The Magical Guardian Of Knowledge: Bedtime Tale

So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax and as you begin to comfortably drift asleep.

I don't know whether you'll fall asleep faster to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words and as you comfortably drift asleep I'm just gonna tell this bedtime story in the background and you're walking gently along a calm seashore,

Walking barefoot in the sand,

Feeling the warm water roll gently in over your feet,

The sensation of that water pulling the sand back out to sea,

The sound of each wave as it rolls in and out and while walking along the shore and allowing your mind to drift and wander,

You can feel the warmth of the sun,

Hear the sound of seabirds,

Smell that salty air and feel what each footstep feels like as they sink gently squelching into the sand and you walk for a little while and you can see a family down the beach,

Children playing and laughing,

The parents sitting in the sun with lashings of sun cream plastered over their faces,

Their body,

The children throwing beach ball to each other,

The way that ball almost floats through the air,

It doesn't matter how hard the children throw the ball,

Within a fraction of a second it slows right down and almost floats through the air and you continue along the beach,

You walk past that family and you head to a beautiful white horse and you mount the horse and you begin to walk the horse along the beach,

Its feet trudging through that sand,

Splashing up some of the water,

Leaving its hoof prints in the sand and then directing it up from the beach,

Directing it through some woodland,

As the sounds from the beach begin to fade into the background and the sounds of that family fade away,

The sounds of the sea,

The seabirds now beginning to hear the gentle song of songbirds wafting through the woodland,

The light dancing before you,

As the leaves above rattle around in the treetops and the gentle thud thud of the horse walking on the compacted soil,

Occasionally stepping over roots crossing the path,

Occasionally having to duck beneath branches,

Your body gently rocking as the horse walks until you reach a gate and you reach down and you flick open the gate and the horses body gently pushes on the gate,

Pushing the gate open,

Then turning around the gate swinging closed,

Clunking into place,

You just check that the gate is closed properly,

Before walking onto the road and as the horse walks along the road,

So its metal shoes clang against the road's surface,

And you walk along the edge of the woodland and on the other side of this road,

There's a hedgerow,

And the other side of the hedgerow,

There's many fields and meadows rolling off into the distance,

And you continue along this road,

The only sounds,

The sounds of the horse walking,

The sounds of its breathing and your breathing,

The sounds of songbirds,

And the gentle rustling of leaves,

And the horse walks following the road,

And you follow this road for many hours not seeing anybody else in all that time,

Until you decide to stop for a moment,

You dismount,

Move the horse over off of the road you loop the reins around a branch,

You set up camp in a small campfire,

And as evening approaches,

You settle down,

Have something to eat,

Something to drink and just relax and enjoy this calming experience,

And while you eat,

You see a small bluebird fly down a short distance from you its tail flicking gently,

Making small jumps,

Keeping its eyes on some bread that you have and so you crumple up a little bit of the bread,

You throw that over for the bird,

It tentatively skips towards you,

Pecks up some of those crumbs and the bluebird hangs around as long as you've got some food for it,

But after a while,

You've nothing else for it,

And so it darts off as quickly as it had landed and while the sun begins to set,

So you take a book out of your backpack,

And it's an old book and you turn to a specifically bookmarked page,

And continue reading from that page,

Really trying to understand what's written on the pages,

The meaning of what's written there and what you find written,

Is largely written in hieroglyphs,

An ancient script,

And so it takes some time to understand that text because not only do you have to work out exactly what it says,

But there are often multiple meanings for different words and so you work through,

Trying to work out the best combination of the different words and phrases that the ancient text and hieroglyphs mean to try and form something which makes sense,

And yet a lot of it doesn't quite make sense,

And you find what seems like a ritual written down and this ritual describes creating a circle out of hot stones,

And so you follow the instructions,

You place the stones in the fire and when they're glowing,

You place them down forming a circle,

And by now the sun has set,

And so in this cool night air,

To the backdrop of crickets humming around you you've got the campfire flickering,

Gently rumbling,

And that glowing stone circle on the moist grass with a little bit of steam rising from around the edges of the stones,

You then take a branch,

And you slice that branch lengthways until you have a plank,

You place that in front of the stone circle,

Across some raised stones,

Like a table,

And you continue reading the instructions and you get some charcoal from the fire,

And you draw a symbol on the left hand side of that plank,

And you draw another symbol on the right hand side and those symbols come from the book,

And then you grab a stone,

You follow the instructions to wrap some thread around that stone in a specific way that the stone hangs,

Almost like hanging in a basket,

With the thread tied above the stone,

In such a way that it makes a pendulum and then you tie that pendulum to a stick,

And it's a long willow stick that has a little give to it that flexes with the most gentle creak and then in the centre of the stones,

You sprinkle down some sand that you gathered on the beach and among the sand,

You place some pebbles,

And then you take some of the burning sticks from the fire,

You rest them with the flames touching the stones and smoke gently rises from around that ring,

And you continue reading the instructions and it instructs you to sit cross legged,

Holding the willow branch,

Tucked with one end of it against your body,

Directly in your centre line just below your navel,

And the pendulum swings gently above that board and it tells you that one of those symbols means yes,

And one of those symbols means no and you hang that pendulum right in the centre of the board,

And the book instructs you to focus on the pendulum and focus on the idea of receiving the answer,

And just keep focusing on that,

The answer,

To the riddle of what this all means and so you focus on that pendulum,

And it just hangs so still,

Occasionally just slightly spiraling,

But hangs directly down and you focus on whether you can receive the answer,

And as you focus on that,

You notice the slightest movement,

Start in that pendulum and you're sure that you're remaining as stationary as possible,

That you're not moving it,

But you see it beginning to move,

And the more you see it,

The more it moves and the more it moves,

The more you notice it moving,

And the more you notice it moving,

The more it swings and you notice that it's not just swinging left and right,

It begins swinging in a circle,

And that circle is slanted towards the yes symbol as if it's swinging in a circle,

Like the orbit of a comet,

Swinging out to the yes and back to the centre,

Swinging round and round and you watch,

Slightly hypnotised and slightly amazed,

And curious,

As you notice that the flames touching the stones seem to be gradually glowing brighter and brighter as if they're heating up the stones and the stones in turn,

Are powering the flames,

And the fire seems to be seeping,

Somehow,

Onto the sand and as you continue watching,

While the pendulum's swinging,

In the darkness of the night,

With just the blanket of stars for company,

And the horse resting beside you and the sounds of the crickets the sand begins to glow,

As if it's becoming so hot,

It's melting,

And it glows red and orange and yellow and white and yet,

Somehow,

Hypnotically,

You find your eyes,

Just stuck gazing,

At that sand and the sand begins to cool,

But as it cools,

You notice it seems to have been turned to glass,

And the flames burn themselves out,

The stones begin to dim down your campfire burns down to embers,

And what felt like just a few minutes,

You discover hours have passed and you place down the pendulum,

You stand up,

You lean over that glass circle,

And you see your reflection in the moonlight,

Dancing off of the surface bouncing up with it's silvery light,

Illuminating your face,

You feel like you're glowing in that moonlight,

As you gaze into that circle,

And you can see your reflection and then you notice a slight haze around your reflection,

And then almost as if someone's just stamped in the centre of the glass,

It shatters,

And in it's place,

There seems to just be a dark hole and you hear a whispering voice coming from within that hole,

Almost summoning you in,

Jump,

Jump,

Jump,

You feel a gentle pressure around your shoulders,

Your back a calming,

Comfortable pressure,

That seems to be encouraging you,

Jump,

You gaze down into that hole,

Jump,

And as you gaze into the hole,

Jump,

You feel this urge,

Jump and you jump in the air,

Pull your arms in,

Your legs in,

Jumping into the hole,

And as soon as you're in the hole,

You realise it's like a giant slide,

A bit like a water slide,

With such smooth sides and you power your way round this slide,

Unsure where it's going to end,

Feeling like it's going on for ages,

Until eventually,

It calms down,

You feel slowing down but in pitch black,

You can't quite get an idea of how fast or how far you've travelled,

And that circle of light in the distance gets larger and closer,

Until you burst out the end,

Fly through the air and while flying through the air,

You see the vastest,

Most beautiful landscape,

And you see what looks like a bouncy castle being moved around and you realise that it's moving,

To be where you're about to land,

And you strike that bouncy castle,

You bounce vertically high in the air,

And then land back on the bouncy castle bouncing up and down a little bit,

Until you come to a halt,

And you rest there for a moment,

On the bouncy castle,

Catching your breath,

Just taking a moment to take in what just happened feeling a sense of relief,

And then you climb off the bouncy castle,

Jump down onto the grass,

And you can see here,

The sun's just beginning to rise over the horizon and you turn back,

And you see underneath the bouncy castle,

An army of guinea pigs,

With gently squeaking voices,

Each one wearing sports shorts and sunglasses,

And little headbands,

Each one looking relieved that they managed to move the bouncy castle,

To where you are going to land and you see,

In front of the bouncy castle,

Is a kangaroo,

And the kangaroo has a notebook,

And a small pencil and that kangaroo is wearing yoga shorts,

And also has a headband,

And some wristbands,

And a young kangaroo tucked carefully in their pouch and you see that in the notebook,

Is some mathematics,

Showing the arc you travelled through the air,

Working out where you are going to land the kangaroo says that they're usually the yoga instructor,

But when they saw you flying through the air,

And they realised they've got a visitor they quickly rallied the troops together,

To make sure that you'd have a safe landing and you think the kangaroo,

And you think the guinea pigs,

The kangaroo says that perhaps you found your way here,

To meet with the ancient one because that's the only way someone would have come through that tube,

And found their way to this land and they tell you that pebbles will show you the way,

And you look around you,

Trying to find out where pebbles is and then you see a small chicken,

Trotting along beside you,

The kangaroo says this is pebbles she's one of the most powerful witches in the land,

And she'll show you the way to the ancient one and so you follow pebbles,

You walk across this land,

And as you walk across the land,

You try and engage in conversation with pebbles but pebbles just clucks away,

And as the sun rises so,

It becomes obscured by dark and looming clouds and it begins to rain the largest,

Warmest,

Most comfortable raindrops and pebbles takes a small cocktail umbrella from behind one of her wings,

Pops that up over her head with the large drops slapping the top of the umbrella,

Bouncing off,

As she just about manages to keep the top of her head dry while the rest of her is getting soaked,

As you walk in the rain,

The rain running down your face,

That gentle smell of a landscape that hasn't been rained on for a very long time,

Finally soaking through,

And as this dense shower passes,

Pebbles pops down the umbrella and the rain begins to gently evaporate,

And against the dark backdrop of the clouds,

The most beautiful rainbow forms overhead almost guiding your way,

And pebbles continues to cluck along,

And a gentle mist rises from the damp landscape as the sun rises overhead,

And you see in the distance,

What looks like a small hut,

And outside the hut looks like somebody sitting on a swinging chair,

And they seem to be playing a musical instrument,

And absorbed in their playing almost as if they're in a reverie of their own,

And pebbles shows you all the way to the hut,

And nods as if to say goodbye then jumps up,

Pops up that umbrella,

Twirls the umbrella with her beak,

Sparkles come off of the umbrella as the umbrella lifts her up into the air,

Her bottom flailing around while she hangs on with her beak,

Her claws just gently dangling and that umbrella,

Fizzing and spinning and sparkling as it spins,

Creating a ring of sparkly light,

And you watch for a while until she's almost out of sight you turn to this person on that swinging chair outside that hut,

And they look up at you,

And you notice that there's something different about them they're wearing a top hat,

They're dressed in the smartest looking clothes,

They stop playing a mandolin to talk with you,

And the first thing they say,

And observing you watch pebbles fly away,

Is that that is a fairy ring,

That sparkling ring of light spinning and sparkling with the energy to defy gravity,

And they place the mandolin beside them,

And they take their top hat off and they pull a scythe out of their top hat,

And they say to you,

There's somewhere you've been looking for that relates to that book you've been reading and they say some incomprehensible words,

And swing that scythe in the air,

And you hear it cutting the air,

You hear ravens calling out in the distance and you see ravens launching into the air,

Circling overhead,

As that cut air begins to separate and just like cutting through paper,

Or cutting through material,

With tension either side,

That cut separates and opens out,

And you see a rip in space and time and mesmerized,

You gaze through that rip in space and time,

And they tell you,

They're a being from far away,

They came to earth thousands of years ago they've been the guardian of knowledge,

The keeper of secrets,

And they're going to show you something from thousands of years ago and with you,

They walk through that rip in space and time,

And you find yourself on the edge of an encroaching desert,

The sun beating down overhead and lush green landscape before you,

Wrapped tightly around the edge of the Nile,

And they say that neither of you can be seen here they're just showing you what once was,

They're showing you what you've been seeking,

That knowledge that was lost to time they explain that 10,

000 years ago,

This is where they were,

And here is where they still are,

And they walk you through this lush landscape and you can see villages of people milling around,

Some down by the river,

Boats on the river,

You can see farmland and you see one intriguing location,

And they walk you all the way to that location,

And as you stand near that location,

You can hear a low gentle rumble and they say that this large cave,

That goes down perhaps 600 meters,

Leads to an underground cave system and there's water running through the base of this cave,

And that water creates a gentle rumble and hiss,

Depending on how much water is flowing through it and sometimes,

As floods happen elsewhere,

There's a delay before water flows down there,

And when water flows heavy,

It sounds like a growl when water flows lighter,

It sounds like a hiss,

And those around here began to worship this giant hole there was no way for these people to know how to get down into the hole,

And it's so deep,

It just descends into darkness but as time went on,

We arrived,

We gave them knowledge,

And we told them to store that knowledge,

And that we would help being the keepers of that knowledge and we placed the knowledge in emerald crystals,

And we built towers,

With holes in that filled with scrolls and we built a floor,

Above these deep caves,

And underneath that floor,

In the safety of the cave,

All the knowledge of the ancients was stored and I was the keeper of that knowledge,

An eternal being,

And as time went on,

Other civilizations started building up,

And as they built up so,

There was a fear that they may try and take that knowledge,

Or destroy that knowledge,

Thousands of years of history,

Of learning,

Of wisdom and so a massive building project took place,

And a giant pyramid was built over the top,

Of that chamber of knowledge and to guard the pyramid,

A sphinx was placed,

With a secret tunnel that would lead to the chamber,

And across a generation,

The pyramid was built and the legends continued,

That there was a snake down there,

Perhaps a dragon,

Some kind of creature that growled and roared and hissed,

That guarded the underworld and that legend protected the chamber from anyone investigating,

Because the legend became bigger than the truth of it being an underground library and as the landscape dried out,

So the library would survive,

And with a giant pyramid over the top,

And the encroaching desert,

And the disappearing greenery and fewer and fewer people,

Being right here,

Reduced awareness,

And memory within the civilization of the ancient library and as they're talking to you,

So you see time moving through,

That pyramid being built,

The sun rising and setting and rising and setting,

Day after day like watching the world around you move in fast forward,

And they tell you that a time of pharaohs arrived,

Who believed that they were gods and the first pharaoh was still aware of that knowledge,

And they wanted to have the status of being the guardian of the knowledge and so on their death,

They made sure they were buried inside the pyramid,

Above that ancient secret library and as years went on,

So more pharaohs followed suit,

In the older days they just used to build smaller pyramids but now there was this one large pyramid,

Others wanted to do the same,

But no longer to guard the knowledge but now they wanted to do the same,

To prove they were more worthy,

More godlike than what came before and eventually,

As civilizations do,

They lost their way,

Dispersed,

History happened,

And the library was lost to time forever buried and untouched in that cave,

Tens of thousands of scrolls and objects and documents and knowledge stored from our ancient race within those emerald crystals,

And this alien then guides you into that library as it looks today,

Guides you through a secret entrance,

You descend a spiral staircase and all the way down that spiral staircase are scrolls in holes in the central column,

And you realize there are multiple columns stretching down to the cave floor and at the base of the cave,

You look around,

And the alien lights a torch that illuminates the cave you see the vastness of this chamber,

Each footstep echoing,

And yet there is a certain stillness and silence to this chamber you see how delicate the scrolls are that are stored here,

You see the giant emerald,

And then the alien guides you back out and tells you this is what you've been seeking,

That that book shares the last handed down secrets of the existence of this ancient library and they've remained the keeper of knowledge,

But since it's been filled in with a giant pyramid overhead they now monitor it from afar,

From a temporal realm between worlds,

And they're the ones that have created that temporal realm it's their own little zone,

Made to look how they want it to look,

And they can come and go as they please,

And with a click,

The temporal realm can disappear completely and they swing the scythe,

Slicing,

A rip in space and time,

They walk back through to that temporal realm,

You follow them back you sit on that swing chair at their hut,

As they tell you more of the history of how they visited the planet how they influenced civilizations,

Despite trying really hard to just be observers,

But they didn't bank on ancient civilizations and their tendency to find meaning,

And to imbue meaning upon situations,

And to want some kind of explanation to the point that they're prepared to create their own explanation and then treat it as true,

And so it didn't take long for them to be known as gods here,

When they're really just visitors from the stars and they even hung on to those beliefs to the point that they started building their buildings to mirror the stars in the sky building their buildings almost like a map back to where the aliens had come from,

And the other aliens had left,

Just they remained,

To watch over those records and then after a little while,

The sun begins to set,

And they guide you into the hut,

They offer you some food and some drink they tell you that you can't go back the way you came,

So you'll need to have some drink to find your way home and you sit in their cabin,

Resting in that hut,

You start drinking the drink that they've made for you,

And it's a warm and comfortable drink that tickles your nose as it wafts around your face,

That tingles behind the eyes,

And as you drink that drink,

And you're gazing out the window as the sun's almost fully set,

You see the field outside the window,

Beginning to bubble and fizzle beginning to undulate,

You see what looks like fog rising from the field,

But the fog seems to be rising with the field,

As if taking the field with it as it rises higher and higher and you notice beneath the field,

What's left as the field disappears and rises into the sky,

Is just black,

And you look out other windows,

You see the trees fizzing and bubbling and rising from the ground almost turning to particles as they merge with the fog,

You see the kitchen tap jump down from the back of the kitchen sink,

And start dancing on the work surface you then see the plates jump up,

With little legs appearing,

And start dancing,

And everything around you seems to begin to separate into individual particles and gradually pop particle by particle out of existence,

Until the darkness around you gets closer and closer,

As every particle of matter slowly pops out of existence until you're just left in a state of nothingness,

In a void,

Where you can't see anything,

You can't hear anything,

There's no up,

No down,

No left,

No right,

No back,

No forth just a space of nothingness,

No temperature,

No sensations,

Just being,

Just peace and calm and serenity and then very slowly,

You see what looks like a pinprick of light,

And then another and another and another,

And gradually pinprick by pinprick,

You see a new reality forming around you until enough of that reality has formed that you can begin to feel it beneath you,

Begin to feel yourself existing here,

Begin to hear here and finding yourself standing over that hole,

As you sit back down,

And look up,

And look around,

And see your horse resting beside you as if,

Just a moment has passed,

And you settle down into a tent,

And you begin to write up your experiences,

Writing in detail what happened,

The ritual you undertook the void,

The ancient Egyptian library under the pyramid,

Those you encountered and after writing up your experience,

You leave the tent,

You walk around,

And occasionally jump up and down,

Just to make sure you have a sense of reality,

And being connected to reality almost like checking that everything is as solid as it is supposed to be,

And then with night time still set in,

You settle down in the tent curious about the future,

Curious about how you'll share your new learning,

And what you may choose not to share,

And how this experience might shape you in the future and feeling a sense of peace and calm,

You gently drift and float,

Relaxed asleep,

Into slumberland