THE Kingdom of the Web

Chapter 7.

THE CULMINATION

 

Everyone, in all the Citadels of the Union had been told about the

Chimeras coming. Informed messangers the Wizard had recruited from various

Citadels and taught went about and told the people about the Chimeras' looks

and being of another species, about their special capacities and the gifts of new

possibilities they could bring into everyone's lives. The Wizard made sure

everyone was readied with receptive anticipation. Mostly, he was believed, as

fanciful as the story seemed. He had much honor and reputation to draw on.

And MOW, fanciful enough to stretch anyone's sense of possibilities, was

already well known and looked for throughout the Union.

During the Autumn's second moon, the Moon of Ripening Melons, the

Chimeras began to arrive in NiMali. The seven of the Inner Circle came first.

Then, in small bands over the next few days, several dozen others. They arrived

obviously wearied by the trek, in body and heart, as they had never seen the

Desolates.

So, as they arrived, the Chimeras were greeted with respectful curiosity.

Jom NiMali had his throne set in the outer courtyard so that he could give them

his royal greeting as they arrived. They themselves, with obvius preparation,

performed a ritual of graceius movement and pattern to their toning that held

the watching crowds in awe.

After the Wizard settled them into their quarters --nests arranged as he

remembered each Chimera's preference, with abundent other choices nearbye--

he went up to his cloister in the High Tower to give thanks to the Great

Mystery.

He sat on cushions beneath a high set window and admired the clear,

star glazed evening sky, out over the sweep of flourishing fields surrounding

the Citadel's wall, out to the Desolates beyond them, out to the horizon. All at

once, a memory reawoke of the bitterness that same scene had held for him in

those days before leaving. The memory was from some twenty years before,

siting there staring out into his hopeless future, awaiting Jom NiMali's return

with his army from Ookma's Citadel., with little care or plans to ever return. As

he nearly believed then, the abuse of his sensibilities and autonomy while at

court outweighed and canceled those obligations of his duties as Court Wizard

and to guide Jom's soul growth, as he'd promised King Rega. When his pet

chipta had come to illumine his search for a way to escape.

Now that recall came together with the joy and fulfillment the scene

held for him now. The Wizard realized, he was just the opposite as he had been.

Not only was he back here as benefactor to the same people he'd wanted so to

escape, he'd also brought the means for them to awaken to the treasures of their

own and each others' souls in the W.E.B..

From the fusion of that memory and who he was now came a fantastic

realization: He, Shantu Ya', had become his companion self, his own

compliment and fruition.

Phrases came to him:

I am another.

I am another brother.

I am another brother to my self.

 

The apron of fields around the Citadel, the Wizard saw, by dint of toil

and nurture, had widened a bit into the Desolates since then. As his beard had

grown chest-length and gone mostly gray. All that in the course of time.

But something beyond time had entered his life to turn it around and

bring him to be his "other", something beyond the bounds of what he'd

comprehended before. He laughed, realizing it had all unspun from beneath his

hand, had sprung from his cutting that one specter gene loose in the chiptas.

From that "unpredictable" had come the Chimeras. And from them, as

unforeseen to them as they were to him, was their awakening to the W.E.B..

What unforeseeables are brewing now? Shantu Ya' reflected with

amused awe.

Soon after the Chimeras arrived they began to prepare the way for their

work. Though they were alien in species and temperament, Jom NiMali, among

many others, began to perceive the truth of what the Wizard had told of their

role in the W.E.B. and its blessings. The Prince watched the Wizard blossom

too in their presence with a fullness and peace he envied.

On his walks during that deepening Fall, in a welcomed mood of his

own ripeness and fruition, Shantu Ya' watched the ripe brown barley harvested,

the fruit trees ripen with apples and quince, their leaves turn to gold and

crimson. He wondered at all that had happened to him, at all that was happening

now. With the essential natures of the Chimeras and humans opened to each

others' knowing and merging in the W.E.B., the nature of the W.E.B. itself must

change. It would not stop there, he knew. He'd been shown all those other kinds

of beings connected in his Initiation vision. The connecting from one species to

another, from one form of life to another would continue. That would foster its

change and growth, the Wizard knew. The W.E.B. was alive.

In the early days of that third moon, the one called "Thin Ice on the

Pond", Jom NiMali asked to be prepared for merging with the W.E.B.. Now it

was the time for the Wizard to be guide and midwife. He had Kyxara to confer

with, but with the human to human communication, and their long history

together, much needed to be reinterpreted to suit Jom NiMali himself.

The Wizard enjoyed being his mentor again. The Prince's mind, over

these past years, had grown more subtle as well as focused. His pride made sure

that he understood all that the Wizard taught him. But it was clear he really

accepted only what pleased his self-interest, his curiosity or his desire to

conquer, what ever the realm. When the Wizard shared this concern with her,

Kyxara reminded him, that personal preferences made little of no difference. It

only mattered that the teachings and techniques were there firm in his

consciousness as resources when he merged with the W.E.B.. The more he

released and opened to it, she affirmed to obvious, the more fully he could

receive. She was subtly teasing Shantu Ya', he soon realized, about one of his

own rough places in his preparation. It had taken her long, patient work to help

him recognize his own apprehensive clinging to his wizardly gifts and

pretensions.

 

He and the Prince were sitting in the Prince's private Meeting Chamber,

looking out over a flowering garden the Prince indulged himself in. They were

savoring the pleasant late afternoon and enjoying some refreshments. The

Wizard recalled that talk with Kyxara and wondered what it would be like for

the Prince when all his guardedness and shielding dissolved? The Wizard

couldn't even imagine, but he suspected that inconceivable might soon come to

pass.

Even as this thought came to his mind, the Prince voiced this concern,

"But when you're so intimately connected with so many others in the W.E.B.,

don't you actually loose something of yourself?" Jom was truly concerned and

felt threatened. Guarded as he was, using that word, intimately, showed this was

no small matter for him.

The Wizard looked into his eyes for some moments. "What one looses,

m'lord, that is swept away in that state of truly knowing oneself and others, are

all the pretend defenses and constructed fears that we think we are. No, on my

word, it will help you truly be and know yourself without guise or confusion.

You will be the Jom NiMali you have always sought," he assured the attentive

Prince with certainty.

"And my subjects, how will they take to such a change in me. Will they,

can I continue to be their liege?" He leaned forward in his chair and asked with

determination.

The Wizard paused to calmly search into the depths of the Prince's eyes.

Behind all the layers of guises and defences, there was a child's fear, asking if

he could ever be good enough. Ah yes, his father's expectations. Good King that

Rega was, he bequeathed this striving to his son as a curse.

"Yes, Prince Jom NiMali, all your scattered, wandering parts will gather

and join in celebration." As he said this, recall of his first ecstatic taste of

completeness fills him. "Thus, as I am more completely Wizard, on merging

with the W.E.B., you will become truly prepared to be their King."

"All right, Wizard, I am convinced. But you know me far to well to think

that submitting to anyone or anything is..is..," Jom couldn't find the word, but

his grimace and clenched fists told it well. "And what about all my

responsibility and...and power," the Wizard was pleased at his hesitations, "who

is to deal with all that then." He hesitated again. Not a usual characteristic for

the Prince." You're not fit for the stress of that role," he told the Wizard and

chuckled, but there was some suspicious doubt in his tone.

"I'm not the one to say, m'lord. But I do know you will still be much a

part of all that. But from a very different perspective, shall we say. And

probably a more satisfying one too." His tone was especially kind and

reassuring, though he was glad to note the Prince was at ease though he spoke

of releasing things core to his life. Though he had no means to phrase it, he was

convinced to his depths that the Wizard led him aright. They both felt relieved,

assured. They had reached a peacefulness. Gentle late afternoon sunlight laid

its golden latticework across them and over the rich rug and tapestries.

Everything seemed sweetly embraced in it.

Then, suddenly, like rocks being hurled, a thumping thundered from his

solid wood door. They both were jarred and rose with a startle, faces gripped in

questioning.

"No one could get here but another Chiefman Jom asserted to reassure

them both. Another thudding three knocks. "All right, all right I'll open," he

called back in a strong but even voice. The Wizard sat back down while the

Prince walked across the room, unbolted the door, and opened it.

It was Ookma, hunched in anger and his fists to his hips. But, they were

both relieved to see, he held no weapon.

"Welcome, Brother Ookma," the Prince told him. "Come sit with us and

tell us what disturbs you so." The Wizard smiled warmly at the Prince's ease

with all this, confirming his readimess for his merging."

The Prince led Ookma to their chairs by the window where they were

sitting and indicated a chair and some light food and drink on a nearby side

board. Ookma sat still hunched up, his hooded eyes and nostrils held an

especially wrathful grimace. The sunlight gave his greenish skin a sheen.

After he had poured himself a few goblets of NiMali's finest red wine,

the Prince, again in a kindly voice, asked him about his upset.

"I want to know for certain..." he turned to stare accusingly at the

Wizard. "All these demon creatures walking about. And talk of new kinds of

happenings. Promises of our lives being better. You say it like all our worries

would be gone."

"Not gone," the Prince gently broke in, "but seen very differently. Yes.

In a good way." His calm assurance made the Wizard very happy.

"So, what I must know, is this W.E.B. you tell us about and these strange

creatures are somehow part of..." He hesitated and looked down at his w.e.b.bed

feet. "Is this truly a means to our coming out of this misery we make for

ourselves. A unifier, you say. Or is it.. is it an even more powerful weapon that

one has designed in those High Malia?" Again he scowled at the Wizard, who

didn't react or alter his comfortable smile at all. He knew he best keep silent.

The Prince laughed, warmly looking into his face. "Believe me, brother

Ookma I can understand your questioning." He gave the Wizard an

acknowledging nod of the head. "It is difficult to offer all that one knows of

oneself, even with the evident assurance that you will gain a fuller, happier self.

"But how are we to be sure its not just another way of you grasping

control over us all."

They were silent some while, a calm, pensive silence.

"Brother Ookma, I have been far too deceitful and grasping over the

years to ask you to take my word. All I can offer you by way of assurance is

your own judgment. I am in preparation and hope to soon merge with the

W.E.B.. That is the only way to answer your doubts with certainty.

The Wizard's smile deepened and admiration for Jom came into his eyes.

 

As they reached the fullness of that Moon, as a final act of preparation,

Shantu Ya' aligned and balanced Jom NiMali's aura. He guided the subtle

bodies that comprised the Prince's soul into mutually affirming resonance. As

the Wizard worked with these biomagnetic energies, he could perceive deeper

to better understand Jom NiMali's core nature, his inmost workings. Whereas

the Wizard had always wanted his aura and subtle senses to be as open and

receptive as possible, he saw the Prince's was held very close to his physical

body, tight, guarded, dense. Resonating with it gave the Wizard a kind of

claustrophobia. Now more open and self attuned through his practices, the

Prince could receive and align more completely in the merging.

After the Prince began to come for preparation, many others soon followed. The

Wizard and Jom NiMali shared a warm laugh of celebration when Ookma too

came with his request. The Chimeras and MOW prepared most of the others, but

Kyxara advised the Wizard to continue to focus his attention to the Prince, and

now to accept Ookma for preparation too.

At times, the Wizard stopped in wonderment at the rightness in all this

happening. The affliction that drove him to escape this place was part of this

gift too.

* * *

The pond used for irrigating the surrounding fields did freeze by the full

of that moon. All those aspirants that the Inner Circle felt were readied,

gathered in the Great Hall, even that place where that they had been planning

war and conquest just months before. The Hall was emptied but for a wide

circle of about 50 chairs interspersed with the Inner Circle's perches among

them. The Wizard sat next to Kyxara's perch and Jom NiMali was pleased to sit

at MOW's side.

They sat silently for a long while, evening turning to starry night

outside the tall, domed windows. Then L'Met began the invocation. The Hall

soon reverberated with the Chanters' rich, near discordant chords whose

overtones evoked stirring, unique images and feelings. They created a harmonic

that brought the W.E.B. into tangible presence. At once, with relief and

abandon, the Wizard was catapulted into the now familiar edgeless awareness.

Released from inward fragmentation and outer masks, the ceremony that

followed took him profoundly into immersion with primal, pure consciousness.

He was re-awoken to the Cosmic Mind.

From that Knowing, he witnessed Jom NiMali's psyche drawn through

the workings of the W.E.B., his shell-like aura melted open to reveal his heart.

The Wizard remembered his own skull had been opened in much the same way

at his merging with the W.E.B.. He saw strands of that same living substance

were connected to the dominant nodes in the Prince's body-mind-being. In

higher dimensions, these were also fused with leads connecting to the Chimeras

nodes' and the Wizard's own. He was thus witness to the visioning Jom NiMali

received as he became another conscious cell in the Cosmic Brain, his mind

another portal to the Cosmic Mind.

Jom NiMali, in this merging, was relieved of all need and cause for self-

deceit and confusion. In serving this role in the W.E.B., he now was fulfilled in

his own unfettered being. The power that he'd vented through his personality

now became spiritual power. This was beamed into the Wizard's awareness with

peace-filled light.

Then the Prince and the Wizard were drawn to turn to face each other.

The Wizard no longer needed to defend his sensitivities from the grasp of the

Prince's drive to control. Jom NiMali no longer felt need to sharpen his power

to deal with the vague mysteries of the other's nature. They rested in each

other's soul presence in great joy. For them both, this was the fulfillment of an

old longing.

As the Wizard saw Jom now, he understood why he was there to serve

the Prince. And the Prince, at last, could honor the many realms the Wizard

roamed that he could never. He understood that he could best care for his

Kingdom's needs by caring for the Wizard in his. He was readied to be the Wise

King rather than the Warrior King.

Thus each person entered the W.E.B., one by one, each in their own way.

First there was exalted self awareness. Self-fulfillment. Then came the

recognition that that their own awareness rested in and reflected a field of

Awareness. With each one, Shantu Ya' re-experienced his own realization that

his mind is Mind, his life is Life, infinite and eternal. One by one, the Wizard

watched the "lights" of those merging go on, watched these beings who had

seen themselves as separate, even antagonistic, now join in the W.E.B., being

by being.

The Wizard observed Ookma heal of the wounds that had fragmented his

hybrid being. He found assurance that everything does somehow come together,

just as it is. With this deepest assurance that he is acceptable just as he is,

Ookma's cloak of protective barbs dissolved away.

Then Ookma and Jom NiMali came face to face, soul to soul. Outer

differences and choices had no role of recognizing each other in this state in

which everything is fulfilled, complete in itself. Every need and desire carried

its own quenching. The grasping and striving that had held these two beings

apart, now had no reason to be. Jom NiMali and Ookma, though they had been

sworn enemies in the flesh, now met in the broad fields of Consciousness where

only essence mattered. And they recognized themselves as kindred souls.

Belonging to this unity overcame the human sense of separation, the

confines of self-consciousness. In this cosmic pattern everything assumed its

rightful place as a manifestation of Divine compassion.

It is sensed as a quiet burning, a healing energy that emanates from

within to mix and merge with others' energy fields. This sacred soul energy

surrounds and permeates the body offering it wondrous expanses. This mixing

creates a Sacred Circle with each being as a sacred entrance and a sacred exit.

This holy surge of sacred fire streams out through and binds all things together

in this multidimensional energy grid. They are woven together through this

underlying superior Reality that Is. The interconnectivity birthed through this

Divine outpouring is the Wholelife Energy Bond.

As the W.E.B. radiated this through MOW, its eyes glowed with golden

light. As background, the Chanters wove their intertwining chorus that mounted

with each one's merging. All the single notes of each one's being resonated,

joined in the chorus.

At last, the Wizard hoped, there was to be a unified harmonic strung

across Eternity, a synergy of the voices and psyches of every being in the

W.E.B., a single melody in Cosmic Mind's consciousness, a single thought,

huge as the ebb and flow of galaxies.

It is a W.E.B. of compassion, Shantu Ya' knew, because they were not

just being openly present and aware to each other, but willing to become

inwardly knowing of each other's reality. That was when one experienced the

heart's innermost truth that all are one. He saw this W.E.B. of aliveness

touching the earth around them too. He could foresee the fields flourishing

further and further out, even cleansing and renewing the barren Desolates, grain

by grain, being touched with the W.E.B.'s healing power. His mind, established

in that timeless moment, knew that this fusion of human initiates into the

W.E.B. was also the beginning of the healing of Earth.

 

No longer is there self and other. There is only this "I"

that illumines these various facets of being. Taking form as

Kyxara and MOW, as Ookma and Jom NiMali.

And this bit I call Shantu Ya', the Wizard realized, is me.

 

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Copyright Nathaniel Schwartz 2010