Settle into a comfortable position in which you may remain awake.
Prepare in suitable fashion for an extended visualization...
Breathe deeply. Feel yourself becoming one with your breathing.
Hear your heartbeat. Feel your heart begin beating in time to the
rhythm of cosmic impulse, to the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
Extend your nervous system to include your immediate surroundings.
Feel the building, the land around you. Revel in the soil. Know
that this is the last time you will cherish Her in this pure form.
Expand downwards and outwards to include the entire Earth within your
sphere of consciousness. Feel Her warmth, Her life as you encompass and
permeate Her. Focus now on your waters. The briny ocean, the many
seas, rivers and streams. Know the waters as you know your own life blood.
Feel its wetness, its potential to birth new life.
Now expand just a little more so as to include your atmosphere. Breathe
the air that is all around you. Feel the misty jumble of cloud which
covers you like a tattered blanket. Become the wind on the waters,
the rushing hurricane, the turbulent monsoon.
Know that you are complete, that you are one in your glory and health.
You have your masculine and feminine aspects. You are the Mother of all
life. You are the Father of all things seen and unseen. Feel your totality,
your completion in each moment, as you rotate slowly in your orbit.
Now become aware of your surface. There are countless life forms in and
around this thin layer of soil. Feel the buildings, the homes. Feel
the star-shaped entities who know themselves as 'humans' moving about and
sleeping quietly. They respond so readily to the warmth you now
feel from Sun on your left side.
Feel them organizing a great ritual. They have waited long for this
time of the year and gathered a great mountain on your right side for
the last Beltaine fire. See that mountain now. It is composed of all
the explosive weapons which humans have created, nuclear and chemical.
Hear them chant fearlessly as they sing to you in love and dedication. Feel
their joy and despair, their knowledge and ignorance. Let their reverence
and folly pierce your Heart in its purity.
Watch carefully as they wait for the prescribed hour and detonate this
mountain in one horrible explosion. Sun and Moon to your left, they
have merged into eclipse, while at midnight on your right the explosion
rips through the atmosphere, extending for thousands of miles, displacing
soil and rock, air and water, in all directions.
Experience your shock as this minor force, initiated by a handful
of humanoids, sets in motion a perfectly designed plan to alter your
normal orbit. You begin to feel off-balance, wobbling to your left,
slowly at first, and then more severely.
You notice that your left side begins to feel warmer, that you are falling
rapidly in that direction, that as your orbit decays, Moon is locked
between you and your magnificent star.
Feel the warmth grow as you turn toward the direction you are moving.
Full front now, your face is hot with Sun's burning frenzy. Moon begins
to glow as She enters Sun's outer reaches. Sizzling, Moon blazes and
is extinguished by the unendurable furnace.
Your air is heated and dissipates. Your water evaporates in a vast
veil of fog which is to be your death shroud. Your fleshy soil heats and
bubbles into a molten symphony of smoke and ash. Feel yourself become
a moth of lava, hurtling into the last Beltaine fire.
Know that you are purified by this ritual. Experience the sadness at
the passing of your old form. Feel the wonder of rebirth as you glide,
effortlessly, into the vast ocean of solar fury. Witness the horror
of the Mother of life. Know the glee of the Crone of wisdom. Hear
the laughter of the Father of the Underworld. Feel the welcome of
the King of Light.
As you pass into this fiery tomb, which consumes the last shreds of
your outward form, know the freedom and joy of direct experience.
Feel your true self, in all its purity and distinction.
As you move into the Heart of Sun, feel the serenity, the peace
of final at-one-ment. You become a beacon for those who would follow you.
Extending your light and love, you rest, relaxed and whole.
The cosmic pulse comes once more into the foreground. You feel the
breath of the solar wind. These now begin to resolve into your own
heartbeat and respiration. Purified, you come to greater awareness of
your true surroundings. Waking, you know the joy of the new world
which awaits your playful dance.
The journey is over. Your life begins again...
Beltane, Dark of the Moon, 1992, 3-4 am, Frater Nigris, O'.