I was sent on the earth as a seer, a prophetess, guide to my people:
They cast me away with scorn, and slew me with flames and with arrows.
I was sent to the world of ‘souls’ while the little leaves all wept so,
And the flowers bowed down their sweet heads because I was murdered.
But I left there a word of my promise that sometimes the blest angels
Would weave o’er the world their bright message with blissful evangels
And clothe all cruel hearts in love’s sweetest garments
And make all their arrows keen, wreathed with bright roses.
I flew from the earth like a flame when it bursts from the smoke that’s beneath it;
I fled like a bird when it cleaves for the first time the outer dominions;
I rose like the incense of flowers that leap upward to greet the glad morning,
Or like the sweet song of the swan that she sings in her dying.
I flew past the spheres that were dark; I was fearful to enter their portals,
For I saw there were shadows and shapes even like those of mortals;
And I saw there were envy and hatred and all low things that I liked not;
So I passed them and sped with sweet thought through the uttermost spaces.
I passed by the Hunting-Grounds of the souls of my sires and my people,
For they had arms and weapons, and on earth I never liked bloodshed;
I passed by the earth and its shadow; I rose even unto the heavens!
And the stars I knew, and could name them as sisters and brothers;
They nodded and beckoned to me as I flew with the swiftest pinion,
And seemingly clapped all their hands in great joy at my coming.
And I, with my swiftest thought – I fled, I knew not whither,
But someone upbore me and said, “Come hither Oiuna, come hither!”
And then there came to me, far out of a distant planet,
Twelve spirits arrayed in white, with stars on their foreheads;
Maidens of light, with garments to clothe me and drape me with whiteness,
And I said, “Why come you to me, for on earth I was slain there?”
But I saw they had tears in their eyes, and their thoughts were so lovely;
And the garment they brought me was light; they said it was woven of my thought.
They bade me wear it, and they said my soul had a world of its making
Made of all the thoughts when I saved the poor bird from the huntsman;
Made of all the spirits of the flowers I could pluck not from their low places;
Made of all the deer that came close to my wigwam;
Made of all the thoughts of the souls I had sheltered somehow from sorrow.
And they said this world was all mine, and peopled by beautiful children
That had risen from earth ere their lives were completed,
But were growing like sweet flowers to a better region transplanted;
That, if I would, I should have charge of them, and teach them all gentlest teachings,
Such as love and kindness and mercy and all things that humans here teach not.
And so, with my white array, I sped fast and evermore faster,
The twelve angel-forms gathering near and around me such silver stars glistened!
And the air grew like snowflakes or frost-arrows in winter;
And I knew it was white and pure like the thought of the souls that are made glad.
Then we came near, and there seemed a sound like silver bells ringing,
White flowers dropped down from the heavens; all were seemingly at prayer.
And I entered a portal whose gleaming was white, like the snows of the winter,
And carved with all beautiful shapes; with lily-bells drooping and waxen;
With images of pure thought, and virgins all saying “Ave Maria!”
And I knew that this portal was heaven, and that I was becoming an angel.
And then they arrayed me again in a garment all fashioned of moonbeams,
As white and as silvery pure as the thought which you have in your childhood;
And they told me the bridegroom was coming, the soul of my own soul
And I said, “Who is the bridegroom? I knew none on earth who was human;
For all seemed so cruel and cold, and I was a child – not a woman.”
But they said, “When a soul is complete, ‘tis neither, in heaven, man nor woman,
But only an angel made perfect, only a spirit most human,
That having great powers and great love may reveal to earth all its knowledge.”
And then there dawned on my mind such wonderful truth and such past love,
Of all that the world has e’re known, and all that history tells us,
And all that the great hearts of men have striven to know in their anguish,
But know not because they look not within, but without for their knowledge.
Then I seemed enfolded in the presence of a soul most tender;
A light that was like the sun flamed around me with radiant splendour;
And I knew that the love of heaven, with manifold power and compassion,
Had blended a thought with my own of perfection and holy, sweet patience.
Therefore the anthems chimed out from the star-bells that, twelve in number,
Seemed all around and above me to echo the thought in their gladness;
And the sweet children came with white flowers, all strewing my pathway,
And called me their spiritual mother, and said I must love them,
Because on the earth, they said, they had known no love and no mother.
And I wondered if many worlds had many such orphan children,
And if all spaces were filled with the pitiful sights and with sorrow;
And the answering spirit said, “Oh no! On the blessed tomorrow
You will wake to a world that is full of only joy and gladness,
Where never a thought of pain, of woe, of sorrow, or sadness
Has ever or can ever come: And this is your spirit home.”
And in the constellation that you call Andromeda
Is a beautiful star that you may know by the name of Maonah;
This silver star is the place where the twelve angels bore me from earth-life;
And this is where I now dwell freed from all strife and all sorrow;
And I only know that the soul which is my soul is wedded unto me,
As art is wedded to nature, or God is wedded to all souls;
If before I had no knowledge, now I have all because of that union;
And that whatever thoughts I possess find sweet and perfect responses;
And that nought has “Ouina” alone, but, as a soul completed and perfect,
We stand here before God’s white throne, unashamed, unafraid and made holy,
Because of the pure in heart that shall see God and know Him forever.
And so with my message I bring you the life that is made of completeness;
For white souls alone are complete, not the shadows and darkness of earth-life,
And the children that are given unto me are those that are sent from your shadows,
To be made white and pure and free in my kingdom away from earth’s darkness.
So I weave me a mystic spell of moon beams and pure thoughts around you,
And whenever I come to earth I bear you but one sweetest message,
That there is a time when each soul shall be free from all sadness and sorrows,
When in a planet like mine, the beautiful silver Maonah,
You also may dwell; if you pray and look upward to God, the Great Spirit,
To make you all pure in heart, that world and that love you’ll inherit.
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