Gift of the Enchanted Sun Goddess

Once upon a time, in a faraway, distant land, there lived a wild and enchanted Goddess of the Sun. But this Goddess was no ordinary one, with gifts far beyond her deepest imaginings.

Aeliana was her name.

It began as a simple invitation to a party. Casual, at that. “Mother, where are you?” Aeliana demanded as she scoured the atmosphere with her empathic gift of sight — “clear seeing,” or what is known as “clairvoyance.”

Admittedly, it took a lot for her to show herself. Especially to strangers, or those who knew nothing of her. “Tonight is my night,” she muttered dreamily to herself, attempting to muster up enough courage to look at her reflection straight-on.

But the fact of the matter was that she simply didn’t have it in her to move her body where she could innately sense exactly where her mother was.

————————————————————————————-

“Hello?” Aeliana found herself standing outside, alone in the cold, waiting for at least someone to answer. Waiting for a single soul to grant her entrance inside.

It might have seemed a silly rule, but her wolverine side had long ago been cursed — which meant that she absolutely had to request permission when it came to entering through any type of guest’s home.

“Hello!” Aeliana called out, louder this time, and more pronounced.

“Hello. I’m Jacques.” The wolf challenged her a bit with this fresh greeting.

“Won’t you come inside?” He flashed her a dazzling smile — a rather inviting one that suggested that she should come closer, go further, past the threshold of the door.

“Sure,” She flashed him a smile in return. Deep down in her heart, she could feel it fluttering. She really couldn’t help herself.

“My pleasure.” Jacques grinned and licked his lips somehow, seeming to disturb her. But she largely ignored that aspect of him. All she wanted to know was if they would ever get together, and why he seemed to have such a strong hold on her emotions already.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Aeliana purred softly. For, although she had the heart of a Goddess, her wolverine instincts often kicked in when she least expected them to do so. She desired to put up a solid front, a strong facade, but at times, she really couldn’t help herself.

“Of course.” And with that, Jacques outstretched a paw her way, and muttered, “You may come in.”

Taking in the vastness of her surroundings, Aeliana shuddered momentarily. A cool breeze suddenly overcame her, causing a chill to run down the back of her spine. “Wow. This place is so.. ethereal,” she uttered, barely able to breathe another moment more. Clenching her fists privately, Aeliana found herself desiring to see more and more.

It was quite the spectacle: an ornately decorated room with a chandelier smack dab in the middle. All kinds of artwork and fancy decor were smattered all over the walls. Aeliana was clearly so uneducated in the world of art and imagination that she barely would have known whether the artist was Rembrandt or Pablo Picasso. She was simply starstruck, in total and complete awe.

“I love this,” Aeliana breathed shyly. “How ever did you come to afford this beauty of a home?”

“It is of no matter,” Jacques replied, seemingly offhandedly. But it seemed to Aeliana that he was hiding an elated smirk.

“Why don’t we play a little game?” He glanced, not unkindly, at her. “Come now. I’ll show you the room where I keep it all stored.”

Aeliana nodded her head profusely up and down, gawking fearfully at him. It was as though she could not decide between one thing or the other…

“Sure.” She at last conceded to his request. Even if she had no idea what that might have meant for her — whether it was good or bad, or something else entirely.

And, with that, Jacques led the way, throughout what seemed like an unending maze of enshrouded art and mysterious encasements of hardback books. Aeliana read off a few of the titles, just casually, upon passing by. Beauty and the Beast. Arabian Nights. The Little Prince. She couldn’t have possibly forgotten those. Tales of long ago, ones that had made a strong imprint on the depths of her spirit for quite some time.

At long last, she and Jacques reached the room that he had been leading her toward. It seemed to be a lonely, desolate place, encamped in the cold and lowly corridors of a warm and spacious, two-acre home. Strongly trembling, Aeliana made her emotions quite plain by the expressions on her face. I have no choice but to give in, she thought quietly to herself, as Jacques pulled her forward, motioning toward what seemed like a deck of cards that he had pulled out of a hidden compartment in the corner of the room.

“How do you feel about the art of tarot?” Jacques asked, with a half-serious expression plastered on his face. Extending a pretty paw toward her, he winked at her, whispering, “Come on. Free reading, on me.”

Though Aeliana could already feel the heat in the atmosphere growing between them, she didn’t wish to give herself away too easily or too soon. The moment was already magical enough without having to add to it at all.

“So… how do these readings work exactly?” Aeliana asked with a slight hint of embarrassment. She knew what tarot was, of course. But not nearly enough about it.

She had always been born with the notion of believing that tarot was considered “evil” —that is, pagan, and so far removed from the concept of a Judeo-Christian God. The one and only God she had been raised to worship demanded monotheistic devotion, and tarot simply did not seem to mesh with that ideal. Jacques was already challenging the very beliefs that she had held dear all throughout her growing up years. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t stated any of his personal beliefs directly. He nevertheless was already influencing her to question at least one thing from her past.

“What is it?” Jacques posed. Although Aeliana had done her best to mask her feelings, it seemed as though she had them plastered all over her face. But that was nothing unusual for her.

She shouldn’t have been surprised, anyway.

Breathing a heavy sigh, Aeliana tried to shake it off. “Me? Nothing. It’s absolutely fine. But I must admit that I have no idea what a reading is or what it would entail.”

Jacques chuckled lightly to himself, wrapping a delicate paw around her shoulders. “I would be quite delighted to show you.” And with that, he whipped out a deck and began to shuffle.

Though it was difficult for Aeliana to truly tell, the deck of cards seemed just that at first glance: a simple pack of cards. But upon closer inspection, she knew that it had to have been so much more than that.

“Okay….” Jacques took a deep breath, smiling broadly at Aeliana. “How many cards would you like for me to pull? And what type of spread would you like?”

“Well… what types of spreads do you have available?” She inquired innocently.

“Any kind that you could possibly imagine. Let’s start with an intuition spread. This one will tell you all about your intuitive faculties and how to best tap into them. Since you are still developing your intuition, this may prove to be a beneficial spread for you, in a variety of ways.”

Aeliana didn’t dare to challenge Jacques, no matter if she felt any sense of qualms or hesitation. She simply felt too much fear in her heart for any of that. He carried both a sense of exuberance and eloquence, along with an aura of strength and unwavering confidence. The type of confidence that you wouldn’t want to cross.

“Okay,” Aeliana replied timidly, attempting unsuccessfully to hide her sense of uncertainty and lack of ease. But she wanted to go on with it, truly. Even if it meant compromising her own sense of beliefs and morals.

Nodding his head in assent, Jacques shuffled the deck once more, carefully laying out the first four cards that practically flew out of the pile. Slowly, methodically, he lined them up, one by one, as Aeliana observed quietly, distantly, in the background.

And then, he turned to her, and asked, “Would you like to flip them over?”

And as Aeliana took the time to do so, she examined each of them carefully, one by one.

The Moon. The Hermit. Eight of Cups. Death.

“What does this mean?” She asked, completely terrified at the notion of the “Death” card.

“”Let’s go through each one and I’ll explain them to you, one by one.”

But Aeliana wasn’t entirely certain if she was ready for any kind of explanation. All she knew was that this type of thing seemed completely eerie to her. It seemed to oppose all that she stood for, all that she had ever desired.

“Okay,” she replied. For curiosity got the best of her, in the end.

“Lovely. Okay, so with The Moon… We have a heart that is enshrouded in so much darkness.” Casting a sideways glance at her, Jacques grinned in what seemed like mirth.

Horrified, Aeliana gazed at the outline, the aesthetic, of the card. It seemed quite innocent enough. The picture of a crescent moon with simple darkness surrounding it. It didn’t seem like it was immersed In darkness, to the point that Jacques had described.

Smirking at Aeliana some more, Jacques continued on. “It means that your intuition is still developing, but that you still have eyes to see and ears to hear. That you’re truly aware of good and evil in ways that no one else is. Almost like how Eve took a bite of that forbidden fruit and became one with God. Not simply observing him from afar. I don’t know, Aeliana, don’t you think that you have done a sufficient enough job of becoming one with God?”

She took a deep breath, barely able to look Jacques directly in the eye. This was simply too much.

And so, he continued on.

“The Hermit is what you need in order to develop your intuition. So, in other words, you need to spend some more time alone if you’d like to become more acquainted with your intuition. Not in the sense of isolation, but in the sense of reflecting upon what is good and bad about your life.”

“I’m so proud of you, Aeliana. I mean, you’ve resisted death time and time again. Only to survive, time and time again.”

Aeliana sighed. This wasn’t quite what she had in mind. She knew, deep down, that she was disobeying her Father in heaven, that she was running away from truth.

And yet, still, she stayed. For part of her was interested. Part of her felt this sense of familiarity with Jacques, in spite of what she knew.

“Next is Eight of Cups. This card describes the next steps that you need to take in order to further get in touch with your intuition. It shows here that you are attempting to escape some sort of tragic situation or troubling emotion.” Jacques paused, attempting to gauge Aeliana’s reaction or to perhaps get a rise out of her. “It seems like you’re not admitting something to yourself, or that you are attempting to run away from your feelings.”

Shaking her head, Aeliana sighed again.

“I stand for the light, not the dark. You can do anything you please to attempt to persuade me otherwise. But I refuse to cave to your ways.”

Jacques smirked once more. “No matter what you believe you’re playing at, I will prove to you that you have all the power and the glory in the end. You really don’t need anyone or anything but yourself. And it’s sad, because you have such strong insight and intuition that hasn’t yet been tapped into.”

“Which card is next?” Aeliana abruptly said. She didn’t wish to show her vulnerabilities. She had to pay just enough attention to make it seem as though she were interested. But not so much that Jacques would end up questioning her ruthlessly on it.

“Of course you should know. It’s the infamous Death card. Obviously, depending on context… you know, it can mean the brink of major transformation. Meaning that you are enduring a spiritual death, and will someday be raised to new life again. Hopefully someday soon. But nothing is, of course, guaranteed…”

Jacques’ gaze drifted off. He seemed distracted by someone, or something.

“Hello?” Jacques called out.

Something about it all seemed so wrong. But Aeliana didn’t dare speak a word against him to express her true feelings.

“One moment,” Jacques grunted, just barely enough to be heard. His fur billowed after him as he headed toward the front room, with a foreboding hint of darkness, distantly carried on.

But as soon as he left the room with Aeliana in it, a bloodcurdling scream was unleashed all around the vicinity of Jacques’ home. Helplessly, Aeliana cried out. But her cries were all the more drowned out by whomever was at the door.

“Who are you?” Jacques demanded, seeming to be as equally as confused and alarmed as Aeliana.

But when Aeliana furiously ran after Jacques to arrive at the front door… She saw no one.

And yet, Jacques was nevertheless adamantly engaging with someone. Almost as though he were talking to thin air, an invisible force beyond her comprehension, or entirely to himself.

“I’m so sorry. Yes, yes. I’ll be there in no time at all.” Jacques spoke apologetically, yet animatedly, to this presence that Aeliana could not visibly detect.

Jacques continued on in conversation like that for quite some time while Aeliana simply observed.

Until he finally finished up. “Thank you,” Jacques grunted after the presence, not unpleasantly. “We’ll be in touch.”

But somehow, Aeliana detected a hint of fear in Jacques’ tone. Fear… an emotion that did not seem to too often take hold of him.

“What was that all about?” Aeliana spoke frankly with Jacques. If she was being lied to about something, anything at all, she would strongly prefer to find out sooner rather than later.

“It’s nothing,” Jacques muttered under his breath, seemingly perturbed. “Absolutely nothing at all.”

“Jacques,” Aeliana scowled. “I’m not dumb.”

But he still refused to offer anything up. And Aeliana knew that he likely wouldn’t if she prodded more.

“Aeliana, let me take you somewhere. A place of both origin and love. A place of deepest dreams, desires, and wishes, and yet one that you had always known for as long as you were ever born.”

Glancing sideways at him, Aeliana already knew that she was in for quite a long ride. And their story hadn’t even begun.