IN PREPARING FOR THE GATHERING of our group from New Mexico, I had decided that we should begin the day by walking on the Labyrinth. Everyone had expressed interest in the process when I'd told them about it during our week together. I completed arrangements for our time together, now just days away, and when Roland called that evening to let me know he'd be arriving from his book tour in the Midwest the following afternoon, he was pleased with the plan. I felt an inner glow when I heard his voice, but didn't want to reveal my feelings. The purpose of our gathering was too important, and it wouldn't be appropriate to focus on anything that would divert attention from our collective goal.

Roland was staying with his friends in Woodside, and everyone else in our group was in the City, so we agreed to meet at the Cathedral on the morning of the 25th at eleven.

On the day of our gathering, the weather was drizzly rain, but since it was Tuesday, I wasn't worried that we would have problems finding a parking space or dealing with crowds in the church. Roland drove up with me, and it felt very comfortable being with him... as though we'd been doing this forever. By the time we got to the Cathedral, Lillian was already waiting in the vestibule. The others came up the stairs from a different direction, and all of us collected in the awesome presence of stones, marble, and stained glass that framed this beautiful expression of faith.

I explained the procedure we followed for walking the Labyrinth, so each of us found a unique space within the massive cathedral to spend time in prayer and contemplation. We would walk the Labyrinth when it felt appropriate, and then spend time alone to reflect on what we'd received. Roland asked us to keep in mind our purpose as individuals and as a group when we made the journey.

In the front section of the church was a beautiful stained glass window of a woman looking serenely at the viewer. The quality of the glass was better than in the rest of the church, and I was drawn to pray quietly in front of this restful image. She seemed to speak to me. I am the Lady of the Night. I am the Grail. I am the defiled one, now being redeemed. I am the feminine face of God, and it is through spirit that I am where healing will occur. Open yourself to the grace of my presence, and bring my voice forward. It is time for reconciliation.

I was moved by those thoughts, and the energy of light and love filled me. Lillian, Fiona, and Mark were already moving on the Labyrinth. As I looked for the others, I could see Nathan studying the different panes of glass with writing on them, and Roland was seated in one of the pews, head bowed in prayer.

The few other people who had been on the Labyrinth now completed the process, and I walked over just as Nathan did. We smiled and bowed, quietly taking our place at the entrance, and began the spiral journey towards the center.

Five of us were now moving around the Labyrinth at different points, some walking slower, some with greater speed. The feeling was very powerful, because we were surrounded by elements of ourselves in one another. Roland joined us, and a feeling of completion came over me. It was as though a huge energy vortex opened, and we were in a time warp, enacting something we'd done before in another time and space.

We were on the wheel of life, searching for our appropriate spaces so that we could bring something to light. Intuition was our only guide, for the memory of what we were here to do had been erased, and we were having to find our way in the dark, the connection to one another our psychic lifeline.

I had no idea what the others felt, but as I breathed and intoned our sound, I felt a reverberation from the Labyrinth. It was as though something else had emerged, and when I looked at it, not as a flat sphere, but as a multi- dimensional shape, we were walking around the inside of a vessel leading us into the center where the six-petaled flower awaited. As each of us arrived, we took a place on one of the petals, or stations, that felt right. We held out our arms and joined hands with one another.

Roland spoke for the group.

"We are engaged in a process to release ourselves from fear and the unconscious actions that have kept us locked in limitation... that have held us in bondage to war and peace, life and death, and all the other opposites that focus on separation. We are here to help one another make the leap necessary to portray the living light. We open ourselves to the Divine Light of the One Source for the greater purpose of becoming fully conscious so that we may be of service in the Grail."

The feeling was very powerful as he completed the prayer, and we began breathing and toning, letting sound and color move between us as it had in New Mexico. Only now, something was breathing us, and the colors and sounds that emerged were awesome.

Out of the petals came colors in points of light, and the star we had envisioned became real. The hexagram, or Star of David, became the Star of Bethlehem, and then the Star Tetrahedron. It was this great star that rose each time a major change in the consciousness of the world was about to take place. We were put in a sacred space, invoking a sacred symbol, and unbeknownst to us, we were part of a much bigger movement occurring around the world that was heralding a new age.

These were the End Times, and there was much yet to be completed, but a promise of the future was in front of us. We all felt it, and the vibration in the center of the Labyrinth was pulsating. We were riveted to our spaces, and the tones that emerged from us made my body feel as though everything unnecessary was falling away. I was shedding my old skin, and in its place was something made of light. As I felt the clearing inside and out, I merged with the crystal tone of a bell. As our collective voice rose, all the bells of the church began to ring in the noon hour. The sun, which had been hidden by a cloud cover, now burst through the colored panes of glass and showered rainbow colored hues on the carpet. It was a magnificent crescendo, and when the bells stilled, our process in the center was complete.

The purpose of our gathering was forming in my mind. We were opening to reunion of the lost and distorted parts that had caused terrible division in the past. Life unfolded in western culture from a doctrine of separation, and the many horrors visited upon one group by another could be traced to these misconceptions.

Science was providing an understanding of the role electric frequency and magnetic fields had played, and we were able to see how the two together formed life; one binding to the past, one moving toward the future. Without the two, there was no life. Without matter - the substance from which all life is formed - there would be no manifestation.

When I thought of the mountains, the animals, the beauty of natural creation... there was nothing evil about it. Through limitation, we had translated words incorrectly, altering doctrines that would shape our lives. I had seen how terms changed meaning in some of the biblical passages, and it filtered through my mind that in the beginning, man was given stewardship over the earth, not dominion. The difference between stewardship and dominion is monumental, and contains the seeds of enlightened direction or brute force.

I could see the beauty of indigenous cultures who had not been bound by these limiting perceptions, revering the earth that housed and fed them, and the sky that gave them light and air. I could feel the unity with my acknowledged kin - the mountains, not out of some unnatural preoccupation, but because we were all spirit housed in living matter. We sprang from and returned to the same life pool. Our consciousness was attuned to different frequencies, but we were all of and from one source.

I felt that the Labyrinth mimicked an aspect of multi-dimensional consciousness and brain wave activity, and the message was that we were being reformatted and rerouted, opening to vaster possibilities within ourselves. This meant reconciliation and reunion with our disparate parts... right and left brain, male and female, Jew/Christian and Moslem.

We, who came from this western pool of consciousness, had to find our way back to the Source, and recognize our interdependence and potential. We had to reflect a divine marriage between heaven and earth, overcoming the myth of separation.

As we walked our way out of the Labyrinth, I saw one of the panels on the wall. It showed the founding of the United Nations here in San Francisco. Now, a birth of a new unifying force was occurring, and there was no more appropriate place for its delivery. We are all the elements of a new Grail, a new covenant between Creator and creation. We are being asked to grow into our role as fully human, to embrace life in its entirety as our companion on the journey.

I could see the factions coming together... east and west, north and south... the elements were re-pairing. Where division had taken place, like a zipper coming apart, the elements were now returning, as the zipper was drawn together. That which had reached its apex in the outpouring was now returning unto itself. The outward breath was being drawn inward, and through my mind flashed the words, "I sent you into the world as one who became two, and now I reclaim the two and make of you one."

Years ago when I was director of the foundation dedicated to the understanding of the dynamics of peace, criteria had been set to find a common ground of agreement, for you could not negotiate until you had a place from which to begin that was mutually acceptable. In that state, a framework for discussion was possible.

Within our own species, in extreme situations we may only be able to start at a negotiating place that acknowledges we are each human. As humans, we may only be able to come to the point with other species where we can agree that we are all born of the life force. But, from these points we have a basis for beginning.

Another thing I learned at the foundation was that in order to speak together effectively we have to define terminology, because semantics plays a strong role in reaction. If we don't agree on what we mean by the same term, we are bound to misunderstand one another. What I think of as God may mean something very different to someone else. So we need to tell each other what we mean when we refer to something... i.e., I want to be happy. Happiness means... to me. I want to be free. My idea of freedom is the following. This seems so basic, yet is often taken for granted, and this simple oversight is often the basis for lack of agreement.

As we did our return walk around the Labyrinth, I saw the interrelationship of earth to the cosmos, and to what Mr. Cleary had talked about.

The indigenous cultures were coming forth with their stories, because it was time for the fabric of earth to be re-woven, and humans were ready to hear another view of creation. As the magnetics dropped, we could pierce dimensions and pick up subtleties that we had never been able to perceive before, and as we shared our various vantage points, the picture of the elephant came into magnificent clarity for everyone.

This was the purpose of the Grail... to re-form us more appropriately in the image of our Creator, to make of us a whole vessel... a Holy Grail in which the precious seed of the Sacred could be housed and nurtured.

I completed walking the Labyrinth and moved to a bench on the side, looking up at the stained glass windows for direction. Nothing in particular struck me, except way at the top, I saw E=MC².

We left the Cathedral quietly, and once outside the church, decided to have lunch at the Cliff House on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, where my regular Labyrinth companions and I had gone after our first visit. Arriving after the lunch hour, my friends from New Mexico and I were seated immediately.

We had gone to the restaurant on the top floor because the view was spectacular and we could order sandwiches, salad or breakfast. We each sat quietly, engaged in our own reverie, yet not separate from one another. Fiona spoke first.

"I saw the importance of media and film in this unfolding process. We have spent so much time dwelling on the negative that we have helped cement the imprint of fear into the consciousness of society, and we have done very little to glorify the human spirit.

"It was made clear to me that I am to involve myself in film and media projects that give people hope, that celebrate life, rather than degrade it. What I was shown was the preciousness of children, and that we cannot treat them with indifference, as though they aren't affected by what they see, because the quality of what they view has a big impact on them."

Nathan spoke up next. He was very stirred on the Labyrinth to do more work with sacred proportions, to involve himself in the riddle of the crop circles and other earth and planetary anomalies that would lend further insight into the process that was unfolding. He smiled at us, more present than ever before.

"I experienced strong feelings of love throughout my whole body, and I could feel my heart area, I mean really feel it. This has never happened to me before, and it was awesome!"

Mark nodded. "I know what you mean. I saw myself expanding outward, reaching out to all the people in my life who have hurt me and whom I have hurt. Suddenly, we were all one circle of energy, and as I didn't need to protect myself from them anymore, I forgave them and they forgave me. What had been a whirlpool of dark, swirling energy, turned into a vibrant light, and all my anger, judgment, and fear was swept away in its presence.

"There wasn't any separation, and I felt connected to everything... an incredible feeling of love replacing the pain. I will never forget that. It's like, whatever happens, I can handle it. As long as I keep focused on that light and allow myself to be love, I can really help to heal the world. I am going to use this in my life. From now on with clients, I'm going to tell them what I see is possible for them, because I know it will make a difference. They're not coming to me accidentally, and I'm not in this to be safe. There is nothing gained by me playing small, and I really get this is a time of incredible movement... I'm going to do my part to help it along."

Lillian smiled. She spoke in her husky voice. "I went back to the faith of my grandmother, and the power of prayer. So much is possible if we remember to ask for help, and prayer is one of the most important things available to us. I could see the possibilities through millions of voices raised in prayer each day, like making the world one big temple or mosque or cathedral, and remembering the sacred all the time. It will change our relationship to the way we view spirituality. It isn't just a once a week affair. This is a daily act of being in love.

"I've always painted the figure of the Goddess veiled or hidden, because she has been submerged. But on the Labyrinth, she was passionate and vital, and I could feel myself responding to her fertility. My paintings are going to emerge differently now that I've experienced this. She was always in hiding before, but she has been welcomed to come forward. My Goddess, is she powerful!"

Roland looked at me. "What about you?"

I expressed what I'd felt, but told them that I didn't know what to do with the vision.

Mark smiled. "I sense that if you go home and take time to sit with what you received, you'll be led to your part."

It was Roland's turn to share his insights, and he was reflective in his comments.

"I felt very humbled by the process, and recognize that I've got to take some serious time off for myself, and concentrate on healing. I've been so intent on getting things done that I've lost sight of some of my own needs, and as much as I want to reach out right now, my journey has to be an inward one. I'm going to cut down on my speaking and workshop schedule, because this is time for me to be with me. The gift I was given on the Labyrinth was myself, and I'm grateful... so that's my focus for the next few months at least."

We were fairly quiet throughout the remainder of lunch, and as I looked at each of these people who made up a part of my soul's purpose, I recalled how they had been strangers a month ago. Now we were a family, and had an indelible bond that was forever.

We knew that the adventure we began in New Mexico was ongoing, and that there were many curves on the road ahead of us. Our process was not one that insured an infallible life, or fairy tale endings. It provided each of us the wherewithal to establish a place of internal stabilization, and to overcome the fear that was so predominant in many people's lives. We were strengthening ourselves and drawing upon the support of one another in our quest... whatever that might become. We were willing to show up for the possibilities presented, and to give the best of ourselves, moving out of self-consciousness into unified reality.

As each of us clarified our intention and cleared our own "baggage," we could act as conduits and vibrant mirrors to one another, encouraging and supporting the bigger picture. There were presently six of us who would show up for one another in whatever way that was needed, whether in the physical body or through communication. Each of us knew that there were five other people who were vitally concerned and committed to our individual and collective progress. Whether it was Lillian's emerging feminine through painting, or Fiona's films uplifting others, they could count on the group to support the vision. As Roland needed rest, we would encourage that as well, for the purpose was wholeness. If each of us felt whole, we could make a major contribution. We did not need to shrink back, because we were no longer isolated. We were a collection of notes creating a symphony, with the power of our Creator guiding us.

As we walked to our cars, we passed the huge cavern on the side of the cliff where the Sutro Baths used to be. It had been a gigantic building with ice rink, multiple swimming pools and other things, overtaking the cliff and surrounding area for many years, as a testament to man's dominion over nature. Eventually, the elements reclaimed their own, and the splendor of the natural setting drew people to investigate the cliffs and caverns that had once been covered by a monolithic structure.

The beauty of the setting far outstripped the arrogance that tried to "tame" it... and we all remarked how we felt that same hand was at work with each of us, paring us to the core of our being, so our true essence could emerge. We stood in a circle above the cliffs, the sea crashing rhythmically onto the shore below, renewing our vows of love to That which had created us. No words were needed, we had said enough. Hugging each other, tears of joy and sorrow at being parted, we prepared to go our separate ways to the lives and commitments we had created.

© Kathleen Jacoby, 2000-2006

To purchase a copy of VISION OF THE GRAIL please click on the cover to the right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Jacoby is a professional numerologist with over 25 years of experience. She is also one of PlanetLightworker's earliest contributors and an incredible spiritual teacher. She has been on radio and television, and has lectured and taught extensively.

In addition to numerology, Kathleen is the editor of a quarterly newsletter of ideas and inquiry called Seasons of the Soul, and author of the critically acclaimed spiritual adventure novel, Vision of the Grail.

Visit Kathleen's website: www.grailvision.com, and her BLOG at www.kathleenjacoby.blogs.com, or write to her at: Visionofthegrail@aol.com.