The Bus Driver knew the way. Aulden peered out through the bus windows as they approached the city.

Several years earlier, Aulden had a conversation with a dealer in antique maps. The map-dealer pointed to a city on an old Spanish chart of North America and said, "This one has the Mythical Kingdom of Quivira, one of the legendary lost cities of gold."

When Aulden became familiar with archetypal work, years later, an idea came to him that Quivira was an archetypal place and if he could find it - the city of gold within his own psyche - he could synchronistically trigger a connection with riches in the material world. This wasn't the first time that Aulden would seek an archetypal and synchronistic connection with money, but perhaps the last.

The bus stopped outside the city gates. This place didn't look like an ancient city of the Americas - Aztec or Mayan. It appeared to be a European castle. Standing taller than the castle walls, inside the structure, was a giant striking the castle with an enormous mallet.

The Bus Driver announced, "We're here." Aulden and his three traveling companions left the bus and stepped into a wide tunnel in the city wall - the entrance to the City of Quivira. Aulden could see the giant now sleeping outside of the other end of the tunnel. He could also see that the giant had only one eye - a Cyclops.

Inside the tunnel another figure stood in the shadows, a female wearing an Islamic burqa, or what would seem to be a burqa covering all of her body including her head, with an opening for her eyes. Unlike other burqas this one was decorated entirely with colorful, shining beadwork. Aulden was surprised to find her there, and said, "Your beadwork is amazing! Please tell me your name." She answered, "Sheridan." "What is your function here?" Aulden asked her. She nodded to the Cyclops and said, "To look after him."

Aulden asked her, "Who is he?" She replied, "The giant Cyclops, naturally." Then they entered the city: Aulden, along with Sheridan and his traveling companions, Janice, Poseidon and The Wind. Aulden noted, "When we were outside the city, it looked like the Cyclops was hitting things with his mallet."

Sheridan answered, "I had to make him sleep because he was being destructive."

Aulden was surprised, and asked, "You made him sleep?"

"Yes I did," Sheridan responded.

Aulden wasn't certain who was more dangerous, the Cyclops or Sheridan, and he whispered, "Oh great." But he continued to assess and question, by asking, "Tell me about your beautiful beadwork."

Sheridan said, "Oh this?" and turned to show off her clothing.

"Does it have a purpose?" Aulden asked her, and Sheridan responded, "To make me beautiful."

Having traveled through this inner-world for so long, Aulden knew that in this situation he needed to step back and examine the elements, like studying images in a dream. He'd learned that when the Cyclops became too destructive Sheridan's function was to make him sleep. The Cyclops was enormous. Giant size can mean an inflated ego, or it might indicate that he has impressiveness, that he's important in Aulden's view, and with the mallet he can challenge or disrupt the flow of life. The Cyclops has one eye which means, maybe, a singleness of view or a lack of depth perception. Sheridan is beautiful but she is also hidden beneath her burqa; mysterious, anonymous, disguised, illusionary persona. She told Aulden that she wears her colorful beads "to get your attention." Aulden initially thought that her beautiful beads were a sign of an inflated, godlike ego, but he changed his mind and felt that her beauty was specifically about beauty, aesthetically. "To get your attention" can be a statement about unconscious information trying to become known.

Aulden sat on the stone pavement of the City of Quivira and watched Sheridan and the sleeping Cyclops. He simply watched them, studied them. In the day world, when he wasn't in meditation watching Sheridan and the Cyclops, he was reading a library book: a biography of Coronado.

The Spanish explorer Coronado went to America with a mission to bring Christianity to the indigenous people. As he traveled deeper into the interior, his real, personal mission became clear: He was searching for Quivira, the city of gold. Coronado had two Native American guides. One of them said that there was no City of Quivira. Coronado had him tortured and eventually killed. The other guide said that there was a Quivira. Coronado believed him, and eventually, also, tortured and killed him.

When Coronado and his troops, in need of supplies, entered an Indian village he would kill all the men, take all the food, and burn the village to the ground. To save ammunition, he would sometimes have all the inhabitants killed by burning them. These little facts about Coronado changed Aulden's view about the search for Quivira.

Aulden realized that for Coronado, Quivira was not archetypal. Quivira was an illusion, and on a social level it was a complex or a neurosis, like an archetypal figure behaves before being re-integrated into the psyche. Coronado's quest for the city of gold was clearly delusional and a sickness on a psychological level. This was especially disturbing to Aulden who was here only because of his own inner-search for the City of Gold.

Aulden asked, "Sheridan, can you wake the sleeping giant now?"

The Cyclops woke. As he stood, the City of Quivira disappeared. Aulden and his companions found themselves surrounded by white light with no other objects in view. Aulden recognized this place because he often visualized this white light in the beginning of his archetypal work. A quote from Erich Fromm describes it as a meditation practice:

"It would be helpful to practice a few very simple exercises, as for instance, to sit in a relaxed position (neither slouching, nor rigid), to close one's eyes, and to try to see a white screen in front of one's eyes, and to try to remove all interfering pictures and thoughts, then to try to follow one's breathing."

The Cyclops, waking, asked, "What is this place?"

Aulden answered, "This is here. This is a non-place."

The Cyclops stood, shorter than before, now only about one hundred feet tall. Although Aulden felt intimidated by his size, the Cyclops was not threatening and in fact seemed fearful when he recognized that Sheridan was with them. The Cyclops spoke, as if conjuring: "A ramp to walk on." When he said this, a ramp appeared in the non-place.

Aulden asked the first of his four questions, "Cyclops, what do you need from me?"

The Cyclops answered, "Walk with me across that bridge."

"Is that all? What else do you need from me?"

The Cyclops thought for a moment and replied, "A hug." The giant leaned toward Aulden who embraced him as best he could, and then Aulden asked, "Why were you hitting the city with your mallet?"

He answered, "I was breaking the illusion."

Aulden understood immediately - aha, an illusion-breaker - and pointed out, "But you, too, are illusion!"

The Cyclops laughed and said, "Oh, yeah! But the city was illusion on illusion. It had to go."

Aulden asked another of the four questions, "What is your function in my life?"

The Cyclops told him, "To swing my mallet and hit things."

"What do you hit?" Aulden continued.

The Cyclops answered, "You already know: illusion things."

Aulden pressed him, "Tell me some of them."

The Cyclops explained, "The city - Quivira -and your uh… who you think you are."

"My persona?" Aulden asked him.

The Cyclops agreed, "Uh huh."

As they spoke, many of Aulden's companions appeared within the non-space. He knew, somehow, that they were coming to him to say goodbye. His imagined, illusionary world was disappearing and the figures he'd met there were integrating into his psyche so fully that he would no longer see them as separate. King Skandi arrived, and Paula the bookstore owner, the mother-figure Martha, the muses Andrea and Carolette. Any of the figures who came to mind appeared.

Aulden remained focused on his task of knowing and integrating Sheridan and the Cyclops. He asked, "Sheridan, what is your function in my life?"

She answered, "To take care of him - the Cyclops."

"What do you need from me?" Aulden asked her.

She asked him the same, "What do you need from me?"

"I don't know," Aulden responded, "What do you have for me?"

She replied, "All of this: a world of illusion," and she uncovered her head and lowered the burqa, revealing her bare back to Aulden. Her back was covered with colorful tattoos, including a diagonal bluish-green stripe from her left hip to her right shoulder.

Aulden was fascinated, and asked, "Do you create the illusions?"

She said, "Yes, I do."

He asked her, "How do you manage the Cyclops?"

"He's easy."

"What do you need from me?"

She said, "Your imagination, your wants and desires."

Curious about the idea that this is the source of illusion, he asked, "What else can you use if wants and desires aren't available?"

She answered, "Your pen."

He backed away from her and turned to the Cyclops, signaling for him to follow, and they walked across the bridge together. As they walked, Aulden asked, "Cyclops, what do you have for me?" The Cyclops answered, "This mallet."

He looked at the Cyclops and he looked at Sheridan, and he asked them both, "How do we, together, work with illusions?" Sheridan answered, "Write about them." The Cyclops answered, "Smash them!"

Standing, pausing, thinking, Aulden asked, "Is illusion the same as denial?"

Sheridan answered, "Very much, because you can't accept reality."

The white light swallowed up the bridge, and more of the archetypal images were appearing, the dozens he'd met over more than two years. Among them was Mitzi, the moon archetype, who said, "We all have to go soon, but Herman wants to talk to you."

Aulden felt love for her, and sentimental about the goodbye, and asked, "Could I hug you?" She answered, "You don't have to ask."

As they embraced, Aulden said, "You give me hope that I'll find love again if you're able to love someone as grouchy as Herman." At that, Mitzi laughed.

Aulden announced, "Sheridan, I see now that you are protecting me by not allowing more illusion to be destroyed than I can handle. Cyclops, you help me to grow by destroying illusion that I'm ready to let go of. The two of you are important for my growth as a whole person. I'll keep your work in my thoughts forever." Then he said to Mitzi, "I'm read to talk to Herman now."

The archetypal figures disappeared into the white light, with farewells and waves of goodbye, all of them except Janice who said to Aulden, "We're all here, you know, still with you and at your call."

It was Mitzi who long ago said that they are all illusion, but they're not illusion that hides. They are illusion that reveals.

Aulden took the bus to Herman's home. Although he could as easily imagine himself there without bothering to take the bus, the ride revealed that the trip to visit this place is mountainous and difficult.

Aulden stood on Herman's front porch, pausing a moment before knocking. The door opened before Aulden knocked. Herman, wearing a black robe and cape, stood in the doorway and said, "Well, come in. What took you so long?" Aulden explained, "There was something I needed to do first."

Herman mumbled, "Yes, you're in a pickle," and added, "Follow me."

Aulden followed along a cobblestone path until they reached a pier stretching into a bay where a cruise ship was docked. Herman led him onto the ship, explaining, "You're in a transition. Yep, you're in a pickle." The ship's name, in fact, painted in large letters, was Transition. He'd boarded the Ship of Transition. Appropriate that Herman would be the one to take him here, because Hermes is the god of transitions and roads.

Aulden asked, "Where are we going on this ship, Herman?"

"Wherever you want to go," Herman answered, "Wherever you take us."

Aulden said, "I want my path to be… effortless. I want it to come to me and not me go to it."

Herman questioned, "Lazy? Cowardly?"

Aulden asked, "Am I?"

Herman countered, "Are you?"

"So much has been taught about actionless action and doing nothing," Aulden pointed out.

Herman responded, "It means being you - yourself."

Aulden laughed, "Cowardly is me!"

Herman instructed him, "Stand at the railing and watch the water: watch, listen, wait. Let's see what happens."

Aulden agreed to this, saying, "I'll ride this ship and watch the water."

He did watch the water. Several days passed as Aulden's evening meditation continued to be a visualization of watching the water as the Ship of Transition traveled across the ocean. He eventually asked Herman, "Where are we going?"

Herman said, as before, "Wherever you choose."

Aulden responded, exasperated, "I don't know if this is about my marriage, or my career, or about my love life, maybe."

Herman answered, "It's about everything. You can't have a life transition without everything. If you're afraid to make the transition, the transition will come to you. How does that make you feel?"

Aulden answered back, "Relieved, because I don't have to do anything. I'd rather have painful things just happen to me. How does that make you feel?"

Herman scowled and shouted, "How does that make me feel?"

Mitzi, the moon archetype, appeared suddenly high overhead in the form of a crescent moon, and said, "Yes! How does that make you feel, Herman?"

Herman yelled, "Upset! I want you to take the bull by the horns!"

Aulden envisioned the traditional archaic Goddess symbol of bull-horns shaped like a crescent moon. Mitzi smiled at this idea, but Herman barked, "Not those horns!" He suddenly corrected himself and said, "Yes! Those horns!" Then Herman's voice became reassuring, "But… these things will come to you."

The ship continued on, crossing the ocean, and Aulden watched the water. He pushed away thoughts of transition to new relationships, transition away from old relationships, transition in his work and career. He focused only on the water.

When Aulden's mind wandered, Herman would tell him, "There is nothing but the water." One evening Herman explained, "This ship will make three ports-of-call," and the ship continued on as Aulden continued watching the water in his meditation work.