Chapter 26
The place in which they found themselves was an empty wilderness of rocky mountains, rising from a small grassy valley. All six of them had 'passed over' to the astral.
"What you see," said Alicia, "is only an image of reality so that human eyes can relate to it. These mountains," she waved an arm around, "are not really there, but the feelings expressed by the idea of 'mountain' and 'emptiness' exist."
"What we must do," said Manjy, "is create a 'thought-form'."
Gill interrupted, "Thoughts can be intense enough to have an existence, however fleeting, independent of the thinker. A 'thought-form' is a deliberately created thought, intended to have a more permanent and independent existence. If we think together of the same image we can create it."
"What we must do is create a thought-form to be the guardian and to act as channel for the power of the creative force." said Manjy. "Form a circle."
A circle was formed.
"Now," said Gill, "I will make my guardian look like something simple and understandable. I will try and imagine a twenty foot high bear. Visualise the eyes and ears, Build up an image of a face, benign, like a teddy bear. Make it more in appearance as a friendly grizzly. Feel the love of humankind in a gentle giant and give the eyes humour and intelligence. See the body, the arms and long, long claws with no purpose but defending the goodness of the race. See it standing, gentle, holding the briefcase with the rings and knives.
The six souls working together imagined that they thought of the giant bear, and there it was on the astral. They filled it with the love which souls can feel towards humanity when they have evolved through many, many lives. And then they let it channel all the creative force of the universe that manifests itself through Kether.
To Alicia the bear said, "A sacrificial victim when the power of the rings was born, you have lived and loved many lives: in Egypt, Ancient Greece and as vestal virgin in Rome, as shaman in Africa, as a Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church ... many lives of service you have lived and already earned your oneness with the creative spark had you not undertaken this last great task.
The bear turned to Manjy. "You too had already earned Nirvana when you accepted this last great challenge. A sacrifice of sorts in a cave in Spain, a sacrifice in Aztec America, a Christian missionary killed in Japan and an Indian guru. Serenity and peace in this life await you now, and unity with godhead when you shed this body.
"I'm sorry that you had to see such sorrow," said the bear to Gill, "but a means had to be found to delay you, so that you could join this expedition. Now you will be free to enjoy your peace with the young man you love, and you will be all women and he will be all men, for you have loved this man before."
"The night of his death he spent with you when you were priestess, he the victim, and the day of his death he spent with you when he was chieftain, you a priestess-victim. The world will be a better place for your love."
"You almost lost what you had gained in many lives," the bear told Steve, "Now you have found your mate again, do not lose her."
To Frank it said, "You too have evolved through many lives. You do not fully believe, but the good you do does not depend on belief."
"You forged the rings," the bear told Alan, "but you did not create the evil that they did. It was not your curse that destroyed Atlantis, the earthquake, fire and flood were natural enough consequences of that vast meteor. However, it was your curse that brought to notice the evil of the rings. Now, many lifetimes later you are present at the destruction of the power of those rings."
Alicia said, "Now it is the will of us all that the rings go back before time itself began, so that they cease to exist and even the thought is gone."
The bear said simply, "I am the creation of those who destroyed the evil and the servant of the souls before me. I go at your command."
Gill said, "Before you go, a question."
"Ask."
"What will become of the professor-priest?"
"He will shortly be born again to begin his many lifetimes paying off that vast karmic debt. He will be Juliana's child, as was his wish before he died, but it will not be as he expected then."
The huge bear which they had created picked up the briefcase, now seeming insignificantly small, and turned to lumber off.
It stopped and turned just his head, saying, "Others follow you on the astral. Take care on your return and stop for nothing."
It pointed behind and to their left. Then, while they watched, it turned again and lumbered away.
"He goes backwards in time," said Alicia, and they watched him disappearing in the distance. Once again the place was an empty valley, surrounded by soaring mountains. A wilderness where nothing stirred.
"Look," said Gill. "What the bear was pointing at," and they turned.
Far away two figures hurried across the wilderness, trying to catch the lumbering, fading bear. Cornelius and Ian ran across the empty landscape, split by a chasm - sometimes narrower, sometimes wider but always there.
"Stop," shouted the maddened, ambition crazed Cornelius. "Stop, I command you."
The bear began to de-materialise, though Cornelius was still the wrong side of the chasm. "I will have those rings," he shouted hollowly, and, with the same lack of any prudence which had crashed the car, took a running jump to cross the abyss at a narrow point.
His scream of hopeless emptiness as he fell filled all the wilderness and seemed to last for ever. For a long time nothing moved, then Ian turned and walked away.
"It is time to return to Kether," said Alicia.
With one accord they too turned and, with six distinct but simultaneous 'clicks,' they returned to their bodies.