Psychotropic Serpent
John Rowlands
When alone, I often feel mere inches from some great truth I'm supposed to understand, but never quite can. Trying to reach this truth I experimented with different combinations of mind-expanding drugs, with less than hoped for results. Today's creative mixture I'd washed down with my morning coffee had left me particularity restless, pacing from room to room without purpose for hours.
Pausing long enough to rest my legs, I rolled my shoulders to ease tense muscles and breathed deeply. Relaxing, I closed my eyes and immediately became aware of a point of brilliant white light, through which God seemed to be entering. It was an inconceivable yet wonderful vision, and I longed with all my heart to move closer. I understood why people could sit and meditate for hours in the hope they would become one with the light.
Then just as sudden as it had appeared, it faded away, and the world of reality closed in around me. I felt further away from God than ever before, and was left with the overwhelming need to get back in touch with Him. This revelation was short lived as my mind wandered.
I found myself barely able to repress the desire for hysterical laughter at what I could only describe as the completely ridiculous state of the entire world. Perfectly ordinary people, on their ordinary errands, were the most cleverly contrived, eccentric set of characters performing on life's stage. I felt as if I was both observing and performing in an outrageous movie.
Moving closer to the living room window I noticed an intensification of color and a considerable change in the texture of all things. Looking at the building across the street I experienced one moment of transcendental happiness as I was transported to Greece and found myself standing in front of a white-washed cottage, its shutters flung open to the sunshine, its window boxes lush with flowers.
Inspired, I was drawn outside to be part of this vision. I sat on the park bench across from my flat, but found the view uninteresting and the sun quite uncomfortable. I dropped my head in disappointment and looked down at the ground searching for a higher truth. The earth morphed into a mosaic of beautiful stones laid in an intricate design, which began to move in a serpentine manner, becoming beautiful snakes. As the creatures grew, they undulated on the ground all around me until I was sitting astride one.
Riding this stunning reptile with its natural, graceful movements, I could literally feel it pulsing against my thighs with a powerful life force. Boundaries began to disappear and my body rhythms began to work in sync with the serpent's.
Soon I could no long distinguish us as two entities. We had become one, moving ever so slowly, but surely toward the light.
© John Rowlands, 2007