The Dark Night of Wonder
The Way of the Unicorn
The Dark Night of Wonder
Gather around now for the tale that I tell—of a time in the Dark of the Night when there was a Moment of Wonder…
Once, before the sun was born, there were creatures with eyes who had never truly seen. They lived in a world untouched by light—no dawn to reveal what lay before them. Though they glimpsed the stars endlessly spinning overhead, the starlight only made them dizzy. They craned their necks to look up and stumbled over their own feet. The moon watched silently from the inky blackness, pulling the covers up for Gaia, moving the tides to and fro.
She pulled on them—on their hearts and the blood flowing through their veins. They felt her tug and found comfort in her presence: distant, yet ever near. Had she seen them? Had they seen her? No—and no. It had never been so, and so it remained.
They carried a nameless ache—sadness and longing without language. Going through the motions, they ensured everything was just so. The darkness allowed no deviation, no misstep. Stray too far, and one might lose everything—safety, community, even life. And so they mimicked each other, moving in patterns of caution, fearing punishment or exile to a dark plain beside a sunless sea.
They shuffled forward in their fumbling way, resigned to a fate they believed unchangeable. And that, it seemed, was how it had always been—and how it would always be.
Until one moment—not day, not night, but something in between, indistinguishable from the rest—that night, the one that separated night from night, stirred something deep within them. A shimmer of wonder awoke.
It began with a star—distant, twinkling, faint. Slowly, gracefully, almost imperceptibly, it began to grow brighter.
But the star wasn’t growing. It was coming closer.
The community gathered, groping in the darkness for a hand to hold. They squeezed tightly, a rush of fear surging through them. But—was it fear? It felt like fear at first, but it was warmer, gentler. Not the cold, consuming dread they had known before—but butterflies. And what was a reflection, anyway?
The light descended, glowing brighter still. With a collective gasp, joy spilled through them. And for the first time, they saw the glittering beauty not in the sky, but reflected in each other’s eyes. They gasped again.
Had the sky come down to meet them?
Then came the shimmerings—a glow from within. What was this wonder that left them speechless, mouths agape, as the radiance revealed the faces of their loved ones, each catching the light as they stood, transfixed?
And then—they turned. Wonder spun them around as they beheld each other, bathed in the celestial light of the star’s descent. Those who had never known what they hadn’t known now saw. Dizzy with joy, they twirled in the light, realizing: they were all the stars. In each other’s eyes, in the moon shining with blushing delight, they found a new way to behold the world.
The moon, glowing anew, blushed again beneath the star’s radiance. And they, who had never truly seen, now saw her face.
They spun, elated, caught in the luminous wonder of it all.
And hardly noticed when the star touched down.
She descended, shimmering, and revealed herself as a Stardust Unicorn. Though they had never seen such a being, they felt her—radiant love streaming from her form, too bright to look at directly. Those who tried found her image elusive and were left to forge their own way but now that they were illuminated by her light they knew they could make their own way, sovereign unto themselves.
Perceived but not seen, her presence illuminated the land. A searchlight lighthouse, wandering but not lost, she roamed this awakening world of color and form. In time, she found her resting place and, like a true Star, anchored herself to the horizon.
She enlisted a murder of crows to pull the mantle of night across her shoulders as she slept.
They loved her—for her vulnerability, her courage, her power to transform. Through her Love-Light, they found the strength to overcome their own darkness. Together, they would endure—as long as they sought the light within the dark, the possible within the impossible, and never forgot the Wonder of that Dark Night.