Dark Heart - Chapter Four

No wonder he tried to drown us all like cats... so we could start again, and again, and again, I think he eventually gave up on that idea, and realised we just couldn’t handle the pressure of coming from something divine.
The spirit is there but it doesn’t seem to work too well in these bodies we have. Now we can’t get back to the creator as a whole, we have to do it individually. One day we might learn that by working together we can achieve the seemingly impossible.”
The sun was beginning to set. There was no sight of the comet. Something must have happened, as time seemed to have jumped again. The stones had torches in them, which made everything spooky. They had been placed into the little holes cut into the rocks, the mark of the cups.
Kia wasn’t even sure that it was the same day.
No birds sang, no-one spoke, all was quiet, a really eerie quiet.
The stones seemed huge. Were they the same stones, as Kia thought they looked a bit different?

These stones were massive, about sixty feet in diameter. Eight stones at the back had a square cut into them, they looked like windows. These were covered by four lager stones, so they resembled the letter “T”. Smaller stones were built inside this circle; these were about seven feet high, eight in total. In front of them was another T-shape, this one much bigger than the rest. It was possibly, twelve feet high.  In between the stones was a gateway, through it you could see the alter-stone. There was a paved area in the middle. There were also stones and masonry tools lying on the floor, the stones were not completed, it resembled a building site.
Thorn, looking a bit older, he walked towards the gateway, and paused. He breathed slowly and lifted his hand up towards the sky.
He could feel the power flowing through him, the Earths own magic. It came through his feet and rose quickly upwards. He could hear the crackle of its breath, watched the blueness of it skim across his flesh. This was energy, it turned white.
The local tribe looked on but they kept their distance and they kept quiet. Thorn stroked the stones, felt their knowledge, they were so old. Not the big things of the temple, the pebbles under his feet, they had been boulders once, but the people needed something bigger and better than a pebble. It was a pity humans never learnt quickly.

He reached out and stroked a temple stone the touch was cold. He knew every inch of every stone. Most of the priests did. They spent a long time keeping them in perfect condition. He traced the axe symbol, painted on, and shuddered like electricity had just shocked him, again politics.
Jack looked on and wondered if the tribe understood why the stones were whitewashed, and the signs red? He doubted it, even if they were lucky enough to be on paint duty they would not be told any privileged stuff.  No they would not be told anything at all. Not yet anyway, the priests already had to keep their secrets to themselves, and civilisation had not yet seriously begun, not by modern standards and then it would only get worse.
There should have been banners at the temple too, and totems of the tribes, but these hadn’t been erected yet. Sometimes they were dug out in the ground, or natural floor stones would be carved into the tribes’ symbols. Great snakes or horses had already been carved in some parts of this land and they looked impressive, some were very large stretching many cubits in length, that’s arms length.
All the people now moved through the gate way, today was special. Now they stood on hallowed ground. Thorn paused in front of the stone. Had he been doing a ritual he would have stood on the paved area, he didn’t walk to that. He touched the old alter stone. All the blood it had taken had seemed to work for a while, the new Chief had been pleased. But then they suffered a calamity, and the land was plunged into chaos and they had lost too many cattle in raids, the Chief had been disposed. He had gone off hunting and never came back. Thorn had lost his conviction, too much politics, everyone wanted the high-life. No-one was content. What had started out as the spirit had turned into a religion and that was never good, as Spirit wasn’t to be put in a box because each person was different, but as usual no-one had listened, and now they suffered, so Thorn just done what he could.
Kia wondered if Jack had somehow drugged the coffee.

The priest traced his finger along a spiral pattern. He was alone, time seemed to have been re-placed again, and that was now how he liked it. The thing about all this is that because there were two people who could manipulate time with their wills’, time became a bit jumbled and conflicted, it was simply a reaction emanating from both the priest and Jack...the priest had carved these patterns when he was young, part of learning the trade, and had to note where the light had fallen. It was a long hard job in it’s self. He would track the suns passage, and the moons. He would trace the light of both over so many months, through all seasons. But what a lesson! He knew this memory was being watched, but that was fine, he sensed Jacks presence and they were friends. Thorn continued to remember...

Whether it was high summer or winter, the curves of the rocks dictated where he should trace the symbol, the land herself would show him what she wanted to be.
He would then just look at the boulders, and see if the light fell in the right place.  If it did he would then have to organise the workforce to cut the right shape, the correct slits so it fell without trouble. It was all a very big job. The spiral would be cut first, that was his main job, it had to be done properly so that the light would fall through its centre, or to the left or the right, depending on the special days and night of the year. When it was done it was incredible, the people looked on in awe.
Some would say that his work was never done, which was true in many ways. Moon signs, sun signs, the plotting of paths using the Earth as a guide, he would have to name the sites as this was down to his kind, but the ground would help. It showed him by the way it curved.  An example was the great serpent river at the south-east of the island, stretching all the way to the west.
Things were made worse when the Chiefs wanted to travel, in their small boats. Trade was needed, and this land was rich in minerals. The priest would have to make sure it was safe to make the journey across the sea, talking to the correct Gods, which wasn’t as easy as it sounded because living water never stayed still. Luckily this wasn’t his problem any more, more young people were becoming wise ones. Still it was a hard life for everyone, no wonder people died young, if the word “stress” had been invented, he would have used it often.

Stories of information, songs of knowledge had to be handed down, by word of mouth, taught so that things weren’t added or left out, this took years to learn in its-self. Plays helped, or poems.
Every herb, plant, flower, tree, river, hill etc...Had its’ own tale. Birds and animals’ habits had to be learnt so that the hunters knew the best ways to kill and honour the kill. The weather would be studied, like a farmer does now-a-days. There were more duties, the usual hand-fasting, births and deaths, of which there were many.
One of the duties he passed on was the normal day-to-day medicine, though truth is told there were normally a few people in each tribe that were very skilled in this. They had to be.
Sometimes, he would be able to rest. He might go into one of the hill-burials the old ones and talk to his ancestors or he might sing to them, make an offering or just sit.
The last time he had done this a song had been placed into his head. A song of shadows, the time of no shadows, because when you were dead you didn’t cast any. The light would pass directly through you.  He would like to see that. He brought his thoughts back to his present. 

Time had passed strangely again, Thorn was once again young. Kia noticed this. Jack did not seem bothered, but then he knew that time would act strangely, as it was bound to with two of his kind in the same space, it was all very technical and science-ee  Mary seemed in a state of shock.
Thorn walked over to his dead lover. He gently lifted up her body, there was silence, the priests and tribe fell in behind him. There was total silence.
Once outside the circle, the men began a chant, a mournful tune that was sang almost in a whisper. As they came close to the village, the chant grew into a song which also grew in pitch until it erupted into a crashing song of joy. These people celebrated the life as well as the death. The women would soon begin her new journey, and that was a celebration.

Just before the entrance to the village was a burial site. This is where Thorn walked to. Two stones marked a path to the entrance. Here came the tricky part. The big, heavy blocking-stone would have to be rolled away before they could get in. It was not their custom to leave the dead outside to be pecked clean by animals and birds, not in this part of the country.
Criminals were left to rot, as were slaves. What happened to the others was their personal choice. There were many different ways to be “sent-off”.
The two men, who had been given the job of moving the stone, on account of their strength, made the sigh of the sun on the earth in front of the dead women. The only thing left to do now, was to place the dead inside the earth, say a prayer, give an offering, and leave. The stone would be replaced ensuring the stone was in the correct place, otherwise come the day-of-the-dead, this being the one day in the year when the suns shaft of light would enter the tomb properly; It would  run the length of the burrow. No-one wanted that not to happen. Think of the havoc the dead would have, and pissed off dead at that, they would cause chaos. This tribe knew the dangers well.

Thorn stood back. One of the other priest motioned Thorn to follow him. They headed back to the circle. Thorn got the impression things were bad. He had not waited for them and they were very angry, some were too full of themselves, they thought they were important, and never to be left out, yet in their fury they had missed the fire-star.
The tribe had held back, they knew something would be said, but they couldn’t walk into the circle. Not sacred ground. They went home, knowing they would get the gossip soon enough.
One of the other priests suddenly ran at Thorn. He tried to smash his face, but Thorn had anticipated this and just casually stepped out of the way.  The man slipped on the blood and crashed into one of the stones, splitting his head open. Thorn ignored this completely, but picked up the cup which had been on the floor, laid at his lover’s feet, and drank the bloody contents, her life force would now be in him, this was not evil, this was done out of love.
Another priest was clearly not happy with this. He was an Elder and more experienced. His problem is that Thorn had taken on the blessed duties, and it was not his right to do so, he wasn’t that far in his lessons. So they did the usual thing. They argued, and fought.
“They’ll be there for ages,” Jack said almost laughing.
“He drank her blood,” Kia was appalled at this, and Mary looked like she as about to be sick again.
“It was his honour!”
“Oh my god,” Mary murmured.

Kia and Mary really couldn’t believe what they had seen, nothing was making sense.
“Who are you?” Kia asked Jack.” Was that you or...what are you?”
“He’s a bloody nutcase!” said Mary, who was close to tears.
“O for goodness sake. You must know what I am by now. Look ladies it isn't that bloody difficult. Look at what I’ve shown you. Do you know we only use a tiny fraction of our brain?”
“Oh dear God, he’ll be eating them next!” Mary wailed.
“Ever wondered why? We have this massive library up in our heads, and we hardly ever use it. It’s full of information, yet we don’t access it properly. How do birds migrate? Why do frogs return to a pond long-since gone?  Do we have a phyogenetic memory? The past, present, and the future are but one.’  So.....what am I?”
“You are a bloody mad-man,” Mary said again. She felt bile rise up in her throat.

Jack now smiled, as he was really beginning to enjoy himself.
Kia was beginning to enjoy looking at this mans smile. Though she did start to get a little annoyed when he changed the big grin to a, I-know-something-you don’t, type of smile. She was sure she should be thinking of something else, but her mind wouldn’t work properly.
“God didn’t just scatter the language, he also scattered the Gods. Look at the pillars, which you now have to go through to get back to him, think of Solomon, come on, think ladies, think about Jachin and Boaz, you can get information on them in 1 Paralipomenon chapter 3 verse fifteen to seventeen, Cautes and Catopates, this is Mithratic, the twins, the rising and setting suns’. There are loads, pick a few. They represent a gateway, to what remains up to you, and another thing, in Genesis 1 v 26, it talks of God making man in his like, well actually from day one and in every country, didn’t we make images of the Gods into OUR image, i.e. human? We made them human, gave them a face like ours, all the statues we’ve found confirm this, why does no one pick up on this fact? So why do you think the Bible made that an information priority, it’s important.
“What the bloody hell is he talking about?” Mary asked Kia.
“I’ve no idea.”
“Who am I?” Jack asked one last time. After this he would give up.
“You’re a bloody vampire.”Mary said.

Jack started to laugh, “A what?”
He laughed some more.
“That is a bit rich coming from a couple of Christians.”
“What is that meant to mean?
“And who drinks the blood of Christ?”
“It’s symbolic!”
“Nero didn’t think so.”
“He was mad.”
“Wrong! He knew what he was doing,” Jack said almost crying with laughter, he loved a good argument. “Besides, it’s not that symbolic is it, as you really believe it represents the blood and body?”

The two women had had enough. Jack realised that.
“It’s not that bad. I can undo the damage. You’ve just misinformed.”
At that point Mary slapped him round the face. That did made Kia laugh. Both women almost in tears, they didn’t know whether it was from frustration, tiredness, or the fact that they were both scared to death. But the hysterical laughter ceased dramatically quickly, the silence that followed was suddenly deafening.
Jack had taken them back. All eyes were on them for a split second and then the other people in the room forgot to notice that they had disappeared. Time can be a funny thing.
The rest of the meeting was a blur for the two women, both wondering what the hell had really happened.  To say they weren’t thinking right would be an understatement, just a little, so to save any embarrassment they both kept quiet. Mary didn’t look at Kia, and she didn’t look at Mary, both deciding they had been in a really bad day-dream. That made more sense, and it was easier to deal with.

By the time the meeting ended, each of the women had done their best of forgetting the whole thing. Kia however, felt very nervous and a bit excited, yet exhausted at the same time," no I didn’t know how that works", she had said this out loud and then realised the sentence made no sense, but she did know something had happened although the memory was fading fast, so by the time they walked outside the two women really could believe they had inadvertently fallen asleep, and just had a really surreal dream.
Kia didn’t want to walk home and her feelings were as fuzzy as her head.
“Hello.” There he stood. What would she do now? No...What should he do now? Oh yes...walk away.
“Do you fancy a coffee?” Asked Jack with a winning grin on his face.
“Yes...”
Mary came over. She looked shaken still, and visibly shook when she saw Jack, but she only said,
“I’m going straight home,” in a rather flat voice.
“I’ll see you later then,” said Kia, now her full attention was again on Jack.

Jack took Kia to the nearest coffee place, placed the order, paid and then they left, heading towards a green area know as the “water gardens”.
They sat in silence for a while. It wasn’t as late as Kia had thought, and now the sun was shining, typical just before it got dark, it was a beautiful evening.
The swans gently floated upon the water, the Canadian geese left them alone as they had no bread, the little yellow-hammer was flittering about with a sparrow, and the sticklebacks swam gently under the water. All was normal. Kia looked at Jack. He hadn’t said a word. The silence was a good silence, not awkward. He was looking at the sky, the sun was about to set, and that wonderful orange glow this country gets had descended upon the town, it was truly beautiful.

“Yuck!” Jack suddenly said, after tasting the coffee.  “Is your coffee ok, mines really bitter?”
“It’s the, have- to- pay- the- poor- country’s- more –money- for- bitter- coffee- stuff,” replied Kia.
Then she sipped hers, but hardly noticed the taste, her mind was on other things.
“Why am I here?”  She asked, trying hard to remember something, something important, but what ever it was escaped her, if it was important she would remember at some point.
“Cos you asked me remember?”
She vaguely remembered saying something to him in the meeting-room by the doors, so that must have been it.
“I want to know what you know.”
Jack looked at Kia thoughtfully.
“You can get any old crap off the internet, or I can quote you a thousand and one books you could read. Yeah you’d learn, add more knowledge, but would it count?  Well of course it would, but you need more.  You have to look inside your-self.  All you need to know is there already. You will learn from books, make progress, so you can grow in knowledge, but not in spirit. Use what you already know, look inside you. This is where meditation comes into it. Use what you have. I can’t express that enough which is why I’m repeating myself. That’s how we learn. We go over the same things over and over again, till we understand. Like children at school.”

“Ergh! Mines’ bitter too!”  Kia said as she took another sip, this time tasting the contents of the coffee-cup-of- doom. It was a bit rank. Her mind was still wandering.  Jack just smiled and continued;
“I can understand how Jesus must have felt, going over the same stuff again and again. He kept telling the disciples over and over and they didn’t get a lot of it either. He must have been fed up”
“Why? Did he drink bad coffee too?” Kia asked, keeping a straight face.
“Oh, you made a funny.” He smiled at her, and her heart melted, not literally.
Jack was pleased. He didn’t think Kia would make a joke about Jesus that quickly. It showed she was ready to learn, maybe change her outlook on the whole religion thing.
“You know the Celts used to believe that the plants had souls...or at least feelings. That if you hurt one they would scream. It’s strange that modern science seems to be backing this theory up. There is still a long way to go with that yet. Seems to be another thing we are discovering that we already knew. ”
“How very much like a Druid,” she said smiling like a lunatic.
“Don’t scoff!”

Jack went to take another sip, and then he thought better of it.
“I can’t drink this shit.”
With that, he got up, asked Kia to follow him, walked to a different shop, and brought some soft drinks, some muffins and a couple of sticky buns. He wanted to give her some food, as she desperately needed it to ground herself, not that she knew that.
“The coffee here is great by the way, not bitter.”
“Thanks,” said Kia as she took her bag of food, and drink.
“Let’s go to the park, we can sit on the grass and talk. Or the seats, they might be dry by now.”
So that’s what they did.

The park was practically empty. There had been a few people there at lunch time, because it was a good place for dog-walkers, not so good for the walkers after the irresponsible dog-walkers. Kia wished people would clear up their mess. They were lazy and disgusting. She thought cat owners were worse, letting their pets mess in other peoples’ gardens, it really wasn’t nice, and in summer it stank to high heaven. She was for-ever cleaning up other peoples cats mess in her front garden, and none of the anti-cat products seem to work.
She’d heard a certain product worked well which you could buy in any 99p store, but it had one small draw-back, it killed the cat! So that stuff she wasn’t going to use. Though it was sometimes tempting, like the time she was mowing the lawn and a load of fresh cat shit had sprayed up into her mouth. The cat obviously had had a bad stomach that week!
Yes, others peoples cats were the bane and torment of her life. The owners were lazy and not bothered, and wouldn’t care anyway? Couldn’t they get a proper pet? A cat was just a lazy option. 

Jack was sitting on the grass, which had actually dried off quite a lot. It was still a tiny bit damp, but that never bothered him, he did own a washing machine. He sat down and munched on a sandwich whilst feeding a little sparrow which didn’t seem to have any fear what-so ever. Jack tore a tiny amount of bread, and what ever happened to be in the sandwich and placed it on his palm, and the little brown bird just flew into his hand and grabbed it, then quickly flew under the nearest bush, tucked into the morsel and flew back when it had finished.  A little wren soon joined in the fun, and then she too took a quick bite and flew off.
It was said the wren could fly higher than an eagle, an old story but Jack had never seen this, in fact he had always seen them near the ground, height wasn’t their thing.
A raven flew down to a few feet away. Jack then un-wrapped a pork-pie he had just brought. He looked at Kia and said,
“You didn’t think this crap was for me did you? Oh no, but the raven will love it. He likes a bit of meat. You can see them tucking into the polystyrene boxes you get your fast-food in; they peck them till they open. Any meat is great.”

And with that he tossed a bit of chunky pork-pie to the bird. It “crawadddd”, and picked the pie up and flew off.
“I like pork-pie.”
“Here, enjoy the doughnut better, it has sweety goodness”.
She thought he had brought muffins.
Kia took the offered doughnut, of course, and asked, “What did you mean by look inside my-self?”
“That is a serious question. Finish your food and ill teach you. Firstly you have to meditate, or at least open your mind a bit. Try to not judge. All the good sage’s do this. Jesus meditated! It’s the best way...I love Mithras worshippers, some of them are really brilliant with the old meditations.”
“Mithras. You spoke of him before.”
“Yes he did come before.”
“OK Now you’ve lost me.”
“He was here before the Christ. Christians really didn’t like him. He was a big threat. He was Persian originally. Romans loved him, was very much like Jesus, or should I say Jesus was like him, anyway Mithras was there first. The virgin-birth that was his too, anyway, like Jacob, his followers kind of went up a ladder. They would start as a Corax. A raven, then go through different grades. Took ages, we’re talking years, but well worth it. They’d meditate, chant, dress up a bit probably to act out some type of learning thing, old stories, used as teaching aids, plays that sort of thing. All good fun no doubt, but taken seriously at the same time. But getting back..... The thing I want to teach you today is something different. You have to learn that everything in and out of this world is connected. Sounds easy, it’s actually not. Some people take a life-time getting to understand this very small point. That’s the first lesson Kia. Everything’s’ connected. People all over the world, plants, stones, anything natural, learn this. Think about it. Try to understand it. If you do, then it’ll change the whole way of looking at the world.”

Jack crossed his legs. He placed his hands on his knees and suddenly chanted,
“Nammmmm-myoho-renge-kyoooooo.” Then changed to.....”Aaaaayyyy, oohhhh, eeeeeeee, oooooooooo, aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
Kia just rolled her eyes at him, grateful that there weren’t many people around.
“I’m serious. That’s what they do, ok the first was a Buddhist chant, but it’s all the same thing. It’s voice-magic. Bit like singing, music feeds the soul. There are some great Roman Catholic chants that do that. Raise the soul. A couple of Christian ones’ though not as good and most of them are based on Roman Catholic ones, but there you go. The best are Muslim and Jewish chants or songs. Oh boy! Do they know how to soul-sing! It’s beautiful.”
“You don’t like Christians much do you?”
“You’re misinformed, and ...No that’s too heavy for the moment....A lot of it is because of what you lot got up to in the past...Bastards! Not just your lot, I dislike religion, becoming one with the spirit is great, but religion...”

All the humour in his voice had evaporated. Jack sat silent.

“They destroyed.” He said at last, “Anything they didn’t like, or fit in, they just destroyed, took over, killed any meaning, then they had the audacity to teach, love-thy-neighbour! No they need to acknowledge what they have done, and not just them, the bloody ... No, that’s for a different day, I don’t want to talk politics, that’s nothing to do with what you need. Politics kills spirit Kia, remember that. No matter what religion, religion and politics kill the spirit.”
“I’m a Christian.”
“I Know.”
“Do you like me?”
Jack smiled, and it was a good smile.
“Yes I like you. But we’ve met before.”
“Have we? I don’t remember you.”
“Well you wouldn’t would you? Jack laughed.”  

Kia looked a bit bewildered, but said nothing. This man didn’t always make a lot of sense. But he was ....Kia couldn’t quite put her finger on what Jack was, but she did know she wanted to find out.
“Are you going to explain?”
“No” He said.
“Erg! You’re impossible.”
“I am what I am.”
“Oh stop it! Don’t even think about quoting Jesus!” The banter was light-hearted, today was not a day for serious discussions. Kia found that everything was beginning to feel natural, around Jack.  This was a bit strange, as he had just pulled a rose from a bush that seemed to have magically appeared out of thin air. Maybe Kia just hadn’t notice it before. All was normal, everything was normal. The rosebush continued to grow, until it was about five feet high, this was in the middle of the park and no-one walking past thought this strange either. Kia began to hardly notice, and she was next to it. The birds noticed. They thought this was great, a tasty treat. The rose bush had nuts growing from it!

“First close your eyes, and imagine a beautiful, powerful white light surrounding you, like a big bubble, then...
Imagine......you are on your very own beach. It’s the middle of summer, and you have loads of sun-block on so you don’t need to worry about sunburn. It’s a beautiful day; the sun is out, warming your skin. It’s really peaceful. You are on your own, and you are safe. The seagulls are not making much noise they’re just flying over the water. There is no chance of them poo-ing on your head. The waves are gentle, lapping over the sand, and you can hear the shingle being grazed by the sea. You can hear the waves moving and crashing against the rocks, yet it’s still peaceful, even though you know the power that the sea holds, today it is a friend to you, soothing your nerves, calming you down. .....You can feel the warmth of the sun on your body, but a gentle breeze glides over you, and stops you getting too hot or uncomfortable. You lay there looking.....erg, maybe I’ll change that bit.” Jack suddenly said, getting a bit embarrassed at the thought of Kia's body, laying in e sand etc...He quickly gathered his thought’s together.

Kia opened her eyes.
What’s wrong?” She asked. She now propped herself up onto one elbow, as Jack tried to gather his thought’s again.
“It’s nothing. Let’s do that again. My mistake, I shouldn’t have confused you. OK let’s start again, close your eyes.”
Kia closed her eyes again. She settled herself until she was comfortable.
“You had a favourite tree when you were a kid.”
Kia wondered how he could know that?

Please click here to read Chapter 5