It happened on a table, this time. My head lay cradled in the hands of a healer, her fingertips adding gentle pressure to the base of my skull before they relaxed and slowly settled into in an imitation of water.

The energy lulled me downward, through the earth’s layers, from the light above, to darkness, and back to light again, but within.

Once settled, I stood, facing an intricate web, crafted of filaments of light and dark, that morphed and changed even as the red of Gaia’s heart pulsed beyond it. The rhythm drew me deeper still, and the web dissolved around me as my whole being vibrated with her song, our hearts beating as one.

I was infused with her essence and her wisdom flowed as a keen sense of knowing, the words unspoken.

Remember this. This is where you must come to rest. This is where you will build your strength. Always go within, for within is where your power lies. To know the resting place is to know the means by which you will fulfill your work, above. To abandon it is to be swept away like ashes in the breeze. Here, I hold the spirit of the cosmos, the root of all that is, and that which ties us together. Here, you will learn its mysteries. You are a keeper of mysteries and a messenger of the stars. Return often. The road is long. I trust you to find your way.

I felt my body floating upward as though I’d been resting on the ocean floor and could no longer resist the urge to rise. I could almost feel the water falling from my body as I broke the surface; the air, harsh on my skin. As my eyes opened, all of my senses were heightened. Every sound and color was jarring in its intensity, each object and living being exuding light as if filling some need to exclaim, repeatedly, You are awake!

To be awake is not gentle. To be awake is to be brave in each moment as it comes. To be awake is to understand that in our humanity we bear a responsibility to serve. To be awake is to straddle worlds—to know that there is no final destination. To be awake is to engage in enough radical self-care to stay that way—to stay alive—to honor our bodies and our hearts even as we acknowledge what lies beyond them. To be awake is to see that autonomy doesn’t really exist at all.

The energies we engage with and the choices that they inspire make ripples, always.

The power within meets the power without.

Seek balance. Stay humble. Love well.

Healing comes when we heed the call.

The seventh chakra message still holds.

We must keep listening.