Pathworking - Judgment or Aeon Card

JackofWands

Not sure if people are still interested in keeping up with the pathworking group, but if so, for those who are ready to move on to a new card, let's do the Judgment or Aeon card. (For those working with the Tree of Life, this card lies on the path between Hod and Malkut.)

I did a working with this card last night and will post it in this thread.
 

JackofWands

All right. Before I begin, let me apologize in advance for once again lacking traditional card imagery in the following pathworking. I was working with the Thoth deck's Aeon card (image here), but most of the imagery that showed up was much more similar to the RWS Judgment. In a certain sense, what I've done here and with the Universe can't really be called a pathworking, because it's not closely guided by the image depicted in whatever card I'm working with. So a word to the wise: take everything I do with a generous dose of salt, and don't ever take me as a model for how pathworking "should" be done. I break from tradition.

Also, be warned. The language in this is all rather stuffy and silly-sounding. That's just the way of things. As with the previous card, I'll just post the transcript of the pathworking itself for now, and I'll come back at a later date to provide a little bit of analysis of the key symbols that cropped up.

I once again began the process by meditating with a candle in a dark room. The door to the temple of Malkut appeared as before, but this time, it appeared to my left (geographically east) instead of in front of me (south). I stood and turned to it, and I saw that although it was the same door as before, the handle had changed; it was now cast in the shape of an eagle's head. As I reached to open the door, the eagle said, Enter in the name of the mighty.

I stumbled through the blackness again until I reached the antechamber of the temple. The lion-headed priest stood in front of the door to the Universe's path, wearing his white robes with the hood up and holding a torch aloft in his left hand.

You've been gone for too long, he said.

The other world occupied my attentions, I replied, but he shook his head.

The other world is illusion, he said, This is reality. A reality that you cannot escape. The other world will begin to crumble around you until you make right the evil that you have done here.

And then he turned and began to walk into the labyrinth off to my left.

Come, he called to me without looking back, There is work to be done.

So I followed him.

We walked for a long time through the twisting corridors. The priest said nothing, and I followed in silence, listening only to the sound of his robes rustling as he walked. Eventually, he stopped before a door carved with the image of a bonfire and painted orange. It looked very similar to the door behind which I had sought refuge from Areshem, except that this one didn't have the seven-pointed star painted across it.

Go now, the priest said, gesturing to the door, And return soon. There is much work to be done, and a heavy price to be paid for the death of the dragon. Be sure you pay it in time.

The door swung open.

Enter in the name of the fallen, the priest said, and I stepped through.

I found myself on a vast plain covered in dead brown grass. It was late afternoon. All around me were open sepulchers filled with the spirits of the sick and dying. Their groans echoed across the plains.

On the top of a hill to my left stood a winged figure. I turned and began to walk towards him; as I passed each open tomb, the souls inside of it cried out to me for mercy and begged me to end their pain. I put my hands over my ears and kept walking until I reached the top.

At the top of the hill, I saw clearly that the winged man was an angel, holding a golden trumpet in one hand.

Where is Areshem? he asked, turning to me, Only he can end the suffering of these people.

Areshem is dead, I replied.

The angel’s lips pursed, and he turned away from me.

I see, he said after a moment, Then the old order cannot pass away. It was the destiny of the dragon to consume the death and decay of this world, to purify it by fire and to make room for the creation of the new. He was to destroy all that was, and then, by coupling with the Universe, to sire that which is yet to come.

The angel turned back to me.

You have been sent in Areshem’s place? the angel asked.

I nodded.

Good, the angel said, Then it is upon you to reap the lives of the dying souls below. Only you can give them peace.

I looked out over the plains. The wind shifted, and I caught the scent of feces and rotting flesh.

I don’t know how, I said eventually. The angel arced an eyebrow and offered me his trumpet.

Then call to those who do, he said.

Hesitant, I lifted the trumpet to my lips and blew. A single note, loud and clear, echoed across the plains below, and the souls in their tombs cried out with joy at the sound of their salvation. And then the horizon began to darken, and I saw thousands upon thousands of dragons flying in towards me from all the corners of the globe, answering the call of the angel’s trumpet. Their black wings stretched across the sky and turned afternoon into night.

I realized that they were the dragons of other worlds, husbands to other Universes, counterparts to myself and Areshem. They had come to help me fulfill the destiny of my fallen twin.

They swept in towards me, spiraling above the top of the hill, looking down at me with glowing eyes. They span faster and faster until, out of breath, I dropped the trumpet from my lips; and then, with a great bellow, one of them dived downwards, opened his jaws, and breathed out fire onto me.

I cried out and tried to run, but I was not fast enough. The fire caught at me, burning away my clothes, although my flesh was unharmed. And then another dragon swooped down from the sky, and he, too, breathed flame over me. And others joined in from above, until the sky above me was nothing but a towering column of flame, glowing gold against the darkness caused by the dragons blotting out the sky.

Bathed in the dragons’ breath, I felt myself start to change. My body transformed, until I was no longer human but was, myself, a dragon. Larger than any of the others, with golden scales that reflected the light of the world rather than absorbing it into darkness, I shone like a beacon on the top of the hill. And when the transformation was complete, I leapt into the sky, unfurling my wings, and roared a command to the others who had made me what I was.

Destroy! I called.

And with that, they spread out across the land, each dragon swooping down over a tomb and incinerating the soul within it. The plains themselves caught fire, and the inferno spread out across the land, consuming everything, stretching to the horizons and continuing even past them. I circled in the air above the hill until my eyes could see no more, until every tomb had been blackened by my brothers’ breath and the earth itself was nothing but grey ash. Then, I alighted on the hilltop and turned to the angel.

Thank you, he said, This world will be consumed, and as it passes into darkness another shall be born. It is as it should be.

He raised a hand so that it was level with the ground, palm facing downwards.

This place will soon fade, he said, And I will fade with it. But before that happens, there is a treasure hidden beneath this hill, which it is your fate to uncover.

The earth beneath his hand crumbled away, and I saw a cave beneath the hill. Something was shining inside of the cave, and as I watched, the angel descended into the hill and came back up bearing an oversized cross made of pure gold. It shone like my own scales, a beacon in the night, but it was stained brown with dried blood.

The angel set the cross in the ground and turned to me.

This cross, he said, Was borne by the creator of the old order. Upon it was he crucified, and from it is he risen. It is his world that you have helped to end, and it is his world that ultimately must be replaced. He was the father to both Areshem and yourself, and as such, it is fitting that you should inherit the last remnant of his rule before it, too, passes to nothingness. Guard it well.

And with that, the angel turned away from me and began to walk down the hill. I called out to him, but he didn’t look back, and kept walking forward into the darkness. Eventually, he reached the edge of my sight, where there was not even scorched earth to mark the existence of the world. And from there, he passed into the primordial night from which all things come and to which all things return.

I coiled my body around the old creator’s cross and breathed fire onto it until the bloodstains burned away and the metal itself was glowing with heat. I stayed that way and wept softly for the end of things that had been, my golden scales reflecting light out into the encroaching darkness, until the world around me grew darker and darker and was eventually no more. When the point finally came that there was nothing left of the world except myself and the cross—when even the hilltop had dematerialized—I uncoiled myself and turned away from the cross.

By its light, I could see the orange door that I had stepped through in order to come to this place, so I reached out a claw and opened it. As my body passed through the door, the last remnant of light from the cross winked out, and the world behind me was finally, truly gone.

I found myself human again, no longer in my dragon form. I was standing in a long hallway, that extended as far ahead of me and behind me as I could see. The floor was polished amber; the walls were mosaics that depicted a garden full of orange flowers. Above me, a wide skylight let in the light of the sun.

The hall was filled with clerks, bustling to and fro with clipboards and various messages to be delivered. One of them, a short, thin, balding man with round spectacles, stopped in front of me and cleared his throat.

You’re the destroyer, aren’t you? he asked.

Then, without waiting for me to respond, he nodded and checked an item off the list on his clipboard.

Good, he said, You’re right on schedule. Come with me, please. It’s time to return you to the other world.

I followed him down the long hall, and eventually we came to a wide room that was dominated in the center by an enormous fountain. The far wall of the room was a window, and through it I could see a garden exactly like the one that had been depicted in the mosaics all along the hall.

In this room, another balding man stood knee-deep in the fountain, wearing a wetsuit. He beckoned to me to step into the fountain with him.

You have been tried by fire, he said, And have destroyed the world. Now baptize yourself with water, and return again whence you came. The project before you is to create anew, to sire the gods of the world to come. But now is not the time.

He took my hands in his, and I felt that the skin of his left hand was rough and callused while the skin of his right hand was smooth and soft. And then he motioned to me to get down on my knees, and to put my head and torso under the water. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and did as he suggested. But when my body was completely submerged, I no longer felt wet. After a moment of doubt, I opened my eyes, and found myself once again in the room in material reality, with a white candle burning before me. My time in the other world had come to an end.
 

TarotRNJess

I am very interested, but got lost in the sub threads and just found this. I will work with this card and post tomorrow