The 21st Path, Kaph, The Wheel

The Intelligence of Desirous Quest

Imagine that you have gone back in time to the days of King Arthur. You sit at the Round Table dressed as a knight, your armor heavy on your body. The walls around you are filled with tapestries and vaulted windows that look out to a forest of cedar trees. The scent of these trees drift in through the windows while you wait with the other knights for Arthur’s entrance.

The seat across from you is empty, and you study the cross that is carved on its high back, and you realize that this place has been left empty for the king. The table is engraved with occult and astrological symbols. Reaching out, you trace its wavy lines with your fingers and then feel a tingling on both of your palms. Turning your hands over, you see that the symbols have formed a circle on each palm. These lines will now determine your destiny.

Arthur’s footsteps are heard down the hall and expectation fills the room. A light kindles in the eyes of the other knights, matching your own anticipation of the wonderful news you are certain Arthur brings.

When he enters the room, all stand until he takes his seat. He is dressed in a robe of the deepest violet, and you are surprised that as a young as he is, he inspires such trust.

Arthur speaks with authority:
I send you on the quest for the Holy Grail. Search only for what centers and sustains you. Though you will find the Grail at the heart of all matter and learn that it is close at hand, you still must travel far to attain it. When you do discover this sacred cup, a greater riddle awaits which will lead you to find your true Self, the one who exists behind all the masks you have worn, and all the personalities that have clothed your true nature.

As you ponder his words, the table vanishes. You are now alone in the midst of space, beneath the rim of a great spinning wheel. The wheel appears to generate its own electricity, and sparks of gold and silver are flung from it, each creating a new sun that quickly is subsumed by the emptiness around you. Soon the heavens sparkle with stars that rotate in their own orbit around the fiery disc descending toward you.

You feel the wheel’s radiant heat, not knowing if you will be destroyed. As it comes closer, only your armor melts away into vapor. You are not harmed; instead, a sense of freedom replaces the fear you had.

Four figures stand on the spoken of the wheel, each ninety degrees apart from the other: a golden eagle spreads its wings, an ox bows its head, a lion roars, and on the spoke closest to where you stand, an angelic being reaches down and takes your hand.

You hear the rushing of wind as you are lifted to the wheel. The rim beneath you undulates with warmth. You sense you are riding on a living being.

The angel hears your thoughts, and says:
Yes, you stand on the great snake Typhon, the serpent of Maya, the father of all illusion. His body coils and uncoils, vibrating and creating the force that sustains the material plane. Your task is to transverse this spoke of the wheel to find your balance along the way to reach the Morning Star that shines at its center, beyond illusion, to the heart of existence itself.

The angel’s eyes shine with love, reminding you of the light you saw in the eyes of the other knights who are now on their own individual quests.

The spoke of the wheel in front of you is dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli. As you step on it, you sense a consciousness engrained on this path that has been made of the memories of all who have walked it before you, searching for deeper meaning in their lives.

Winds continue to swirl and though they buffet your body, your eyes remain focused on the shining heart of the wheel. Below you, galaxies spin and universes are born and die. Time becomes meaningless, and the simple act of placing one foot ahead of the other is all that matters. With each step, you are getting closer to what is truly eternal and authentically alive.

Finally, you approach the guardian who protects the eye of stillness within the wheel. As in a hurricane, the winds here are strongest, swirling around the calm center. You are finally brought to your knees in order not to be pushed back to the rim of Maya. Lightning sparks and thunder bellows so strongly that you are afraid it will deafen you.

And then, in the midst of this chaos, a quiet voice inside of you asks: What does it mean to be human?

Looking up, the face of the Sphinx stares down at you.

You have no answer other than to show your palms and the lines of your destiny. You see that the symbols have rotated to signify the part of the journey you have completed.

Pass through, the Sphinx tells you and then leaps to another spoke of the wheel to wait for yet another traveler’s approach.

The wind dies down and you stand on shaky legs. Only one step is necessary, though, to lead you into a garden. Pine trees grow on a hillside nearby. Saffron plants burst forth in yellow clusters. A stream, as blue as the path you have just finished walking, gurgles over shimmering rocks.

You follow the stream until you see an old man standing beside it holding an emerald cup. When you reach him, you realize that you are again meeting Arthur and wonder what journeys he has traveled to meet you at this spot. You marvel at how much he has aged. His eyes are deep blue, like your path on the spoke, holding memories of incarnations, and quests, and the dreams of each seeker he has sent to find this mystical place.

This is the grail? you ask as he offers you the cup.

Look inside, and then drink, he says.

You humbly grasp the cup and gaze inside and see that its interior is bejeweled with amethyst. The letters TVK form, signifying cross, nail, palm of the hand, the Creator with the Midst, and you realize what it has taken you to be led to this place of peace. Deep within the cup swirls a violet vortex, the pattern of creation in all of its perfection, spiraling, unfolding, and then coming together until it forms a cross, the signature of God’s love for humankind.

You put your lips to the brim of the cup and drink the offering of eternity.