I look around, but there is no sign of the room or the prison. It’s dark, and there is
no moon either. I can only see a few feet in front of me. I hear music in the
distance. At first it sounds like amplified jungle noises, but it becomes intertwined
with progressive drumming. A female voice starts chanting. The chant is looped
and a sensual moan echoes through the jungle. I run towards the sound. A loud
creed breaks out as what sounds like a thousand voices repeat the chant in
unison.
As I come closer I can see people gathered in an opening in the jungle. People are
swinging balls of fire that are attached to ropes, and hoops and bars that are set
alight, around the crowd. The trees surrounding the opening are illuminated with
lights and strange animals and shapes. There is a gathering of thousands inside
the opening. They are all dancing with their backs facing me. Their bodies are
covered in paint. The right half in red patterns and the left half in solid black.
Behind them there is a giant waterfall. This must be the opening near the water
source from the map!
They are facing a bizarre looking stage made up of multiple trees plaited into one
another. There is a giant projection above the canopy of a woman performing on
the weird tree stage.
She has silver scales on her hands and forearms and long plaited watery hair
running down her spine, like a waterfall that opens out into a tail. She looks like a
mermaid. She seems to be directing the dance because everyone mimics her
moves. Her arms and body movements are in sync with the music and the
drumming. It’s like she is orchestrating the music according to her movements. If I
didn’t know any better, I’d say she was a mystical eccentric DJ.
She chants again, and the crowd follows suit. The drumming intensifies like it’s
building up to something. I am drawn into the dance floor, but I resist. I spot a girl
dancing and I recognize her movements as the girl from my vision. I take off my
clothes to blend in and run into the crowd just as the base drops.
I pass the people playing with fire. They look indifferent to my presence.
I accidently bump into two people and I start running through the crowd in a
slight panic. The drumming is coming from the front. As I come closer to the
stage I can see the drums illuminate when they are struck. They are mounted
onto platforms in the treetops and range from largest closest to the stage and
radiate outward in decreasing sizes.
The crowd starts cheering and I can feel the bass drop coming up again. Everyone
can feel it. There is a moment of silence and everyone is in suspended animation.
The drummers standing on top of the drums bang them will full force. All the
drums light up to form a glowing crescent that illuminates the crowd. It’s pretty
impressive. The drummers have strange animal silhouettes dancing around them
too, but I can’t make it out from here. Everyone around me starts jumping around
and stomping their feet on the ground. I try to move through the crowd to where
I last saw the girl, but she’s not there anymore, and the vibe is so intense it’s hard
not to join the dance.
I try to keep a low profile as I pass through the naked dancers. Everyone looks so
happy, I feel welcome even though I have no clue what is going on. The dancing
continues until two giant horns are blown on either sides of the stage and the
music stops. The crowd steps back to form an opening in the center of the dance
floor. A black dot appears and floats above the opening.
The people playing with the fire turn their backs to us and start spinning the
flaming objects. It’s starts closest to the stage and spreads around the dance floor
to create a ring of fire that surrounds the crowd.
“Through Her gate we enter the realm of magic. Through Her womb all life is born
and returns. She is ever present at the edge of your vision. Most beautiful
maiden of spring whose flowers lead to fruit as loving leads to life. By life and love
be invigorated by our dance” the woman on stage sings and the drumming starts
again.
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!”
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!”
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!” the crowd chant and stomp their feet on
the ground in unison. I get shivers up my spine.
The chanting and the drumming intensify and the dot begins to vibrate and
oscillate. A strange feeling comes over me. I think the crowd senses it too.
The dot bursts open and a rainbow emanates outward from it. The bands of the
rainbow grow larger as it expands out over the crowd and forms a thin layer of
light over the entire dance floor. Water droplets fall from the sky like a faint mist.
As it falls through the layer of light it glitters like liquid rainbows. My skin starts to sparkle as the droplets fall onto my body and everyone around me starts cheering
and making different animal noises. It’s like the jungle came alive on the dance
floor. I’m still taking all this in when the drumming picks up again and the crowd
starts dancing excitedly.
A seedling shoots up from the dot, and as they dance, the roots grow down the
center of the dance floor into the soil.
The drizzling stops, and the horns are blown again. The crowd lifts their left palms
towards the seedling and bow. I turn and look back at an ocean of black palms.
With palms raised they turn towards the waterfall. I turn too. Yeah, my
rationalizing faculties went in overdrive and completely shut down.
A giant silver lily drops from the sky above the pool of water and floats on the
water surface. The water ripples illuminate as a silver crab climbs out of the water
onto the lily. The music starts slowly and sounds seductive and mystical. The crab
dances on top of the lily and the crowd opens a path from the water to the stage.
A dark female figure rises from the water and the crowd bows down. Fuck these
people have some high-tech lighting. She sits down with her legs spread open.
The waterfall looks like it’s flowing out of her.
“Mighty light, twice born, come unto me” she says as she opens her arms and lies
back onto the jungle floor.
The layer of rainbow light changes into a red glow that radiates from the center
outward.
I can hear excitement and laughter behind me. I turn around and see the sun
materialize above the seedling at the center of the dance floor, and amongst the
crowd, a giant hologram of a lion with a mane of fire roars loudly. The crowd
laughs and cheers.
“Lord of life and lust, freedom and ecstasy, come lead the dance” the crowd
chants and the white light overhead begins to glow brighter.
“Mighty light, twice born, come descend upon Her body” the crowd calls out and
the white light changes to red as it starts pulsates faster.
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!”
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!”
“Come, come to the heartbeat’s drum!” everyone chants repeatedly, as they
stomp their feet faster and faster. The light flashes like a strobe light. I’m almost
blinded by it. They lift their right palms, all painted red, into the air and start
making animal noises while they dance. This is some trippy shit.
A red masculine figure with an erection rises from the stage opposite the
waterfall. What the fuck?
The people quiet down and bow as he walks the expanse of the dance floor in
three big steps. The drums echo as he takes each step. The people lower their
palms as he bends down onto his knees in front of the dark female figure.
“I am your light” he says as he holds her thighs with his head bowed down.
A moon forms above her and she tilts her head back and opens her mouth. The
moon is drawn down and she swallows it. It glows inside her chest.
“I am the Mother of all living, and my love is poured out onto the Earth” she
addresses the tribe.
“Night and day are equal” she continues, and everyone lifts both palms into the
air.
“The sun and moon are in perfect balance” she says, and everyone connects both
hands with their fingers above their head with their palms facing forward.
The man kisses her knees one by one, then her navel, breasts and finally her lips.
Colorful orbs appear and connect the base of her spine with the crown of her
head as he kisses the different parts of her body.
“My love” he says as he penetrates her. He thrusts forward and her moans echo
throughout the jungle. The lights on her body illuminate as she reaches climax.
The crowd becomes excited, and I must admit I feel slightly aroused too.
She reaches orgasm as the masculine figure ejaculates into her and a wave of
energy and color floods the dance floor. Everyone cheers and the entire jungle
comes alive too.
The figures dissolve and the planets appear above the dance floor where the layer
of light used to be.
“The two are one” everybody cheers.
The music gets groovy and people start dancing sensually.
Four people step onto the tree stage. They’re dressed in strange costumes that I
can’t quite make out from afar. One of them is the fish lady with the silver scales.
A projection of them appears over the treetops above the stage. Ah, that’s better,
now I can see.
Their costumes are remarkably realistic, wow. The fish lady moves her arms and
starts singing. Her hair comes undone and starts flowing down the contours of her
naked body. She has strings of shells hooped around her neck and hips that chime
and she moves across the stage like an incoming tide. I can hear string
instruments follow her movements.
Another woman that is almost transparent with silky wings glides over the stage,
and the woodwind instruments play. The other two are guys, one a shirtless
dwarf, with a muscular build and a long, beaded beard. His hair is tied back in a
bun and when he bangs his fits on the floor the drummers surrounding the dance
floor follow suit. The other guy has no hair and reptile eyes. His hands ignite as he
levitates, and the brass instruments join the symphony. I can’t see any of the
instruments besides the drums. This must be some sort of trippy simulation or
something?
Everyone is dancing and passing bowls of water around. I’m naked, not painted,
but nobody seems to mind. I scan the crowd for the girl. I jump back when
something large illuminates next to me. It’s a giant holographic bull! It starts
bucking to the beat, passes right through me and continues through the crowd. A
feeling of determination comes over me. What was that about?
I scan the dance floor and the lion with the fiery mane is still a blazing below the
sun, behind me is a giant man with a belt dances around with his sword in hand
and across from him two fishes are splashing in mid-air, below planet Neptune.
Behind me twins do acrobatics, the one balancing on top of the other’s shoulders,
towering over the crowd, almost touching Mercury. An arrow is shot from the
back from below planet Jupiter and I follow its luminescent path over the crowd
towards the giant scorpion in the front, with a tail of topaz and jasper glittering
underneath Pluto.
The arrow dissipates mid-flight and the illuminated dust sprinkles onto the crowd
below. Wait a second, Taurus, Orion, Pisces, Gemini, Sagittarius and Scorpio? Star
constellations? They are dancing among the stars! But the stars are dancing too?
Fuck me. It’s a cosmic carnival!
That’s when I see her, the girl dancing with the bull. She has two hand prints
slapped onto her bum with paint. Her legs are strong and her thighs thick. Her
bum bounces as she shakes her hips to the beat. The base drums beat through my
body and my heart pounds in my chest. I can feel the adrenalin kick in as I move
closer to her. I have never felt so attracted to anyone before. I still need to get
used to feeling so intensely.
The beat drops and she throws her long black hair forward and shakes it
vigorously. She turns and looks straight at me like she did in the vision. I am
dumbstruck. She smiles like she recognizes me. She flicks her hair out of her face
and walks towards me. I stop breathing. The music is building up, I can feel it, but
it gets fuzzy as my muscles go into fight or flight mode. I can’t run away, so I’m
like ‘uh fuck.’ I’m still contemplating what to do when her face is already an inch
away from mine. Holy shit, what now? She grins and places her hands on my
shoulders. She slides her hands down my arms. I don’t know what the fuck to do!
She maintains eye contact and fiddles with my fingers. I just stand there. She
grabs my bum with both her hands, pushes me forward and thrusts her pelvis
against mine. I step back as she jumps back laughing and waving her paint
covered hands in front of her face mockingly. She just printed her hands on my
ass! I snap out of the daze and start laughing.
My ears adjust to the music as my muscles relax. She waves for me to join her
with the dance. I watch her dance at first. It is mesmerizing. She moves fluently
and free, like her body is one with the music. The drumming intensifies into a
rhythmic, hypnotic beat. I feel myself start to sway from side to side until
someone throws me with water. I snap out of it and turn around. She laughs and
hands me the bowl to drink. I take a sip. It tastes sweet. Sweat is dripping down
my face and body and she takes the bowl and pours everything over my head. It’s
cold but refreshing. I feel so alive, it’s hard to explain.
The energy in the crowd is invigorating. I don’t know how long we danced but
eventually the music, the crowd’s animal noises and the drumming start to block
out all my other senses.
My shoulders sway from side to side as my feet rhythmically push off the ground.
The rhythmic feel of the earth beneath my feet relaxes me somehow. My body is
tired and my mind is calm, like I’m releasing all excess energy and it feels good. I
feel my heart beat synchronize with the music. Eventually my whole body is
aligned with the beat and my mind becomes less alert. I continue to dance but my
attention is drawn away from my body into myself.
The blackness begins to clump together and protrude toward me like a face
pushing against a plastic bag. It looks elastic. Some parts contracting and other
expanding and emanating the colors of the rainbow in varying intensities. The
flashes of color take the shape of familiar images. A bird flying away and
disappearing into the shadows, and then a flash of a high-resolution image, a red
and black board game with a tiny white idol of a man holding his erect phallus in
his one hand. It disappears as quickly as it appeared, and the darkness is
momentarily solid and devoid of motion. Then I start to see red orbs bouncing
around in the dark. I open my eyes, and sure enough, a red glow emanates from
everyone’s groin!
“What the fuck?” I tap the girl on the shoulder to get her to turn around. She
turns, and I can clearly see a red picture glowing on her groin and running down
her legs. The closer I look the more details I see. It has different layers of varying
shades of red that makes the image look three dimensional. There is a seed
pulsating in the center of her groin, and behind it a lighter red tree trunk grows
upwards to form a faint trident surrounded by a circle. The roots run down her
legs and connect to the earth at the soles of her feet. I blink vigorously to be sure
that my eyes aren’t fucking with me. She tries to get my attention by waving her
hand in front of my face. I look up at her. She look at me confused.
I get up and turn to the guy dancing next to her. He also has a red root system. As
he dances red energy pulsates from a fully developed tree, shoots down his legs
and out from his feet, into the earth. His branches seem to be taking the shape of
an animal of some sort. It looks like a bear.
I scan the dance floor and watch as the soil radiate with bursts of red light as the
energy is pushed into the earth. I follow it as it is drawn to the center of the dance
floor where a vortex is forming. It seems to be growing upwards and expanding
over the crowd.
I look up and try to take all this in. I watch the planets as they orbit around the
expanding vortex. Inside the vortex the seedling is growing into a tree.
I see the out breath and the heat form everyone’s bodies give off a red glow that
gets sucked into the vortex too.
I feel hyper aware. Everything is in slow motion, the people are dancing and
kicking up dust. They are sweating, and their body decorations are smudged as
they whistle and laugh. It’s a lot to take in and I begin to feel light headed. I want
to run into the jungle and escape whatever is happening, but before I can take
flight the girl covers my head with a black shall and secures it around my
shoulders with a silver hoop. There is a black crystal dangling from it. I relax as my
heart rate slows down. She can probably sense that I am less tense because she
starts laughing and so do I.
I calm down and drink some water while I watch her dance. She raises her arms
and moves her hips to the beat. She looks over her shoulder and smiles. She
comes up against me and slides her hands down my face. I just stare at her. She
places her hand onto my heart.
“Right heart” I read her lips. She smiles when she sees me understand. The music
builds up again and I close my eyes and exhale. I hear her cheering over the
music. Oh my fuck, this girl is driving me crazy!
She takes my hand and we pass through the crowd and sit underneath a tree to
rest.
“What is going on here? What is this?” I gasp.
“It’s the Spring Equinox festival, from here on days will lengthen. It is a time of
fertility and new life!” she says catching her breath.
We watch the planets orbiting above the dancing star signs. Many people are
sleeping and resting under the trees while the others dance.
“It is New Moon tonight, so the Moon is represented by the silver crab” she
points to the crab dancing on the lily on the water” and then to the water “The
creative feminine, the Great Mother.”
“And the Sun sign of Leo is the source of vital energy, physical strength and
power, the masculine principle” she points to the lion roaring beneath the sun.
“The principle of opposites is present in each of us, the masculine” she opens her
right palm that is still stained red” and “the feminine” she opens her left palm
with dark black grooves formed from the paint in her palm lines. It is up to us to
find the balance” she connects her hands together.
“The dance floor is Her womb, and it represents wholeness” she closes her
intertwined hands to form a ball.
I stare at the solar system, the constellations, the music and the people. “The
dance floor is like a microcosm of the universe?” I ask.
“Yes, like us” she nods excitedly.
I roll the black crystal with its long, thin striated sides with three faces giving it a
triangular cross-section between my fingers. “How did this crystal have such a
calming effect on me?” I ask.
“It helps to block out the noise” she touches my fingers touching the stone. It
feels strange.
“Noise?” I frown.
“Yes, incoming energies can become a bit overwhelming when you aren’t
properly grounded. The black tourmaline is used for protecting and grounding
personal energies. When you dance the tourmaline is heated and produces a
positive electrical charge at one end and a negative charge at the other which
grounds scattered energies” she explains.
“That’s pretty cool” I say impressed, and check out the stone.
“Yes, it quickly brings your awareness back to the present moment and deflects
dense energies back into the Earth” she smiles. “But you are unusually sensitive
for a newborn” she mumbles to herself just as the horns are blown again.
Everyone jumps up and cheers. The girl jumps to her feet and holds out her hand
for me to get up. “Come quick, the elements are just right. We have enough
energy!” She is strong and her abdomen flexes as she pulls me to my feet. I didn’t
even catch her name.
“The elements are right for what? Enough energy to what?” I ask as we move
through the crowd. She just smiles and tilts her head for me to hurry up. This is a
wild ride. Wow!
Orion faces the waterfall, kneels onto one knee and rests his sword on his leg. All
the other holograms bow. Something is coming.
“Awaken guardian!” the people on stage announce.
“MU!” the crowd call in a deep tone and hold their hands.
“MUUU-MUUU” they chant repeatedly and stamp their feet to the rhythm of the
drums.
Light starts rippling below the water surface.
“MUUU!” they call louder, and the water starts vibrating.
“MU, MU, MU!” they continue, and I can see something come up from the
depths. I get goose bumps as giant snake splashes out of the pool and swallows
the crab whole. I feel a rush of pleasure surge up my spine followed by a sense of
unity I have never experienced before. Everyone moans with pleasure around me
too. The snake sinks back into the water and everyone falls quiet. The feeling
lingers for a long time and the music slows down as the sky becomes lighter. We
have been dancing the entire night!
The sun rises, and purple droplets fall from the sky as the rays trigger a
precipitation of rain droplets to ground the crowd. The droplets illuminate my
body as I watch the girl laughing and dancing around as the purple light reflecting
off the water droplets light up her face and body. But the experience of unity is
quickly replaced by excitement when the crowd starts chanting again.
Everyone turns to greet the sun. The stars and planets disappear. There is a heap
of ash where the seedling was growing and as the music builds up a flaming bird
rises from the ashes. The bird rises with the sun and the fire guy from the
previous night levitates onto the stage as the silky bird girl swoops in. She ignites
him with her wings and they start orchestrating the music together.
He starts chanting. His voice is uplifting, and the people start smiling even though
they are sweaty and tired. There is a sense of euphoria in the air. The crowd does
another synchronized dance in the direction of the sun.
“Greet the New Sun Jet!” the girl says excitedly, and lifts my arm into the air. Of
course, we are dancing for the sun. Everyone have satchels tied around their
shoulders and secured around their chests and others have them around their
waists and secured around their legs. Everyone opens their bags and pulls out a
fist full of something. The guy starts chanting louder and the crowd joins him. The
beat gradually increases along with the chanting. Then he sings a final chant as
the bird girl thrusts her silky wings forward and the dwarf jumps out and slams his
fists to the floor to signal the base drop.
Birds start sweeping over the dance floor as the people throw their fist into the
air and release what I now realize are seeds. They dance and jump around
throwing seeds in all directions. Hundreds of birds are swooping down and picking
them out of the air. I don’t know if they are real or not. It’s becoming harder to
distinguish between real life and projections, and I’m too amazed to over-think it.
The girl puts seeds in my hands “We plant good seeds for new growth.” I join in
the throwing and jumping.
At the end of the ceremony people throw their crystals into the pool below the
waterfall. I take off the tourmaline and do the same.
“It’s to cleanse it” she says and climbs a plaited ladder up a tree to a platform.
“Let’s get some sleep so I can show you around.”
“Right here?” I ask hesitantly as she lies down next to me.
“When you close your eyes, the womb will form around you” she assures me.
“Is it safe?” I ask, still uneasy.
“You are safe now, Jet” she smiles and closes her eyes. A black capsule forms
around her and I close my eyes and go into the womb too.