Sacred Night

The night has always felt like sacred time. Sacred - from the Latin 'sacare,' which means cut off or set apart. When I wake in the dark and feel compelled to put the flow of my spirit wanderings to words, it is time separate from the course of days that can feel relentless. The spaciousness of a quiet and dim house blurs the edges of hours and obligations, makes me feel free to release with honesty and without worry about what I am not doing.

Although the bright sunshine charges my body, dreaming and pondering in darkness taps the well of undercurrent consciousness that waters my roots. Down, down below the surface of activity and effort is a place underground. This cave of solitude, cavernous respite, becomes a chapel for the simple ritual of connecting to myself.

Here, the inner becomes the outer. I am sometimes startled by my projections onto shadows as I navigate the physical darkness, for I assume they are as alive as my palpably present thoughts - they move like moonbeams bouncing off water onto on the walls of my inner temple. I imagine myself floating on a boat in this underground cave, light spilling from an unknown source underneath, wave patterns flickering on stalactites and crystals.

Sometimes, I meet guest-messengers here. Tonight, though, I am alone, and the task is to rest in my wakefulness. Sleep is evasive, but refreshment can come from claiming this sliver of time as a gift. I float, trailing a hand in the warm water, letting my soul be nurtured by the velvety blackness, the echoing sighs of my quiet breathing.

The confines of my cave open me to an ocean of transcendence. The crystals are stars in the firmament. The wall reflections are wave functions, frequency patterns of possibility. The light is the center of the earth, molten with energy, releasing minerals to strengthen my bones.

I am reminded of the dark sacredness I find in the daylight, as encounters with that deep place in people who do not fear the night. My companions, you are here with me. Our souls shimmer in the facets of gems and galaxies, reflecting fresh dimensions of beauty. Through the inward well, channel to the source, we swim out into the sea together. We ascend into the glittering cathedral of precious stone and insight. We rise into blackness, the cosmic horizon.