In Wicca, there are various techniques of ecstasy, and I am not sure that they all lead to the same altered state.
My friend James speaks of a childhood vision of two trees; this made me think of the stanzas from Thomas the Rhymer:
I choose the winding road to fair Elfland, though it lead through fearsome places.O see ye not yon narrow, narrow road
So thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the road to righteousness
Though after it but few enquires.O see ye not yon broad, broad road
That lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness
Though some call it the road to heaven.And see ye not that bonny road
That winds about the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where you and I this night must go.
According to some adepts the way out of the world leads around a cypress tree by a white tomb; I am quite sure this goes to some Elysian field or similarly Greek otherworld.
Likewise there are different gates in other mythologies; the Kabbalist hero of Richard Zimler's novel The Seventh Gate speaks of a way to the Divine Source; you know you have reached it when your eyes shine like silver.
2 comments:
I love that I always learn about new and different things whenever I visit you, Yvonne. My eyes have been opened in so many different ways and I appeciate just how learned and studied you are...
I liked your last paragraph- eyes shining like silver... that sounds nice...
:)
Food for thought. More and more I tend to think that all roads do lead up the same mountain--but we might have a different view along the way depending on which side we're on. The challenge is to remember that our view isn't the only one, and we can share it and delight in it with others. Great post.
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