A Boy and His Rattle [A Salvia Adventure]

[The Sorcerer Osiris]

I crossed into the spirit lands on a single breath, a flash of
lightning carrying me into the darkness casting the eerie glow of a
forgotten memory, unopened doorways I had not known existed a moment
before. Then the demons came, bending reality into a thousand
permutations, a hundred thousand lying fears, all designed to make me
move, to cry out, to surrender my spirit. We are here for your body,
to tear you to shreds! To make you cry out! To make you fall! And then
a new door opens, buried under layers of mind. How had I not seen
before? These are helpful daemons taking my body to be sacrificed, an
offering for safe passage into the lands beyond. Finally unburdened,
the veil drops, reality breaks down and all I'd been so sure of melts
into a pool of thoughts. Oh how this truth burns! White-hot metal
sparks rewire my brain at a higher octave but I refuse to let go.
Holding on to the fire more chambers appear and within each lies a
flood of secrets, too many to hold on to. The gods of this realm
laugh, amused by their game of unlocking the floodgates of the mortal
mind and later erasing it all, leaving only the despair of infinite
loss; too amused to notice my sorcery. For while they taunt and blind
me with the knowledge of the Most High I have hidden two of their
jewels in my own darkness, crystallized pure thoughts into words that
they might be remembered. I am a dreamer dreaming! Cries a voice,
angering the gods who did not wish their secrets remembered. Fast I
run. I have seen enough visions, understood enough mysteries, stolen
crystal fire from the gods. Now I must make it back with my prize.
Like fragile eggs I carry them, a false step and they'd break. Under
layers of mind I carry them, unwilling to look too hard, the pressure
of thought might crack them. The rattle shakes and I return from the
spirit lands, wielding fire from the gods.