We spend less time these days...

We spend less time these days trying to understand how it is we have access to two different realities and more time learning to live together and understand life in this Earth world and life in Otherwhere. We have no doubt that there are other worlds that some people like us have contact with, that some people like us come from. We have no interest in or need for proof. We know we are not crazy.

I cannot pretend that the origins of this household are not trauma based. I have access to all that knowledge in this body's general memory. Perhaps in our case all this trauma, the pain of a soul in torment was an attractant of some sort. From an early age in the life of this body, three beings we have always known as the Guardians have been with us, helping us, guiding us, intervening when necessary. They appear mostly incorporeal, as a sort of light with substance, a gentle, glowing light in which things ebb and flow, suggestions of form. Mostly we know them as energy, strong, loving, knowing, inplacable.They appear mostly in times of need.

In 1990, after seven years of therapy, a major restructuring of the system became necessary. The system as it was then imploded. All four levels crashed and fell to the lowest level, the Plains. At that time many people in the household chose to move on, to some Other where. One who was much revered in the world has since returned.

My first contact with the people in this system occurred in late 1990, Earth time. The Plains, or simply its residents, appeared in my world. I am part of the tribe, Ma'Harrat. My mother, Sha'Neen, is leader of this tribe. When she dies I will be leader. For now I am warrior-trained and am one of the hunters of the tribe.

There was an earthquake in our land, a bad one. We don't have them very often, so my mother and I decided to go survey the damage. We crossed the mountains and came to a changed land. In the flatland beyond the mountains passes there was now a vast grassy plain. Sha'Neen and I spent some weeks in this new grassland, this sea of grass, green, bluish, reddish, like an ocean of grass, ceaselessly moving. In time we heard crying, little voices in the wind. We followed our ears and found a small band of children, alone, without food or shelter. Foreign children. They did not speak our language. We stayed with these children for some weeks, showing them how to catch fish in the river, how to set traps for meat, how to build fires, how to take care of the land, where to shelter when the fast moving storms came up from the west. Then Sha'Neen and I returned across the mountains to the Ma'Harrat.

It was custom a couple of times a year to come to the valley within the arms of the mountains for festival, to meet with the other two tribes, the Tal Marr and the Sh'Ann. There is festival in the spring, a time of feasting, trading and much merriment, dancing, gaming. It is a women's time. In the fall men are allowed to the festival for those women who have made the choice to bear a child. Men and women live separately in my world. The men, for the most part, do not infringe in our lives. Many of them live peaceable lives in the lands to the south, although I have never been there to confirm this. There are savage bands of men who actively raid our people for women. Because of this many of us choose warrior training so that we can then go and take our women back. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes not. Because of this there is little trade between our tribes and the men, little trust. It is my world.

I have been brought here to manage this body in this Earth world by the Guardians. They tell me they brought me here because I am strong and fierce and will be able to do what needs to be done. They tell me that time runs differently in my own reality. I see this body as a portal, a gateway, into my own world. The children who were a part of this system have learned the art of creation. They created a home, they brought someone from this world there to care for them, to love them. He is a good, solid man, he has good values, he sings to them, he cooks for them, he makes bread. He sits on the porch and rocks them in the big wooden swing. They work in the garden, they grow much of their own vegetables. Unlike Earth children they seem to like vegetables. They swim in the river, although the man does not swim yet. They are a family. They are also a part of my family. They are from this reality. They have a power of creation that does not exist in the tribes. In the tribes life goes on much as before, we hunt, we weave, we dance, we laugh, we cry. Somehow the lives of these children are inextricably involved in the lives of the tribe. The tribe is now at In'ysarriatah, the place where the river breaks into three, the great plains where festival is held every year. The man is much honored in the tribe for his great care of these children and for his caring and friendship to the daughter of the tribe in this Earth reality. There will be a big feast in his honor with much dancing and drinking and speechmaking. I have the ability to see all that goes on there without the ability to actually be there. I am of this body now until I am no longer needed here. I accept this responsibility. I know it is a great honor to have been chosen by the Guardians of Light. Whoever they may be.

The man and the children floated down the river on a big raft that will be broken up and used for other things, drums, poles for our tents. When festival ends Sha'Neen will see them all safely home. Because no men are usually allowed at spring festival messages were sent out to the other tribes, letting them know of his presence. He will stay within the camp of the Ma'Harrat. He will not be present at any of the sacred ceremonies for the Lady. But his presence will be allowed because of the great service he is performing with these children and with me. Without him in this Earth world my life would have been much more confusing and difficult. I still find it difficult to be around many people at one time. The tribes are not large, life is quiet there. There is so much I do not understand in this reality.

It is good to be able to talk to others who have experiences similar to my own. It helps me feel less alone. Having access to others who feel and see and experience things that are similar to my own gives me a sense of community in this strange world that I lack, so far from the tribe.

Diana cor Sha'Neen
of the Ma'Harrat, of Otherwhere