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The Mirror Lake

Back in the 28th Century, the temples across the surface of the known planets make special deals with the various keepers of nearby high mountain lakes. These are the groundskeepers who create, enhance and maintain the paths which traverse up the mountains to where these lakes have formed. The lakes serve as the place of sacred rituals to those initiates who are now called Neophytes, having become like Neophytus having recited his Sacred Mantra prior to the Kablaam!.

Reaching the nearest high mountain lake is a hard and difficult journey for the Neophyte as the various rock warblers, ravens, vulture and even man eating predaxians of the planets around Keplar 6 do not take kindly to just any hominid walking through their breeding grounds, let alone Neophytes with the volatile internal storms the Kablaam! has recently instilled within them.

The Neophytes in the 28th Century are advised by the abbots and abbesses of the Temples to avoid predation by the various rock warblers and such by being calm. In the annals of Neephytus it is written in Verse 6 of Chapter 4

  1. There I found myself hopelessly outnumbered.
  2. Predaxians and rock warblers descending on me in great numbers,
  3. Such that I could see no place where something didnt want to eat me.
  4. As the predators surrounded me, for a moment I surrendered to my fate.
  5. I calmly surrendered to what appeared to be my inevitable fate.
  6. But as I calmed, so too did the predators, such that
  7. When I walked with calm, they cared not that I was there,
  8. But when I walked with my heart filled with anxiety,
  9. They sensed this and immediately began to treat me as their prey.

The journey up the mountain passes is a long and difficult one holding many shocks, surprises and other traumas for the Neophyte as they progress upon their journey from Kablaam!. By the time the Neophyte has reached The Mirror Lake which is high up the mountains, the Neophyte should have learned to still the storm which the Kablaam! has instilled within them.

The Choice of Lakes

The Lakes are chosen by the temple according to the specifications given in Paragraph 19C of Subsection 29B of Ecuminical Manuscript 18756A which we wont repeat for you here but the long and the short of it is that the lakes must be in places which are sheltered from the high mountain winds so that the waters of the lake are not naturally choppy and ideally experience not even ripples from any breezes which arise when the winds are not so calm. The lake should be such that the water is naturally as flat as a mirror so that when the Neophytes reach it they can see their own reflection in the water.

The maintainers of Ecuminical Manuscripts have never so much as been to a a Mirror Lake but receive reports of their quality from the Acolytum which are the Neophytes who have been lucky enough to returned from The Mirror Lakes alive, having performed the fire ceremony by the lake and travelling back down the mountain doused in flames while calmly walking past the various predaxians and rock warblers.

Lakes which are in high mountain areas with waters which are mirror smooth are a very rare thing even on the third moon of Tabraxia. We may be giving too much away to give the locations of the various Mirror Lakes on the surface of the earth on an internet site like this since the people of the 21st Century are primitive and would only value the lakes for the power they could weild over others by restricting people from visiting them. In any case you dont just hop on a footzoom to the nearest temple and begin your journey like you would in the 28th Century so it's not quite feasable to even do the journey, stuck as we are amongst the people of the 21st Century who are considered in todays age to be the normal people rather than crazy lunatics who could be cured with a single injection of Ammanuttbol which won't be synthesised for a little while yet.

The Fire Ceremony

The people of the 21st Century did not believe in what they called "Magic" and would never appreciate a mirror lake if they were sat right next to one. The reason why the mirror lakes are chosen as mirror lakes is because they have naturally mirror smooth waters. The neophyte who visits the mirror lake can go and look at their own reflection in the waters and will notice that they exhibit some qualities that the primitive people of today would describe as magic. In breezeless conditions with no one around, a mirror lake will be naturally smooth but when a neophyte arrives, ripples occur in the water according to the various ripples which are in the heart of the Neophyte.

The neophyte can cause the lake to become mirror smooth or as stormy as the lake of sulphide on Venus' southern pole simply by looking into the lake. When the Neophyte looks into the lake, they see their own reflection in the mirror but it is not just their physical appearance which appears upon the surface of the water but the appearance of their heart. The neophye spends days at the lake practicing various Heartfire Exercises given in the various apocryphal works.

The heart is a very complex thing and the waves upon the lake can form not only complex patterns but cause the water itself to transmute to other forms. After enough practice a neophyte can transmute the water into a storm of fire which lights the whole ravine the lake is bedded in high up the mountain pass. If the Neophyte can cause the mirror lake to take light or dim at will then the Neophyte is ready for the fire ceremony. It is a dangerous undertaking since the storm fire which the Neophyte must imbibe into the lake has to be as bright as the neophyte can make it yet at the same time it must be a fire which doesn't burn. The various predaxians and rock warblers would tear a neophyte to pieces on their way back down the mountain pass if they hadn't already killed themself by setting themself on fire with a flame which destructively burns.

Having acquired the ability to cause the mirror lake to reflect the flame which doesn't burn that the neophyte imbibes within his heart, the neophyte imbibes within the lake a storm fire so bright that the whole valley atop the mountain is brightly lie and yet as calm as the Mare Tranquilatum on earths only moon. When the storm in the lake is at its brightest and most tumultuous the neophyte jumps into the lake where the storm suddenly dissipates and the flames of the lake subside, leaving only a single flame in the midst of the mirror lake which is the flame which surrounds the emerging Acolytum as the former Neophyte raises his flaming head out the waters of a still calm lake.

The Acolytum then makes his way down the mountain pass on fire with flames that do not burn. Practicing calm, while on fire enables the Acolytum to make it through the various rock warblers, ravens, vulture and predaxians who are not at all upset by the fact a hominid on flames is travelling through their breeding grounds, only that the flames should not be anything which is burny or destructive.

21st Century Considerations

We are having difficulty enough sourcing parts for domestic compact fusion reactors from earths rudimentry industrial technology and the temples which are across the known worlds in the 28th Century simply haven't been built yet so we find ourselves in an unfortunate position of being unable to perform these sacred rituals due to a combination of logistical problems and being in the wrong time period. While we have come across people from the 28th and even 34th Centuries since our arrival, we have not been made aware of any Abbots or Abbesses who could advise us on altenatives to the fire ceremony. Opinions are varied on how we should approach this impoverishment the 21st Century has imposed upon us, with some suggesting that we take these journeys in our own imaginations and considering a neophyte to have become an Acolytum if are able to dim or light themselves at will with flames which do not burn.