The Mysterious Blue Lights of Silver Bluff
By
Fan Stanner
It was time to sit back and rest around that fire; the centerpiece of every evening. It had been a long day on the trail for the men at the camp. The fire was perfectly conical in shape. The firewood that furnished the conical fire came from the forest surrounding the encampment. The forest was composed of a dense cedar bush. At that altitude the trees were gnarled and stunted. In fact most of the year, the entire area was enshrouded in a dense freezing fog. The logs used for the campfire were from these cedar trees; the wood was twisted and warped, giving an acerbic smell of pine. This firewood provided a fire deep red in color as it produced great amounts of heat. The heat was more than welcome for the three miners who were camping there that night.
The miners sat around the fire telling stories of mining adventures and boasting of great veins they had discovered in times past. One man spoke of a diamond cave that glittered like the moonlit ocean when the sun’s rays passed through at the precise angle. The other miner told of caves that held great veins of thorny crystal and the fist-sized golden nuggets could be plucked without effort. The third miner spoke of a river bed that glistened pink with the sparkle of thousands of rubies. Whiskey was the choice for this night and a bottle was passed around the fire with vigor. As the night wore on, the conversation became more animated and the fire, more conical.
Their campsite was at the top of a rocky embankment; it looked like the ruins of the ruins of some ancient castle that had been sieged by time. From the cliff, one could witness the totality of the Silver Bluff mine. Below, the mine entrance, a wooden structure could be observed. It appeared to be glued to the side of the bluff. The mine construction had begun nearly a century ago. Further outward was an expanse of forest; mostly dense cedar bush. Off into the distance, the vastness of the region spread out into near infinity, only to be buffeted by long ranges of glacial mountains.
The mine had been abandoned for years. Most said that it had been tapped out for an even longer period. At first, when the mine was discovered, it yielded large slabs of high-quality sliver veins that were rippled throughout a thick quartz.
When a few raw nuggets of pure silver were uncovered, the mine was put into full operation. However, the mine’s luck wasn’t to last, several accidents that occurred right before the silver ran dry. First, two men died during the construction of the mine; there was a cave-in and part of the mine collapsed on these unfortunate souls. Essentially, they were buried alive. After that, an engineer died while mapping the area; he was murdered by marauding Apache riders that considered him to be trespassing on sacred grounds. After he died, his soul joined the souls of the ancestors of his murderers. And, after all this misfortune, the mine ran completely dry. The silver mine was closed and abandoned shortly before the construction had even been completed.
Sometime later, tales began to circulate in the towns and villages nearby of strange blue lights seen around the mine during dark nights. Hikers, campers, riders, and cowboys all had seen these mysterious glowing luminosities. The blue lights were of a dark appearance and would shoot up from the mine area and dance around until they were extinguished. At times, the display would lure someone into the forest as if they had been placed under a hypnotic trance. They would wander into the cedar bush, following the dancing azure. These seekers would return days later, transformed, trans-mutated. The men who had experienced the source of the lights always seemed to gain a kind of enlightenment. Some said that they had found a secret treasure of silver nuggets and that they were just empowered by their newfound enrichment.
The three miner’s fire began to dwindle and the whisky had been exhausted. They decided to call it a night and went to their tents. After a period, three separate snores could be heard from three separate tents. One of the miners fell into a deep dream. He dreamed of the campfire, he dreamed that the fire became elongated from the tip of its cone. The flames began to dance; they were twisting and spinning. There was a separation in the conflagration and two snakes emerged within the fire. The fire snakes, red in color, wrapped around each other until they became one. This snake began to feast on its own tail. The ouroboros continued and the fire appeared enhanced with a multitude of colors. The devouring of the materia prima displayed the fullness of the circulatory nature of the world.
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The ouroboros shined brighter and brighter until it gained an emerald green appearance. Inside the emerald glow, it was written:
Daughter from mother and mother from daughter. Flower from seed and seed from flower. Within the circle there are lines. As the snake sheds its skin, the lines are formed from the circle. Circulation sheds linearity and from this scheme, new colors are created.
The miner awoke from this strange vision and saw the campfire from the opening of his tent. The conical form of the fire had transformed into a pile of black and red glowing embers. The embers were positioned around unburnt black logs that were situated like the remains of a calcined dragon. The night was very dark and the air was frigid but moist. The miner emerged from his tent and his eyes laid claim to a fainting indigo that seemed just beyond the mine entrance area. He was spellbound and immediately set out in the direction of the light. As he ambled his way down the side of the mine, he saw the blue lights more clearly; they were just a few furlongs away, and were coming from the forest area. While he was making his way through the pithiness of night he spotted two eyes watching him from the top of the cliff. It was an owl. The owl made no sound and only watched the miner as he combed his way through the cedar bushes towards the swaying cerulean radiances. Suddenly, the man stopped and stood before a small strange-looking shack. Inside, there were piles of old books and a bizarre apparatus that was being heated by a fire.
The alchemist’s still was being heated by a small flame that had air supplied to it by a grand bellows contraption. From the top neck of the contraption, blue flames were swooping around giving the appearance of small blue phoenixes. At the top, there was a chimney to de-gas the vapors. It was from the top of the chimney-pipe that the blue lights were being generated.
The miner stood at the entrance and was thunderstruck at the sight. Suddenly, the alchemist emerged from behind the bellows. He was a man of many years, thin but full of energy. He seemed to have a special aura about him. His hair was grey and draped down from the back and side of his bald head in a careless fashion. His eyes were radiant and his gaze was wild with secret wisdom. ‘‘So, it was you whom the ouroboros shown a part of the Emerald Tablet?’’ The miner remained perplexed, he asked ‘’what is this machine?’’ ‘’It is the still of life’’, said the alchemist. ‘’This is where ideas from society are distilled into a purer form’’, he said. The alchemist explained, ‘’as nature runs its course and the circles are completed, lines are generated. It is from these lines that new ideas are born. Ideas are as lead and this lead of ideas must be distilled into gold for them to be of any significance to society. This is how technology and art are developed. This is how the blue ball of life evolves. Distillation of ideas represents the core of human evolution’’
From the alchemist’s explanation, the miner realized the meaning of his dream. That fragment of the emerald tablet was now etched into his mind forever. He finally understood that the search for real gold occurs from within. In life, all ideas begin as lead and can be subjected to transmutation. He saw how to achieve this feat through the process of distillation and instantly felt as rich as a Carthaginian king. The miner began to walk through the thick cedar groves as the red fire in the sky became unveiled and the great eye of the world opened. His journey had begun. He had become the alchemist.