Chapter 6: The Heart’s Compass

In the days and weeks that followed, I became intimately familiar with the workings of the compass I wore. When I was hungry, it led me to food; when I was thirsty, we found water along our path; and when I was tired, it guided us to some good shelter or safe resting place. Many kind and helpful people seemed to populate our path, and I marveled at our luck and the progress of our journey. Day followed day, though, and what seemed at first good fortune began to feel like meandering that hindered our progress toward our objective: my sister. I began to complain as we traveled, but if Riodhr was irritated by my whining, he kept it to himself.

Then, one afternoon, we literally traced a circular path back around a village we had just passed through the day before.

“Oh, for Frigg’s sake!” I exploded as I recognized the crossroads we had been at not 24 hours before. “Riodhr, where are we going? How will we ever find my sister if all we’re doing is going around in circles.”

“We won’t,” he replied, without the least sign of impatience ... or concern.

“But we set out to find my sister,” I exclaimed, “So how can we be retracing our steps - ground we’ve already covered - I traveling toward her?” “Ah, well that is a good questions,” Riodhr said, “Now you’re getting somewhere.”

I didn’t appreciate the pun. “Riodhr, I think I need to walk,” I said, “to clear my head.”

He paused so I could dismount, and we walked some way in silence side by side. I held my heart’s compass before me and watched the glow of the stones as a guide to where we should go, wondering what I could have missed in following them thus far. I was absorbed by the contemplation, and startled when Riodhr broke the silence.

“Astrid, do you remember what that compass is?” he asked me.

“It is my heart compass,” I answered, “It guides me to whatever it is I seek.”

“Exactly,” he said, with an emphasis that left the single word there hanging in the air before me, like a ripe apple asking to be plucked.

The compass would guide me exactly to that which I sought, so...

“If I let my mind wander, then the compass follows the course of my thoughts,” I exclaimed. “When I become absorbed by my frustration with the meandering path...”

“ ... then the compass has no choice but to take you back over that very same path.” Riodhr finished for me.

Wow.

“So ... I must discipline myself!” I concluded, “I must always be thinking of my sister so the Heart’s Compass will lead me there.”

“Exactly.”

This time I admitted a small laugh, but only a small one, as another troubling thought came to me:

“That seems much more easily said than done,” I observed, “How do I keep my mind from wandering?”

“That is where I can help you greatly,” Riodhr replied. “You know the Unicorn’s horn has healing powers, of course, but did you know it is also connected to the Universal Eye?”

“I’ve never even heard of the Universal Eye. What is it?”

“Within each of us is a singular Eye of Love. When we activate this type of sight, we are able to connect to the vision of any other creature throughout space and time,” he explained.

“It’s easier, of course, to connect to others whose Universal Eye is also clear and open, because they are consciously sharing their vision with all beings; but even those who still sleep, or who see through a wounded or clouded eye are available to us, and we can sometimes even become an instrument of healing for their sight.”

“So how can this Eye of Love help me?” I asked. “What has it to do with keeping focus?”

“Because once you see your objective with the Eye of Love, the vision will be so beautiful and so compelling, that nothing will easily distract you from your objective again.”

I did as Riodhr instructed, and placing my hand at the root of the horn growing from his forehead, I was instantly swept away into a strange and wondrous vision. Before me stretched a vast and sandy beach, but with no ocean far away on the horizon I saw a thin ribbon of green. Approaching the green band, I soon discerned that it was a fertile river valley. Time passed rapidly, and day turned to night with a startling suddenness. A full moon was visible high in the sky, and from it a curious bright moonbeam seemed to catch the linen-draped curves of a giantess who wore the moon itself as her headdress.

“That is the goddess Hathor” Riodhr told me, “And the building on which she stands is her temple.”

I looked downward and saw she stood upon a blocky building with a flat roof; its facade was a half-wall surmounted by stout pillars set into its face, and directly in the middle, a large doorway; light glowed between the pillars and spilled out of the doorway as if to light my path toward the entrance. As I started forward, Riodhr spoke one more time, halting me mid-step.

“Look at your compass now,” he said; and so I did, and I saw that at the center of the compass, the Moonstone now shone brightly, as if in sympathy with my vision.