Chapter Fifty-three

“There is a prophecy,” K’ete-t said, his voice seasoned with the boom of cosmic authority. “Your place in this prophecy is to act as emissaries of the Mother of the Earth, her hands in the task of extinguishing the dark energies that cover the true spirit of humanity. She has waited for this moment for two thousand years,” he said. “I will now reveal everything that I know.

“Three days from today, when the veils between the spiritual world and the material world are at their thinnest, there will be a great shift in the Astrological era that will make the Earth’s magnetic field malleable. You must be on Bell Rock between the hours of four and six a.m.,” he said. “You’ve practiced delivering the energy of heaven and the heart of the Earth in your lectures and trainings, but that was nothing compared to what you will now face. There are billions upon billions of souls who still require energetic healing, and dimensions of dark consciousness that you weren’t even aware existed that still need to be resolved. Through you, Mother Mago will wipe the spiritual pains of her children away. However, during this process you will feel every layer, every pain, as if were your own, which will be a difficult burden to bear. You’ll be tempted to step off of the path—putting the entire consciousness of the Earth in danger as well as your own human life,” he warned. “The only way that you’ll have the strength to succeed is if you unify together with one heart, one mind.” He turned to Angeline and took her hand. They stood in front of the portrait of Mago that hung on the wall.

“You will be faced with a decision,” he said.

“I have seen it, Seuseungnim,” Angeline replied, casting her eyes to the ground. He squeezed her hand, tilted her chin up with his finger. She was unable to look away from the softness of the universe that she found in his eyes. It was the pillow of love that surrounds all life and holds it into form.

“Will you follow this path to the end?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Are you frightened?”

She smiled, not knowing how to respond. She could say yes, she could say no. Neither answer would change what she knew in her heart she must do. “I’m determined,” she answered.

K’ete-t turned to the emissaries. “Before you stands a truly great soul. She is someone who has accepted responsibility for the fate of the planet. Let us offer the three bows: of love, honor, and gratitude.”

When they offered the three traditional bows, Ang-

eline’s soul trembled. Witnessing her five closest friends offer the highest demonstration of sincerity made their souls shine like diamonds. In them, she saw her own soul. “You are also great souls on this mission with me,” she said. She returned the three bows, very slowly, touching her forehead to the ground and allowing time to feel the importance of this moment. “Together we shall walk, until the very end.”

“I’m with you,” Suna said, embracing Angeline when

she stood.

“As am I,” Noah said, folding his arms around the

two women.

“Me too,” Leuters said, joining the group embrace.

Toby stepped forward and wrapped his arms around the group. His emotion was too deep to utter a word, but his soul declared its alliance with a thundering that ricocheted through all of eternity. K’ete-t joined the group and their minds unified as one. The six gathered and there came a turning. Angeline remembered the phrase from the ChunBuKyung. They had taken the final step. Each of their gifts, the heavenly items bequeathed to them, flashed with light and each of their seven chakras shone brilliantly as one.

“You will succeed,” K’ete-t predicted. “You are the hope for humanity.”

***

The hot air balloon carried them through the sky. Noah had never traveled by hot air balloon. K’ete-t had offered it to them so that they could return to Sedona without detection by the highway patrol or governmental authorities who surely were looking to identify them at the airports. It was important that they make it to Bell Rock at the precise time specified. There wasn’t room for any delay; the Earth would shift, whether they were ready or not. Noah watched the landscape transform from valley to mountains. This planet was breathtaking. As the sun began to set, they touched down in Sedona. The protective energy of its native lands seemed to wrap around them, promising to guard them until their last moment.

“We’ll be walking to Bell Rock from here,” Suna said, after they had landed.

For the past three days, they had engaged in a bowing meditation. The one thousand bows per day had left their minds clear and their hearts filled with hope, as Angeline was reminded every time she took a step, their legs stiff.

“I need to make a phone call,” Noah said when they passed the convenience store on Highway 179. They had discarded their cell phones so that they wouldn’t be tracked. He put the coins in the phone and dialed.

“Hello?” Annie, his daughter answered the call.

“Sweetheart?” Noah’s heart leapt in his chest.

“Papa? Where are you? People have been looking for you,” she said, her voice laden with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good, Annie,” he assured her. “I need you to do something.”

“Anything,” she said.

“I need you and Bill to listen to the CD that I gave you tomorrow morning from precisely seven a.m. until nine a.m.” He had sent her a CD of the ChunBuKyung last year at Christmas. He wasn’t sure that his idea would work, but he needed to do something to ensure that his daughter and son-in-law’s spirits weren’t tossed from the Earth when the axis shifted straight. In his vision, he had seen the fate of the spirits that didn’t ascend with the Earth. Their karma would nullify, and they would have to start life from scratch. From “big bang” to amoeba and, if they were lucky, after millions of years a sentient being again.

“Daddy?” she asked.

“It’s important,” he said urgently. “Do you still have it?”

“Yes.” Her voice was strange, distant. Noah knew that she was trying to puzzle out this most perplexing request. Her father was on the run with known fugitives, and he had called her to ask that she and her husband listen to a track from a CD that he had given her. It didn’t make sense.

“I can’t explain the purpose in a way that you’ll understand, but it is important. Promise me.”

“I promise,” she said. “Are you coming home?”

“Soon, darling. I will be home soon. I love you.” And he did. She was his little girl. She always would be.

He hung up the phone and he, Angeline, Suna, Toby, and Leuters resumed their journey to Bell Rock.

“Any regrets?” Toby asked the group.

“I wish that K’ete-t could be here,” Suna said. She knew that it was important that he stay with the next generation of masters, but the part of her that would always hold him as her mentor wished he could be with her in this most daunting task.

“Wish I tried harder to give MFS to world,” Leuters

said.

“I wish that I’d had some ice cream,” Angeline

confessed.

Everyone laughed. Noah laughed with the others, but his mind was fixed on only one thing. Leading them safely to the top of Bell Rock. It was almost time.