"I was voluntarily submitting myself to emotions of which I could not really approve, and I was writing down fantasies which often struck me as nonsense, and toward which I had strong resistances. For as long as we do not understand their meaning, such fantasies are a diabolical mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous. It cost me a great deal to undergo them, but I had been challenged by fate. Only by extreme effort was I finally able to escape from the labyrinth." - C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

A woman ran to them out of the darkness, with her arms flailing above her head, her face contorted in an angry grimace. Aulden asked the vampires, Dogfish and 1111, "Who is she?" They answered, "She's our mother." A wave of dread came over Aulden as he called to her, "Why are you here? What do you need to tell me?"

Aulden took hold of her arm and said, "Please sit with us." The woman struggled against his grip. He released her and said, "I don't care. If you want to sit, sit. Why did you come here?"

The woman collapsed onto the floor. Aulden knelt beside her and said, "Do you have something to tell me?" The woman hissed at him, "Leave my daughters alone!"

Aulden insisted, "This isn't about them. What do you want to say to me? You want to strike out at me, don't you? You're all tied up inside."

She agreed, and tearfully responded, "I wish I could hurt you!"

Aulden wanted to know what he could learn from her, and he told her, "I want you to hurt me. I want you to let it out. Tell me your name."

She answered, "My name is Goalpost."

Surprised at such an odd name, Aulden asked, "Is it really?" and she shouted back at him, "I said it was!"

"What do you need from me, Goalpost?" Aulden asked her, and she spat at his face. Aulden responded with determination, "Good! Show me! What do you need from me?" Goalpost threw her arms around him and cried as she answered, "I need you to love me."

This surprised Aulden all the more, and he asked, "You do?" "Yes," she assured him, and Aulden responded, "I can love you, Goalpost. We can learn together and be together. I have another question: "What is your function in my life?"

She composed herself and told him, "To nurture you babies."

Aulden asked her, "Do I have babies?"

She spoke with certainty, "All the time. ALL the time."

"Why do you want me to leave your daughters alone?" Aulden asked. She replied, "Because I don't trust you. You don't know what you're doing."

They arrived at the gates of the City of Joy: Aulden and Goalpost along with the two vampires, Dogfish and 1111. Aulden's traveling companions, The Wind, Poseidon and Janice, were with him, of course, and the two muse spirits, Andrea and Carolette.

Aulden observed, "Somebody fixed the gates. They're not as rusty and the hinges don't squeak." When he turned again to address the party, he found himself alone in a vast empty desert. An enormous stone face, like an Egyptian monument, was on the ground before him. Aulden recognized it as the Face on Mars that he'd seen in photographs.

Aulden spoke to the stone image, asking, "What can you teach me, Face on Mars?" The mouth of the giant stone image moved and it answered, "Vastness, emptiness, long, long wait to be seen."

Aulden thought about the millions of years that this anomaly had waited, alone, to be discovered here. He asked it, "How did you endure?"

The stone face retorted, "What can I do about my own aloneness?"

Aulden spoke again to the Face on Mars, "What can you show me about my loneliness?"

"Look around me," the Face told him.

Aulden did look around and all he could see was an empty landscape, with reddish rocks. He asked, "Yes?"

The Face said, "Resting here, just in the emptiness."

Aulden said, "This could be a long wait. Do you have any gifts for me?"

The Face sat up. For the first time, Aulden realized it had an enormous stone body. The Face told him, "Follow me." He walked, and Aulden ran to keep up. They came to a hallway which became a cavern and they eventually came to an enormous room. The stone giant asked, "How many beds do you see?"

Aulden saw one bed: a crib with a baby. "Is this the gift?" Aulden asked. "Yes," he answered.

Aulden carried the baby away and found himself on a set of stairs. He descended the steps and came to several staircases, and after choosing a set to walk he came to more. He exclaimed, "What's with all the stairs?"

He felt a sense of relief after the next stairs brought him to a porch by a river. There he saw a man with two heads, wearing on both heads one enormous hat - not a hat exactly, but an upside down metal disk. Aulden recognized the disk as a backyard fire pit, like one he'd bought at a local hardware store.

Marie-Louise von Franz wrote that a person with two heads can signify a union of opposites. Aulden recalled reading that as he greeted this figure, saying, "Hello. Who are you?"

The person said, "We are the Self Under One Hat." With that, they gently took the baby from Aulden's arms and cradled it inside the metal disk that they'd worn as a hat.

Aulden asked one of his four questions, "Do you have something to give me?"

The Self Under One hat said, "This hat."

"If you are the union of opposites," Aulden questioned, "What are you each?"

One head answered, "I am love," and the other said, "I am hate."

Aulden asked another of his four questions: "What can I do for you?"

"Take care of this baby," the Self Under One Hat answered.

"What's the baby's name?"

The Self Under One Hat said, "Our Newborn."

Aulden asked, "Is there anything else I should know before I go?"

He, or they, answered, "You can wear this hat, too."

Aulden walked away, carrying the baby in the metal fire disk, and contemplated the three encounters - seemingly unrelated: Goalpost brought silent rage and nurture of newborns; the Face on Mars brought aloneness and a newborn; The Self Under One Hat displayed opposites united and gave Aulden a fire disk hat. But how is Goalpost's silent rage related to nurturing the newborn, and what is this baby's function?

Aulden returned to Goalpost and the group waiting at the gates to the City of Joy. He said, "Goalpost, the Face on Mars gave me this baby and The Self Under One Hat told me to take care of it. You said your function is to nurture the newborn so I'm coming to you. Do you want to hold this baby?"

She took the fire disk and cradled the baby. Aulden asked her, "Tell me, how does silent anger relate to nurturing?"

Goalpost said, "In this fire bowl? Let it simmer."

"But how does nurturing come in?"

She answered, "The simmering is the nurturing."

"Is that good for the baby?"

She told him, "Ask von Franz. Carrying a torch, nurturing a wound…"

"What is the baby in my life about - this baby?"

"Don't you see?" she asked Aulden.

Aulden looked into the bowl, and said, "Hi little baby. What's your purpose in my life?"

The baby answered in an adult voice, "Simmer me up. You'll see." Colors glowed from inside the bowl: the five primary colors.

The group gathered around the baby in the fire dish. Aulden watched them, and he watched the multi-colored lights transform into beams shining upward. The baby's skin was becoming tan from the light.

Aulden sat in meditation for nine minutes, waiting for something more to happen. During this time he fell asleep. At the ninth minute his body shuddered and he woke.

"I had a dream," he said to Goalpost, and he described the dream to her: "I was in a city, in a store that had vintage clothing. I wanted to buy some of this clothing because all I was wearing was a bathrobe. There was a green wool army uniform - an officer's uniform - and there was a pair of pants for a jockey, for horse racing. I went to my car to get my wallet, because I'd left my wallet there. At the car, there was a boy spraying oil on the windshield."

Goalpost responded without pausing to contemplate the meaning, as if it was simple: "The bathrobe, not wearing clothing, is equated to being unprepared. The uniform and the pants are about seeking adulthood. The little boy spraying the windshield of your car with oil is about avoiding adulthood, rejecting libido."

Aulden, intrigued, asked, "You're good with dreams, aren't you?" He could sense that she was pleased with his interest in her, but she tried to appear indifferent and explained, "I understand images."

Then Aulden turned again to the baby in the fire bowl, "And who are you, little baby?" At that moment, the archetypal figures around the fire bowl began singing a Christmas hymn, "What Child is This?" They stood around the baby like an archetypal nativity scene.

Aulden looked again into the fire bowl and the baby was gone. Only some water and ashes remained. Goalpost said to Aulden, "Drink."

This was a disturbing image to Aulden, the idea of drinking the ashes of a newborn baby who'd spoken to him a moment before. He glanced around the circle at his companions. All were nodding in agreement. Two more of his acquaintances arrived and joined the circle: the motherly woman, Martha, and the anti-type of The Wind whose name is Dark Wind who said as he arrived, "I wanted to watch."

Aulden prepared to drink, wishing he knew what future he was moving toward.
Two other figures arrived: Clarence, the clown who had grown up, and the goddess named Blessing.

Aulden drank the elixir from the fire disk, and waited. He said to the group, "Not much happened." Blessing responded, "Just wait. You'll see," and she directed Aulden to turn and look at a long flight of stairs behind him. On the stairs he saw a beautiful dark-hared woman and an octopus-like creature. Blessing said, "Before you have her, you have to fight the creature holding her."

"How do I fight this thing?"

Blessing instructed, "Put the flower in its mouth."

Aulden spoke to the group, "My friends, what kind of flower do I need to put in the creature's mouth?"

The Wind said, "Narcissus."

Janice said, "I think we know. It has eight petals."

Aulden asked, "Is there an eight petal narcissus? Vanity? Self-love? Why that?"

The Wind laughed and said, "Because it's the only flower name you know!"

Poseidon disagreed, "You know others."

Aulden asked, "Where do I find this flower?"

The Wind said, "In your imagination. That's easy."

"Who is the woman on the stairs?"

The Wind said, "Ask her."

Aulden answered, "Okay, I'll fight the creature," and he asked Goalpost, "Are you leaving? I want to you to still be here after I fight the creature." She asked him, "Why do you care if I leave?" Aulden answered, "Because I love you." Goalpost appeared puzzled, and said, "Why, with all my anger, do you love me?" Aulden told her, "Because I just do. I don't understand it."

"Then take this," she said to him, and she handed him a flower. Aulden advanced to the stairs.

While approaching the creature, Aulden began to suspect that the stairs were archetypal. He called out, "I see you, beautiful woman, and you, creature, but I want to talk to you - staircase."

A voice rose from the stairs, asking, "Why would you want to talk to me? Nobody talks to me."

Aulden replied, "Tell me about yourself."

"I am the passage up and down. People who stand in the middle block the way. They become monsters."

Aulden asked, "What do you need from me?"

The stairs answered, "Don't stay. Don't block the way."

Aulden asked the next of his usual questions, "What do you have for me?"

The stairs replied, "Passage."

Then Aulden turned to the woman on the stairs, and asked, "What's your name?"

She answered, "Fatima."

Aulden didn't believe her, and questioned, "Is it really? I just read that name." She told him, "It's whatever you want it to be."

He moved on to the next question, "What's your function in my life?"

"To love you."

He asked her, "What do you need me to do for you?"

The answer to that question was obvious: "Fight that creature."

"And I fight the creature with a flower?" Aulden questioned, "Why a flower?"

Fatima answered, "You figure that out."

Finally, Aulden spoke to the creature, saying forcefully, "You're blocking the stairs here."

Aulden stepped forward, but the octopus creature blocked the way. Its gaping mouth opened wide, so Aulden threw in the flower. The octopus curled up into a ball, subdued. Aulden kicked it, and it bounced like a basketball to the bottom of the stairs, and he said to Fatima, "That was too easy. Why?"

Fatima answered, "You figure that out." She took his hand and walked with him to the top of the stairs where they found a door with Asian calligraphy. The door opened, and they could see that inside was the sanctuary of a cathedral.

Before they entered, Fatima said to Aulden, "The creature on the stairs was named Procrastination." This caused Aulden to pause in the doorway and ask, "What am I missing?"

She said to him, "Aren't I beautiful and exotic?" He looked closer at this woman. Her long, black hair was covering half her face. He looked up into the night sky and saw that the moon was in the last quarter phase, half covered in darkness. Aulden exclaimed, "You're Nightcrawler - Mitzi - the moon archetype!"

She laughed and said, "You didn't recognize me! Procrastination can't hold me, although slowly I move." She led Aulden into the cathedral, and he asked her, "Why am I here?"

"You need your shoes shined, polished," she explained, "Come to the altar with me." He could see that they were going to prepare him for something, and he asked, "Can you see my future?"

She said to him, with her face half covered by her long hair, "I can only see half at this time. There will be love."

Aulden responded, "Then show me why I'm here with you, Mitzi."

She took Aulden's shoes off and polished them. Large numbers of people were entering the cathedral, filling the pews. A very noble person sat in the front, in red clothing that appeared to Aulden as if it was the clothing of a Japanese emperor. The shoulders of his costume were so big, Aulden thought he had the shape of a box. Aulden asked, "Mitzi, who are these people filling the sanctuary?"

She answered, "They are the unbegotten souls."

"Why are they here?"

"To see you fulfilled," she explained.

Aulden asked her, "Who is the man in the odd boxy suit?"

Mitzi answered, "He is the one who will do the ceremony."

"Okay."

The "boxy" man came to the altar and said, "A poor boy, but a willing sacrifice. Let it be known."

His "boxy" clothing, while looking somewhat like Japanese ceremonial vestments, also looked oddly like a book.

Aulden asked him, "Please tell me your name."

Mitzi called for Aulden's attention, "Listen to me. Do you remember the baby? Born in you this day in the city of David?"

The boxy man ordered him, "Kneel there, before the altar." Mitzi added, "You'll be seeing the baby again."

Aulden asked her, "Where?" and she answered, "In you, of course."

Aulden asked her, "Who is the baby?"

She told him, "The newborn."

Then "Boxy" (who really appeared too noble to be calling "Boxy") pointed to the door and said, "Go." Aulden hardly understood what, if anything, had happened. He walked down the aisle toward the door. The unbegotten souls watched him as he walked, as if something important took place.

Aulden wasn't happy and he wasn't clear about what just happened. "I'm going back to ask for clarification," he told himself. He was in the middle of the sanctuary, standing in the aisle, when he called out to Boxy, "Please tell me your name."

Boxy grinned and said, "Don't you recognize me?" Aulden saw that Boxy was now handling beakers and test tubes filled with chemicals.

Aulden cried out in realization, "Are you Herman, the Wizard?"

The Wizard, in that boxy ceremonial garb, shouted, "Of course!"

Aulden, still confused by this odd ceremony, asked him, "Herman, what do you need from me?"

Herman answered, "To draw, to write. Nothing more."

Aulden asked, "What just happened? Can you explain?"

Herman replied, "I'll point to the road." Mitzi added, "We polished your shoes." Then Herman continued, "And unto us a child was born."

Aulden thought again of the newborn and asked, "Can you explain anything about that?"

Herman warned him, "You know what Herod did? Take a new road." Aulden understood the parallel: Mary and Joseph had been warned to take a different road because Herod wanted to kill their newborn.

Aulden pried them for more information, "When will I see this newborn?"

Herman, shaking his head, answered, "You won't." But he corrected himself and said, "In a mirror!" Then he sent Aulden away, saying, "Go now. These people are waiting."

From where he stood in the aisle, Aulden responded, "Very well. Thank you for your care for me. I'm on my way. Goodbye Herman. Goodbye Mitzi."

The Wizard took Mitzi's hand in his, and they watched as Aulden left the cathedral.

At the bottom of the stairs he found the group waiting for his return. The octopus creature was still passively curled up in a ball. Aulden said to Goalpost, "Your name, Goalpost, kind of says to me that I reached an important place when I met you. Can you teach me about understanding images - like images in dreams and art?"

She said, "I can if you wish." Aulden gazed intensely into her eyes, and responded, "Yes!"

Aulden looked down the long avenue leading away from the City of Joy. He could see that it led through a residential district and into an area of tall buildings, like the downtown part of a city. Aulden decided to walk this long avenue.