Blue Fox Shaman

another episode of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Fox: Ready for our next journey, my love?

Bärchen: “Non Semper Non Paratus!” You’d think they could’ve shortened it to “Semper Paratus”, but I guess they thought being ready is more important than being concise.

Fox: “The elegant solution removes difficulty” yes. Can you guess where we’re going?

Bärchen: [laughs] Not in the least.

Fox: You’ll like it.

Bärchen: I’m sure I will. I’ll get my stuff together and meet you in the Alpha 428.

Fox: That’s my Bärchen. Oh, and bring your wool asana and meditation shawl.

[… in the cockpit of the Alpha 428 …]

Fox: Setting a course for Venus Conjunct Mercury.

Bärchen: Oh! It’s all beginning to make sense now. Ready?…

Fox: Aye, paratus!

Bärchen: Engage!

[… Fox and Bärchen are transported to the Realm of the Spirit ΟΦΙΣ. They land in a small meadow perched on a spur of a mountainside. In the distance, below the mountain, a broad plain opens, it’s end lost in haze…]

Fox: We’ve got a short hike, but a beautiful one.

[… After a brief, uphill climb, another spur of the mountain appears above them, graced with a Temple constructed of Travertine Marble, brilliantly white in the sunlight, and with domes and turrets rising toward the clear blue sky…]

Bärchen Why does that look like the Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre?

Fox: Are you sure you know which one came first? This is the Universal Temple of the Great Mystery.

Bärchen: Ah! Home of the Winged Serpent?

Fox: Uh huh. “And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness…”

Bärchen: So, too, must we be lifted up.

[… As Fox and Bärchen enter, they see lots of activity in what is usually a place of contemplation. In the heart of the Temple, robed monks are busy using a crane to install a large, circular object covered with a dark cloth. They are maneuvering it above the altar which lies beneath the central dome. Upon their arrival, ΟΦΙΣ turns from watching the proceedings…]

ΟΦΙΣ: नमस्ते Namaste, travelers! Welcome in the name of the Great Mystery. [presses hands together]

Bärchen: नमस्ते Namaste!

Fox: नमस्ते Namaste!

ΟΦΙΣ: You must forgive our dust. But we are nearly ready for the unveiling.

Bärchen: What are you installing?

ΟΦΙΣ: This is the Temple’s new Eternal Flame. I commissioned it from these monks. Decided to go with a little bit of tech. Olive Oil was getting expensive… and hard to get. Did you know the Mob has control of much of it in Italy? It was a shock to me when I saw that in my Mirror.

[…The monks finish the placement of the sphere, take away the crane, and then remove its wrapping to reveal a misty whiteness encased in what appears to be a glass sphere. They then gather in a circle, surrounding it, and begin to chant OM…]

ΟΦΙΣ: Watch!

[…The OM chant divides into a chord. Then, inside the sphere, the mist coalesces to a small point, and, after a half-second, a brilliant white light bursts forth from a tiny, coruscating star at the center, with scintillations of red and blue…]

Fox: Pretty!

Bärchen: What is that?

ΟΦΙΣ: It’s a mini fusion reactor which is now the Eternal Flame of the Temple.

Bärchen: Absolutely stunning! It reminds me of the star Sirius. But who has the technology… I guess they’re standing right in front of me! Duh!

ΟΦΙΣ: Yes, well, being the Muse of Invention has its perks… and connections.

Bärchen: But we haven’t even managed anything like this back where I come from. How come we seem to be having so much trouble?

ΟΦΙΣ: Your scientists don’t understand the structure of a star. A star was prepared for birth as a star by the physical structure it took on as a result of its condensation combined with a rotational energy. It consists of layers, or structures, whose elements will become proper quantum “nurseries” for fusion when the initial spark occurs. Here we’ve taken star structure and miniaturized it. It produces enough power to be a light for the temple, plus a little to power the internal sensors and control units which the monks installed. It doesn’t need a strong, magnetic or plasma-based containment field because it is naturally constrained by its own structure. But the structure itself needs quite of bit of power to maintain itself and to sustain fusion. A large bit is consumed by the transitions to dark energy and dark matter and back again. This forms the dynamic, ever-shifting container of the fusion. It’s all sort of like how an atom is formed and maintained, except using different elemental forces, and at a higher level of reality.

Bärchen: So, Neils Bohr was right with his Planetary Model?

ΟΦΙΣ: Actually, he was very far off-base. You just can’t use a metaphor drawn from your level of physical existence to describe an atom without introducing all sorts of misunderstandings. At its own level, an atom is best thought of as the basic example of a self-regulating system, and particles are packets of information which, from the standpoint of the atoms, are used to pass messages between them. Sometimes these packets are the basis of their combination into larger, stable structures–molecules, and their chemical transformations. Sometimes they help instigate the transformation of atoms by fission or fusion; and in so doing send out lots of invitations to other atoms to join in this transformation.

Fox: Thank you, ΟΦΙΣ, for that exposition. If I know Bärchen, he’d love to keep you here all day discussing such matters. But we shouldn’t keep you from your Temple duties. This new Eternal Flame is quite delightful!

ΟΦΙΣ: So, you’ve got an egghead on your hands! How’s that work with your ultimate goal? I’ve heard you two been playin’ some dangerous games! [laughs]

Fox: Yes, and he hasn’t cracked [looks at Bärchen and smiles] …yet!

Bärchen: [with a slight hint of alarm] That’s me, Humpty Dumpty the egghead. Who would’ve thought?!

ΟΦΙΣ: [whispers to Fox] Did you spill the beans to him about the real message behind Humpty Dumpty?

Fox: No. But it was a great guess, so I think maybe he deserves to know the truth… about Humpty Dumpty.

ΟΦΙΣ: Go ahead, but be careful.

Fox: I will. I always am, Goddess help me! [to Bärchen] So, you know that the Sub-Conscious, as holder of the Collective Unconscious, doesn’t just pick up its material out of thin air, but it gets quite a bit of it’s basic material in childhood (by which I mean pre-pubesence). And these things get selected and passed down, not Consciously, but because they fulfill a need for the Sub-Conscious as holder… Um, let’s just leave out that part when there are others who can overhear. To explain more would definitely frighten the un-initiated. Humpty Dumpty, for the Sub-Conscious, is a lesson that those who dare look across the barrier, the wall, to the other World, to Non-Ordinary Reality, can take a fall and be permanently cracked. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men…” So, let those who dare, do it, and let those who dare not leave it well alone. So, bottom line, I was, I am, betting on pretty slim odds. No offense to you. But I think you knew that. It was in the pre-nuptials.

ΟΦΙΣ: That’s how you have to tell him? All that gobbledygook? Yeah, you definitely got an egghead on your hands.

Fox: I know, right?! But he is charming, don’t you think?

ΟΦΙΣ: He’s all yours, sister. Love is Blind. But, actually, I’m Love that is not Blind. Ha! I think I can use that. Anyway, you’re right, duty calls. I have to run, but enjoy your time in the Temple, new Eternal Flame now included. [whispers to Fox] By the way, I’ve got a substantial bet on you two taking this to the absolute limit; you don’t see odds like that very often, and its going to be some payout, if you do. So you go, girl!

Fox: [whispers back] I will. Bye!

Bärchen: Bye!

[…ΟΦΙΣ takes the form of the Winged Serpent, then slowly fades from their sight. In the heart of the Temple, Fox and Bärchen approach the altar whose base is decorated with a representation in gold of the Winged Serpent entwining the Caduceus. At the altar, they invoke the Spirits of the Seven Directions– the Four Cardinal Directions, Earth and Heaven, and finally the Center, the place of The Well and The Tree in the Microcosm and in the Macrocosm. That done, they find a small alcove from which they can view the Temple’s interior and Flame…]

Fox: You packed your asana, yes?

Bärchen: Got it right here!

Fox: Good. Let’s sit for a bit and contemplate the Flame and the beauty of the Temple.

Bärchen: Where’s yours?

Fox: You are my asana, Bärchen. I’ll sit Shakti-style to your Shiva.

Bärchen: That may be a distraction, but I’m willing to chance it.

Fox: Just more to contemplate… and lots of Oxytocin.

Bärchen: Definitely that.

[… Above its arched colonnade, in the space just before the main dome rises heavenward, the Travertine walls are decorated with carved and painted pomegranates and acanthus leaves. The style is reminiscent of the designs of William Morris. The floors of the Temple are inlaid with an intricate pattern of white and grey marble tiling. A sound, “unstruck”, and much like the chord the monks chanted, is barely audible above what is otherwise a deep silence…]

Bärchen: [whispers to Fox] This place is new to me, and yet somehow familiar.

Fox: It’s what you and I call the Third Eye Chakra. Above this Realm, in terms of Chakras, or levels of Consciousness, the Great Mystery is not worshiped in a Temple, but in Consciousness itself, as you know.

Bärchen: Uh huh. It’s wonderful, delightful… and astonishing. [sighs]

Fox: [puts a finger to her lips] Shhh!

[… Fox smiles, then settles into Bärchen’s lap and sighs deeply…]

The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur – Main Entrance
By OliveiraTP – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128841852