world…how must she lose you too?’
‘I do not see how I am her handhold,’ he said.
‘Well, let me tell you that o ver the years, in all that time you were coming and going from Jerusalem, I observed her sadness each time you left.’
He looked at her. ‘She never seemed full of joy each time I returned. I appear to cause her pain no matter what I do, if I go, or if I stay…it is all the same,’ he said with a shrug.
‘That is because she is troubled, Jesus. The love that grows in her heart for you, does not sit well with the memory of her dead son, and so she stows it away like a seed awaiting its season…’
Jesus was long quiet, until it seemed his breath near stopped. ‘ Then I shall let it germinate while I am searching for wisdom,’ he said.
‘For how long will you search?’
‘ As long as it takes to find it, or else to realise there is none to be found. In the meantime, perhaps her heart will mend if she sees me less.’
Salome held back her tears for she remembered how she had missed him herself when he when he was away at the Temple. ‘And mine will break…for I fear I will not live to see you come over that rise again, my heart’s child!’
He laughed in the purpling light. This was Jesus now, the one who could laugh.
‘ But you will Salome! You will see many things yet, even before others see them, you will see them!’
She nodded her head with resignation. ‘Yes, yes…I suppose you are right…in my family women live long years…I will be alive to see many things…that is what I am afraid of,’ she said to him, and fell to watching the sky.
‘Do n’t be afraid,’ he said to her, ‘Things will be what they will be, despite your worry.’
She smiled to herself. ‘Yes I know they will and still, it does not prevent me from worry.’
He put an arm around her shoulders and she felt his warmth. And thus they remained together, united in fellowship until noises reached them from the house and the spell was broken.
13
SUN HERO
G aius Cassius was blindfolded and cold, holding a dagger in his mouth. In the stillness, he sensed the movement of his blood, the intake of his breath and the turning of his heart. He did not know where he was or how long he had been here, only that his stomach gnawed with hunger and the dagger was making cuts on his lips and tongue.
He told himself,
Harness your mind! Soon you will rise not Gaius Cassius the Roman, but Gaius Cassius the Sun Hero, a representative of Mithras. You will taste honey on your tongue and feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders and you will be given to eat of the bread and given to drink of the blood.
First, however, he had to pass the test.
This was the sixth degree. Men had died in the attempt.
‘Roman!’ The voice rang like a bell, coming from all directions. ‘Ascend the ladder!’
He knew there were seven rungs. Each represented a stage achieved. In years past, he had climbed to five rungs, now he must climb them again, and add a further rung.
He climbed the first and second rungs . He had swum across a fast moving river for the first and had jumped blindfolded over a burning fire for the second. For the third, he had climbed a steep mountain and had become a member of the sacred militia of the Invisible God Mithras.
He put a foot now, tentatively, on the fourth, and it was not where it should be. His head spun and he felt the pull of the abyss below. He slowed down his breath for that was how he had achieved the fourth degree, by harnessing the air in his lungs. He pulled himself up to the fifth rung, by bringing rhythm into his blood and heart; this ability had once earned him the title of Roman.
H e was aware now, that he had come to the sixth rung and the trial he must undergo to achieve the sixth degree. He must recognise the bull and kill it, with the ancient weapon he carried.
Hunger, pain, darkness, all seemed immense to him. That great yawning hole below beckoned him to fall into its waiting
‘I do not see how I am her handhold,’ he said.
‘Well, let me tell you that o ver the years, in all that time you were coming and going from Jerusalem, I observed her sadness each time you left.’
He looked at her. ‘She never seemed full of joy each time I returned. I appear to cause her pain no matter what I do, if I go, or if I stay…it is all the same,’ he said with a shrug.
‘That is because she is troubled, Jesus. The love that grows in her heart for you, does not sit well with the memory of her dead son, and so she stows it away like a seed awaiting its season…’
Jesus was long quiet, until it seemed his breath near stopped. ‘ Then I shall let it germinate while I am searching for wisdom,’ he said.
‘For how long will you search?’
‘ As long as it takes to find it, or else to realise there is none to be found. In the meantime, perhaps her heart will mend if she sees me less.’
Salome held back her tears for she remembered how she had missed him herself when he when he was away at the Temple. ‘And mine will break…for I fear I will not live to see you come over that rise again, my heart’s child!’
He laughed in the purpling light. This was Jesus now, the one who could laugh.
‘ But you will Salome! You will see many things yet, even before others see them, you will see them!’
She nodded her head with resignation. ‘Yes, yes…I suppose you are right…in my family women live long years…I will be alive to see many things…that is what I am afraid of,’ she said to him, and fell to watching the sky.
‘Do n’t be afraid,’ he said to her, ‘Things will be what they will be, despite your worry.’
She smiled to herself. ‘Yes I know they will and still, it does not prevent me from worry.’
He put an arm around her shoulders and she felt his warmth. And thus they remained together, united in fellowship until noises reached them from the house and the spell was broken.
13
SUN HERO
G aius Cassius was blindfolded and cold, holding a dagger in his mouth. In the stillness, he sensed the movement of his blood, the intake of his breath and the turning of his heart. He did not know where he was or how long he had been here, only that his stomach gnawed with hunger and the dagger was making cuts on his lips and tongue.
He told himself,
Harness your mind! Soon you will rise not Gaius Cassius the Roman, but Gaius Cassius the Sun Hero, a representative of Mithras. You will taste honey on your tongue and feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders and you will be given to eat of the bread and given to drink of the blood.
First, however, he had to pass the test.
This was the sixth degree. Men had died in the attempt.
‘Roman!’ The voice rang like a bell, coming from all directions. ‘Ascend the ladder!’
He knew there were seven rungs. Each represented a stage achieved. In years past, he had climbed to five rungs, now he must climb them again, and add a further rung.
He climbed the first and second rungs . He had swum across a fast moving river for the first and had jumped blindfolded over a burning fire for the second. For the third, he had climbed a steep mountain and had become a member of the sacred militia of the Invisible God Mithras.
He put a foot now, tentatively, on the fourth, and it was not where it should be. His head spun and he felt the pull of the abyss below. He slowed down his breath for that was how he had achieved the fourth degree, by harnessing the air in his lungs. He pulled himself up to the fifth rung, by bringing rhythm into his blood and heart; this ability had once earned him the title of Roman.
H e was aware now, that he had come to the sixth rung and the trial he must undergo to achieve the sixth degree. He must recognise the bull and kill it, with the ancient weapon he carried.
Hunger, pain, darkness, all seemed immense to him. That great yawning hole below beckoned him to fall into its waiting
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