Whispers from the Deep Forest – Prologue

The soft wisps of golden sunlight filter through deep hanging branches full of the most beautiful dark green leaves, and in the middle of this ending afternoon anybody could tell that there was magic in the air. 

Not the kind of magic you would find in an advert or in a movie, on a well known franchise… but rather the magic that lies in the small moments, the kind of real world, real life magic that comes from old places and spaces that are not made by any intentional hand. The magic that grows from the presence of ancient spirits and the wishes of young trees. Magic that cannot be seen or expected, but that you happen upon by happenstance or fate, never quite sure how you got there, by which choice, what path and especially what decision. 

The kind of magic that heals. 

Old Magic. 

Silent Magic. 

And today it was all around, in the air… the moving grass and the bare-silent bees on open flowers. It was in the cloudless sky and the low standing strands of sunlight bouncing off of leaves and flowing deep into the roots of the earth. 

You are pulled into the scene, only barely resisting its attraction and certainly not its charm. 

You start to walk on the grass and on an unseen path that is only etched into the earth’s memory beneath your feet and not visble to the eye. Your heart is confident and follows you along the way and soon you cross the first markers of the woodland realm, stepping into the forest deep only moments after. 

Here you are. 

There is an unheard intake of breath. A silent gasp of suprise and barly veiled delight around you and it resonates deep within you and for a moment you mistakenly feel like the forest is welcoming you, finding pleasure in your presence. 

But how could that be? 

The next steps are taken in silence and you only notice that the light starts to get lesser and lesser as you advance towards the heart of the forest which seems to be made of a benevolent darkness. 

There she stands. 

It takes you a small moment to notice her. Standing in the middle of the pathway made up by green fern that have pulled back on themselves in reverence, revealing her presence. 

Her face is benevolent and there the surprise in your being of suddenly not being alone anymore in this beautiful setting is quickly passed… of course, you were never alone in this space, were you? 

The words resonate in your mind and you are not sure if they are your thoughts or a stranger’s voice. 

Yes,… comes the reply before you can even come to the end of your thought. 

Your face must mirror your surprise and the result is a bright smile spreading across from the woman in front of you hitting you like a wave and you can tell that her warmth wraps around you and spills into your heart and from there into all the unseen places of your soul. 

The same unseen places, she seems to look into as she looks at you, without expectation or demand. Simply resting in your presence and allowing you to do the same.

This moment. 

It stretches from your toes to the end of an era and the birth of a new star. It resonates in every cell that is dying within you and every new breath you are giving yourself. It holds the eternal heart and plants new life. It is death and rebirth, new and old, forever and never in a grain of sand and the (eternal) mountains of the world, the seas as deep as the unknown oceans and the large as the potential behind a newborn’s eyes. 

It is everything while holding nothing. It is now and will forever be.

This is you. 

All of you. 

Let me tell you of all the ways you are and will be.