Blue Shaman

     "Think of it as the seed of the First Time sown in the substance of the world," Flegetanis said. "Its essence is written in the grains of the rocks, in the great forces that shape the world, in the plant and animal life of the earth, in the body, mind and heart of man, and in the place of shaping that holds all things together in a great whole. It is a great unconscious life moving in automatic patterns made to keep the balance in the cycles of creation."
     The rain beat against the fig trees and a torrent of water in the old channel filled the chamber with the sound of cascading waters below.
     "The  Aton is the stone of the world;  a grain of it is present like a jewel in the crown of the head of every sentient being. Kindled in the light it raises the responsive substance of the earth into the light in harmony with the seven dimsnonal world."
     "Teach me its use," Caron said.
     "The way of the Aton is ascension into divine identity," Flegetanis said. "More than this I will not say until that is known."
     "You must if I am to be of any use to you."
     Flegetanis shook his head. "Not until you know what it is you serve."
     "I serve the light."
     "So says every man; for no man in his own eyes is wicked, but justified."
     "I have been where light breaks upon this world," Caron said. "I have seen the light that illumines this world, before ever it is shaped into the ten thousand things."
     "And it is not enough is it? No, not until I know where your heart is will I teach you more of the  way of the Shapers; you can do little for us until you have done what is needful in yourself."
     "And if you should perish while I am in the way?"
     "You will learn  by going, where you have to go."
     "Tell me at least what I face."
     "That I will," Flegetanis said, "and though I cannot speak to circumstance, I can to what shapes it. There are seven steps to the temple of light. Master those to open the seals on your book of life, to know the wonderful one within."
     "And though I pass through the world I am in the Chamber of Ascension?"
     "And it within you," Flegetanis said.
     "Yes, I understand this; everything without is also within, and these are to be made one in living."
     "I see I have not entirely wasted my time," Flegetanis said. "Now listen, in your journey there will come a time when you are faced with a decision that may so diminish you that you will seem as nothing.  It is your moment of truth. If then your old willfulness and desires assert themselves, they will shape your descent into darkness, and into fear and loathing of all you now love."
     "And if I prevail?"
     "Will come the Great Step, and a long, low narrow passage; a time you will feel you have lost the ability to shape even your own life. Constrained by necessity your own desires will meaning nothing, and you can do nothing but follow a path you would not personally have chosen."
     "So harsh."
     "It is not an entertainment, but the daily lot of men," Flegetanis said, "and would they knew the gift, hidden within the circumstances of their day, for release into the light."
     "I was captive to Mongols, adrift on the sea of grass, forced to go where and with those I would not."
     "Now, let it be your choice, and you will find it is not the journey that enobles the man, but the man the journey."
     "I have trials ahead of me," Caron said wearily.
     "You have life ahead of you," Flegetanis said.
     "A life of trials and confinement," Caron said.
     "That lead to release. Man has incarcerated himself in the earth through the dissipation of his subtle substance. Will you now complain because I tell you there is a way to restore what was lost, of awakening to your divine identity in the realms of light? It is incomprehensible to me that you should object to this."
     "Tell me the whole of it," Caron said. "What comes after confinement?"
     "A time when the world is unreal and all human existence hypocrisy. You will feel no reason for going forward, no reason for going back; indeed, no reason for existence in these realms of human deceit and deception. You have come to the end of yourself and are very near death."
     "What must I do?"
     "Wait patiently on the answer; do wisely what is given, and rejoice in it; for coming to the abyss of nothingness you are on the threshold of the realms of light, and the mystery of the wonderful one revealed."
     "And then?"
     "Then you will see."