Ayana made her way through the caverns, Ignisia flying some metres ahead of her, both heading back home. Moss and mushrooms, nestled within the crevices of the stones, gleamed a luminescent blue and green once again, offering their gentle light to guide the way. Some golden glimmers danced across the walls, reminding Ayana of the beautiful, sacred golden caves, and of the love, peace, and comfort she had shared with the guardians in such a sacred space.
Not long after their last deep inner conversations, Ayana saw a faint light from the outside world. It had a reddish hue to it, coming from one of Sanuela′s moons, shining through some hole in the stones high above them. Sanuela had two moons spinning and circling her; two never-ending love stories, as Ayana had been told in the learning circles years ago. Now, she had a much more profound understanding of what it meant to love two souls equally deeply at the same time.
As with Amun and Kofi, both moons had very differing energies and colours. The second moon had a stunning purple tint, and the light felt different on Ayana's skin. Ayana mused how planetary love would feel, after getting to know each other as humans, continuing their growth journey until they birthed their heavenly bodies and found a place near to each other in the sky firmament?
After what felt like half a day, Ayana and Ignisia found an opening to the outside world. "It wasn't such a long walk," Ayana wondered.
"The long way is only meant to be taken for initiation journeys," Ignisia replied and flew towards the opening.
Ayana stepped out of the Mystical Caves, tears streaming down her cheeks as she let her emotions run free. She had been in the cave for so long, and the beauty of the outside world was overwhelming.
The morning sun was warm and comforting, providing a blanket of light that illuminated the lush trees, colourful wildflowers, and cheerful birds. Ayana could feel the love and abundance of Sanuela's lush nature surrounding her. The air was filled with the fresh fragrance of flowers, and the sweet scent of trees permeated her deeply like a strong perfume of nature that Ayana had seldom noticed so vividly.
The tree beings were some of the most beautiful she had ever seen, or did it seem that way because she had missed them for so long? They towered over the landscape, with their branches outstretched like arms, welcoming her back with a hug. The vibrant green leaves were dancing in the wind, rustling and whispering their secrets. Wildflowers of every colour covered the ground everywhere – from the softest pinks and purples to the brightest blues and yellows. The birds chirped in intuitive harmonious sound patterns, creating a lively chorus of music, reconnecting Ayana with them. She closed her eyes and listened, marvelling at the beauty of the woven melodies.
Ayana simply stood there, immersing herself in the beauty. She felt an intimate bond with the world around her. Sanuela had granted her a new beginning, and Ayana was filled with amazement and thankfulness for the incredible journey, all experiences she had had, and the pleasant greeting back from the external world.
In the caves, Ayana never thought much about it, but seeing the world again as she used to, gave her a deep feeling of trust and security in her path and direction. For she had not been dreaming; her sacred journey was a very real experience.
Ayana found her way easily on the way home through the woods, inwardly asking the birds for directions. As the days passed, she had many more questions about the day-to-day life of a High Priestess, and Ignisia was happy to answer them and share her knowledge.
One night, beneath the beautiful double moonlight, she felt particularly vibrant from the pulsing and circulating astral energies within her. She couldn't find the much-needed rest after her lengthy walking time. Curiosity arose, and she asked, "Ignisia, is Sanuela ever sleeping or dreaming, or is she always fully awake?"
"Although outside the structures of time, as far as I can perceive, she is not always awake. Planets and stars need their dream time, too, to get rid of excessive negative mental attachments and for some inner healing processes."
"How do you know all this?" Ayana wanted to know.
"I have memories of my personal future self. They are similar to dream memories, but are more consistent and intense. As far as I can feel, I will be a star, planet, or sun one day. I know the inner purity and love required to get there and remember the journey up into the sky from my home planet. After a wild ride, I stabilise in my orbit and after a seemingly endless time of absorbing and processing how this new state of being feels, I am having difficulty falling into a dream state for the first time. The consciousness of a star is so vast and full that it is difficult to calm down its highly vibrant frequencies.
But it is needed to not burn out. So, in the beginning, the surrounding stars, my soul family and the inner unity of my spirit guides are helping me to understand and trust, they show me how to let go this first time. It is like you've never slept before and are afraid of completely letting go, and your soul family is humming you a very soft lullaby, calming you dawn, holding your space.
Dream time is deeply needed for the health of the new heavenly body. I guess I remember this part already, so I can be more relaxed about it now, to be prepared for the final move away from all attachments of being a being on a planet. When it's time to become a planet myself."
Ayana required time to process this new and very different perspective, which she hadn't known to be possible just a moon ago. She was excited about the chance to give birth to a star from Sanuela as a natural part of her spiritual evolution. Parts of her seemed to intuitively know that one day she could experience what Ignisia was explaining.
It took them a quarter of a moon to reach Ayana's home village, Luminae. In the middle of the night, they approached. Twelve souls, family, and dear friends who had said goodbye to Ayana when she left, stood at the entrance to the village under the purple moonlight, waiting for her return.
"You are not the only one in Luminae who can communicate with the animals of the woods…" Ignisia′s soothing energies responded to her unspoken inner puzzlement.
Her knees shook at the sight of her loved ones as she approached the outer markings of the village's entrance. Kofi, Amun, her mother, her father, and her little brother – on the last metres, they came running towards her, eager to hug and greet her. They were enthusiastic to hear stories from a golden cave, and what other details they had already heard from the elders' contact with birds and lizards.
Ayana's family and closest friends were overjoyed at her return, and it was decided that she'd meet the others one on one. This way, it would be easier for Ayana to get situated and feel more comfortable. Intuitively, they all felt that this was the most graceful solution. They wanted to make sure Ayana felt good first; and of course, they were eager to hear everything directly from her, before the rumours and tales might start spinning.
Ayana was grateful for this gradual return back home, as she slowly grew accustomed to everything once again, from the glowing red embers in the fireplace to the fragrant fruits grown in their garden. It felt as though she had been away for years instead of mere weeks. Her experience and journey was so otherworldly different from her simple life in Luminae that she needed time to process everything that had happened, everything that had changed. Her inner sense of love had been intensified more than she would have believed possible. She felt deeply in love with herself. And she wanted to share this.
At first, of course, with Kofi and with Amun. She told them the first morning after her arrival that she wanted them both deeply and completely, so much so that it seemed unfair to decide between different shades of attraction and inner beauty. As she had hoped in the days before their return, they found her offer wonderful and they mutually agreed to share Ayana's love together as friends or "brothers-in-love," as they were sometimes called.
Triad relationships were popular in some parts of Sanuela, and people said they were more stable and harmonious than the traditional couple relationships. Ayana had never considered that possibility, as her parents told her that their scriptures said the female-male-balance must be found with each other. With so many different energies and frequencies, they found it far too complicated.
Instead, Ayana soon discovered that it was profoundly healing for her, since she was able to live out some more masculine parts of her with one partner and some more feminine parts with the other. She also enjoyed playfully and creatively switching her inner roles from time to time, allowing her to experience how this could alter stagnant patterns before they began. She was adored, loved, and felt safer than ever before in her life.
From this feeling of comfort and safety, she was able to give her best blessings to the world. People came one by one, and soon adopted her descriptive name that Ignisia had long sought out. 'My light and my love' became her new title and everyone called her this, or a shortened version of it. Ayana accepted the title only under one condition – that everyone who said it to her would say it to themselves at least three more times in the following three days, as a continuous gratification of their own inner beauty. The people accepted this gesture of bringing them into deeper divine self-love.
They loved her deeply.
The end – and the beginning of the sequel: Ayana, My Light and My Love, where we will find out more about Ayana′s new daily life as a High Priestess.