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All well heated hearths of hearts; The Letters of this Breast Make whole of nature's parts.”
 SUDDENLY in one day there were new words and new thoughts. It had been cold but my heart was stirred. In my heart I felt a new heat. Somewhere in my heart I saw a new hearth. Although it was evening I packed and walked to the harbor. The catboat had not been hauled for the winter. She was sitting in a thin sheet of ice. I used the old oar to break free. Soon I was in the channel. There was very little wind. Questions whispered behind the yellow dots of lights on the shore, “Where is Michael going so late? Can the mapmaker be fishing?” I was not going to fish. I had turned my face and set sail for the Isle. I did not know why. We were the mapmakers. Mapmakers cleaved to certain isles - small, unnoticed, central isles that captured the thoughts and plans of oceans. Rulers watched these isles. The rulers had weapons that they themselves were afraid of. They made vast treasures making and testing these weapons. While the people were in fear the rulers had secret agreements not to use these weapons. The rulers were afraid the people would see these agreements. The rulers were afraid they would be found out. The tide was with me and I made the outer harbor and the first bell. I did not know why I had turned my face to the Isle. My Father told those secrets on his deathbed. In years past I had began to stand and talk openly on the Island of those secrets. The rulers were not pleased. I was dealt with harshly. I did not know why I had turned my face and set sail for the Island. The wind shifted - rose a bit. My old catboat took a tack southward. The boom was hauled in close enough to touch. I was a ball of gloves inside mittens and sweaters under a heavy coat and a blanket over that! My arm was over the tiller - hands under the blanket. Night crossings were dangerous - more so in winter. I did not know why I was not afraid. I did not know why I had set my sail and turned my face upon the Isle. For a time there was a stronger - colder wind. A reach made better time. For a time on those cold swells there were not thoughts. There were no musing under a cold, star-lit sky for a time. For a time that night no morrows. For a time that night no past. Then of a sudden there was no wind. Then the swells of a sudden seemed more gentle. The strangely vanished stars were taken by an eerie light that seemed to come more from the sea than sky. A part of me, as I switched on the compass light, was bemused. I was bemused as I watched the compass needle spin back and forth in ways not possible; bemused that I was not afraid. I was even bemused and not afraid as then I heard a voice in my heart: “Now you have learned from every angle; Now you have gained the heart at last. Now it is you who are an Angel. Now it is you behind the mast.” I was glad this was just a voice in my heart. I was glad that I was not hearing things. A clear voice spoke outside of me from above. “Why not?” Still bemused even then I asked myself what would happen if I thought of dolphins and did. I was startled by a large splash to starboard and turned just in time to see the dolphin's tail. Now I was not bemused and feared that I would think of a whale. A large dark shape neared, but did not break the surface. I feared my own thoughts. Again the voice came from above, “You are not the only one thinking, Michael.” I was then glad to be hearing things. Stars then shone through, but just in one part of the sky. I could se Orion and my eyes focused on the belt. "My belt." said the voice. A strange symbol of light appeared on the mast. Orion's belt became the belt of David who stood with his rough wooden shield and his sling...
I knew then that this is what I had set sail for. I was not headed for the Island where I was treated so harshly, where I had stood and lost so much. Whether hologram or hallucination, the image of David again spoke:
The eerie light became brighter and bluer. The voice continued louder, but this time the voice came both from my heart and from above: Without even thinking I let go the tiller and hoisted down the single sail of the catboat, carefully folded it back and forth over the boom. I paid no notice of the strange symbol of light on the mast. I sat back down in the stern. I was not drifting. I was waiting. I took a deep breath. I exhaled steam in the cold, now still, air. The vision of David and the stars were gone. The white-blue light from above became brighter. I was afraid to look up. Again the voice came from within and without: I knew that the lesson was mathematics. I knew that geometry was the key. I saw that the flat snowflake went out in six directions and had a center. The voice laughed. “You are at sixes and sevens, Michael.” “I want no more riddles,” I said aloud. “Yes, Michael, this is mathematics. Your mathematics are flat. Your mathematical thinking is based on the concept of lines and points. Lines and points do not exist in three dimensions. Lines and points don't exist period. You have been using two dimensional ideas to describe three or more dimensions. Throw out lines and points!” I looked again at the giant snowflake. Again the voice spoke: “True mathematics describe emotion. You know that music is mathematical but you still do not realize that music is a more scientific way of describing reality than your worn out flat geometrics of lines and points.” The snowflake seemed to change slightly as I thought about it. I tried to look for the center. What did the center look like? The branches of the snowflake melted down to an irregular ball. I looked closely at the irregular ball and saw that it was made out of smaller balls. Again the voice: “Yes, Michael, balls. Balls: not spheres. Spheres are based on concepts of lines and points. Balls are the most common shape of nature. Yes, they are made of other balls, but how? Look closely.” I waited and looked. The voice did not speak. I kept looking. Slowly, as a warmth traveled through me, I realized that this simple shape was the core of nature: that this was what I was searching for. I thought of all the heavenly bodies, islands, all made of balls around balls around balls. I understood also in an instant that space itself was also composed of unseen balls; that there was a pattern, that I was to understand that pattern. I started to shake my head: no, it could not be so simple.   “Sound and hydrogen, Michael.” What? Sound and hydrogen? What could that mean? Then I remembered, long ago. I had been reading the large Handbook of Chemistry and Physics found in every library. There were charts of the speed of sound through various materials; solids, liquids and gasses. You would think logically that sound would travel faster through denser materials. Natives put there ears to the ground to listen for hoofbeat. A motorboat's sound is louder under water. But there were some odd exceptions. Sound travels much much faster through a very light gas, hydrogen, than through much heavier gasses. I remembered shivering long ago as I read that chart, as if some part of me saw ahead in time to this starry night. I remember then just knowing that there was “other substance.” Again I shivered. I had almost forgot where I was. “Hydrogen, Michael, moves the sound faster because it vibrates in a manner related to the central ball. But we need to take this in order. Physical reality, Michael, is just one, just one specific one, of the outside balls. This one...” I focused on one outside ball. It had a symbol on it, the sign of Taurus, the bull. When he began to speak next it was a bit deeper and more serious: “Different teaching have already been given concerning this central shape of the twelve balls. They were disguised as to show only different reflections of tis central form, not the form itself. Now is the time that these teachings come together. The teachings were kept apart for a time for good reason. It was not safe for the offspring of ignorance to divulge the hidden causes. Now, only at the end, is the time to bring the teachings together.” In my mind I saw a race of little gray people with large black eyes. They were underdeveloped because they learned some secrets of nature too quickly, they jumped around needed experience. I forgot where I had remembered this from, if it was a book or a dream or an old movie. I started to feel silly. I had started to listen to the voices of an ignorant science. I had listened to the voices that were saying that physical reality was all - and all the rest just lifeless “energy.” I had listened to the voices of “reason.” I had listened to the voices of death. But again my heart was stirred. And again I felt a new heat. Again I was headed to a new hearth. Again I would listen to the strange hallucination for it taught life. I was not an island, but the life upon it. I knew then and forever that when the island was no longer, that I would still be. I would now learn the design of life. Now when the island was no longer I would still know that design; be that life.
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