CHAPTER 12

What has been bounded on Earth, you have bound in Heaven because all is simultaneous. You think an event is only linear but it is multi-dimensional. You experience an event from different perspectives. This event plays out in many scenarios. So what you bind on Earth in your workings of dark or mind magic, you are binding that working in the Heavens.

-- R'AZEL

Michael laid a deck of gypsy cards on the altar.

Thinking. Guess the first time I heard about ascension was at a psychic fair in Los Angeles where this psychic mentioned it during one of those fifteen minute readings you get for twenty dollars. He looked at me like I was being served to him on a silver platter as he laid out a spread of seven cards. When he laid the cards out it, they were the Egyptian tarot deck, I thought the pictures were 'cute' and just for a moment, they became seven faces but I thought, it was the effect of last night seventh glass of wine.

He held the first card up and looked at it intensely and then turned it toward me. There was that face again but I dismissed it as it became a simple tarot card.

"In another life, you lived in an underground civilization. You were being trained to become their healer when your teacher passed away. But you turned your allegiance to a dark force and opened a gateway that brought this darkness that became a parasite that penetrated the minds of your people. You opened them up for possession in your quest for power. Unknown to you, this was part of a greater plan. You had great healing abilities that this mentor transferred to you through your arms. That power is dormant in you. You were greatly feared for you were known to drink the life out of a person. It was loved that healed you and loved that destroyed you."

"Damn, I thought you would tell me I was someone famous. So is there any money coming to me, any great love, not exactly laughing for joy these days."

He pulled another card from the deck and laid it sideways across the middle card over the seven card spread that was in the shape of an upside down crescent moon. I then noticed him more thoroughly, he was a young man and his hands were old, wrinkled and scarred. They seemed bent as if the circulation was a drip instead of a stream. His eyes were heavy, and I imagined the bags under his eyes carried magical objects for his conjuring and protection. I felt energy around him giving the impression of being wrapped in cloth. His face was terribly scarred from acne. His body was wiry and he spoke in a deep voice that no one could imagine this thin body could contain. His hair was long and stringy and the thought of soap and water would cross your mind.

As I looked at the cards, I thought of a mummy. It was a creepy feeling, thinking about a sarcophagus while he was doing this reading.

He continued. "You are moving to another city. This trip will bring death. You will know what you fear and become what you fear."

"I'm afraid of ghost, being homeless, and lonely. This doesn't sound like I'm going to have a good time."

He continued, "You misused your gift in many lifetimes and destroyed many lives. You were also the instrument of destruction. Your other name meant blood drinker, your ancient name meant the fire of god, you are known as the Fear of the Lord. I still see you sitting in the branches of a tree. Interesting it was once a garden now it's a graveyard."

"Okay, you're scaring me. I can barely squash a cockroach. I'm the first person, jumping on top of the doorknob screaming for some man if a mouse runs across the floor. Okay, I'm a bit wimpy. I shiver even thinking about a cool breeze. Besides, I think God has too many issues to be concerned about little old me."

He pulled three more cards out the deck and laid them in front. "I've never seen anyone like you before. You are ascending. Do you know that means."

I responded like a fourth grader. "Yeah, it means I'm going up. So am I dropping dead soon." My voice was quivering from the fear of lying in a wooden box in a cold damp Earth. I wasn't ready for that close up though I have tempted death as a siren wanting to crash it against my island.

"You will not die," he said. "But you will know Death. You will be a Death Walker."

"Great, does this mean I'm not going to get a good job?"

"You don't understand the importance of this. Wish I could read you more but your time is up and they do watch the clock around here."

"Damn I wanted to know if I was going to finally find true love." Michael stood up. He could see others engrossed with their Readers. For a moment, he felt he was in a zoo of creatures sitting at tables waiting to be fed by these Readers who all looked reptilian. He shuddered and shook the waking dream from his mind. Hangovers are a bitch he thought; it made these people seemed not real, it's as if they were masquerading as humans and were caught in human nightmares with no exit sign or no free card to forgive their transgressions against humans.

The Reader interrupted Michael's mental wanderings, "One more thing; this is a freebie, Central Park will be important to you. I don't know why."

Michael smiled at him. "So I'm going to be a Death Walker. Gee, and I like to walk but this type of walking, well, it's too weird, don't understand and with my luck, more shit is happening in my life. Thanks." He laid twenty dollars on the table. A cool breeze passed over him. He shuddered.

The Reader smiled. "When that happens, they say someone has just walked over your grave."

"Well, I'm not in a rush to claim any spot of ground. I just want to get over this lost feeling and find some direction. Wanted to know if New York will be a good move, should I still cling to the pants legs of my ex-boyfriend, or keep the new boyfriend, or shuck all this and learn things from my friend who is a psychic but a bit scary. And I still don't know anymore than when I sat down. But that's okay; this stuff is only for an amusement and not to hold any stock in it. Guess I need to keep looking for that road map. And yet, there seems never to be a telephone in sight to call for directions."

"Sorry," said the Reader, "I cannot say anymore. Twenty dollars only goes so far."