Initiation Under The Rock.

Lying down on the floor of the lounge room I closed my eyes, filling my mind with an image of Uluru, silhouetted against an early evening sky. Almost immediately my body began drifting away, and a light began to fill the darkness behind my eyelids. The light increased, pouring down upon me, falling towards me until, with a rush, it crashed into my mind.

The Final Resistance.

I sat up, drowsily. I must have fallen asleep. The white light was still vivid in my mind. As I sat there, it slowly drained away, retreating and contracting to a spot in the centre of my forehead.

The clock said 1-00 a.m. Roughly two hours had passed. Groggily, I got up and headed for the bedroom. I should write some notes, I thought, before I fall asleep, for I knew that much of the dream would be forgotten by morning. But I was tired and the only thought in my mind was climbing into my comfortable bed.

I lay down and covered myself with the blankets. With a sigh I contentedly leaned my head back onto the pillow; feeling it sink blissfully down after lying on the hard floor. With my eyes closed, the white light began to glow brightly in my mind again and I remembered the vivid image of running through the desert under a midnight sky. I thought of the diary on the bedside table beside me, tugging at my attention; yet I ignored it.

The little one moaned loudly in her sleep, pulling me awake. I lay quietly, listening. She began to cry, muffled in her bed. I rolled out and stumbled into her room, groping my way in the dark. I reached out to find her bed and cracked my shin hard on the metal frame of her bed. Did it hurt! I hopped around swearing softly in the dark as flashes of pain echoed through my assaulted shinbone. I was wide awake now so, as soon as the little one was settled, I took the hint and grabbed the diary and scribbled out some notes. Sleep came peacefully after that.

Next morning, I read the notes. Already I could feel memories slipping away, yet I also knew that as I transferred the notes onto the computer and expanded on them, other details would arise, and things buried would surface.

* * *

I stood inside the cavern. In front of me burned a campfire, its orange flames casting flickering shadows onto the rough walls and domed rock ceiling. Two others stood beside me; their bodies shining in the firelight and their eyes gleaming in anticipation as they turned to me in welcome and acknowledgement. On the other side of the fire, stood Knowledge.

We waited with respect and quiet excitement. Standing over the fire, we each in turn poured water gently onto it, offering up the steam in a token of our Gratitude (to Spirit) and esteem (of the elder).

He leaned forward and, taking the wooden bowl, held it high above his head. Slowly he lowered it, peering into it as if reading the small pool of water that was left in the bottom. He paused, holding the pot out in front and looked sternly at us, holding our eyes one by one. Fiercely did he glare at us, yet it could not damper our enthusiasm, for it shone in our eyes.

Then he moved forward and held our hands, forming a circle and began to sing, to croon - almost to moan. The soft, almost sad, singing gently reverberated around the cave. Our attention was caught up as we listened, drawn by the intensity of his voice. He paused, the chant fading into whispers in the shadows amongst the rocks, and began to sing again, catching the lingering echoes and building upon the sound.

The resonance increased after each pause. We were lifted upon the soft wings of his dirgeful chant as the waves of sound rolled out further and further.

The chanting grew louder as he called upon the ancestors to witness; and the soft sighing of the cavern walls murmured in response. He hailed the Great Mother; and we were reminded to care for the Her, for the earth was our home. Finally, he called down the Sky Spirits, and shining beings arrived to greet us. And then we were flung from the cave, riding on a thread of light; propelled outwards by the elder’s song.

Through the light we flew, the shining threads of my companions diverging from my own flight path. Realm after realm swept by. Forests, cities, arenas of light, flashed past in myriad haste as this undulating thread of light bisected the dimensions. I was carried along its exhilarating journey, sitting atop this thread that twisted and turned; stretching out before me and disappearing into the dimensions.

The song changed. Instantly my attention was caught. I turned in my seat, listening, alert. He called again, his voice ringing through the dimensions. There was a pressure in his voice, an insistence, that irresistibly hailed me.

Still I was swept along, riding upon this silver thread; yet now distracted from the vistas that fled passed. For there arose a deep longing, a need to understand the meaning in this new song. I tried to turn this thread of light that I rode upon; to search for the elder’s voice but the thread’s flight continued unabated, flinging me with relentless haste through the dimensions.

Hesitantly, desperately, I reached down to gently ask this silver thread I rode upon, to plead with it… and at the slightest touch, it obeyed.

We came to a halt, pausing in a large open courtyard; startling a man and a lady dining in bright sunshine, surrounded by large-walled, adobe buildings. A servant carrying a tray stopped on the steps, looking up at me. And then I was gone, the thread instantly following my thoughts.

I searched, riding the currents, weaving a path through innumerable realms; listening to him continue the chant, urging us on to follow the song, to find our own pathway back to its source. I flew this way and that, to stop and listen to the chant, and then onwards, again to stop and listen.

I grew closer … and lost it. With renewed hope I desperately searched again. To catch a glimpse of him! And then he was gone. I slowed, peering into the dimensions, turning in tighter and tighter circles, to finally arrive at a quiet place in the light. There, hiding behind an astral palm tree, was the elder, sitting cross-legged, and smiling.

In the cave the Song changed. He began to dance. We were moved to join with him in this strange dance, our hands clasped together in the circle, our eyes turned upwards. The energy began to build. The circle spun, faster and faster… I was being drawn up into a vortex ...

And then he sang the shapes of the Universe. And we were spreadeagled, upright in the Light - reverberating ecstatically to each sound he sang. Echo after echo rang through my companions and I.

We were picked up and tossed like leaves in a great wind, and fell on a gentle breeze. We were lost in a spiral storm and flung to the far reaches of the universe. We were sent home and came back of our own free will - gladly, willingly.

We became One, then Nothing, then Everything. We were No-one, and Everyone. Open or closed, our eyes saw everything.

* * *

It was dark. I was lying outside, surrounded by sand, gazing up at a low thin moon in the night sky. The stars twinkled serenely down over the desert. A hint of morning scented the air. The great monolith was outlined faintly on the horizon. Beside me lay another, younger, transfixed as I was with the sky above.

Rising out of the sand, I saw a campfire and walked towards it, to see someone waiting there. He was older, with a look full of mixed emotion – sad, it seemed, as he sat gazing into the orange flames of the fire, yet stern when he turned his gaze towards my approach. The younger joined me and together we stood outside the circle while the older sat inside on one of the rocks around the campfire, and gazed back at us.

I began to dance. A dance of inner joy. Joining with the fire, I moved in harmony with the flames as they flared higher and higher into the night sky.

Then I was running. Through the darkened desert I sped, weaving a path through the small shrubby trees and undergrowth, the sand soft and slippery underfoot. The mind was calm, yet the body moved swiftly. I glanced to my left, and behind. The younger was following, the one who had agreed to meet me here. Together we ran through the desert.

A shadow appeared. The body automatically dodged sideways; I veered around it and then I was sprinting forward again. The logical mind clicked in. How did I know it was there? It was almost totally dark, yet I had distinctly seen something on the ground; a solidified shadow to be avoided. I looked up and saw only the faintest outlines on the horizon. Down at my feet nothing could be seen. I wondered about this as the body ran effortlessly on, turning first one way and then the other, jumping and weaving a path, the younger following faultlessly. Then I gave myself up to it. Together we ran calmly, steadily, and swiftly, through the night.

* * *

The pathway became a tunnel. Down through the earth I swept, following the winding tunnel alone until, there, waiting for me, was the Inner Earth Warrior.

He turned and led me onwards through the tunnel until we arrived at a cavern, a cavern I did not recognize, and which he proudly showed me.

I turned to him and said, half aggrieved and half pleased, ‘You’re my friend!’

Looking at me calmly, he said with slight surprise, ‘Of course.’

At our first meeting he had challenged me and pressured me. The next time he’d totally ignored me. I had no idea what to expect this time, yet I was totally taken by surprise at the warmth and pride he displayed when showing me his home.

He brought me to the birthing pools. The colours of the creek were suddenly vivid after the blackness of the tunnel and my eyes drank in the glowing astral greens of the trees, palms and ferns covering the banks. The multi-coloured rocks scattered on the creek’s bed glowed with an inner life as the clear waters calmly twisted a gentle path above them. Overhead, a serene blue sky crowned the tall sides of the valley.

And there, on the creek’s rocky floor, was the DreamSnake. I turned to stand before this Ancient Serpent once again, its head high above me. I looked inside its gaping mouth. It was lifeless, unaware, drained of colour, with only a few black patches appearing on its white exterior. It reminded me of a hollow tube or tunnel, a tool waiting to be activated, used.

And I was back, lying on the lounge room floor; the outline of my body still dissolved in the light. As I lay there, absorbed in the radiance, a series of images passed before my mind’s eye, the last notes recorded in my diary.

Imprinted on a mottled green background was the shape of a kangaroo. It faded and then the outline of a wallaby appeared, followed by the impression of a dingo, echidna, emu, winged snake and lotus flower.