travel forward to something that doesn’t exist yet. And Madame Wong’s always croaking about being in the ‘now.’”

“Yes, Madame Wong is right – it is best to stay in your present moment and let the stream take you. But time is much like a stream. . .”

And with that, a stream appeared before me. It babbled over rocks and meandered through a meadow and then disappeared into a thick wood.

“Here, look at this stream, so very much like one you may find on your planet. Do you see how the water flows?”

“Yes, but it flows in only one direction.”

“’Tis true young one, ‘tis true. But what you see around you when you’re in the stream, do you agree that what you observe of your surroundings depends much on where you put your boat in?”

I had to think on that one a minute.

“So if the stream is like time, then if I put my boat in – back there, by the big willow. . .”

“Then that is what you observe. . .”

“And that’s like the past.”