Agnesse says:
“This is the arrangement of the worlds: The worlds were shaped, or born, from the womb of Old Fate at the endless beginning…
You may define a world as a large place full of trees and oceans and rivers and winds, but the truth is deeper than that. A “world” is nothing more than a way of being aware. Many kinds of awareness exist, ranging from the primordial depths far below the surface awareness that you now feel, all the way up to the highest.
A being at each of these levels experiences reality as a “world” very different from what other beings experience. Power is power, and it has a flow and changing form. Experiencing its many temporary forms from different perspectives leads you to think of yourself in one “world” or another. The secret is that you actually exist on many levels simultaneously…you have only become so accustomed to this one that you allow all the others, and all of their sights and sounds and feelings to escape you, as a dream. When you flow from this state into another at “death”, one or more of those “worlds” will become apparent to you, and you will realize then, that you can’t die, because there is far more to “you” than a “body” in a “world”.
She continues
“Far above us is the heavenly realm of purity…called ‘Chimeri’ by we of the People. The Christians call Chimeri “heaven”, but they do not understand it’s true nature. In Chimeri, above the skies, is the spinning wheel of Orovidea, Old Fate the mistress, and Queen of Heaven. The very path of the stars runs in a spiral through the night sky, and it was called by the Old People the “Dame’s Road”. Here, where the Nowl star meets the Godstane, is the Hall of Old Tubal Cain, and here is where the spirit of the Old Man rests awaiting his birth.
In those beautiful lands above is the world of the Mighty Dead, called also the “Master Men” who gather into the Hidden Company…those human souls who have achieved wholeness of awareness and realization…the truly wise who have undergone a mysterious metamorphosis into truly Cunning spirits, and act as guardians and teachers to us here.
The Master souls in their shining bodies dwell here and the great heavenly source forever sains this realm, as does the heavenly spirit of the old Dame. Amongst the stars you may see the “Seven Sisters”…called by some the Pleiades…and the collection of stars called by some “Llys Don” which in an ancient language of this land means “The Court of Don”…Don being the name the old Celtic people of this area once worshipped the Lady by. They have long since gone.
Those of Greek learning call the Court of Don “Cassieopeia”. We see it as the starry throne of the Spinning Mother, from which she watches over us.
Here you stand in the forests of the Earth, this world in the Mill’s center, called so because we are in the middle of the great Stane… The world of mankind and the animals and green growing things. East of us, lies the great Kingdom of the Smith, Tubal Cain, the Cunning Master who brought the divine fire to man, who gave us that cunning fire to shape our world around us, as the smith shapes metal with fire…the light of whose furnace you may see becoming fired up every morning, in the east. To the South of us lies the Kingdom of the Trees, and the Castle of Life; the Halls of Old Hob. To the west of us lies the Kingdom of Glass, a reference to the waters that surround the Castle beyond the apple-island. To the north of us, the Kingdom of Stars, and the Castle Adamantine, or the Castle of Weeping, behind the Northern wind.
The wind-gods sweep about this world, non-stop, forever spiraling with the motion of power, which ebbs and flows constantly.
Far out on the fringes of this world- some say below the seas and caves- are the Red Downs. This is the place where the wicked giants of time’s first dawn were driven by the bright spirits of old, so that the world could be inhabited safely by man. We call these giants the “Red Men” and they were first amongst the great Mother’s children, and they were the first masters of this earth. Now they sit in exile in this far realm, which is not reachable except by the most long and perilous pilgrimage…and it is terrifying, frought with dangers for men. The master of the Red Men is Old Wandil, who is the Man of Winter.
Also at the fringes of this world are the Ember-fields, wherein glow the great fires. This is the source of all of the fires of the world, from the fire that lives in the unrubbed twig, to the fire that belongs to man, to the great fires beneath the earth. It is dangerous and powerful, and the old ones say that sparks of fire from this place actually helped to start the creation of the Worlds.
Through the mill of our world runs the great Haunted Tree, or the upright Godstane… As the Stang that stands at the center of the Mill as it is trodden. This is the center place, the Nowl of all things, that which bridges all the worlds together. Once you know how to align your awareness with it, you can visit the worlds by the proper rites.
The roots of this great power are in Elfhame, the dark world below, called by Christians “hell”. They do not understand it, either…for “Hel” was an ancient name of the Great Dame herself, and it was never considered an “evil” place, though men did fear it…because it represents those things unknown…the place where all mysteries gather and are resolved, and more mysteries emerge. This includes the mystery of death and what lies beyond…for the fate of the “ordinary” person lies in Elfhame…
At the depths of Elfhame, stands the Cauldron, or the Moving. This is the womb of the Good Woman herself, the Mother of all things. It is the same as the Heavenly source…for the highest and the lowest are the same, after a manner. The womb-cauldron gives forth all things…and all things in time return to it…and it renews all things…as the womb of the human mother gave you renewal and birth back into this world. Elfhame is ruled by the Queen herself, and it is this dark place of power that contains the primordial deep, the unspun threads that existed in the Old Night before the beginning. The dark spaces beneath the hills are home of many spirits, and much wisdom, if you can get them to speak to you, or if you are cunning enough to steal what is theirs. The deep ones in the hollow hills toil beneath the earth, crafting the wealth of the underworld into precious treasures.
All mysteries and all darkness, all the hidden portions of the mind, are met in the world below…thus man’s fear of it. Men today would rather turn their faces away from what they do not understand, and call it evil, and wait for a savior to come and fix it for them- than to face it and realize that it too, is part of them, and it too, is a place that they must venture.
Women understand this better, for this dark source is manifest in them. Within every woman’s body is the potential to create a new life…the “cauldron” of a womb…and women bear a natural connection to Elfhame, that men sense and puzzle over, and sometimes fear.
In Elfhame lies also the Meadow. The Meadow is the place to which the Cunning People travel when they are “oot and about”…that is, when they take soul-flight to enter Elfhame and join the Sabbat Celebration.
The Meadow is the bright, beautiful place of rest for all people who died, and whose good-naturedness has spun the Fate of peace. This includes those who were loving and kind, honorable, and who lived their lives as best they saw fit. The peace that these people knew in life continues on after death; for what a person truly feels inside, and what is contained in their deepest mind- the wisdom of these things remains with a person in the after-death state across the River.
The Ancestors, called by us the Feeorin, dwell all about Elfhame, as well as the spirits of ancestors yet to be born. They are powerful and wise beyond belief.
Likewise in darker Elfhame you may find the ‘Cold Strand’ also called the Wailing Shore, those cold shores where the spirits of the wicked suffer from isolation and unhappiness. These souls and fetches are the Fates and remains of the people whose nature was consumed with hatred, anger, or violence towards their fellow man and the greater community of life around them, in any form. What a man does to another, he does to himself…and in death, the awareness of their acts remains with them, and they must embrace and dwell in the wickedness they allowed to fill them in life.
These unhappy beings’ own hellish internal conflict in life becomes their new state after death…because when the outer self is gone, with all it’s distractions, what is in a person’s mind and heart is what becomes real. Thus, always consider carefully what you do and say, but most importantly, why you do it, and why you say it. Examine carefully what is in your heart, and in your mind. These things are important. One thing is obvious…by design, unless a person transforms their Fate, the death of the body in this world is a change of awarness into the Elfhame state, which is the root and source of this world. As the body goes into the ground, so the spirit to Elfhame. The spirit usually needs nine nights to make the transition to the world below, and as long as some power does not bind them here, they will go. For these Nine Nights, we say that the spirit is walking the “Ghost Roads”, which means that it is journeying to the world of the dead. The road is full of dream-like illusions and spirits whispering to the deceased; pleasant for some and terrifying for others.
Regardless of where an underworldly spirit bides its time, they all finally come to the source, and find renewal…the waters of forgetfulness wash the pains and attachments of their minds away, and they flow back into this world. Some make the choice to return, others wander forever in self-punishment before they allow themselves to feel atonement for their wrong doings. It’s all inside you, you know. There are no gods who punish mortals…people punish themselves by their own thoughts and actions, and by the threads of Fate they weave thereby. The old people once told of the Father waiting to read sentence to a soul after its life was over, but to the cunning, who realize that He is not only the Sire-Spirit, but also the airy spirit of the mind in mankind, this story simply communicates by metaphor the truth of a person’s own mental realization of the nature of their actions after their demise.
Always be aware of the motion of power, for only it is supreme…to interfere with this flow or to disrupt the interaction of power from world to world, you do this at your own peril. For by doing so, you set into motion a chain of events which will always result in the power re-gaining its Fate-intended flow, and you may well find yourself caught in the uncomfortable middle of these events. Such disruptions include the taking of life, the destruction of natural places, and so forth. Never forget that neither man nor god can keep you from the chain of events set into motion by fate, which includes the deed of your own hand.
Do not make the mistake to think of any of these worlds, or processes, as linear. All of time is happening in a great cyclic now, and this unites us all…you are a suffering lost soul, a Master Man, a human, a tree, a bird and a spirit all at once, a great creation coming to awareness of itself!!! What will you see next?? Creation begins now! It ends now! All in a moment! What are you, really? Is this a world? Am I part of a vision?
Knowing this, what is “re-birth” then? …It is the movement of your mind. The wind in the trees does not move! Your soul’s awareness moves! What are cycles? …Nothing if not the whole. I call you All… All!” She smiles and laughs a bit. “Seek further in Elfhame, for the things of which I speak.”