Even though time and space don’t matter in this world, the Fool ran into the Page of Wands somewhere and sometime. It was Hermes, and Hermes was older than he is, as old as the Sun, but maybe the Fool didn’t meet the Sun yet. In any event, they met when the messenger was sitting on a rock, waiting for the Fool to pass by.
Where are you going? Hermes asked the Fool.
I don’t know, the Fool answered, bothered by such an asinine question.
Then why are you going this way? Hermes asked, as the Fool kept walking down the path. Hermes got up and started following the Fool.
Because I was there, The Fool said, jabbing his thumb behind him, and so now I will go there. The Fool took the same hand and pointed in front of him.
I guess that makes sense, Hermes responded.
They walked up the path, and the landscape changed several times in front of their eyes: forest, city, desert, coastline, savannah, farmland, an orchard, and several other places that people could end up if they walked far enough. The Fool was mesmerized. Reality did not take hold here in the world below the mist. Hermes seemed to enjoy this chaotic world.
Now does this way still make sense, Hermes said, the way is different now.
The flow is going this way, the Fool responded, I’m not supposed to go backward.
Why not? Hermes asked.
I’ve already been there, the Fool said crossly.
You haven’t been there now, Hermes responded.
What? the Fool asked.
You were there at this other time, so now there has changed and you have changed. Where you are going is just as much of a mystery, and may have even more to offer you than the unknown.
Hermes seemed pleased with his theory, but the Fool was confused and cranky. I’m not trying to sow discontent, Hermes said, I am merely a messenger from the Gods.
I thought you were a God, the Fool responded. So you are the messenger of your own messages?
I am only one of the Gods, Hermes said, and not the big God. I’m not the sky God, or the one-eyed God, or even the one God that all the men believe in. I am the messenger God, so I take messages that need delivering and I deliver them. I don’t care if you keep going this way or not, but the Gods think you should remember the perspective that the past is as important to learning as the future.
The Fool thought about how blurry and unknown his past was. He kept hearing in this world that he had already been here, that the people and creatures he ran into had taught him the same lessons many times before. Some seemed annoyed, while others seemed happy to see him again.
It made more sense to walk into the future, away from the past, but Hermes seemed to be suggesting that going back to a past place was therapeutic. The Fool always wanted to see new things, not the same old things.
I now have to deliver your message back to the Gods, Hermes said. Before the Fool could ask what message Hermes was talking about, Hermes squatted down and shot into the sky, leaving the Fool in a cloud of dust.
Hermes flew so high that night and day were in the same place. On one side of him it was bright from the sun and on the other side it was dark, with just a soft glow from the moon. He went higher and the earth was a small sphere beneath him, but he didn’t need to go this high to find heaven; heaven wasn’t way up here. Hermes grabbed at the fabric of matter and unzipped it like a pair of pants, and slid through into a different dimension.