A woman had a dream. She recognised herself in the dream, even though she was not in her present-day body, or in the era or place in which she currently lived. She was in a land of profound and pristine natural beauty, in a time long ago…

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The stillness of the early evening landscape settled over the woman as she surveyed her surrounds. She was on night watch, along with two other members of her community, stationed at the perimeter of their settlement observing for signs of intruders.

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Her people had known for some time that the invaders would come and were aware of what was to take place. The arrival of the intruders would signal the end of harmony in this beautiful land and, largely, the end of their community. Only a handful would survive the massacres, and those who did would be subsumed into the tribes of the newcomers.

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Yet she and her people also knew life did not truly end. Each would return to Earth, as they had for eons, in new bodies.

 

This time though, they would likely be in different places, perhaps even separated from each other. Although this saddened her, she understood eventually they would be magnetically pulled to regroup and re-establish their harmonious way of living, even if they forgot who they were in the interim.

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The evening was warm. So warm she was able to remove her shoes and enjoy the squelchy springiness of the marsh that edged the nearby river. She stepped into the river, wriggling her toes in the cool of its crystal-clear waters, and gazed into its depths. Something caught her eye. An unfamiliar object drifted into view, then, slowly, another. Were they related to the jellyfish she had seen on her journeys to the coast? The woman frowned. No, she determined, they were not something she had seen before.

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She became very still as she continued to observe the strange items. In her stillness she understood they were not of this era, they represented a future that was yet to be lived, yet was simultaneously occurring. She determined the strange objects were designed to prevent childbirth, and that she was standing on a site that would one day be a meeting place for secret lovers. She frowned again.

 

Clearly, the people of the future would lose all understanding of the cycles that govern women and the true purpose of birth.

 

Clearly too, there would be much work to do in order to bring the ancient wisdom back to these people!

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An excited cry interrupted her musings. Behind her, one of her fellow surveyors was staring up at the sky. Following her gaze she saw a blaze of pink lights, of a kind she had never encountered, moving across the indigo dusk of the sky. The woman stepped from the water and replaced her shoes. As she did so, she saw her mesmerised friend take flight, running down the hill as if in pursuit of the bright lights. Their other colleague, being closer, sprang into action and immediately followed their friend in an effort to restrain her. 

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Shoes now on, the woman ran down the grassy hill behind them. The pink lights were indeed beautiful and powerfully alluring. She knew her friend, who was prone to be impulsive at times, would find them very attractive indeed.

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At that thought she stopped. The lights, although beautiful, were not of this world.

 

They were an illusion, a tantalising deceit designed to sway her friend – and all of them – from their purpose.

 

More than that, she knew from the elders that such bright lights would often appear after death, during the passage from the physical to the heavenly plane, where the soul would rest while waiting its next assignment on Earth. The trickster lights were designed to appeal to the spirit, the part of us that resists the soul, luring it to the astral realm.

 

This was a place from which one would be reborn without purpose, destined to live a life with no true understanding of community, harmony, wisdom or any of the ancient teachings she knew so well.

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The woman turned and headed back up the hill. The night was nearly upon them and she knew her colleague was fast and would soon catch up to their friend and bring her home. She resumed her post, seated on a rock. She focused inwards, felt her connection to her soul and her heavenly brothers, and tuned her physical senses into her surrounds.

 

She reconnected with her purpose – both the task at hand and her part in the grand plan – and felt settlement arrive in her body once more. She was obedient, surrendered and waiting.