Our Spirit

A virgin mind once set forth to a distant land as its spirit was on fire, with no clear reason as to why it was distressed. Driven by an unexplainable will it went on and on, never looking back; its doom was waiting ahead, not behind.

In no time it reached a particular place, not randomly chosen but somewhere where it thought it'll find peace at last because of what it used to experience there before. A place of friendship, adventure, longing, inspiration, joy, hope...and freedom.

Unclear as it was, the mind started to feel calm while drawing near the shores of the wide waters; a gentle sun beaming in a cloudless sky. And there it lingered. It came here with a purpose, eventhough it could not understand what that purpose really meant yet. But soon enough, the answer came.

Sea and Sky became One, and only the blowing wind was heard.

But this was not the end. For some reason, there was a long break, so long that it might have made anyone think it was actually put an end to all that the mind lived and learnt about that time. But in fact, the Experience was revisited only after several years had passed. However, what follows is just the product of the mind's feverish imagination, and all the same it could be said that there is truth in it.

When the mind was answered, it was told that once the horizon reveals its mystery, and its distant line is broken, opening the gate to what is to come, the Spirit crosses over to whatever awaits. However, the mind's Spirit now felt as if nothing has changed, only in that it has been witness of the Breaking of the Line. Disappointed, it started to move around, despairing and yet hoping to find something more meaningful than just a reflection of what was before.

In the dark and hideous vastness of the Underworld, the Ill-hearted laughed, for it felt the Spirit's desperate situation and saw an opportunity to bring another one down into its realm. That's how a new opening, now on the ground, came to view right in front of the Spirit, although this time it was not of a luminous blue, fruit of the mingling of the Sea and Sky, but of an ominous red like fire with hardly any brightness.

Now with some trepidation, the Spirit approached the opening, seeming there were only two choices: to remain in the world -or its twin from the Otherside for that matter- or to move forward, whether it be for good or ill.

Off it went down the open path. While moving on, the heat increased, yet the Spirit felt itself freeze as it became aware of the wailing cries of unseen things, deformed shadows pictured on the cavernous walls. A place of terror, where any idea of hope was easily corrupted and confound with what seemed an unwished reality.

Down, down, down it went, until at last a distant bright spot came to view. While drawing ever nearer, the Spirit saw that an empty black throne was set right in the middle of a spacious hall, illuminated all around by flames rising up high into the air like fingers stretching towards the uneven roofs. Not before long, the sound of mighty steps came echoing into the hall; the centre of the Underworld.

Thus the Ill-hearted made itself present: red-skinned, enormous and yet stooped, with massive shoulders and arms suitable for giant hammer blows; a voice deep as the caverns in which it dwelt. Red eyes shimmered with a fierce light on his always aggressive-looking face, with an immutable frown. "Thus you've finally found your way, haven't you?" said the creature. "What do you think about my dwelling, cosy and warm I must say" malevolently grinned.

The Spirit, still somewhat confused and yet not as terrified as when it first came down the underground path, tried to recall every possible memory from its past life. Then it said, slowly; "I suppose I shouldn't have expected much, given that I haven't been innocent all my life. Not that I've committed unforgivable crimes before witnessing the union of the Sea & Sky, so now I honestly cannot make head or tail of all this. Why is it that I ended up in here!"

The Ill-hearted, secretly surprised at the Spirit's eloquence, responded deceitfully: "Well, this is the only place, there's nowhere else to go to, unless you prefer to remain in the world as an invisible ghost with no company, and eventually consume yourself in utter loneliness and sadness."

While listening to these words, the Spirit realized that they were accompanied by images of its own darkest memories, things that happened which it hid deep in the core of its being, not daring to let them be revealed and even intending to get rid of them forever, as if they have never been. But they were deformed by the Ill-hearted's will, so what the Spirit saw unfold before its sight was impossibly worse than any real memory.

A tornado of emotions grew in its inside: denial, fright, repentance, but at the same time a sense of injustice and hopelessness, as it seemed impossible to unmask the cruel and deceitful designs of that which ruled a mighty realm in the utmost depths of the Otherside, with no apparent way out.

But the Spirit had not realized until that time there was, beyond all hope, a way out indeed. And this is how it found it: first it tried to fight against the Ill-hearted's ill-will with memories of achievement, unconditional love and care for all good things from the past...with no success. But soon enough it understood why there was no ending to this torment, for instead of keeping the fight alive in vain against the wimp of an evil force, it suddenly knew that it just had to let itself go, and not to pointlessly keep struggling any longer. So it happened that the hideous images eventually started to become blurry, and all the echoing sounds of hammer-falls, screams, flames rising up out of the deepest regions of the Underworld, and even the Ill-hearted's wrathful growls, felt distant, as the residue of a bad dream and nothing more.

Next came a peaceful silence, and a sweet smell all around a place of everlasting light, not as the general description of that place where good spirits go after leaving the world but somewhere you have imagined as your place, the dwelling in which you have always wanted to remain forever after what you were meant to be since the day of your birth until the end of your days. And in this way, the Spirit finally reached its Heaven.