With our hearts open we are now ready to approach
THE FOURTH STEP TO SOUL
As she moved to the fourth pillar, she felt a warming in her heart where once there was dread and a chill was starting to bloom. Could it be that she could actually feel alive and happy, not once in awhile, or in between moments of desperation and pain, but happy and peaceful most of the time?
Happy and peaceful, not because she got something or did something or because someone special cared about her, but happy because she was alive. Could she dare to allow herself to feel good, simply because she was – herself – no matter what, no matter where, no matter why?
She carefully, yet with a growing excitement, approached the fourth pillar and tentatively looked into its crystal. She couldn’t make it out at first. The images seemed to change and swirl around into different forms and pictures. But, slowly, very slowly, one image became clearer than the rest. What could it be?
At first it looked like a basket and then it seemed to be a funnel. Then she realized, with tears in her eyes, that it was a cornucopia. A horn of plenty in her heart! And flowing from that cornucopia was everything that she could ever need or desire. All-in-all flowing from the horn of plenty in her heart! How could she deserve this? What had she done?
“It is your birthright,” she heard from deep within. “However, one needs to reach the fourth pillar of Soul before they can be pure enough to take this gift, and unselfish enough to use its harvest for the good of all.”
Could she accept this gift? Could she bear the responsibility of all that freedom? Could she remember her treasure when she needed something, or would she slip back into old attitudes of need and impatience? Now that there were no limitations to hide behind, what could possibly be her excuse for failure?
But then, of course, there was no failure because there was no need. No need to get, or do, or be. No drive to fulfill, or goal to achieve. No struggle to overcome, or reason to force her on. She could stop now. She could stop needing, wanting, trying because it was received, finished, achieved.
Suddenly this gift seemed like a curse. How could she return to her mundane life with this knowledge of completeness? She would be completely and utterly different from everyone. Or, at least, everyone that she knew. She could, of course, tell no one. They would think her arrogant or insane.
However, strangely enough, she didn’t care what THEY thought. She didn’t need THEIR approval. She didn’t fear THEIR contempt. She was confused, yet she didn’t care. She didn’t need to understand and she didn’t need to—need. She was free. She was free of desire. There was nothing to desire because she had it all!
How could she function on the physical plane without the element of desire? With that question, a deep peace overtook her. Yes, that was the answer. Without desire, she would have peace. Peace of mind, peace of emotions, and peace of body. Without desire, she could peacefully accept what her Soul had assigned her from moment to moment. There was no need to try or to struggle. All she had to do was remember that she was complete, she was Free!
If only she could love herself enough to release the habit of needing and know that she already had it all.
