Through the Gate of Dreams, chapter 14:1

​CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Someone to watch over you.”WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1979
LAMONT
We continue on.  It’s late afternoon and the sun paints the sky a blazing pink as it makes its way towards the horizon and, higher up, the huge waxing quarter moon has appeared in the darkening sky.  When we get to the temple, we walk through the columned temple entrance into the moonlit night sky of an open inner courtyard.  We are greeting by a priestess who is tending a central bonfire.  Oh, wow!  She’s like a living, breathing version of that famous toy doll.  My gaze fixates on that famous, not-to-be-found in nature, chest.  Those twin firm globes of flesh are both enormous and gravity-defying.  After a few seconds, I manage to pull my eyes away from her amazing mammaries.  This twenty-something lady has crystal blue eyes, thick wavy, shoulder-length, bleached-blonde hair, a tiny waist, minimal hips, and a small, firm round butt.

Her clothes are as provocative as her figure.  She’s wearing the most incredibly high, python leather boots I’ve ever seen.  They go all the way up her shapely legs.  She also has on long snakeskin gloves that nearly reach her armpits.  As for the rest of her Dream-suit, it isn’t much.  Under normal circumstances, I’d say she was wearing a bikini top and bottom made of python skin.  Except here, there are literally no strings attached.  There isn’t any visible means of support for the cloth; it’s all done by will power.  On her stomach is a tattoo of a Python and it is drawn so that its open mouth holds the large diamond she wears in her navel.  I catch a whiff of her perfume, which is the scent of musk.

“You are welcome in the house of the Goddess.  How may we be of service...Oh, it’s you, Basha.”

The Living Doll notices me noticing her.

“He’s cute.  What gives Basha?  Are you so hard up for boyfriends that you’ve taken up robbing cradles?”

“Who?  The Kid?  No way.  He is no way my boyfriend.  He is merely the reason I called us all together.  He is the one we are trying to help.  Kid, this is Boots.  Boots, this is Lamont.”
“Your name should have been obvious.”

“Such a boring outfit Lamont,” Boots says after walking around me to get a good look.  “Can’t you do better than that?  Although, the skin-tight fit does show off your nice buns.”
I blush and stammer out, “Ahh.  That’s my problem.  I can’t do anything with my Dream-suit.  All I’ve managed to do is to get it from drab and bland mousy gray to this darker shade.  As for how it fits, it’s not my doing, believe me.”

“Don’t worry,” Boots says.  “Sometimes Dream talents can’t be rushed.  They come when they do; at least that’s how it was with me.  And, if you ever do learn to dream up some new clothes, take my advice, stick to the same tailor.  It really shows off your ass-ets, if you get my drift.”

I try not to blush again.

“Are we done with the fashion review?”  Basha interjects.

“I believe so,” Boots says.

“Good.”  Basha says, “Is everyone else here and ready?”

“Yes, Basha.  We’re the last and I’m now off the clock.  The next attendee is running a bit late.  I was just hanging out waiting for you to show up.  Shall we go?”

“After you, my dear Boots.”

Boots takes up a torch, ignites it in the fire, and leads us down marble corridors.  I walk behind them in the flickering darkness, which, all things considered, is a great place to be.  A sensual delight.  Besides the visual, there is a wonderful mixture of fragrances; the spicy smell of cinnamon, the heady scent of musk all mixed with the pungent smell of pitch.  As we walk, Basha’s Dream-suit/catsuit begins to glow.  It now has a sheer effect, which, while brazenly concealing her nakedness in semi-transparency, it just as shamelessly reveals the hourglass curves of her great looking body.  The suit now displays the sun rising between the hills of Basha’s breasts and the sun setting in the valley between her legs.  In her navel, she too wears a gemstone.  Basha's is a red ruby.

We arrive at a doorway covered by thick burgundy-colored velvet curtains.  We step through, entering a huge empty rectangular room with bare polished wooden floors and a high domed ceiling.  All along the wall is a mantle where hundreds of votive candles are lit providing much of the room’s lighting.  The back wall of the room is a huge walk-in fireplace.

An Asian woman, whose backside is turned towards us, is tending the fire.  In the way of conventional attire she is wearing black high-heeled sandals, smoke-tinted, thigh-high stockings, and lastly, long coal-colored leather gloves.  The rest of her is covered by an elaborate tattoo.  It is an image of a long ebony reptilian tail traveling between her legs to curl up the center of her back.  She has straight, shoulder-length jet-black hair, which soaks up all light, smothering it into its dark depths.  When she finishes with the fire, she turns and I can see that the reptile displayed on her Dream-suit is a Chinese variant of a Dragon.  The Dragon spreads out with its head lying against her neck, facing the viewer.  The upper claws of the Dragon cover her breasts.  In her navel is a black jade gemstone.
Another navel ornament.  I’m detecting a theme for this group.  In the room center, everyone congregates and we go to join them.

“Witches,” Basha announces.  “This is The Kid.  Also known as Lamont.  Kid, these are the members of my coven.”

I’m getting awfully tired of this Kid stuff.

“The name is Lamont,” I proclaim.

“We call ourselves,” Basha continues, “the Wicked Witches of Atlantis.  The Dragon lady you are staring at is Oolong.”  I catch her scent, which reminds me of an Asian smoky flavored tea.

“Next to her is Zeh’Brah...”

She is a tall and very slender Caucasian woman with a mane of sable-colored hair.  Her only ordinary clothing items are her calf-high black leather boots.  The rest of her Dream-suit forms black bands that stretch all across her pale skin.  The bands are strategically placed to cover the more intimate parts of her anatomy.  In her navel is a large white opal.  I discern the heady, sweet smell of White Shoulders perfume.

“I’m Lenore,” a tanned blonde girl states with a smile.  Lenore has the tanned California beach girl look, with azure blue eyes and curly ringlets of blonde hair.  She wears white leather go-go boots.  Two large and perfectly formed Scallop shells cover her breasts.  In her navel, is a huge pearl.  The remainder of her Dream-suit forms into the image of an Octopus, whose head resides below her waist, and the arms of the Octopus wrap around her legs.  I catch the scent of Giorgio.

“And last, but absolutely not the least by any stretch, I go by the name Selene,” Selene announces.

Selene is a large, plentiful woman with an hourglass figure.  She is of African descent and has her black hair styled like an Egyptian queen.  Her Dream-suit is an incredible field of stars set against the dark night sky of her natural skin color.  She has the Milky Way wrapped around her body and a large spiral galaxy centered on her front and one centered on her back.  She wears leather sandals with straps wound up her muscular calves.  In her navel is a blue stone of lapis lazuli.  I catch a whiff of her subtle lavender scent.  The group forms a powerful and heady bouquet.

Basha motions me to stand silent with the others, as Boots steps out of the center. 

Out of nowhere, Boots now has in her hands a silver sword with twirled Celtic snakes forming the hilt and handle.  She struts towards the altar in the north and, with the tip of the sword, traces out the sign of the pentagram.  The pattern of the forest green pentagram floats and sparkles in the air.  As she does this, she calls out.

“By the Earth that is her body and the forests that is his home.”

She sashays to the center of the eastern wall.  She conjures a glowing azure pentagram in the air.

“By the air that is her breath and the music that is his song.”

She repeats the circuit of the room, this time stopping in the center of the southern wall, wherein lies the fireplace.  From there she conjures a flaming red pentagram.  “By the fire of her bright spirit and the heat that is his passion.”

She comes to face the west and conjures a pale blue pentagram.  “By the waters of her living womb and the dew that is his tears.”

She then undulates over to where she started her perambulations and stops in the very center of the room.  She points her silver sword Earthward draws the pentacle of rich brown soil and dull gray of stone, and then with a circular motion and brings the sword skyward to trace the second pentacle of sun and starlight in the air above.

“By all that is below and all that is above.  The circle is cast.  We are between the worlds.  What is between the worlds can heal the worlds.[1]”

The sword and the pentagrams all vanish at the same time.  Next, Oolong gracefully glides toward the altar set against the Eastern wall.  She opens wide her arms, as if to hug the sky.
“Air, my breath, breeze of morning.  Stallion of the dawn star.  Whirlwind, bearing all that soars in flight.  Bee and bird.  Sweet Fragrance.  Wailing storm’s voice.  Carry us!  Powers of the East send forth your light.”

Between her hands forms a glowing ball of blue fire, which she sets down within a blue bowl in the altar’s center.  The ball of fire remains as Oolong returns to the center of the room.  Basha strides towards the fireplace set in the southern wall.

“Baruch atah Shekhinah, Malcha Olam!  Blessed be the Shekinah, Queen of the Universe!  Fire my heart, burn bright.  Our spirit is your flame.  A blaze leaps from nerve to nerve.  Spark of the solar fire!  An answering heat raises unbearable delight!  The flames sing.  Fire consumes us!  Powers of the South send forth your heat, your energy, your flame!”

I am captivated by Basha’s beauty.  The firelight splashes against her and ignites the glow of her dual suns.  Her tanned skin glows a gleaming pale bronze.  Her wavy red hair weaves the light into itself and becomes a halo of fire.  She is the embodiment of living fire.  The fire coalesces into the ruby in her navel and, out of that, comes forth a fiery sun to rest upon the altar. She returns to the center of the room and Lenore, with ceremonial pace, approaches the western altar.

“Water our womb, our blood.  Wash over us.  Cool us.  Waves sweep ashore on white wings.  The rush, the hiss, the rumble of stones as the tidewater’s caresses the shore.  That rhythm our pulse.  Flood, gushing fountain.  We pour ourselves out.  Sweep us away!  Powers of the West send forth your flow.”

She forms a ball of flame to sit like a fiery pearl on an open shell.  With each flicker, the flames change color.  First, that of the clear jade green of the Pacific, then the dark blue of the icy waters of the Arctic ocean, the lighter blues of the Mediterranean, the froth white of a raging river, and the calm blue of a deep lake.  The flame keeps changing to match the myriad colors of water.  Lenore pivots and, with measured steps returns to the center.  Zeh’Brah slowly trots over to the altar along the northern wall.

“Earth our bone, our body.  Mountains our breasts.  Green grass and leafy tree our trailing hair.  Rich dark dust, oozing mud.  Seed sending white root deep.  Carpet of molding autumn leaves.  Be our bed!  Powers of the North send forth your deep abiding strength.” [2]

She manifests a lump of black coal, which begins to implode and transforms into a gleaming glowing diamond, which is set upon the altar. From the diamond, there gushes forth a rainbow of light.  She then prances back to rejoin the group. Selene steps into the room’s center and spreading out her arms, she rises up on one foot and twirls around like a ballerina.  Faster and faster, she spins into a blur becoming a cone of rainbow light reaching from the floor to the ceiling.  Then, like the petals of a collapsing flower, she folds into a huddle on the floor.  Once again she rises, with arms outstretched, like leaves grasping for the nourishment of the morning sun.

“We are between the worlds.  Beyond the bounds of time.  When night and day, birth and death, joy, and sorrow meet as one.  This is the Center.  From here, all the spirals of life radiate outward.  This is where the One Tree resides.  The sacred Tree of Life that is the Sefiroth; the sacred tree others called Yggdrasil.  The tree of origin that is the central pillar of the many realms of the worlds, known by a multitude of names, in a multitude of languages.  Hail the Power of the Center.  Ground us.  Lead us safely outward and back!”
Basha then intones.  “The fire is lit, the ritual has begun.  I call upon you O’ Shekinah bestow upon us your wisdom, your truth, and your blessings.”

All gathered in the room respond with “Blessed be!”

Basha in a hushed clear voice begins to speak.  “Now take a moment to pay attention to your body and the air you are taking in.  Feel the stuff of life that you breathe.  Focus on your breathing.  Let it come in and out naturally.  Feel it flow through you.  Feel its soothing effects flow down your neck into your chest and lungs.  Feel a calming sensation flow ever downward.  Through your belly, through your sex, traveling down your legs and into your feet. Now, imagine that you are a tree and your feet are your roots.  Imagine those roots digging into the Earth below us all.  They travel down into the soil; deep down they go.  Passing with ease down into the very center of our Mother.  Down into the heart of fire that is the core of this planet.  Feel the heat.  Feel the power that she has.  Now, let all your unwanted thoughts and feelings flow down your roots.  All the stuff of this day, and of days past.  Any thoughts, feelings, or energies you do not want, you do not need, let them flow downward into the Earth’s core.  Let them be composted.  Let all of that stuff be released.  Let go of it.  Let your voice call out that release.”

As a spark carried on a strong wind, each is touched.  Once so touched, a low growling sound comes forth.  Everyone begins to shriek, moan, groan, or yell out.

“With your voice purge yourself of all you want to be released!”

After a few more seconds, the howling dies down.

“Good.  Now feel her cleansing power, her cleansing fire flow into your roots and journey upward.  Feel the warmth flowing up and up.  Feel it in your toes as it flows up your thighs, into your sex.  It fills you.  It heats you up with its soothing heat.  It goes up into your belly and up into your chest.  Feel it flow into your shoulders and through your arms.  Up it goes into you, this healing soothing warmth of the Mother, into your throat and up into your head.  The energies are a fountain pouring through you and it shoots up and out of the top of your head to flow skyward.  We are a conduit for the cleansing power of our Earth Mother.  Take in as much of this clearing, healing energy, as you need.  Then give back to her what you do not need.”

After a few seconds, first one, then others kneel down and place their hands on the wood floor.  Soon everyone is kneeling.

“Blessed be,” Basha whispers.

And her whisper is spoken by the group.

We slowly stand back up.  Now Boots begins to speak.

“We call upon Goddess in her many incarnations.  Many names.  One Being.  She of the three countenances: Maiden, Mother and Crone.  Giver of life.  Let us chant to honor her.  Sing with me, ‘Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Shekinah!’ [3] ”

Everyone else takes up the chant.  The words have a natural rhythm and they flow easily.  I begin to sing with them.

(No!  You shall have no other Gods but us!)

The voice drowns out all others.  The voice shatters all else.  I begin to shake.  (Flee!  Flee!  Flee!)  A feeling grabs me and compels me.  (Flee!  Flee!  I command you.  Now!  Now!  Now!)  I let go of the hands I am holding and step away from the group.  (Flee!  Flee!  Flee!  Flee!  Flee!)

“Lamont, no.”

The sound of Basha’s voice calling my name, saying my name for the first time, takes my breath away and brings me to a halt.

(No!  Do not stop!  Obey us!  Flee!)

Panic hits.  I shudder as if I was doused in icy water.  Hands touch me.  Hands hold me.  Hands are restraining me!  I’m sweating and shaking.  I must flee!  Get away!  I must!

“Let go of me!”  I cry out, “You can’t do this!  Let me go!  Get away!”

I break free and run toward the exit.  (Escape!)  I hear behind me Boots’ voice calling out.  (Run!)  Suddenly a wall of fire appears ahead of me.  (Get away from here!)  I turn.  Then the ground all around me begins to shake.  (Do not stop!)  A mass of earth rises up suddenly.  No time to...  Impact.  The smell of grass and moist earth.  Pain.  Falling.  Hands grab me.  Arms hold me.  I am floating.  I am being smothered by warm skin all around me.  What do they want with me?  What am I doing here?  (Flee!  Flee!  Danger!  Danger!  Listen to us!  Listen only to us!)  I feel a sense of fear.  I feel the comforting warmth of motherly flesh offered up to sustain me, comfort me, feed my needs, and take away my fear.

Ohh.  White light.  Warmth.  Sound.  What happened?  I blacked out.  I’m surrounded by female hands and faces.  Basha’s coven.  From their hands, pour forth white, soothing light.  Bathing me.  Pouring deep into me.  And I hear a wordless chant, rising and falling with each breath.

“Stop the daggers!  Stop the knives!”

“Lamont?  What’s going on?  Are you okay?”

“Who stands before the jaguar and the eagle mat?” 

I hear voices.  I hear my voice!  But I am not speaking.  What am I saying?  Everyone is talking in gibberish.  I can’t understand a word that is being said, although I know I hear my own voice saying this gibberish.

“Who are you?  You are not Lamont.”

“We are the dark night. We are the wild wind.  Kneel before approaching the jaguar mat and the mat of eagles.  Show respect for the black and red of the ancients.”

How can I be speaking and yet not speaking?  What is happening to me? 

Oh my God!  Tezcat!  Tezcatlipoca has possessed me once again.  I’m now but a silent shadow lurking in the desolate corridors of my own mind!  I’m possessed!  Doomed!

“Kneel?  Respect?  Those are big words.  Words that have to be earned.”

“We know what happens when too long have the ancient words have gone unspoken.  The ancient voices have too long been silent.  Regrettable it is that your fathers did not instruct you to harken to the voice of the wind and the voice of the night.”

“Obedience was one of my father’s constant lessons.  You are correct.  ‘Hear O’ Israel’.  ‘Listen, Daughter, these are the commandments I command you this day.’  ‘These are the rules in my house.’  ‘No deviations.’  ‘This is the way it is.’  You two think a lot alike.  I do not think the world is big enough for two ‘Ultimate Sources of Truth’, though the black or white world of my father would be familiar to you, O’ demon.”

(Damn you Tezcat!  Why are you doing this to me?  Why?)

(You asked for our help Lamont.)

(That’s true.  I did.)

“If as you say you were taught the way of the black and the white, then you would know that to our voice you must obey.”

“No way!”  Basha shouts back.  “Blind, uncritical, obedience is not for me.”

“Such a choice is not for you to make, the time of our accessions is coming.”

“Your what time?”  Basha asks.

“The time of our awakening is almost upon us. The time when all choices will be gone.  Then you shall obey us.  The stars will be brought around to our time.  The time of our arising will then be here.  Then all shall hear our voice and all shall harken to us.”

(I asked you, Tezcat, to help me bring Lana and Jon back together.  I don’t understand how taking over my body accomplishes that.)

(We are preparing you for what is required.)

(How are you preparing me?)

(We were molding your body like the clay vessel that you are. Shaping you to be fit to receive our blessed being.  Making the vessel stronger, making is fit for its task.) “Know now that we are the one true light in the eternal darkness.  We are the only way to deal with the fear you feel.  To give yourself to us. To trust us completely, blindly. To let us watch over you. Then you will forget that you are afraid of the night. Obedience is your destiny.”

“I know now who you are.  I know the sound of a Czar, a Hitler, a Stalin, and a McCarthy.  I do not, and will not ever march to the sound of that drummer.  You speak the Great Lie.  There is no Only One True Way.”

“Blasphemous!  You should burn for those words.”

“Ahh.  The sweet voice of orthodoxy.”

“You will pay for your insolence. You will pay for your disobedience.  Our time is coming when all will hear our voice once more and all will obey.”

(Vessel?  Task?  I don’t understand?)

(Understanding is not required of you, only trust. We had wished to act under the cloak of shadows and silence.  We did not wish our presence to be known by others yet.  That time has not come. We have been noticed.  Now we will not be left in peace for us to continue our task.  Those others will be like flies buzzing around us while we try and feast.  They will be a constant annoyance.  They will be a distraction. We need focus.  You need focus.  Thus, we must alter the course of our plans.  In the end, this will not matter.  You are to be the gate. For now, you need only trust.  You must trust us, dearest Corazon.  We will help you to accomplish that which is your destiny.  You will be the opener of the gate to our destiny.)

“I am getting tired of that tune.  I’ve heard enough.  It is time you were banished from Lamont.  I cannot imagine that he cares to listen to your prattling any more than I do.  Where you came from, I do not care, but I know that back to that black hole is where you will go.  Leave my friend alone!  Torment Lamont no more!  By all that is Holy, all that is Sacred, by the many names of the Goddess and the God, I banish you!  By all the power that is Holy, by all the power of three times three, this spell bound around you shall be!  You who do not belong!  You must leave!  Spirit of Evil, unfriendly being, unwanted guest, begone!”

The Wicked Witches take up Basha’s chant.  I can feel each word like needles pricking my skin.  Everyone focuses on me and I can feel the intensity of their thoughts as heat as if I am being bathed in fire.  All the while Tezcat laughs with sinister glee.

“Leave the body of Lamont!  Leave this place!  Leave this Circle!  That the Shekinah may once again dwell within.  Go!  Or be cast into the Outer Darkness!  Go!  Or be drowned in the watery abyss!  Go!  Or be burned in the flames!  Go!  Or be torn by the whirlwind!  Go!  By the powers of life, death, and rebirth, spirit of evil be cast out!”

I feel myself being pulled by forces.  I feel myself lift off the Earth.  I am floating in a pool of energy.  It burns.  I am being roasted alive!  I can see the words, sharp shards being flung at my bare skin.  Cutting into my flesh.  Why are they doing this to me?  Can’t they see what’s happening?

“We banish you!  We banish you!  We banish you!  Begone!”

Arrgggg!  The flames burn my flesh.  The shards, like pieces of glass as cold as ice, slice into my flesh!

“Your ritual is for naught.  It has been foretold.  He is the heart that is to be the gate.”

“You are not welcome here!  By Air and Earth, By Water and Fire, You who have taken residence in our friend, you who do not belong, so be you bound, as we desire, by three and nine, your power we bind.  By Moon and Sun, Our will be done.  By Sky and Sea, you will leave!”
​
“Ha!”


[1] This invocation as a way of beginning a ritual is an amalgam of the invocation that Starhawk learned from Victor Anderson, with some lines she added herself.  Source is Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery, pg. 111 - 112, Harper San Francisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1987.  Newly added are the references to the God whose words were composed by Todd Herriot.  I made two minor changes, I changed ‘his grove’ to ‘the forests’, and I start below and then go above in casting the center.

[2] The invocations used to address the four compass points is Basha Edelman’s adaptation of an invocation composed by Starhawk found on page 87 of the 10th anniversary edition of The Spiral Dance; A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, 1989, HarperSanFrancisco.

[3] The chant is a variation of Deena Metzger’s , Her original chant was “Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna.”