Pisces 25. On top of a high hill, a circle of standing stones.
On a high hill, not far from the round tower of Irnad, is a circle of standing stones which is famous for never having been visited. The reason no one ever goes there is because it is impossible. Whenever anyone tries to visit it they seem to be unable to find their way to the top of the hill, and even though their steps seem to carry them upward through the woods they eventually come to a flat place where they realize they are back where they started.
There are a few persistent souls who have reached the hill’s top, but when the do they find nothing there, and decide that the circle of stones must not be real, must only be a magician’s illusion.
After I had been the apprentice of Irnad for several years he took me one day to a deep cellar within his round tower, and there led me through a door and by the light of a lantern through a long corridor that twisted and turned for a great distance as we found our way through it. Finally we came to a circular stairway carved of stone and ascended them. Finally reaching a trap door Irnad opened it and led me out into the circle of stones that I had seen so many times atop the hill.
By this time evening had approached and as the night was clear and it was summer he bid me to lie down and sleep, and I did, falling asleep quickly, for the midst of the circle was all soft moss and quite comfortable.
In the morning we left, and without a word from him returned to his round tower.
I asked him later what was the meaning of this, and he told me that the circle was a place where one might have concourse with the stars, whose hidden light -subtler and different from the light we see when we look into the sky — was focused and which might be drank by one in sleep. He said I had drank deep of the starlight which would be of immense help to me later in my alchemical workings.
When I asked him why the approach to the place was hidden as it was, he answered that few are prepared to drink of this most special light, and that those not ready might suffer all manner of delusions and miseries by having consumed such a potent elixir. “And though you may not feel it now,” he added, “the light is working within you, and will continue to, making you strong over time, and delivering you to yourself.”