Spirit Animal
Pair this exploration with Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin and welcome your spirit animal
The round staircase is narrow so I have to look where I put my feet. It goes counter-clockwise so it has not been used for defense. The red brick tower was built at a time where left-handed people were considered freaks so it seems unlikely they were given the upper-hand in battle. It is a pacifist tower. I am not going up but down into the ground. It is all very peaceful. There is no dungeon or criminal chained up, but earth caverns framed by the roots of the trees on the grounds. The cavern goes deep. So much so that the staircase changes from being bricked with a metal handrail to rickety wooden steps and a rope to hold onto. I step off the stairs and onto the path leading into this parallel world. Defying logic the sun sends its beams down here to light up in rainbow colors. Underneath the root canopies lush green grass grows into picnic blankets and sleeping bags. Butterflies in primary colors team up with squinting moles, soft rose worms and shiny beetles to keep this delicate ecosystem going. It smells like mulch and daydreams. I come to a wall of woven roots with an opening to a short tunnel. I walk through. I have to crouch down a bit. At the end of the tunnel there is a dining room with a big rustic table in the middle. There are nine chairs on either side and one at each end. There is a gold coin on the corner of the table closest to me. It is not for me. I pull out a chair on the long side and angle it out and sit down. I look at the entrance and wait. After a while a fox runs by. It comes through the tunnel and continues through another opening on the other side of the room. I have never seen a fox so red and white or with blacker legs. It is gone before I can ask it anything, but I know this is just the beginning of what I am here for. I wait again. This time longer. I have patience. A lioness walks in the same way as the fox and lies down in front of me. She is almost white and has yellow eyes with drops of caramel. Her front paws are stretched out and close to touching my feet. She is resting in her body watching me. Showing me how to be unafraid of strength and power. How not to wield it but use it to connect and ground myself. How to embrace it. As we speak with no words she includes herself in me. She lets herself be absorbed by me. She is in every cell of my being. I get up from the dining chair and push it back under the table. I walk out through the tunnel and across the open cavern and up the wooden stairs and brick stairs to the door leading out into the grounds. I open the door and blink a few times to get used to the sunlight.
