Follow the Gods

It was during a group meditation at a New Age fair. The purpose was to connect with an archangel, I can’t remember which one, and to receive guidance on our spiritual path. As I visualised myself entering a massive library and being greeted by a woman in a red peplos, I remember thinking that something wasn’t quite right. My doubts were confirmed when she introduced herself as Charis – with the name of a Greek Goddess, whoever she was, she wasn’t an archangel.

And that was only the beginning.

Charis led me to a table, where a book lay open. The page was blank but for several words written in cryptic characters, which I tried to decipher. But I was afraid – afraid of what, I don’t know – and some part of me refused to look, and to understand.

“Does it say follow your heart?”

Charis shook her head.

“Look again.”

I took a deep breath and concentrated on the page in front of me, and then I truly looked. And there, clear as sunlight on the water, it was written:

Follow the Gods.

I was a generic Pagan at the time, celebrating the festivals of the Wheel of the Year and believing that all wisdom came from within. But when I read those words, something pinched my heart like the strings of a lyre. Not all wisdom comes from within, I realised – or rather, remembered. Some comes through a whisper in your ear, or through the flight of a bird, or through the words of an ancient book. Follow the Gods. As Homer said: “Whoever obeys the Gods, to him they particularly listen.”

And I knew it. I’d known it since I was twelve years old and first discovered Ancient Greece. I’d known it since birth, or even before. Follow the Gods. But why should I? asked the still-Wiccan part of me. Because they are the Gods, my soul answered, and you are a mortal and ought to listen.

The Immortals are like the stars that never die, but see everything on Earth and watch us live. They know more than we do. They are the experienced sailors who know where the reefs and whirlpools lie, and who guide us around them – or through them, if there is a lesson to be learnt. But whichever road you take, the journey is always more pleasant if you listen.

And that is how, like a home-bound ship, I found myself on this journey to where I belong.

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