esson 39: Sleeping Lord

ith a twice-full belly, I find a soft place near the fire and lie down to sleep. In my dreams, I am home again, in the woods, before the developers came. As I am lifted up on the wings of a sea eagle, I see the Sleeping Lord beneath the land. I see life along the shore, sustained by the bounty of the sea. I see dark-skinned people pushed and pushed by light-skinned people, until they can no longer stand. I see hurricanes blowing away everything in sight. I see the land cut and divided into smaller and smaller squares, occupied by more and more people. Hotels rise like Babylonian towers. In the middle of it all, an artificial fantasy world is created, and spreads, and becomes the number one tourist destination on earth. People swarm over the Sleeping Lord like flies on a carcass. And they're comfortable and warm, friendly and smiling, and happy . . . .

   I fly closer to the earth, and many people look up and smile and wave. I come down amidst a mixed assemblage and someone hands me a trumpet and I blow on it with all the joy of my homecoming.

   I hear the voice of the Sleeping Lord, but I can't make out the words, so I ask him to speak through the cards. The three cards are Spear Nine, Spear Three and Arthur. This tells me that it's not for the Sleeping Lord to awaken and save us. It is for *us* to create the realm where he will rule: to prepare and defend and protect against inevitable storms; to create a peaceful and unobtrusively-guarded sanctuary; and to invite him to come and rule over us and *maintain,* rather than create, peace and order.

Near to where I stand is a shall midden, and a small tremor causes some of the shells to fall away, revealing a small cache containing a pearlescent cup. I remove it from this space, and see that it is shaped like a heart. The Ur-Vessel?