5. Miracles of the Eclipse
Sluggo suddenly perked up and said, “Here comes the cake!” The others looked and saw two women carefully rolling a small table on which sat a gigantic cake, tiered like a wedding cake but decorated in a different theme. The a cappella chorus was humming “Happy Birthday”, accompanied by a susurrus of expectant chatter.
“Oh boy, what a beaut of a cake!” said Mindy. “But darn, we didn’t get to hear the rest of our awesome origin story.”
Nasreen said, “Maybe you could finish telling us later, Diana?”
“I’ll be delighted,” said Diana; “sometime this evening we’ll surely find the right moment.”
The cake had fifteen candles on the top layer. It was set on the table at which sat the Kin of Aries, directly in front of Gavin. He rose to his feet as Gwendolyn lit the candles with a wooden match. In a voice that resonated across the enclave, Gavin said: “I was graced to come into the world at the same moment as a spirit of cosmic magnitude that holds immense import for our people. We can see its effects as millions of whites awaken around the globe, proudly affirm their heritage, and seek a future for their children. We are the few who know the celestial source of this phenomenon, and the secret identity of the new white Geist. Therefore we have a dharma to lead the way to the New Aeon, and we’re specially equipped for the job. I have a secret wish which I’ll share with some of you later, but for now I hope you’ll join me in wishing a happy fifteenth birthday to…” He took a deep breath and then chanted the name RamaSpirit. Many other voices joined the crescendo, but not all. Then with a twinkle in his eye, Gavin twirled a finger and the candle flames suddenly flared up into a single blaze. After a few seconds it somehow snuffed itself out in a big puff of white smoke.
“Wow,” said Sluggo, “you’ll get your wish for sure!”
Gavin cut slices of the cake for everyone at his table, then the two women who were acting as servers put it back on the wheeled table and apportioned it all the way around the horseshoe. Lively chatter and good spirits prevailed for about another hour, after which the élan started winding down as people drifted from the tables to other activities. A klatch formed in the center of the array, with people talking merrily as volunteers began to clear the tables. Gavin approached a circle of kindred in which Eric was holding forth, and joined the conversation. After awhile he gave Eric an eyes-sideways signal, and the two politely broke off and strolled toward the eucalyptus grove for their private talk.
Eric cut to the chase and said, “What do you make of how you got overshadowed by my father Marcus in the middle of our fight?”
“Right now your guess is as good as mine,” said Gavin. “When was the last time you had a visitation from him?”
Eric was surprised by the question. They were now in the grove, and sat on a couple of stumps that had been left by loggers in the century past. “Now that I think of it,” said Eric, “it was a long time ago. After he was murdered by those ZOG-sucking lackeys, he came back and was with us pretty much all the time, in one form or another. He really pulled off the resurrection, though he never coagulated enough for the ‘put your hand in my wounds’ gambit. Sometimes you could swear he was physically standing there as he talked with you ~ but then if somebody came in who wasn’t as strongly tuned into the Geist, he faded out.”
“What a great magus he was!” said Gavin. “And it was on a par with Jesus, at least after the ascension: ‘If two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’. In other words, it needed the solid Geist of the Christian sodality for his presence to manifest, just like it still does. And it’s the same for all sacred sodalities: their particular Gods and Ascended Masters can only materialize into the collective aura of the devotees.”
“I know what you mean,” said Eric. “One of our kin learned yoga from some guru who claimed that their founder is still alive after two thousand years and comes to visit them on special occasions.”
“Sounds like Babaji,” said Gavin.
“Yeah, that’s the name. But listen, I remembered the last time we saw Marcus: it was during the eclipse in ’99.”
“Wow, really? Mom was just telling us about her experience in it.”
“Right, she and Apollo went in person, and the rest of us stayed up all night watching it live on TV and doing some magic with it. Then we noticed that Marcus was sitting on the sofa with us.” Gavin laughed in wonderment, and Eric continued: “Marcus didn’t speak, he just pointed to the image of the total eclipse on the TV screen, and some of us started getting psychic effects from it. We were in the big conclave-hall of the main house, and it was suddenly overshadowed by a great spiritual presence. I had an impression of Marcus rising up into the light overhead, and then it all faded. An announcer came on the tube and said that the umbra of the eclipse was now passing from Europe into Turkey.”
“Incredible ~ that dovetails exactly with the experience of our kinsman Ted Beckendorf.”
“Oh? I like Ted, but I didn’t know he was in on your Kin of Aries from the beginning. Didn’t he arrive a few years later?”
“He did, but like Albrecht, the eclipse triggered a spontaneous awakening to his white identity.”
“I know Albrecht’s story,” said Eric ~ “he almost stumbled over your mom and dad when they were getting ready to make love in the woods before the eclipse. And he was a Marxoid! He was there specifically to harass the ‘neo-nazis’ he heard were gathering at Braunau to see the eclipse. And then the spiritual power of it got him to change sides!”
“That was a real miracle,” said Gavin, “a telesmatic event. Ted’s was too, but the difference was that he witnessed the eclipse in an out-of-body experience.”
“Whoa, that’s a trip! And you’re convinced it was real?”
“Absolutely ~ I’ll ask him to share it with you himself. And because he had the lucid astral view of the event, he saw the whole numenal overlay. There were souls of the dead circling around in the ether under the eclipse; some of them had been stuck there since World War II, and they knew this would be their moment of release.” Eric was goggle-eyed; Gavin went on: “And above the eclipse in the metasphere there was a Circle of Elders ~ white Ascended Masters, Thulean Übers. Ted’s impression was that there were twelve of them ~ and one of them was Marcus.”
“What?! How could he know that?”
“He told it all to Diana when he met her three years later, and from his description she knew it was Marcus.”
For a moment Eric stared intently at the ground. Then he shook himself slightly, looked at Gavin and said, “So maybe Marcus didn’t come back anymore because he ascended into the realm of the Übers.”
“That’s an excellent hypothesis,” said Gavin. “But I’ll bet he’s still been keeping tabs on us from that higher layer of the metasphere ~ like, with a Godseye view.”
“No doubt. And evidently he decided that it was finally time to come on down to Earth again today. So the question is: why did he manifest through you in particular?”
After a pause for thought Gavin said, “I’ll bet it has to do with a proposal I’ve been planning to make to you.”
“Ah! Okay, let’s hear it.”
“I’d like to convene the War Council.”
Eric was startled. “When? And for what purpose?”
“Right away ~ say tonight. It’s an ideal time and place ~ almost all of us are here. And as for why, I’ve been working on a stratagem for some time, and I finally got all the pieces put together, ready to lay on the table for all of you.”
“What kind of stratagem? Does it involve the action in the Middle East?”
“Only indirectly ~ it’s bigger than that. But I’d prefer to hold off on the details till I can spiel out the whole thing.”
Their eyes riveted intensely for a few seconds, then Eric said, “You’re on. I was impressed and proud from what I heard about your blood rite over there, your initiation into the Krieg. So you’re well qualified to address the Council ~ and given what we’ve been talking about, I’m really keen to hear what’s on your mind.”