alienation

And I set forth by the quickest way to the serpent, and by his hole I abode watching for him to slumber and sleep, that I might take my pearl from him. And forasmuch as I was alone I made mine aspect strange, and appeared as an alien to my people.

I go about my business. But I make my first mistake. I go directly to the serpent rather than directly to the pearl. My eyes are fixed on him and not the pearl. I sit by HIS hole. I wait for HIM to sleep. I want to take the pearl from HIM.  I would learn later, through the trials of experience, that whatever I attend to, I become. I watched him carefully.

Rather than be who I am, a child of the Source with Goodness and Mercy in my heart, I changed my appearance. My second mistake. I camouflaged myself to fit in. My true kin would not recognize me as that which I was becoming.

Later I would learn that these "mistakes" were part of the journey of going "down." I went through the metamorphosis of becoming all things. Excruciating. On the space-time cross of existence. I would need the pearl to see me through.