Mor

Blackness, and these flashes of warmth slowly spreading its tendrils and reaching the part of your mind that recognises this as sunlight. Fluttering the eyelids, they wake finally.

As their eyes slowly opened, they also moved their bodies in the ways we all know, the slight stiffening of their bodies, the slow stretching out of the legs and arms. Feeling the feeling of being alive. Ah, we are back earthside. Is it a good thing? Wondered Jack, as he got out of the bed he had slept in for too long. He slowly came to a sitting position and observed his surroundings. A corner of peace and serenity, which was a total opposition of the maelstrom outside. He wondered if this illusion was of a support or an illusion which was unhealthy.

“Jack!” He heard his name being called and regretfully left his warm corner of illusion. He loped into the shared hall with the others also coming in too. The others were also like him, they remembered the peace, the green, the plenty and the places of learning that existed. They were all gone. Just like their elders, all long gone.

As he arrived, they all took up their customary places in a circle, and sat down on their mats, they were all differently coloured and patterned. His was a tattered yet a beautiful cerulean blue and whites patterned in a sunburst pattern. He settled down to sit himself comfortably and waited for the instructions which he knew by heart. As he waited, he observed his surroundings – a mishmash of materials that was scavenged and used to ensure survival. It meant it was a mess, but it was a mess that kept them all warm and safe. Was it an illusion he wondered?

The breathing of the others reminded him of his work he needed to do that day. He began to breath. Slowly and fully. A few more breaths, he closed his eyes and laid his hands on his cross-legged knees. He then let his mind go free, and landed at the usual protective fence, which were changing every day, sometimes they were the same… Today it was a stone wall stretching as far as the eye could see. The manifestation of the key was vital to this process as it ensured the mind was not lost forever in the other void. The other void was physical and already empty.

But the mind’s relationship with the pineal gland as well as the soul’s ability to travel was endless.

The key also was interchangeable, and today it oddly was a heart shaped locket that opens you know? When Jack saw it, he recognised it as his great-grandmother’s heart locket. That made me rather curious. And so, he reached out with the locket to the locked gate embedded in the stone wall and it fit perfectly. Of course, it did.

The gate swung open, and Jack stepped into the garden, and recognised that he needed to recall what was in the garden, as well as who. He observed a huge oak tree with it’s leaves reaching out to the sky and earth and a small wooden bench painted in vivid red under the oak tree, and he saw a small building to his left with guardians seated next to the doorway there, and green grass everywhere. There was a path or two, covered with grey pebbles. He walked towards the red bench.

And as he seated himself on it, he was made aware of another presence next to him. It was a cheery old man with a silver beard and a head with white hair. Jack decided to engage with this man. Asked his name and was given “Mor”.

Jack decided to ask the question: “How does one break illusions?” Mor laughed and looked off to the distance and said rather simply “Use the wind.”

And Mor somehow showed Jack how to do it – a form of sharing happened, and Jack could literally feel and see how the wind worked with Mor. Jack observed his space with Mor and sat quietly with him. When he looked up and looked at his eyes, Mor smiled and said it again “Use the wind.”