Reclaiming the Mislaid Key

Imagine you’re minding your own business in your backyard, perhaps watching the sky (which I love to do often, day or night, yet I’m partial to night), or even looking toward the sunset while spinning a key in the shape of flames around your palm, and the ground opens up in front of you in a wailing fissure of a conflagration of ghostly skulls. You have something personal and valuable in the form of the key in your hand, and it drops into the fissure, into the deepest abyss. The event shook you, literally, and in a turn of bad fortune, the ground shut again and now remains undisturbed as though the ethereal skulls had never punctured your reality.

Since Crown of the Orphic Queen releases soon, I thought this would be a fun allegorical take on the enlightening flame in your life. What is it, and what does it mean for you to find it?

If a powerful god stands before you, do you still seek the key you’ve lost to time or circumstance?

A curious visitor enters your field of view with a click and clang in the span of a picosecond.

Hades himself, in a regal robe with flaming tassels, eyes that pierce the psyche, and a cruel smile on his lips, walks toward you.

He says to you, “What dost thou seek keeping the deepest of locks? Thy key shall come back by a voyage well fought.”

He beckons, pointing at the ground as he descends into the depths with a small wink ;).

He’s inviting you to rise to the challenge, to light the flame of truth and the anatomy of your intention.

Instead of becoming a ruler of the underworld as in the ancient myth of Persephone, you must now retrieve your key from the potentate of the world of death.

How many of us would dig down, go into the heart of the earth, and find our treasured flame once more?

I imagine few of us would have the heart to do so, considering that a supernatural being is holding it hostage with only an invitation.

Many people would let the key go, but if it’s truly valuable to you, if it truly shines with the intention you have, you must retrieve it with all your heart, body, and psyche (the Orphic version).

You must decide on setting out, or rather, under, even at the cost of the cycle of your soul.

Ignore the cynical who’d tell you a man cannot stand before a god, and disregard those who don’t follow your path because they do not know what they’re talking about. You’re the one who sees the vision; therefore, you’re the one to carry it out.

Whether you now have a vision board, a list of tasks you have to get through to descend the eternal staircase of macabre worlds, or some sort of picture on your fridge that shows you the illuminated storm of fire you desire to reach, whatever it may be, you can’t do any of it without descending into the fire.

And honestly, pursuing such a madman’s intent with such tenacity that nothing can stop you can look a little crazy or woo-woo to some, but if you really trust in your vision, it doesn’t matter.

You keep going anyway. You’ll get down to that throne with some time, right?

What is the initial step toward the baptism of the blending of worlds?

Obviously, you’re going to need a tool of some kind, right? You’re going to need something to break through to get down into the world under our own.

The deepest part of the Earth is the foundation of your purpose. To make your way down there, take a shovel of spirit, an auger of courage, or whatever tool you might find and force your way down.

You’re going to have to core through it, make that commitment, and actively excavate that which you’re seeking. To truly enliven the sense of purpose in your walk, the key must not remain in the hands of a dire obstacle.

But what is the meaning of what happened? Why did the ground open up in front of you, and what was your reaction to it? Did you cower back in fear, maybe think in befuddlement about what had happened? Did the presence of a god grace or curse you, and did it set you back from retrieving the key?

That fiery key has been passed down to you from someone you’ve been waiting for for a long time.

The real you.

The version of you that will make things happen and get to the aureate lock of potential. You can’t let that person down, can you?

You need to move down into the greater depths, shed the burdens of this life, and focus on that which you see before you in the mind’s eye. You need to appreciate being honest with both others and yourself if you are to have any hope of the spark of fire.

You can’t find something so deep in the underworld without some sort of inner light.

You need to illuminate your path, don’t you? The underworld is a lonely, dark place.

The first thing you need to find is light to lead the way. You need to break through unwillingness and will it into existence. That key is only for you to use, and only you can open the lock it was crafted specifically for.

And here’s the scary part.

You’re not guaranteed to come out of the cleansing of the soul through luminous flame, and the possibility of remaining trapped is high.

It might not be if you’re tenacious enough, but the chances seem direly slim that you’d leave an eternal place such as Tartarus, where the very gods keep their captives.

You need the courage to trek down into the subterranean depths and grasp the key. There’s going to be a lot of rubble down there, too. Think about it. Inside the earth, underneath the crust, there are all types of rocks, boulders, and things you need to sieve out to find that one key you know is yours.

What does this key represent to you? Is it the finality of your vision? Is it something only you know, something no one else needs to know? Is it a dream that has been long buried? Whether it is any of these things is immaterial to the fact that you must retrieve it.

You must.

There is no getting around it. It is something you have to do in order to progress.

But I think what you need more than anything is the correct direction.

Think about it. Whatever instruments you might believe you’ll need, what you actually should use is that innermost compass within you that points directly to the throne of the Lord of the Dead. Even if a god were to stand in the way of your purpose, you should never falter before the whims of a lowercase “g” god. My own belief is that I shall submit to only one God, but let’s keep going.

You can’t force yourself into the underworld’s labyrinthine flames and expect the best path forward. That’s not how descending into the depths is going to work. You must refine your path. You must dig deep into the heart of your psyche and never waver in conviction.

And you must look for the spark that reflects off the light you offer on the way to your key. I think some of us have dimmed our light a little too much, and to keep things on fire, we need to carry on with going as far down into the abyss as possible, even if it discomforts us for a long span of time. I know the clocks down there might not make sense, but those who seek the ever-elusive flame of knowledge and purpose are not slaves to the clock.

Meditate on this as a metaphor for your personal vision or legend (as Coelho put it so perfectly once), and scour deep within the subterranean prisons, or whatever your underworld might be, in order to understand that you alone hold the key to your success, to open the floodgate of limitless potentialities.

On my own path, my belief lives in the echoes of divine appointment, and in the Almighty touching your life and leading the way to the key as a cloudy pillar of illuminated fire.

But I think what truly matters is what you choose to do with the path before you as you make that descent.

This metaphorical lowering of the self through a preternatural furnace of trial should reveal that sometimes you let your chosen treasure sink into doubts, insecurities, impostor syndrome, or whatever it might be that hinders you from guiding the light home.

In the arts, sometimes you’re going to feel like an impostor.

Like, what the hell (no pun) am I even doing?

But at the same time, you need to have the unshakable confidence that you will get through it and determine that what you offer the world is important in its own distinct way.

You may have a story to tell, a song to write, a job to do, a minor key of fire that will kindle a small part of this existence. Get past the fear and do it. Silence the critical voices, whether the loudest one is your own or someone else’s. Have no intention of stopping your voyage into the metaphorical beyond that you define for yourself. You’re the only one who can retrieve the key because you’re the only one who knows which treasure was lost.

You need to seek the flame behind your actions. Understand that ever-burning glow which enlightens the eyes of men and women.

That takes finding your key once more and realizing what the key means in your particular situation. It belongs in your possession, and it’s the only key in the world like it. It was specially crafted for that specific door you’re waiting for.

Potential’s first eruption.

You have to let go of how you think you’re going to get there and collect it by any means necessary.

If it takes carving out an enormous chunk of time during your evenings to make sure you’re heading further into the testing ground, heading deeper into the heart of the earth, then do that.

But you’re not meant to stay in the underworld forever. You’re meant to get out. And let’s say the Ruler of the Underworld in this long-winded metaphor was willing to give you the key back if you proved your worth to him, and only by proving your worth.

What is the genuine test here?

He’s the one on the throne down there, according to Greek mythology, and he gave you a hint of chasing after that lost key. Choosing to battle through whatever guards the way is the only way to lead you to that key once more.

And once you reach him, how would you prove your worth to retrieve that key from his ember hands?

Would you say, “It’s mine. I should be the rightful possessor of it”?

Or is there something more you should do?

What would you tell him?

What would you say?

What is the truth that enlightens the eyes of those who seek the truest things of the world?

How would he offer it back to you? Think about it. How would you convince him to release it?

What hides in the earth’s heart is trial, and it is by trial, by temperance, and by refinement that we are worthy of the things we have lost.

You can’t use a lost key.

It is an item forged by the whispers of history and time, where the ashes of burned memories linger in the air of disappointment and setbacks. It must have a set form.

You must rise above everything, venture downward, and follow the staircase to the world below.

Then, after crossing the boundary, by opening the wiser secrets of your tongue, say, “The key is found at the end of my journey; therefore, it belongs within reach of my deeds.”