The River of Heaven 

By Demian DreamSinger 

© July 2001 

"The River of Heaven" is the Japanese name for the Milky Way. A legend that has arisen from this celestial wonder is the Japanese story of the Weaver and the Shepherd Boy. It's about two lovers, the Weaver from the Heavens and the Shepherd Boy from the Earth who fall in love and are granted permission to wed by her father, the Emperor of the Heavens. But so smitten with love are they that they both wind up neglecting their duties and in punishment the Emperor decrees they be forever separated except for one night out of the year, July 7, when the Shepherd Boy could cross the River of Heaven and be with his love only to return to Earth when the night was over. The legend says if it rains on that night the rain are tears of sorrow for the Shepherd Boy was unable to cross and must wait another year to try again. And if it is a clear night, it means they are happy and together again even if for a few hours. This story is centuries old and has inspired many poems as well as a festival that is celebrated every July 7, in Japan. My mother loved this story, it's romance and heartbreak, the heart-wrenching longing that is finally satisfied when fate is kind and smiles upon you if only for a night. My mother's life was filled with melodrama, heartache and disappointment. She lived with a deep and burning desire for love, for happiness which always seemed to be just beyond her reach and as far away as the other side of the Milky Way. My mother never knew her real birthday. When I think about her life, it's only fitting that she would have chosen July 7th and its legend with its theme of sorrow and constant looking to the stars to mark the beginning of her life and each passing year. My relationship with my mother was filled with a lot of ambivalence. My life a journey of healing each layer of wounding that mothers, who never dealt with their own wounds, inflict upon their children. Four years ago, just several weeks after I told her I was with child, my mother passed away. Sometimes I get the feeling she is still just on this side of the River of Heaven unable to go on, tied to the earth with guilt, regret and the anger that comes from too many things unfinished, un-experienced, a life of potential un-lived. Sometimes a story needs to be revised to be told so a more truthful and empowering story may unfold. Sometimes we need to take what has been handed down to us no matter how revered and cherished and recreate it. Sometimes we need to simply tell a different story. So Mom, I've rewritten this story for you. May it help ferry you gently across the River of Heaven. 

Love, Demian 

 

The River of Heaven
Revision of an Ancient Japanese Legend
Of the Weaver and the Shepherd Boy
copyright 2001

"Art by my mother when the star was rising in her eye."


In the Heavens lived a beautiful Star Maiden who spun luminescent strands of silk to hold the stars up in the skies.  Her father, the Emperor of the Heavens, loved to listen to her sing as she worked at her spindle, her voice drifting across celestial space.

The Star Maiden sang of Heavenly things, of untold beauty and abundant joy.  She sang of radiant color and divine peace, and all these things she spun into her strands of silk so that whoever looked up at the stars would be filled with wonder.

One day, as the Star Maiden sat spinning her beautiful strands of silk, she gazed upon the Earth and saw a Shepherd Boy walking beside an ox.  He was young and handsome, but that is not what caught her eye for the Earth was far below and she could barely see him.

Something in his eye, a spark of light, caught her attention.  Curious, the Star Maiden leaned closer.  She heard him singing softly to his ox as they walked along.

The Shepherd Boy sang of Earthly things, of mountains and trees and seasons.  He sang of blossoming flowers and setting suns, and the ox moved along with quiet peacefulness as if guided by the notes.  The Shepherd Boy carried no stick in his hand.

"A man who holds a star in the sky of his eye with no Heavenly silk from my spindle." She looked at him with wonder." And he moves a beast with song!". 

Fascinated, she descended to the Earth, crossing the River of Heaven that flowed between the two worlds (today we call this River, "The Milky Way").  As soon as the Shepherd Boy laid eyes on her he lost his heart to the Star Maiden.  Not because of her exquisite beauty, but because something within her ethereal presence made him feel strangely more connected to the Earth than ever before and he loved the Earth.

"Walk with me", said the Star Maiden, not as a command but an invitation, and the Shepherd Boy did.  

Together they walked and talked, and the farther they traveled together the closer in their hearts they grew and the more they shared their thoughts the deeper their love became until the Star Maiden and the Shepherd Boy could not bear the thought of departing.

But all too soon it was time to go.  So sadly, they said their goodbyes and each returned to their place, the Shepherd Boy to his ox and the Star Maiden to her stars.

But now the Star Maiden's songs were replaced with sighs as she sat at her spindle spinning and her thoughts were far away following her gaze upon the Earth below.  And the Shepherd Boy's eyes became clouded with sadness as he looked toward the skies so that the star in his eye dimmed and even the Star Maiden could no longer see him.

The Empress of the Heavens was a very wise woman.  She saw her daughter's anguish and had noticed the devotion in the Shepherd Boy's eyes.  "My love," she said tenderly to her husband, "what difference would it make if every star shone brightly in the Heavens but the light went out in our daughter's face?"

The Emperor was quiet, for he did not want to lose his daughter, though even in the timeless Heavens change was inevitable...such is the paradox of truth.

The Star Maiden lifted her eyes when her father approached her as she sat at her spindle.  The Emperor looked upon his daughter's face and saw it light up, but not as bright as it once did for now her heart sang for another.  And somehow she looked different. 

 "Go my daughter," he said, "the silk you have spun is strong enough - these stars will remain, but you must not.  Your stars rest in another sky."

The Star Maiden flung her arms around her father, planting little kisses on his neck and then without a word turned and raced toward the Earth.

When the Shepherd Boy saw the Star Maiden crossing the River of Heaven, he ran to meet her and as she stepped onto the shore closest to Earth and embraced him, there was much joy in the tears that ran down their faces. There, between the two worlds, the Star Maiden and the Shepherd Boy pledged their love and their lives to one another.

But even in timeless Love change is inevitable - such is the paradox of truth.  And one day the Star Maiden heard a sound.  It was strange and foreign to her ears.  The Star Maiden took her eyes off her husband and looked around.  The Earth was much closer now from their place between the worlds and she began to notice things she had never noticed before.

The sound was the muffled cries of a child, its head buried under a pillow so no one could hear. but the Star Maiden heard.  And she began to hear other things too, things that were not sung in the Shepherd Boy's songs for he only sung of good things.

The Star Maiden became disturbed. "I want to see the cause of what I hear."

"No.  You'll never be the same," the Shepherd Boy protested, for he loved the Star Maiden and wanted to protect her.

"It's too late", she said.

So he took the Star Maiden's hand and together they left their home between the worlds and walked over the Earth - from East to West and North to South.  And everywhere they saw the same - planted among the beauty was the ugly, among the good, the evil, and always too much suffering among too little laughter.

It wasn't that the Earth was devoid of laughter and joy, but the sound of suffering cast a long, long Shadow across the face of what the Earth could be.  The Shadow grew and stretched across the land so that the Earth, herself, shuddered and groaned.  

Within this Shadow, the Star Maiden heard the sound of her own heart breaking and she felt the pain of the Earth until she could witness no more.  They returned to the safety of their love between the worlds, but the images would not leave the Star Maiden. "This was never meant to be", she said softly. 

"I wish you did not have to see this," the Shepherd Boy said.  "I wish we could have just stayed in our love."

"It was our love that brought me down from my cosmic home to see", she whispered. 

The Shepherd Boy was silent a moment, "Then it will be our love that will find an answer."

The Star Maiden smiled and knew why she had first fallen in love with him.  "I love you", she said. "Because our hearts have become one you are no longer who you once were.  You are no longer only of Earth.  You are also of Heaven.  In Heaven there is no time so there is no time I will not be with you.  Do you understand?"

"I think so."  He hesitated and then, "But it doesn't matter.  It is so."

And the Star Maiden smiled and knew why she still loved him.  "I know you love me", she said. "Because our hearts have become one I am no longer as I once was.  I am no longer only of Heaven.  I am also of Earth and I cannot ignore her suffering or the cries of her people.

I will cross the River of Heaven and return to my birthplace.  I will spin my silk into ribbons of light and sing my songs into them.  I will sing of Heavenly things, of untold beauty and abundant joy, of radiant color and divine peace.  I will sing of how things really are. I will sing of  love, compassion and forgiveness.  I will sing of hope.

And when I am done I will tie the ribbons of light onto a star, and when all the ribbons are tied, I will cut the silken thread loose from the Heavens and send the star toward Earth on the breath of a blessing. 

Whoever sees that star and makes a wish upon it will open the door to magic and wonder will fill their lives."

Inspired, the Shepherd Boy said, "And I will return to the Earth and sing of what humanity has forgotten.  I will sing of mountains and trees and seasons.  I will sing of blossoming flowers and setting suns, of the power of stars in the sky of your eyes. I will no longer be a mover of beasts but a mover of hearts.  I will sing of how things can be, of love, compassion and forgiveness. I will sing of hope."

And again, the Star Maiden smiled and knew why she would always love him. "You will speak for the Earth and sing of her dreams.  You are the Earth Singer."

"But what if I lose you?" he asked suddenly afraid.

"You will never lose me," the Star Maiden said.  "Let us vow to meet again on this day.  Promise me you will come to me, that you will make the journey and cross the River of Heaven to be by my side so that I may dance with you again.  Promise that it shall be so every year until the Shadow gives way to Light and every heart is free."

"This I promise", the Earth Singer vowed.

So each returned to their place, the Earth Singer to Earth and the Star Maiden to the Heavens.  Now every year on July 7, the Earth Singer crosses the River of Heaven, no matter how high the waters may rise, to be with his beloved Star Maiden.  He is true to his word.

Throughout the year, he walks the Earth and sings his songs to the people and reminds them of what they had forgotten.  Every night the Earth Singer looks up and thinks of his love, knowing that she is spinning and singing her songs.  He thinks of the night he will cross the River of Heaven and dreams of when it will be for the last time. 

And throughout the year the Star Maiden sits and spins her ribbons of light transforming ordinary stars into wishing stars.  Often she gazes out onto the Earth and looks for the Earth Singer's special star within the sky of his eye and listens to the notes of his songs drifting up to meet her.  And she smiles as she feels his love and dreams of the day he will cross the River of Heaven for one last time to be with her forever.

It is said that if on this night it is cloudy, the two lovers are dancing behind the veiled curtains of the night.  If it is raining the raindrops are the tears of joy of two hearts reunited, and if the sky is clear the Earth Singer and the Star Maiden are sitting in a boat on the River of Heaven looking at the Earth they both love and gazing far beyond into the cosmos where human eyes cannot see.

And if you are very, very quiet you can hear the Earth Singer singing to the Star Maiden.

Year after year, their love bringing them together and leading them apart, and bringing them together again and leading them apart until Shadow gives way to Light and every human heart is free.

And you can help. 

When you look up into the night sky and see the River of Heaven connecting the two worlds, a flowing bridge of deepest love bringing the Earth Singer to the Star Maiden, you will know you are looking at the world with a star in the sky of your eye and your heart has wings.  

But if you look up into the night sky and see the River of Heaven separating the two worlds, a barrier keeping the lovers apart, or worse yet, as just a series of meaningless lights in a cold and distant space, then the star has not yet risen in the sky of your eye and your heart has not yet learned to fly. 

Give your heart wings.  Remember your dreams.  Inspire the rising of your star, for your dreams are the star that shines within you and through which you see everything in your world.  They are the wings of your heart.  

When you see a falling star make a wish and believe.  Perhaps your heart will be the one that brings the Star Maiden and the Earth Singer together forever.  If not, then most certainly you will make their wish one heart closer to coming true.

 

Demian DreamSinger