I had been dreaming about Athlanta, and when I woke I was surprised to find that I was in Kam, five thousand years further on in time than when I was away from my body.
After I had told Ney-sey-ra of my dream, I asked him why there should be this timelessness away from Earth. And he said that he would explain it to me, but first he wished to see whether I could put my knowledge into words for myself. So I sent for Thoth-terra-das to record my speech. After I left my body, I travelled to where I could see time clearly. And when I returned, Thoth-terra-das read my words to me.
“On Earth I see Time as a straight line. Upon it, the present is a point from which, in opposite directions, stretch the past and the future, marked into divisions of the years like thumb-joints on the the taut string of the drawing-scribe. On Earth I see the horizon also as a straight line. When I am free of my body, I can see Earth as a sphere and Time as a circle. Upon this circle are the years marked, and if one travels along it, then is the distance between any two points greater or lesser according to the distance that one travels, just as it is on Earth. But I can reach to a place where it is as though the circle of time were the rim of a wheel, and I upon the hub of it. From me radiate the spokes, which are of equal length, whether they go to a point in time of what I have been, what I am, or what I shall become. While I am here, that moment I was first born as man—though it was before this little Earth—and that moment when I left the body that I dwell in now, and that future time when I shall be reborn, are at the same distance from me; for where I am is within and beyond Time, for it is the centre of a circle where past, present, and future, join and are eternal. When my future and my past are joined, then will my circle be complete, and I shall be free of the limitations of Earth. And when the circle of Earth is complete, Earth will have fulfilled its purpose. And it shall be a moon unto another world.”
Ney-sey-ra told me that I had well expressed the truth, and, in so doing, had gained knowledge of the bonds of Time and learnt how to free myself from them more speedily; which would help me in my work.
This knowledge made many things more clear to me. On Earth, memory struggles through the mists of years and we are often forgetful of experience that strives to tell us what is the right path; but from the hub of the Wheel of Time, all things are clear and there is no need to remember what we have learnt, for all our wisdom is with us at one place and time, pure and unshaken in the endless now.
And I asked Ney-sey-ra, “Away from Earth I can see the past as clearly as the present, why can I not see my future?”
And he said, “The past is solid, for what has been done cannot be changed. But every action that you do is changing a future, which is fluid and can be altered, into a past, which is permanent. Your to-morrow, or your life when next you are born, is like a pool in which you are reflected. At any moment it can be known what state the pool of your future is in, but by your free will you can make the storms upon it become quiet, or change its placid surface into waves. That is why so few prophecies come to pass. Look at that gardener carrying a water-jar. I can prophesy that he will cross the courtyard with his jar unspilled, but that is the future which his present actions form. But if he stumbles, or throws down the jar of his own will, then his present future is changed, for by his action he has brought another result into being; and so my prophecy would have been wrong. It is true to say that with the knowledge of all circumstances a picture of a future can be built up. But this is a picture which few are allowed to see, for it might influence a man’s actions. One who had a great store of good to reap, seeing a future clear and undisturbed and thinking himself secure, might let weeds grow in his field and spoil his harvest. Or another, seeing the famine he must have, might in his despair abandon his fields and so bereave himself of even his few ears of corn.
“Think not of the future except to mould it by the present in which you live; and sow the seed that you will wish to reap.”