“One at a time, please approach the fire in a counter-clock wise manner, fight your fear, burn it and then return to your seat in a clock-wise way,” Balamcoatl emphasized from his seated position in the north next to Kolilkab.

In turn, each apprentice approached the fire and laid their symbolic image of their fear before them. When ready, they fought their fear with a wooden sword and when successful, they tossed the remains into the fire. One after another, each approached the fire and fought their fear.

“They’re not going-for-it, they’re half-heartedly doing it,” thought Balamcoatl.

When all were finished Balamcoatl looked around the semi-circle and each apprentice’s head was hanging low staring into the fire.

“They know they didn’t go-for-it. How am I going to tell them that they blew it? They squandered an awesome opportunity to release one of their fears.” With these thoughts going through his mind, Balamcoatl decided to stand and talk more philosophically about releasing fear rather than giving a searing commentary on—‘you blew it.’

He stood and began a more nurturing synopsis of the exercise, only stating a few things before….

“Uh-oh, my neck’s twitching.” Balamcoatl recognized the feeling that he always got when there were otherworldly energies around. But this time, it was different. He turned his head to look behind him into the woods. Everyone else was still seated on the ground staring into the fire. No one else was looking up.

This was the night of the new moon and the only light in the clearing was cast by the small fire. The night before Balamcoatl had stood in this same spot observing the dark woods, while the apprentices were on their vision quest; he was listening and making sure that everyone was all right. When he had turned off his flashlight, in the blackness of the night, he couldn’t see more than a foot or so in front of him.

“What… no.” These two short thoughts coursed through Balamcoatl’s mind as he turned his head back around to see if there was some other light source coming from his front other than the small fire. And when he saw nothing that could explain what he just saw, he turned his head back around again in dis-belief—making sure he saw what he saw…. This all took less than a minute’s time.

“Please stand and be quiet, we have visitors,” said Balamcoatl as calmly as possible, all the while not knowing what he had seen.

As Kolilkab stood up next to her husband, looking at the ‘lights,’ Balamcoatl leaned over and whispered into her ear, “What is that?”

Without any hesitation Kolilkab said, “Why, they’re Angels!”

And then Balamcoatl remembered his prayer for a sign of who he had been. It made sense, but he never expected a sign like this.

“A shooting star…,” someone said as all looked up as it blazed across the night sky.

“Three crosses,” said another.

“A white dove…,” an apprentice exclaimed as it flew over their heads.

“Look at the stones of the death spiral…,” another said. The stones had at least doubled and tripled in size; some were now the size of boulders. But the most unusual thing was the greenish otherworldly glow that surrounded each.

After this no further words were spoken. Time seemed to be suspended as Balamcoatl, Kolilkab and the twelve apprentices witnessed in awe a massive column of light a few feet off of the ground at least five feet wide and four or five times as tall. This light was in the north by the entrance to the death spiral. It was a light that was whitish and not of this world. Suspended higher up by it were two other columns of light not quite as bright or as large. The legends have always told that an archangel is always assisted by two helping angels. After an unknown amount of time had passed….

“We need to leave and go to bed now,” whispered Kolilkab to Balamcoatl. “There are only a few hours left until we have to get up and go bathing.”

“You’re right,” replied Balamcoatl.

He then turned and said to the others in a quiet voice, “It’s only a few hours until we put you in the stream and baptize each of you. We all need to get some sleep, so please return to your tents; be respectful as you leave and give prayers, blessings and a thank you for this experience.”

Balamcoatl and Kolilkab were the last to leave and return to the shelter where they were staying. Kolilkab slept soundly the few hours that they had, while Balamcoatl stayed awake. His mind was focused on the visitation and trying to figure out the identity of the archangel. The last doubt of who he was had left his mind; he again gave blessings for answering his prayer of giving a sign of his past incarnation. And right before he was going to wake his wife up to go bathing, he thought, “Will they figure it out… who I was, who I am and who I will be?”

Summer turned into fall as Balamcoatl finally had solved the mystery of the identity of the archangel. The archangel was Mikael, known to most as the archangel Michael. Balamcoatl had determined this through his research of the connection between him and the archangel:

1.      The Archangel Michael’s day is Sunday and the astrological sign is Leo.

2.      He is the warrior archangel and the guardian of the ‘mysteries.’

3.      Mikael is the guardian of labyrinths (death spirals included) and the organizer of earth energies.

4.      Mikael has always been connected with both water and lightning. And according to various prophecies, great events are often heralded by unusual weather conditions.

5.      Mikael is known as the angelic psychopomp, the mediator between life and death, and the archangel of the shamans.

6.      The celestial bees are under the supervision of Mikael. The bee is Balamcoatl’s family aumakua.

7.      And finally, Mikael assists the ‘lightbringers’ of the different Ages of humanity and is the messenger of the prophets.

It was late one fall afternoon during the ‘month of balance,’ when one of Balamcoatl’s apprentices contacted him.

“Balamcoatl, you’ll never guess what I have,” said Kimo in an excited tone.

“While you were finishing the late afternoon building of the spiral, I took a picture of you in the center of it. When I got home I just threw the camera in my vehicle and just last week got around to getting the pictures developed. I knew something was up when the photo shop lady said, ‘One of your pictures has caused quit a stir.’ Guess what; I have a daylight photograph of the Archangel and the two assisting angels. They were observing us building the spiral… and no one ever suspected!”