A Mother And A Cross

She stood on the hill and watched me approach. The moon was barely past new, so while She was clearly visible, Her surroundings were mostly hidden by the night. I stopped a couple of feet away from Her.

"Such respectful distance you alway keep." She said. "Accompanied by frequently disrespectful language. One might think it would work so much better if you would come closer and be a little more polite."

I shrugged, not really having thought of the issue of distance. I took a step forward, but found myself stopping again. Even as I was embarrassed, her face lit up in a smile.

"That is some significant progress." She said. "So tell me what it is you wish to speak of."

I looked around and then looked back to Her. "I had thought that when I sought you this time I would find you in the cave again."

"Liar." She chided.

Startled I started to tell Her that I had in fact expected we would be there. Her laughter cut me off. "I know you did. But that isn't what it was you wished to speak of."

I laughed. "Is the proposition, the subject, so silly that joking and laughing is the natural result?"

Her face turned serious. "Quite the contrary. Serious enough that a little levity might help."

"You know why I am here." I stated, rather than ask.

"Of course. Haven't you heard me calling you for several days?"

"I have." I admitted. "So lets discuss it."

She waved a hand over Her shoulder and the light extended from Her far enough to highlight the cross standing behind Her on the hill. Its presence startled me. "But why would it surprise you? It is what she wanted us to discuss, isn't it?"

"It is." I admitted, "But..."

She laughed again. "But what? Am I a vampire in your mind? Did you truly expect that being in its presence would have some destructive or diminishing effect?"

"Of course not. But it seems just a little wrong."

"Wrong? Why?" She turned as if studying it. "It is wood. A structure of sorts. It holds no power to banish me. Nor do I oppose its existence. It being here as an illustration has its purpose."

"Why would we have to observe a giant cross in order to discuss it? Why couldn't it just be a conversation?"

The lights dimmed on the cross. "Does its presence bother you?"

"Yes." I admitted.

"Insecurity?" She asked. "Does the symbol truly bother you so?"

"It isn't simply the symbol itself. It is specifically the large cross on the hill. It clearly points to the crucifixion issue." I pointed out.

The hill went dark and She wandered down and away from it. Passing close enough that the dress She wore brushed my ankle. I waited until She was several steps ahead of me.

"It doesn't really, you know." She called back. She stopped when I stopped following. A smile spread across Her face. "Now you understand." She said approvingly.

"Only partially." I pointed out. "I understand why we can't walk off this hill, not why we had to be here to begin with."

"The one who posed the question is not going to have a favorable opinion of me either way." She pointed out. "So your comfort is a valid issue."

"No, the hill it is." I answered.

The light was suddenly gone at the bottom of the hill and rose up behind me. I turned to see Her back at the cross. "So, we discuss. Where do we start?"

"Well it seems like you may have hit close to what her question was with your comment." I responded. "And frankly it dosn't exactly make sense to me. That symbol, particularly in such a setting evokes such thoughts of crucifixion in many."

"I didn't say it didn't." She replied seriously. "I said it does not clearly point to crucifixion. I am well aware of the perceptions out there, just making a point."

"Which was what?"

"That if you were on the hill at the time in history, this object would have been nowhere to be seen." She waved at it in dismissal. "It is a stylization. But that is only peripheral to what she wants of me. Are you going to approach the questions, or should I pick and choose?"

"She quoted verse that stated that the enemy could not bear the sight of the cross, couldn't lie in its presence, something like that. Maybe both. I don't recall the verse off the top of my head, but I do know that one of the thought processes seemed to be that you couldn't ensnare me in lies in the presence of that object."

She smiled. "I am not sure of the cross is responsible, but I wasn't planning on starting some tradition of lying to you now anyway." She walked over and I cringed as She put Her hand on the cross. Her eyebrow arched.

"I know you won't burst into flames, it is just the crossed symbolism." I said.

Now She laughed again. "It won't taint me either, silly boy. It is a blessed symbol. I am not this demon she claims me to be. Why would it hurt me?"

"A blessed symbol?" I asked, confused.

"Of course. Most of these symbols derive their power from the faith of those who have reason to give them value. Enough of those exist. Crosses have long been held up as artifacts of religious or political existence."

With a wave of Her hand the sky was filled with many different variants of the cross. All shapes and sizes. There were even the swastikas pointing in both directions. She let me look at that one for a moment before She blinked it out. "Not all of them have been used for the greatest purposes though."

"So you don't have a reason to take issue with the cross?" I asked.

"Of course not." She said as they began to fade in the sky. "Not to say that I approve of everything they are used for. But then you knew I wouldn't have an issue."

"I did. Although I expected you to be more dismissive of the symbol."

"Now that's silly." She said, gesturing to the sky again. A circle appeared with a cross in the middle of it. The four lesser sabatts' names appeared next to the points where the cross touched the circle. Then it turned slightly, putting the cross at a 45 degree angle and a new cross appeared in the circle the points naming the four greater sabatts.

Before I could respond the circle faded, and was immediately replaced by another one. This time the cross appeared beneath it in the symbol for woman. Turning to comment on that to Her I saw Her dressed as an ancient Egyptian queen, Her arms crossed holding matching Ankhs.

"How old is the Ankh?" I asked Her.

She smiled and shifted back to Her previous appearance. "Much longer than the Christian faith has." She pointed out. As my mind started to process this She held up a finger. "Don't go there. In this case there is nothing borrowed. The cross is one of the simplest structures, and was an effective way to torture someone to death." She said this casually even as Her face darkened for a moment. "But the point is that the cross has been used as one form of life symbol or other for a much longer time than the crucifixion has been associated with it. If you leave the crucifixion out of it, the cross is a simple symbol. What power it has doesn't disturb me, it doesn't compell me. It won't save you."

"What of the crucifixion being necessary thing they harp on. The cross being the answer. Can you explain that to me? Just so I can see how it is held as a valid theory?"

The hill grew dark again. "She told you the verse."

"The cross is foolish to those who are not saved?"

"Do you need to be saved?" The night was dark enough that I could only see Her sillhouette.

"No." I replied as if the answer is obvious.

She laughed. "Then give them the chances they want to try to explain it to you, and don't worry about it afterwards. If all sides state that you will think it is foolish, why would you try to make sense of it?"

I thought this over, as I stared at the spot where the cross had been standing. Then I shook my head and went home.