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Dream Solution: Deliverance From Enlightenment Mountain
A friend had a dream, many years ago, which had always haunted him.
It was about a giant universal mountain high above which angels were flying and all round the mountain is this endless track, winding around and around, and a multitude is on the move, trying to get up to the top of the mountain.
There are many skeletons by the wayside and the multitude is exhausted but still stumbling forwards and upwards.
Further still, at the very top of the mountain there isn't instant enlightenment and high reward, but some kind of soul shed where they get locked in in darkness and there may be an elevator in there to take them right back down to the bottom of the mountain, too.
I've heard this story be told many times, it must have had a profound effect on the dreamer and on this occasion, I decided to go Project Sanctuary on this and mess it up good, once and for all.
Now that's probably neither holistic nor particularly kind, but it wanted to be done so I did it.
I said, ok, now here's the deal.
Look there, halfway up the mountain, there's one person there, the hero of our story, and they're getting fed up with that endless "baaaah, baaaaaah" cattle slog up that endless mountain.
So first they sit by the side of the track for awhile and watch the multitudes shuffle by.
Then they get tired of it and start climbing up the grassy slope with boulders to see if there's anything interesting off the beaten track - a cafe perhaps, a souvenir stand or at any rate, just ANYTHING of interest.
So he climbs a bit and eventually sits down on a boulder and looks up at the angels circling impossibly high above.
But then he sees that an angel has spotted him and is coming down. It lands, says "Hi" and the guy is getting excited, this is totally unknown by the shuffling multitude or even unsuspected that angels come and talk to you.
So he says, "Tell me how I get to fly like you lot. I'm sick of the shuffling!"
The angels laughs and says that there's some magic flowers higher up the side of the mountain, and if he eats one of those, it'll do the trick.
Then it swoops away.
The guy starts clambering and soon enough, he finds these weird flowers, tiny and alien looking, and he rushes forward, grabs one and eats it.
Closes his eyes and waits.
And ...
NOTHING.
He waits some more but ...
NOTHING.
Nothing happens at all.
So he eats some more flowers, and then some more, and then he gets it.
"Oh for God's sake! That was a joke! He was taking the piss! These flowers aren't magic, they don't work! It's a wind up!"
So he thinks about it for a while, then picks a nice solid bunch of the weird flowers and goes back to where he met that angel, waits until a bunch of them swoops overhead and waves the bunch of flowers at them.
The angel comes down immediately.
He's laughing so much he has to flutter his wings to stay upright, and says, "Hey, you figured it out then."
"Yeah," says the guy somewhat sourly. "Ve-r-r-y funny - not! I bet there's thousands of people stuffing themselves with flowers all the way up this mountain, right?"
"Yeah," says the angel and looks up the slope, "Yeah. They do it till they die, most of them ..."
So the guy says, "Look, let's be serious here. WHAT do I HAVE TO DO to become like you lot and fly?"
"Ah," says the angel, "Well there is this extra special magical rock ..."
"OH FUCK OFF!" shouts the guy, "Do you take me for a complete IDIOT???? Don't give me that! That's just preposterous after that whole flower deal earlier!"
The angel crumbles and creases up with hooting hysterics. In between laughing fits, it manages to say, "Ok, ok, just testing ..."
"So, are you going to tell me or are you not?" says the guy, but he's pleased with himself, that he's discovered the structure at least of how NOT to end up chasing magical rocks for the rest of his days.
The angel sobers up and says, "Ok, this is it. You can fly just the same as us, EVERYBODY CAN. They just don't know it and they'll never get there. They're too attached to the walking, and the flowers ... you know how it is, you've lived it all your life."
The guys sighs and nods.
The angel continues.
"All you have to do is to look straight up and want it. Want it so much, it shakes you through and through and there's nothing else left, nothing holding you back, nothing holding you down, and that's how you do it."
The guy looks up and sees the angels swooping above, and for a moment, there's a bit of fear of disappointment or whether flying is really any fun or he shouldn't be better off returning to the shuffling but then he just laughs and puts his heart and his eyes and his mind and his desire up, upwards, that's what I want, that's what I'm born to do, that is my right and my home and my freedom all in one ...
... and then it happens, as the desire becomes stronger than everything else, that's when the transformation happens and he becomes an angel.
He soars with joy and total deliverance, with the majesty of flight that has no other reason or reward than just its own self, and the messenger friend loops and spirals around him as it too is caught up in the joy and ecstasy of the event and experience.
Later on, when they circle and swoop side by side, the new angel who used to be a guy says, "After the rocks, there's something else, isn't there?"
"Oh, endlessly," laughs the messenger. "Orbs, rings, swords, maidens, chalices, then stuff that just isn't anything or could ever be found, like grails and flails and squails ... By the way, how many flowers DID you eat in the end?"
"Fifty or so ..."
They both laugh, swoop and loop, and below them, the mountain and the soul trap and the shuffling multitude mostly ceases to exist, for now ...
SFX 2005
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"Project Sanctuary is simply incredible and a joy to use." Trev Holloway