A Black Speck appeared when enough colors had collided to
melt into emptiness. The Black Speck
danced and danced, growing and growing until it had mass and energy. It was creating form from emptiness. Darkness
from light. It danced and danced until
feathers appeared and then a sharp beak and wings unfolding dancing round and
round darkness growing from rainbow light colliding in the dance unfolding
darkness until Raven is born. She dances
and dances round and round in the dance hall of rainbow light that is the
universe.
Raven and Rainbow dance into eternity and create the world.
The rainbow circled down and reached the nearest collection
of solid space, held solid by generations of beings imagining the grass and
sky. Born to unsuspecting human parents,
Raven never forgets the rainbow light and searches for it long and down dark
narrow places, searching myths and legends for signposts pointing the way
back. Her search leads down all
paths. The cross and circle into
impossible patterns of breathtaking beauty and shattered dreams. The dance is crowded with so many steps the beginning
and end are forgotten. The dance becomes
the reality. Raven dreams of dancing
with the wind, dancing with the rainbow, but the sky presses close and gravity
hold her tight to the ball of consciousness created by the many sentient
beings, each dancing their own dance with the rainbow light, each creating
their own black speck of emptiness, filling it with form and movement. Raven dances on.
One day, tired of dancing, she sits quietly under a cedar
tree. Time and space slow until it is no
problem to hear the slow speech of the plant people. They are fascinated by the fast dancing
humans and animals, and have great wisdom to share. Raven spends more and more time under the
trees, dancing now with the waving branches and the wind, sitting quietly when
she tires. Human thoughts and word slow
and she becomes quieter and quieter as she sits in the comforting arms of
Grandmother Cedar.
Summer comes and she sits on the rocks by the river
listening to the song of the flowing water.
Days and hours lose meaning for her until one day she can hear the slow
speech of the rock people. Wise and
patient, they teach her about waiting, and how to listen to the song of the
universe. Years pass on the banks of the
river, waiting and listening, flowing with the water, merging with the
rocks. Humans can barely see her now,
she sits so still and quiet. All the
languages are hers.
One day, sitting quietly, a rainbow rises in the sky and
touches ground at the very spot she sits.
Bathed in rainbow light she remembers everything. Back, back she travels in time, back to the
dancing, back through all her partners, back through space shrinking until she
becomes the black speck in the rainbow light, smaller and smaller until she
dissolves and is the rainbow once more.
Time and space have vanished and everywhere and everything happens simultaneously. The universe of endless possibilities is her
world. Joy is her surroundings. She is not even she anymore, but the whole,
the rainbow, the everything, the nothing.
Time surrounds but cannot enter.
Everywhere and nowhere become lovers and their union is who she is. Nothing, nothing but the rainbow light everywhere. She has come home.
Back on the river bank, Raven blinks her eye and the world
returns. Just as before, the rocks and
trees welcome her return. This time she
has not forgotten and she can remember the rainbow world and how to get
there. The rocks cheer for her good fortune. She knows it is time now to leave the river
and the trees and go back to the land of humans and their fast speech. But she knows now the knowledge of the stillness
as well as the beauty of the dance. She
will return often.
Back in the land of the humans, Raven wants to tell them of
the beauty of the Rainbow World, and what she learned there, that time and
space are our creations and we are all one, all part of the rainbow light, but
her voice is harsh and hard to understand, and her black feathers only reflect
the rainbow when the sun is shining at just the right angle. She walks awkwardly, tilting her head and beak,
trying to find the right words, living on the edge of civilization, eating
whatever comes her way for nourishment.
Fascinated by human song, she spends hours and days
listening on the edges of record stores, radio stations, karaoke bars, humming
to the tunes and inventing her own melodies.
it takes time and practice, but she has learned patience and perseverance
in her many travels. At last, the song
flows from her and she can sing.
Rainbows flow from her inner being and are released in song. She is radiant with happiness, and the
rainbows are now reflected in her feathers no matter what the light is. Her song fills the emptiness in her being.
