Goober could see and feel what had just taken place. “Master Fish, please tell me that this action of mercy performed upon my personage this moment will not cause grief to our departed Holy One.”
“Not at all - it was discussed with him prior and our brother left his body well before the cremation, that this be done for you: and also, our beloved Master knows where to discard the cockles. All will be fine.”
He then went on to say: “If you could peer into the invisible layers of any allergen you would find that they appear like mollusks … or hardened shells that cluster and cling to their host. Allergens have primary, secondary and three types of causes. Primarily it is of the advantageous parasites one in the astral, who latch on to their succulent, and make porous the parts of the astral and etheric body that they feed upon. Secondarily it is intolerance (not of mind but of weakened life force) specific to the substance or character or quality of the aggravating stimulant. Thirdly it is the physical body’s repulsion and efforts to throw off and throw out all that aggrieves it so in the trying.”
Goober nodded in agreement, which was more akin to bewilderment. His knowledge of the natural sciences was comprehensive, but he felt too healthy to be pondering the predacious parasite he had just been relieved from.
“So it’s like Roses and the Aphid?” he said looking over at the flowering vines that lined their path they were walking.
“Yes! You could say that, allergens are the Aphis of the subtle form.”
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
The end of the world is not a time, but a place …
-from the book of Faerie
He would always be the support act to his best friend Puck, and his humble concerns would but shadow the greats around him. He was content to be a bystander, never an instigator, in fact, up until now, he thought himself to be content with just about everything.
Small creatures might nibble at his toes or scuffle around his feet, because they felt safe around this gentle soul. He was Puck’s confidante, uncle to many, but father to none.
Now he had taken this time for himself at the retreat, and the mantle of allergy had lifted off and was then disposed of by one of the Brothers. It had happened during a blessing at the burial of one of their elderly residents. Just prior to cremation one of the Masters approached Goober where he sat and lifted the parasitic shroud from his etheric person, and then proceeded to place it onto the deceased only minutes before his body was ignited. The crusty armour was now completely dissipated, and the relief for Goober was instantaneous.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
Enid now appeared in her forties - her creases and lines had all disappeared - and her vitality with its own special signature shone through. She was unmistakably Granny Smith, but with the beauty of a fairy grandmother, her soul was astoundingly gracious, vibrant and tensile.
If Eve could have had any wish on that day it would have been to see Enid again. She clutched her coffee cup, lest it fall, and said out loud, “I am so happy that you have come to see me”.
“I would have come sooner, but my review took me far away for a time - and there were so many people to catch up with, and oh, how the time goes. I always felt you by me dear, and longed for this time also. Your grandfather is doing well, now that he has awakened to his eternal self - but it took awhile for him to find it, and be comfortable with his acquired spirit sight…”
Eve started to cry. The distance between herself and her grandmother was oscillating between being incredibly close and impossibly distant - within a breath and a heart beat, as intimate as spirit can be - but yet she could not hold her hand or feel her warmth, and the division between the ethereal world and where she sat on the couch in the present, immeasurably wide and lonely. And then, in a whisper, the vision of Enid withdrew, leaving Eve to herself once more alone.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
Eve picked up her knitting to settle into an orderly distraction. Needlework was another legacy of Granny Smith’s, and although she was young for the hobby, Eve was proud of her cables and intricate stitches … working on a coat for Caspar, the terrier next door who suffered from the cold and palsy.
With a mug of cinnamon coffee and her ‘cable tv’ she settled in for the lonely hours ahead. Although it had been several years since Granny Smith had passed away, she had never, not once, in spirit, dropped by. This mystified Eve sadly to ponder, as to why this wonderfully strong woman had disappeared from her life as she did. Still, Eve liked to believe that Granny was around her and caring, even if she could not directly sense her presence …
And then, as though in answer to her sadness, a light appeared in the corner of the room, and for the first time, in a very long time, she saw the face she loved so much.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
She waited, and she waited, but Puck did not show. It was May day - a day that was meant to be full of love and frolicking, but instead it was yet another let down in her calendar of non-events. Even her invisible community of friends and associates had cleared off for the day - probably gone to do their celebrating elsewhere, repelled by the shadow of her disenchantment.
Eve would have poured herself some wine if she drank it - however, as her wise and very clairvoyant grandmother used to say: “you canna see the Spirits if you partake in the spirits”. Granny Smith (yes, really) was a stickler for sobriety - and the moral cornerstone of her family … Granny’s virtue was unchallenged.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
One vivid presentation that came to her [Eve] was of simply sitting on the step of the cottage playing with a tendril of ivy, winding it slowly through her fingers, soaking in the warmth of the morning sun. A strange set of visions showed her, of all things, a large bear - to wit she could make no sense of what this could mean. Could he be a symbol of something? And who was this sad spirit?
It was more than a womanly kinship that she shared with this soul from former times - much more. Eve thought that these pictures and feelings came from yet another soul whose suffering impregnated the ethers for times to come: but no, this woman, whose name was Hannah Mary, was herself, and these memories were hers. But amongst the catalogue of forlorn stories, of emotions and struggles and characters of being, she had not the wherewithal to find her former self amidst their clairaudient noise.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
Back on the road travelling home, Eve’s red ‘Noddy car’ wound its way through the country lanes - this time taking the back streets running parallel to where she had come to grief a few months before.
She was hurrying back, hoping that Puck would be waiting for her - he had promised to return on this day - the first of May - and she had believed him.
Meeting this other-worldly ‘Adonis’ had been just the distraction she had needed. Her mind had been full of personalities that kept presenting in a procession wanting to be heard. The spirits who would frequent her consciousness sought her attention repeatedly and with the pressing insistence of one ignored.
Added to this were the reoccurring visions that came to her: snapshots of another time that Eve experienced. Ever since she had visited the cottage where a tragedy with an infant had taken place … she had seemed to have been seeing through the eyes of another woman.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series
