Chapter Thirty-one

There was no moon, but the stars shone like diamonds. The five climbed Bell Rock with a heightened sense of purpose. Tonight they would attempt to access the Crystal Palace to meet with the soul of the Earth together. Angeline trembled as she made the climb. She wasn’t sure how she felt at the prospect of meeting the Being from whom she was forged. She teetered between excitement, nervousness and trepidation.

She wouldn’t have believed any of what Suna and Noah had professed, except her vision at Cathedral Rock had shown her, specifically, how it was possible for her, a human being, to also be the Mother of the Earth. Deep within her brainstem, a drop of the purest divinity existed. It wasn’t a generalized divinity either, but an intentionally placed seed direct from the essence of her oversoul, Mother Mago. The Mother of the Earth had chosen her, while she was still forming in her mother’s womb, to be the vessel for her reemergence into the physical world. Mago was as much a part of her as her own mother, father, and even as much a part of her as her own soul.

Toby stumbled, cursing, as he slipped down the rock wall they climbed. Noah and Suna both took great care helping Angeline along the more challenging portions of the climb and surprisingly, Leuters did better than them all, despite his prosthetic leg.

“Angeline, please stand in the center,” Suna directed, once they had reached the top. “Noah, Toby, Leuters and I will form a circle around you.”

Awareness heightened, a circuit of energy flowed around the circle, breaking only when it reached Toby, the weak link in the chain.

Suna called direct attention to the disruption. “Toby,

may I ask you why you have decided to come here

with us?”

“I’m here for her,” Toby said.

“So you did come willingly?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Please actively suspend judgment then,” Suna advised. “You’ll find out soon enough if your skepticism is warranted. Until that moment comes, allow yourself the experience without resistance. We need you, she needs you, in order for this to work.”

“Why?” he asked.

“We each have a gift that, when combined, will gain us entry into the Crystal Palace. The mind of Mago sees everything and is fooled by nothing. Energy does not lie. We each must contribute our utmost sincerity for this to work. ”

Toby nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Will everyone around the circle please hold hands? We’ll chant the ChunBuKyung. If you do not know the text, follow as best as you can,” Suna said.

They began to chant. Within moments, Toby felt heat emanating from the mirror in his suit jacket pocket, just as he had the night the voice told him to come to Sedona. He looked down. Sunlight shimmered through fabric.

The pendant around Noah’s neck also came to life, illuminating his face from below.

The sword on Leuters’s forehead, previously only seen by Toby, was visible to everyone.

Suna’s brass bell, which she had tucked into her cardigan pocket, also shone.

The seed of divinity within Angeline’s brainstem lit up, shining through her forehead and scalp, creating an aqua halo around her head.

The light generated among the five of them illuminated the top of Bell Rock, as if the moon were full on this dark night.

With every recitation, their pendants, talismans and medallions created a collective resonance, shifting the dimensions until their bodies had lost all density. They were quite literally made of light. Bell Rock shifted in unison. It quivered beneath their feet, more like a Jell-O mold than solid rock. The lines of the butte began to tremble and wiggle until it had swallowed them. And, just as Noah once had been, they were transported into the Crystal Palace within.

The cavern felt holy, like a church of the Earth. It was three stories high and supported by aquamarine columns, with sparkling geodes shaped exactly like the natural landscapes of Sedona.

“Now do you believe me?” Suna asked Toby.

His face softened with understanding. After being ejected from every household that he had known, for the first time, he felt at home. Overcome with emotion, he fell to his knees and touched the Earth with his fingertips. He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to fully absorb the sensation of this homecoming. “Is she here?” he asked, looking about the room.

Noah stepped into the center of the space and rested his palm on the crystal orb that held the essence of Mago’s soul. When his hand touched its transparent surface, the aquamarine contained within beamed a column of light into the room from the top of the orb, creating a magnificent aqua bow of light that extended from the orb to the other side of the room.

“My most beloved children . . .” Angeline spoke in a voice that was not her own.

Everyone in the room turned, prompted by the change in her voice. She sat atop the diamond Cathedral Rock, Mago’s throne. The aqua light funneled into the top of her head; her eyes shone bluer than the ocean. They seemed to be lit from within.

“Mago?” Toby breathed.

“It’s me,” she said. It was the same maternal voice that had spoken to him his last night in New York.

It’s not your fault, it had said. All of the things that you have done were part of a destined process. You are a great man. More than anyone, you are a rare and precious gem. It is time to remember your true identity.

“Chunggung,” he whispered his name. “I remember.” He dropped his head into his hands.

“Why do you cry, Chunggung?” Mago asked.

“Because . . . .” He couldn’t get the words out.

“Are these tears of sorrow or tears of joy?”

“Both,” he cried. “I remember the joy, the fullness of knowing you. And yet my heart breaks under the weight of my shame.”

“Why are you ashamed?” Her soft voice echoed through the cavern.

“I don’t want you to see what they did to me, what I’ve turned into,” he admitted. He could sense how greatly he had been tainted. “And I don’t want you to see what I’ve done,” he sobbed. “I couldn’t keep my purity, the law. It was too hard. I just couldn’t . . .”

She rose from her throne, kneeled beside him and wrapped her arms around him maternally. He lamented his difficult life, the boy who had endured the death of his mother, the abuse of his father, and a life of unchecked excess. She whispered into his ear, “You made it. You suffered, almost more than your soul could bear, but you made it.” She stroked his hair. “I will give your soul wings again.”

“If you knew what I’ve done,” he cried.

“I have felt everything that you have done and everything that has happened to you. I was with you,” she said. “You mustn’t look behind you, there is so much more to come. We are together now.”

He looked into Angeline’s eyes, yet it wasn’t Angeline. It was her. The one person he’d waited to meet his whole life. “I know that I’ve just met you. That I forgot everything. But now that I’ve found you, I feel how empty my life was without you.”

“I’ve felt empty, too. My heart has been broken for thousands of years.”

“You’ve had a broken heart?” Toby cried, for this perfect being embodied the very essence of love.

“I am very tired, my son.” She touched his cheek.

“Why?” he asked.

“This world is exhausting. Your sorrow is my sorrow. Every child’s hunger is my own. Each abuse inflicted over the resources that I offer freely is my lament. I feel every single pain experienced upon this Earth. I see everything, I feel everything and still I can’t understand why the world has come to this. My children’s hearts have turned to stone.” She looked into Toby’s eyes. “And it’s my fault.” A tear slipped down her cheek.

“How can it be your fault?” Leuters asked, speaking in Spanish and resting his palm on her shoulder. All of her children gathered to sit around her, touching her arm, leaning on her shoulder, folding bodies down to rest in her lap.

“I created you. I created the world. I poured so much love into my creation, but I overlooked one small detail. It was a flaw that couldn’t be fixed without destroying everything and starting from the beginning,” she said. “And I just couldn’t do it. That’s why I’ve let things progress as far as they have. I couldn’t bear to destroy my children.”

“So you have endured us destroying you?”

“And each other,” she cried.

“What happened?” Noah asked. “What was the flaw?”

“A single desire,” she said. “It was just a simple little desire, so small, that led to eons of death and destruction. And for you, my precious souls, the darkness has just begun. All of the darkness that exists in the world will soon be yours to bear,” she warned, her eyes filled with fresh tears.

“Will you tell the story, Mago?” Noah asked. She had previously shared it with him, but he felt that it was important that the others hear it from her directly.

She nodded her head. “It all started with a young village boy named Jiso . . .”