Gem-Gnosis-Gem

Chapter 2; Serpent of Dreams

Flowers today blooming by the pathway
line the edge of tomorrows grave.
Bright shining way, living in the shadows,
Trying to be the master of tomorrow's slave.
Down in the mine,circled around a Diamond,
Serpent of your expectations sleeps a nervous dream
"Serpent of Dreams"--Jorma Koukanen

My first memory is of a man's hand reaching towards me as I was regaining consciousness. I knew that hand like the back of my mind. On that hand, in a Gold Ring was an engraved gem, a figure with snakes as legs holding a shield in one hand
and macelike weapon in the other.The head of this figure was of a bird, a Rooster? Phoenix? Starling?
I knew this symbol as well as the back of my Father's hand that was reaching to help me come back from one of my frequent Petit Mal epileptic seizures.
It was years later when I first heard the word
ABRAXAS.
I was doing what any strange and sickly young boy who lived in an old, 4 story, Victorian house full of Antiquities and ancient artifacts would be doing. I was in the attic with a pile of old books looking for the answers to questions not yet asked and connections to my future past.
The sun was shining through the small window making the dust look like a microscopic Galaxy swirling in the dark and cornerless room.
As I was thumbing through an old book called;
"5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry", I came across a picture that seemed oddly familiar, a figure in a chariot driven by four white horses, this figure was the same as the one in my father's ring. Never having seen this image anywhere else, I felt as if I had made a great discovery...., little did I know then that I had found something that would be the key to a universe of human knowledge and a personal quest that would last my whole life.
As I went down the steep, rickety stairs to tell of my discovery, I could hear the sounds of intense adult discussion and the laughter that always seemed to accompany it.
Walking into my father's special room I could feel the excitement and anticipation as he and a few of his friends were gathered around a large wooden box slowly removing the excelsior packing material.
"Here it is," he said. "Careful, please, careful, " said Hap "Is it OK?"
As my father took away the last piece of old cloth wrapping, the excitement dissolved to a reverent hush. In his hand I could see a piece of glass, almost glowing with it's own numinous light, A piece of glass so old, the silica from the ancient sand it was made from, had started to Opalize.
Hap, my father's friend, exhaled.... "Oh yes!!, It's perfect, no chips, no cracks!"
As my father placed the small, amphora shaped bottle in the delicate, verdigris coated bronze holder that came with it, I said "Dad, Dad, what is it??"
Turning to me and noticing for the fist time that anybody else was in the room, he said, with his mysterious smile,
"Paul, this is one of the most unique and precious
things you will ever see....it' a 4,000 year old Egyptian Tear Vase used to capture the tears of Pharaoh's daughter upon his death".
As I gazed at this, I could feel myself swirling into that galaxy of dusty time, which this house and my whole life seemed to revolve around. When my father's hand reached out to to steady me,
I saw his ring. I said, "Dad, That's Abraxas!!
He smiled at me and said "Yes,.......I Gnow".
To be continued…