Warnings: Okay, I better warn you this one gets real philosophical as Josiah gets his message and, naturally being Josiah, it has to be philosophical. If you’re interested in any aspects of The Messenger (philosophically speaking) just ask, I’ve got all this stuff from years of research and will gladly point anyone in the direction of particular books if interested.
Josiah had ridden up into the hills his shoulders bent with the burden of the guilt he felt. He needed time alone to think things through. His horse took him to a hill not too far distant where the long grass shifted gently in the cool breeze. The horse stopped by a lone tree, its trunk thick with age and its branches heavy with thick leaves and fruit.
The burdened man looked at the tree curiously, he couldn’t recall having noticed it before. He looked around him; the whole hillside was unfamiliar. He inwardly shrugged, shoulda paid more attention to where we was headin’, and, as the horse was obviously not going any further, dismounted and walked over to the tree to sit in its shade.
He sat quietly trying not to think, not to feel, and not to know. It didn’t work. Memories of the last few days bombarded him, hammering at his mind until the tears started to fall. He saw again the madman with his gun pointed at the two women in the cave, saw him shoot Ezra, saw ….. God! Why did you let this happen?
The big man’s body was wracked with sobs as he remembered again and again how Tel grabbed the insane man’s arm and held him tight while he shot her dead. He stood and looked skyward.
"God! Why don’t you answer me? All I need is a sign"
"You're lookin’ in the wrong direction for a start!" said a voice from within the branches of the tree.
"What?" Josiah turned around, confused. He could have sworn he was alone.
"Did you think God was just sitting up there on a cloud takin’ petitions from those below?" asked the voice. It was strangely familiar but Josiah could see no one through the thick leaves and he couldn’t quite place it.
"Who’s there?" he called, not sure he really wanted to know. He wasn’t used to getting answers when he spoke to God.
A head appeared from around the tree but it wasn’t at all who Josiah expected. It was a black and white dog. It came towards the man and sniffed at his feet. Sitting down next to him it gave a yelp-like sound.
"Well, I didn’t know dogs could talk" Josiah mumbled. Just then another dog came forward to join its mate. They looked up at him expectantly and he bent down to pat their heads Dogs again? He remembered the last time he’d sought a sign from God and a dog appeared, strangely enough it was black and white too.
He looked back to the tree. "Is this some sorta joke?" he asked.
A pair of booted feet appeared from one of the lower branches. Laughter rang out.
"No, not a joke. Perhaps a lesson"
"About what?"
"Humility, faith, forgiveness – love …"
"All of those or do I get to choose?" he asked.
"The choice is yours. When you’ve figured it out you’ve learned the lesson"
"Well, I always enjoyed me a riddle" he commented.
Laughter again then, "Well you got one!"
"Yer voice sounds real familiar. How about showing me more than yer boots?"
"What – you don’t like my boots?"
"They’re real fine boots. Jus’ would like to know who’s in ‘em"
The boots dangled a bit longer then swang together as the person jumped down. Josiah waited while the stranger with the familiar voice bent over to brush twigs and leaves off. Looks real familiar too, who is it?
The figure straightened to stand tall and look squarely into the eyes of an astonished Josiah Sanchez. His mouth gaped open in shock as he brought a hand up to wipe his face.
"But …. You’re dead!"
"Yeah, look pretty good for a dead woman, don’t I" Telaisen laughed.
"We left your mortal remains under the mountain, I don’t understand, ya were dead"
"Whoever said I was mortal" she replied enigmatically.
Josiah was dumbfounded and had gone quite pale.
"I ain’t a ghost Josiah"
"Who are you? What are you?"
"More riddles Josiah?" Tel asked the perplexed man.
"A little more than I’d like" he admitted twirling his hat in his hands.
Tel sat down on the grass and looked up at Josiah waiting for him to sit as well before continuing.
"It all has a reason. All this" she said waving her hand out before her, "All that’s happened"
"And what reason would that be?" Josiah asked, still astounded to find himself chatting with a woman he’d watch die just a few days previously, whose body he had spoken over.
"That was a nice funeral, Josiah. One of my best" Josiah looked at her quickly, "Thanks for the words"
"One of? This happens often then?" Lord, who is she?
She smiled and answered the unspoken question, "I have been given many names, the women from the reservation called me, Daughter of the Moon, but I have also been known as Tailtu, Issen, Mary … but I am who I am, Telaisen – the Messenger. No matter what name I’m called by that is who I am"
Josiah sat perfectly still trying to take in what the woman was telling him. She waited patiently.
"May I ask what the message is?"
"You may but I won’t tell you"
"Another riddle?" he sighed as Tel laughed.
"All of life is a riddle, Josiah"
They sat there for a few minutes in silence.
"There’s some souls that keep returning, life after life even after they have already attained that which all souls seek – they are the Enlightened Ones"
"Are you one of these Enlightened Ones?" Josiah asked.
"No, Josiah, I’m not"
Josiah was puzzled and turned his head towards her waiting for her to explain.
"The Enlightened Ones are reborn every few hundreds years or so, sometimes sooner. They endure the pain of rebirth for one reason only – to help other souls in their passage through life. My purpose is to find them, basically check they’re going okay and are on the right path. Sometimes they need confirmation of their purpose in life, other times they might need more, or less"
She paused again waiting for it to sink in, she could see Josiah was working through the ideas she presented.
"I think I’ve heard something similar to this from a Chinese friend I had once"
"That’s possible, the Enlightened Ones can appear anywhere in the world"
"Ya must do a lot of travellin’ then?"
"Yep" she chuckled, "All over the place"
"These souls usually appear at the same time and meet up at some point during their lives"
She paused again before adding, "They number seven"
Tel heard Josiah’s sharp intake of breath as realisation hit him.
"Ya mean …?"
"Dan-El is the Watcher, Sar-El is the guardian and protector, El-Wym the healer, Kar-En-El the trickster, Mer-Kel-Nu is the Keeper of the Gate, Arc-El the Keeper of the Light and Jay-K’El is the Keeper of Knowledge, the voice."
"Vin, Chris, Nathan and Ezra I can see – but the others?"
"JD is the Light – full of passion for life and Buck is the Keeper of the Gate. It was his death/rebirth that allowed me passage between the worlds. You are the Keeper of Knowledge, Josiah, the voice"
"I’m not sure I understand" he mumbled.
"I’m sure you do"
"How are we connected? How did we know to meet up?"
The questions started to pile up in his mind.
"You each follow the same path. Your lives leading up to the time of your meeting prepare you for the path you collectively follow."
"What path is that? Or is this another riddle?"
"No riddle Josiah, just the Truth – the Ultimate Truth. The path you follow is that of True Living"
Josiah laughed, "I think I drink too much whisky for that path." Josiah knew he wasn’t righteous enough for what Tel was suggesting.
Again she answered his unspoken thoughts.
"Yes you are, you all are whether you know it or not. You are who you are and whisky or any other of your perceived faults can’t change that. True Living has nothing to do with words learnt by rote as a child and repeated without thought as an adult. It has nothing to do with rules written for the purpose of controlling human nature. It has everything to do with compassion."
"Compassion? Is that all?"
"All? Compassion is everything. Compassion is the Supreme Reality. Without it you have, well, you have nothing but death"
"Death?"
"Death of hope, death of love, death of spirit"
"Death of life?"
"Yes and no. Death of life is a necessity. Death is the passageway to enlightenment. Without death there can be no birth"
They sat in silent contemplation for awhile and watched the dogs playing in the grassy fields below them.
"Does this mean all my beliefs about God are false?" Josiah asked, dread eating at his gut. His strong beliefs made him who he was -–if they were false then he was lost.
"Your beliefs are true Josiah. You express them in the way that you were taught. Others, in different times and places, would express them differently but the underlying belief is the same."
Josiah thought about this and then asked, "Why did you say before that I was looking for God in the wrong direction?"
Telaisen layed down in the grass put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs.
"Every religion has their own terms and idiosynchrasies when it comes to describing, communicating and looking for the One, the Wholly Other. You look up, others look down. Where you should be looking is all around and inside"
"God is everywhere" Josiah nodded.
"The One is not everywhere as much as it is everything. You, me, the rocks, the grass, those dogs"
Josiah looked at the dogs again and something clicked.
"The dog before was God’s way of talking to me?"
"The One, or God, isn’t some old guy that tells you what to do or sends you secret messages. You prayed for an answer – the dog came to you. You have to find your answer in that, think it out for yourself"
"Life’s a riddle" he repeated her words of before.
Tel sat up and rested her elbows on her raised knees, Josiah sensed that she was about to leave.
"What do I do now?" he asked her.
"Do what you have been doing. I’m not here to give you answers, only the message"
"You’re more than that though, aren’t yer?" he suddenly had a picture of her as a guiding force moving through the world – one person at a time.
"Yeah, you could say that. To you and the other six, I’m the messenger. To others, like that man from the saloon, I’m a guide, [she snickered to herself] to others still I’m just a huge pain in the ass!"
Josiah’s laugh boomed through the valley causing the dogs to stop their play and look back up the hill. Josiah thought of his friends, one in particular, and said,
"What about Vin?"
"Vin knows"
"You’ve already told him all this"
"No, but he knows all the same, and we’ll meet again – we always do"
"How can ya be sure?"
"Sure of what?"
"That he knows. That you’ll meet again"
"I left something with him for safekeeping"
"Does Loren know too"
Tel smiled again then looked away. Josiah followed her gaze to where a young woman was riding past leading a saddled but riderless horse, "She knows too" Tel told him.
"Is she an Enlightened One?" Josiah asked suddenly in awe. Tel’s now standing form seemed to glow and shimmer.
"Not yet, but we’re working on it!"
Tel was surrounded now in that same incandescent light that Chris and Vin had seen when she’d brought Buck back. It was a strange mix of darkness and light and iridescent colour.
He squinted and brought his hand up to protect his eyes from its brightness.
"I have a gift for you" Tel’s voice seemed to echo throughout the valley.
A butterfly flew out from the brightness. Josiah raised his hand, palm out, and the small creature landed there its wings whispering in the stillness.
Josiah felt in awe again this time at the beauty inherent in this simple creature. Its wings held all the colours of the rainbow.
+ + + + + + +
In the town of Four Corners, far below where Josiah now sat, Vin Tanner walked into the saloon and towards his friends in the back of the smoke-filled room. Sitting, he reached for the glass that was slid across the table to him and brought it to his lips. In his other hand he held a silver band set with a single onyx and engraved with an intricate circular design.
GOD, ARE YOU REAL??
The little child whispered,
"God, speak to me"
And a meadowlark sang.
But the child did not hear.
So the child yelled,
"God, speak to me!"
And the thunder rolled across the sky
But the child did not listen.
The child looked around and said,
"God let me see you"
And a star shone brightly
But the child did not notice.
And the child shouted,
"God show me a miracle!"
And a life was born
But the child did not know.
So the child cried out in despair,
"Touch me God, and let me know you are there!"
Whereupon God reached down
And touched the child.
But the child brushed the butterfly away
And walked away unknowingly.
-Anonymous
End notes: The Path of True Living concept can be found in Buddhist teachings and very early (like pre-Bible) Christianity. The Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of the Bodhisarttra (‘scuse my spelling) of Compassion (or something along those lines. I haven’t read a great deal about Buddhism but I have seen 7 years in Tibet!). The reason music played such a persistent role in this story comes from a passage I found:
The Wholly Other – the overpowering experience that engenders those emotions that cannot be adequately expressed in words or concepts. Music/erotica can cause this sense of Other. It is a part of the Supreme Reality.
The names of the Seven Enlightened Ones come from the language of the El-Dari (as does the name T’El-Aisen). The original beings were the seven daughters of El-Dar-En, Mother of the El-Dar. The race no longer exists on this world though at one time (millenia ago) the seven tribes of the El-Dar roamed far and wide. The eighth daughter of El-Dar-En had no tribe, usually travelling with only one or two ‘friends’. She was the Traveller, the Messenger ….. but that’s a whole other story.
