Zoe laughed out loud. “I see you work on galaxy and comet time! Very slow going…”

  Eagle-Man did not understand the expression but had access to its intended meaning that Zoe conveyed.

  Zoe could hear peals of lightning ripping their way across the barren landscape outside.

  “Come, our work here is done.”

  “But what about the second doorway? I didn’t even try and open it really.”

  “If you could have, you would have. You are barred from proceeding further, Zoe. The karmic stone says you are not of the same quality as it thus you two are unlike. The profane, or that which is foreign to the circle of completion, is not permitted entry."

  He added in conclusion, "You are a stranger to the stone so it rejects you."

  “But then how do you make progress?” Zoe demanded confused.

  “Progress is an illusion, little one. You have lost nothing in this world because that which you call the world is not real. It is a fiction of your sense organs and the power of 'reality' stamped onto the sensory world draws its power from that which generates consciousness."

  "The 'real' world, as such, is a reality you have not yet penetrated into. It is the unmanifested plane. The distortion provided by your physical senses eclipses this truth from your eyes."

  "This is why I say to you good is not real, evil is not real. Only that which is before creation is real. This is what our soul has revealed to me."

  "Our soul is an uncreated something."

  Eagle-Man started walking forward and Zoe found herself following him.

  “Wait a minute, but then what’s – this?” Zoe started pointing her hands in all directions.

  “Exactly," replied Eagle-Man.

  "This is all there IS. All there ever will be. And all there ever was. There is no present moment, no past moment, or a future moment that is yet to come ... Just THIS."

  "And 'this' is the exteriorization of a non-this."

  "It is the non-this which is the direct manifestation of the principle of completeness that you call 'god' and it is this non-this to which we all aspire."

  "It is the unmanifested plane which is not a plane. Do you understand now? "

  Zoe fervently replhed --"No!!"

  "Remember, in trying to understand what I am communicating to you. You will always grasp at non-being, and mis-cognize the issue."

  "That which touches all yet is beyond all has no need of being seen or being grasped. It is complete IN itself."

  Zoe said nothing.

  "This is the prerequisite of all spiritual 'progress,' earth-child."

  "You have nothing to ascend to, no where to go, nothing to achieve. The true surrender is the realization you are, always have been, and always will be -- home."

  "You never left the court of god. When you realize you are trying to return home to a non-place you never left you will find a great deal of peace."

  Zoe still could not understand the god's perspective.

  However his referring to peace did resonate with her. She felt it when she intrinsically sensed his pure light.

  Eagle-Man and Zoe returned to the central chamber of the temple. The scrolls and candlesticks that adorned the work areas looked as unused as when Zoe first saw them. They conveyed a secret sadness to her.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  The two then stepped onto the vestibule of the temple where they had originally entered it.

  Zoe looked out onto the landscape from on high.

  Her eyes followed the hills and peaks and zoomed down into the tiny craters and fissures that marked the valleys down below.

  She tried to imagine a vast ocean filled with life. A community. A city.

  Zoe then observed something she had not noticed before. The temple was located centrally in a much larger crater than the smaller ones that adorned it.

  They were standing right in the center of a very big crater!

  She originally missed this during the wonderment of Eagle-Man's flight through the spheres of the heavens.

  Zoe could see now that the temple must have been the central hub of all trade and communication and that is why vast empty regions surrounded it on all sides – it had been the world’s largest bazaar!

  Filled with stands and crowds of people as far as the eye can see.

  When Zoe imagined legions of mer-people floating and swimming by in all directions. It finally dawned on her what this place had really been.

  “Is this … was this? … could it have been? … Atlantis!?”

  “Correct, combatant.”

  “The Atlanteans were a people rooted in magic."

  "Now they are as departed from the fields of life as magic has been erased from your realm.”

  Eagle-Man handed a Zoe a scroll.

  “You were supposed to open the second door but could not.”

  “...”

  Zoe did not reply.

  “I did not come here to open doors. I came here to rescue my grandma. She gave me a mission and I’m going to follow through on it!"

  Now Eagle-Man said nothing.

  The scroll stood between the two of them until Zoe finally grasped it.

  “I want you to understnd something Zoe. You and I are not two different people. I am not an other-you. I am not separate from you. Your world and particularly the people of your epoch are very confused on this point. You look to higher selves for answers they cannot give.

  "Our metaphysical soul wears us as garments as it descends into the worlds of the heavens and earths.”

  He continued, “when our soul accesses the higher realms, those purer in quality, it wears robes of light and I AM that robe of light."

  "I am our souls expression as it inserts itself into the realm of the gods. Then when our soul descends further into the most dense regions of creation it wears vehicles made of matter – YOU are that expression of our soul in the material realm."

  "We do our soul’s bidding, not the other way around. We are not here to self-serve, but to soul-serve."

  "When you begin to soul-serve you will feel centered in the universe and find a great deal of meaning everywhere."

  Zoe wanted to agree but she wanted to keep arguing with the solar god in her.

  “Our soul did not come here to save a fleeting shadow, which you call the body; and, our soul did not come here to pay homage to shadowy impulses divined in the depths by impulses which are not it's own"

  "Our metaphysical soul has entered this chain of non-metaphysical inserts you can higher selves, which includes your physical self, so that it could express itself. In doing so, it brings a realm-of-the-beyond still yet unknown into the world.”

  “And the more we assimilate this divine personality, which is not a personality, into our lives. The purer WE become."

  "The soul which lounges in the court of god has no need of purification rights. It is already as pure as the highest.”

  Zoe stood unmoved.

  “Then make the pain go away!” She shouted n frustration.

  "What kind of stupid soul would let itself be willing crucified into the realms of matter!?"

  "All I feel is pain. Make it go away! Give me a happy life!" The teenage girl said teary eyed to the god.

  “If I did then there would be no ‘progress’.”

  “That’s really funny," replied Zoe as darkness veiled her face.

  Zoe threw the scroll that Eagle-Man had given her as far as her physical strength allowed down into the craters.

  Eagle-Man stood unmoved.

  “I cannot take your pain away, dear child. I can only show you where there is light in the world."

  Zoe replied back.

  “There is no direction – the more we do our soul’s bidding the more light there is in the world. Blah blah blah. The less we do our soul’s bidding the more darkness is allowed to rule in the lower realms. Blah blah blah. I was listening! I’m not stupid!!”

  “I did not ask for any of this,” she told her higher self.

  Eagle-Man responded with the virtue expected of a good god: “I cannot change what has already happened. I can only guide you in the right direction. In OUR direction. Which is not a direction. But a return home. And you get to choose how we get there."

  "You have all the power."

  "You are the co-pilot of your earthly life and when one day you shed this material coat you call your body and its emotional paintings on it's inner surface you call 'Zoe,' the incarnated personality."

  "You will generate a new animal body, or perhaps something else -- depending on how much of the truth has shared itself with you -- and go on a new spiritual journey through the realms of creation."

  "You are truly immortal, you need to know that."

  As Zoe was about to complain “I'm free to be a soul-slave you mean!” she saw the scroll she had thrown away. Zipping up the temple stairs as if in a sort of reverse-gravity fashion.

  “OH, that is incredibly creepy!”

  “It’s like some kind of puppy spider!! … Just please don’t tell me it talks.”

  “It does not talk … yet.”

  Zoe almost let out a small laughing smile but was determined to stay grumpy.

  “My highest self is an Eagle-Clown. This is great, this is great.” Zoe verbally shouted outloud to no one.

  “It is my understanding humor helps soften the human struggle, combatant. I myself am devoid of humor. I do it to ameliorate your tension.”

  Zoe grew more tense – “I’m going to start crying again…” she hysterically exclaimed.