Mystical Tarot Realms
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Foundation
THE GLITTERING WEB
Words and Music by Jim Robbins
When I was young, I nearly stepped
into a glittering web large enough
to capture me. I stared, transfixed,
until I glimpsed a jewel with many legs
in the corner of the web. I galloped away
as though I'd witnessed the terrible weaver
of our fate. Soon I found oak trees growing
within the foundation of a house next
to the river. Alone, I inched along
the top of the foundation wall until
a disembodied voice stated, "You will
be back in thirty-five years." I dashed
in terror along the path until I found
the web torn apart, fluttering in the breeze,
the spider gone. I returned unexpectedly
thirty-five years later.
I did not attempt to grasp the water
as I pondered the river. I did not mourn
all the torn webs. I sat quietly, waiting
to hear the voice again,
but all I heard were warblers,
my soul drenched with peace.
Suite No. 5, Seventh Movement:
THE GLITTERING WEB
I’ve had a number of experiences that suggest that we each have a destiny. When I was eleven on several occasions I heard voices that predicted the future. One day, for instance, as the rest of my family was fishing, I discovered the foundation of a house in the floodplain of the Kings River. Tall oak trees were growing inside the foundation where a house used to be. As I was playing on the foundation wall, a voice predicted that I would be back in thirty-five years.
Thirty-five years later I returned unexpectedly. I had no idea where I was most of the time when my family went fishing or took a long road trip, so I had no idea where the foundation was located. That day, I was simply driving down the one-lane road next to the river and happened to look down at the floodplain at just the right moment. If I had looked down a second later, I would not have been able to see the foundation.
Other predictions and powerful intuitions about the future also came true, usually many years later, one notable prediction being about how I would search for the remnants of Native American cultures. Perhaps every moment in one’s life is predetermined, or perhaps all of time exists at once and humans can only experience time as if in a tunnel. If that is the case, then the recent upheaval in my life was always part of my fate. Perhaps my wife was always destined to leave me after thirty years.
If our marriage is like a torn-apart web, perhaps I simply need to learn how to let go of the webs in my life. Perhaps I just need to remember them for what they were without even attempting to understand why they fell apart. My fate is to find the village sites of a people who had lived in the region for thousands of years, not to find the people themselves—they are long gone. My fate is to find the foundation of a house in the floodplain of a river with trees growing inside of it, not to find a family in a mansion by the river. My fate is to find peace even while finding the remains of what has been lost.
Pink Fairy Lanterns and Wood Stars
ONE PATH
Words and Music by Jim Robbins
In the shade, the ravishing late spring flowers,
tier upon tier of Chinese purple houses, interwoven
with pink fairy lanterns, crowned by umbels
of evenly spaced Ithuriel's spears. Where
the embankment slopes steeply, I climbed
onto a rock by the rushing water. I felt dizzy,
leaning into poison oak. Women had ground acorns
in a stone at the confluence of those creeks.
I had never been there before, but I
somehow knew a path would lead me
to another rock with mortars, above me
on a ridge. I found the path
a few feet away running below
the branches of a huge oak.
I don't know if we can return
to people and places we love,
Ithuriel's Spears
but on that one path I was part
of tapestries forever changing,
the threads eternal,
not bound by time.
A kaleidoscopic blue and pink
and purple, the penstemon flower bloomed
where the path met with the other
village site, and I lost myself
in the shade, near
the pounding stone,
near the pounding stone.
Suite No. 5, Eighth Movement:
ONE PATH
Thanks to my wife, I grew to love nature. I think relatively few people go out into nature anymore, even for fishing, hunting, or camping. Many children are terrified of anything natural, such as spiders or mice, and often react in a panic when they see unfamiliar creatures. I think people are afraid that they will find nothing but spiders and snakes and ferocious predators and dead animals in the natural world. In all the years that I’ve gone out into nature, I’ve seen only a few spiders and snakes and predators, and they wanted to have nothing to do with me. And it’s extremely rare to find a dead animal in the wild. But I have encountered ravishing beauty and massive trees and awesome mountain peaks, and I have often experienced a shift in consciousness that enables me to experience the spiritual dimension.
My theory is that the brain tunes to a vibration similar to the “Heartbeat of Mother Earth,” also known as the Schumann Resonance, which is on the border between theta and alpha brain wave frequencies. In other words, a person who is comfortable in nature shifts into brainwave frequencies which are produced when a person is meditating, using the imagination, daydreaming, experiencing a flow of ideas, or performing a repetitive task. Theta brain waves are associated with profound inner peace, mystical knowledge, symbolic visions, transformation of unconsciously held limiting beliefs, physical and emotional healing, inner wisdom, and psychic abilities--all of which I have experienced in nature.
One such experience occurred in late spring when I went hiking along a creek in Watt’s Valley. After hiking for a mile or two in the heat, I was exhausted and plopped down on a stone by the creek. After a minute or two, I noticed cups in the stone and heard women laughing. No one else was nearby. I had sat down right next to a Native American pounding stone. Suddenly I knew without a doubt that a trail would lead me to another pounding stone on a nearby ridge. I had no way of knowing this—I had never been there before. I scrambled up the slope and in a few seconds found the path. I followed it up the hillside and in a few minutes found the pounding stone on the ridge. As I walked on that path, I knew that the soul is not bound by time, that the spirit moves within fields upon fields of energy forever changing but eternal. I suspected that I had discovered a place where I had lived a past life.
I do not mention it in the song, but I also knew without a doubt that I would find other pounding stones on the ridge across the creek. Still exhausted, I climbed the slope on the other side and didn’t find anything, but I sensed a presence. Disappointed, I headed back home as the sun was setting.
I returned a few months later and discovered pounding stones and house pits on the other ridge, just as I had suspected. I didn’t find them the first time because of all the leaves and dirt and grass on top of the stones. Oddly, as soon as I found the pounding stones, I could see the house pits clearly as well, as if some inner sight had suddenly been granted me.
Every time I return to the city, I feel my mind shift back into the beta brain wave frequency, and I start to doubt my intuitive knowledge. Only one brain wave frequency is acceptable these days in our society, it seems, and people have come to fear intuitive knowledge as much as they fear spiders and snakes and ferocious predators and dead bodies.
