Who can say what they saw
Or write what they heard
Or teach what they discovered
Or fix what is broken
Or break what cannot be fixed
In order to know it?

For it is that a mystery cannot be known
By using the tools of the known
And it cannot be that a secret is revealed
Given the knowledge already at hand

As he who trusts himself alone
Will find himself alone in his own ignorance
So to it is that she who beautifies herself alone
Will find herself alone in her ugliness

It is in order that for a tree to begin
Requires a tree
But from there must gain allies of strangers
The soil to protect it
The grit to activate it
The water to nourish it
The bugs to aerate it
The sunlight to empower it
The air and the earth and the sky and all living things
To give it purpose.

So too is this flow in the elements
So too is this flow in the animals
So too is this flow in humans
So too is this flow in the spirit
So too is this flow in the unknown

How many in life
Seek to know what they do not know
By using their own vision alone?

How many in life
Seek to know what has been given to another
By stealing from others what is theirs?

For in truth as a man, like the tree
I too require that which is strange to me
In order to know what I do not know
The unfamiliar

And in order to set out on my journey
Requires a tribe, a team, a band of explorers
Each and every one with their talents
Unknown to my ways

There I find my eternal family of life
In he who is a Priest
And he who is a Warrior
And she who is a Muse
And she who is an Oracle
And in they who are Crafters
And in they who are Laborers
And in they who are Growing
And in they who are Dying

It was let not that beyond this would be nothing
For also in the predator, the hunter, the prey
The greatest beast and the smallest creeping thing
Do I find counsel of mystery

And as it should not stop there
As it is also the love from my friends
The condemnation from my friends
Even love from my enemies
And the condemnation from my enemies
Where it becomes in light
For in these things are immense wisdom of secret mysteries

As it is true in this life
That I will find myself in darkness
And find myself in light
So too are both of these our teachers

Even as I descend into madness
Or rise into the glory of perfected exactitude
Do I find clues along the way
All masterfully crafted to my own journey

Even pride is a gift
When we fall into humility
And when we rise into wisdom
Do we credit our foolishness

For I cannot gain in darkness
Surrounded by any such thing as myself
It was I who found myself there
And all like me would likewise be so

And I cannot gain in light
Surrounded by any such thing as myself only
It was I who got there by revelations of mysteries
And mysteries are revealed by another source

As the friend who is a Priest does consider
And the friend who is a Warrior does protect
And the woman who is a Muse does inspire
And the woman who opens Herself does heal
And the Crafter does provide
And the laborer does clear the path
And the growing do seek
And the dying do remember
So too do I have my part
Unlike them all

They are strangers to my ways
And friends to my heart
A family unknown to all others
That in time I shall be as the Tree

And as my feet have reached down deep into the ground
So too have my branches reached ever outward
To explore and touch and feel and know
Every flow of passing life
Every particle of drifting life
Every pleasure of intimate life
Every wonder of spiritual life
And every mystery of the secret life forgotten

This is the path

Ryan o0o