The Silver Lady of Moonlight

By Valkyria Blackheart 

As I sit here alone on the stoop outside the back door, the torches lit, the moon in her fullness looking down upon me I see before me the light of fireflies dancing in the moonlight.  It is the night of midsummer as I sit gazing into the torches surrounding me.  I imagine the flames into dragons; feel the warmth of the night air on my skin.  All at once I am transported to a realm of enchantment.  As I look before me the faint lights of the fireflies become as fairies dancing in the moonlight leading me down the hill and across a distant moor.  As I reach the top of a second hill I see below me a fire lit in the center of a ring of stones and above me the silver lady of moonlight shows her face to me in the darkness beckoning me to come forth.  I follow.  All of this seems far too real somehow.  I feel as though I have been here before though I knew not when.

Each step down the hill I came closer to the fire and to the circle of stones.  I could hear chanting in a strange language that I did not know as I watched these little people with dark skin and painted faces dancing around the fire and the sound of drums being played.  Though I knew not the language they spoke suddenly I felt myself chanting along with them as I entered the stone circle and drew close to the fire.  I wondered what strange rite this must be here in this ancient circle.  All at once they ceased their chanting and looked up at the sky as the silver lady of moonlight floated down from the clouds and hovered over the firelight.

She was indescribably beautiful. Her hair was dark with a hint of red in it with a silver streak that encircled her face.  Her robes were a shimmering silvery blue and purple and her eyes; never have I seen such glorious eyes.  They seemed to change color in the light of the moon.  First there were deep blues and greens, then crimson and shades of lilac with a hint of the silver of the light that seemed to surround her entire being. 

She greeted them all in her way as her children and then to my surprise she came away from the fire and toward me.  Her smile was gentle and kind as she looked on me with love.  I was taken aback at first but then she bid me come and walk with her so we might talk for a while.  The language I do not consciously know, yet somehow I knew what it meant.

She began to tell me many stories, now in my own tongue, of the past, of my ancestors.  I asked her why she bid me to walk with her and as she stepped in front of me I gazed into those two majestic pools that stared into my eyes and at once I saw myself in another place and time but at this same stone circle dressed in the robes of a priestess standing at the center of the circle.  I stared deep into those pools for what seemed like forever and then I saw another vision of myself and what I looked like.  Symbols painted with blue dye on my skin and eyes that looked just like hers, like that of this silver lady of moonlight who had taken me aside to give me a glimpse of the past.  All at once I was back standing before her and she smiled once more at me with love in her eyes. 

As we reached the top of the hill where my journey toward the fire had begun I asked her who she was and she said to me, “You have known me from the beginning of time and I have loved you and watched over you through all your lifetimes.  I am your mother and you are my child.”

“By what name are you called?” I asked, to which she replied, “I am the Goddess, the mother of the earth.  I am the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon among the stars.  By many names I have been known, but all are one.  To you I am Queen of Heaven and Great Mother, the Goddess.  You are my child and I have waited for you to come to me so that I might show you the truth of who you are.”

“But what am I that you should choose to speak to me?” I asked her, and she replied, “My daughter, I have chosen you for a task.  Many have forgotten my name and no longer acknowledge that I even exist.  My daughter, I am in great pain, heart sick for my children.  You have heard my call in the moonlight and you have answered.  Take me with you back to the world of men.  Help as many of them as you can to know me again.  They are struggling, for I have seen them but can do nothing for they listen only to themselves.  Be my ambassador to them.  Bring them to me so that I may once again be their mother and put things right.”

“But how can I bring them all to you?  I am only one person.” I asked.

“You are but one of my children whom I have called, and all of you together will bring me back into the hearts of men as it was from the beginning of time.”

As she placed her hands upon my shoulders she continued, “Now go.  Back to the world of men my daughter and always look to the heavens and I will be there with you.  I love you.”

And as fast as she had arrived she was gone.  I turned to walk away and suddenly I was back on the stoop where my journey had started.  The torches now dimming, the night air cooling as I looked out over the hill in my back yard.  I looked up at the sky and there she was, the silver lady of moonlight, my mother, shining down upon me. 

From that night on whenever I have sat outside under the moon and seen the flickering of fireflies, in my heart I see fairies dancing in the moonlight and I know that my mother is watching me.