Shadowmagick

Sunday carvery lunch for my Daddy’s seventieth birthday

Sunday carvery lunch for my Daddy’s seventieth birthday saw me lose it big time and sit there in tears --- of laughter. Fahams Hall Hotel in Hertfordshire was the venue and was magnificent. Very my style, but the food was a beautiful spread of fresh vegetables, salad, fish and the most gorgeous sweet onions I have ever tasted. The reason I was in fits of apoplexy was because of the questionnaire left for us to fill in on the table. In true capriciousness, here’s what I wrote:

We are contemplating extending the hours we open for Sunday Lunch, please help us make the right decision by answering the following questions.

• What time do you feel is the most suitable for your Sunday Lunch?
Sunday lunchtime.

• If we were to extend the opening times of Sunday Lunch to 4pm, would that be of interest to you?
Only if you called it Sunday Dinner.

• What is the latest time you would consider eating Sunday Lunch?
Thursday.

That last one was the one that did it. There was something so banal about it that it struck my funny bone and I had to head to the reception to weep it off.

Creating Bixby, the laboratory Komondor

When I was aligning the characters of Benjie, Elliott and Bixby for The A-Men novel, I wanted Dr Glass’ laboratory dog to be an unusual breed, preferably one that would create a descriptive framing reference for the scenes where the canine is floating in the gelatinous fluid of the X-Isle tanks. It didn’t take me long to choose the Komondor.

Of all the world’s dog breeds the Komondor must be the most visually spectacular. A large, muscular breed of dog, the distinctive white, corded coat can reach the ground by the time the dog’s five to six years old. Komondors are also said to be protective and assertive, and will think for themselves. This also means they are not the breed for everyone and are probably best-suited to experienced dog owners. Longtime owners say their dogs are quite devoted and will monitor their every move.

Despite their appearance, owners maintain Komondors are a low-to-medium maintenance breed, as the dogs don't need brushing or blow drying, and unless they are being exhibited, are not bathed frequently as this can weaken the coat. When bathed, however, it can take 24-48 hours for a Komondor in full coat to dry.

Developed to guard flocks of sheep and goats in its native country, Hungary, the distinctive corded coat acted as armour against attack by wolves, which should only get a mouthful of matted hair.

Odd day

Odd day. All of it. A transition from one world into another. Everything smarts. Like salt in a shallow wound. I am left with a feeling of wanting to progress but of being unable. For now forced to stop. I run along the hard ground, on the stones, and find that while I can, it is incredibly difficult. I listen to my self-constructed Steinman’s Neverland on the Radio Shack Walkman. Fitness. Diet change. Trying to break the mould into which I have fallen. The whole of my life in a cycle and yet here I force myself to make decisions based upon unknown elements. Arranging the days ahead, organising and setting to rights.
Uncertainty breeds nothing in me except a clamouring for structure. A purpose.
Even the prospect of unwinding seems full of terrors.

Consulting the I Ching

Found a book in a big box called Destiny and Your Dreams which has a section about the I Ching oracle. I asked:
“Should I pursue the completion of the Talliston building project?”

I threw my coins and the two trigrams were K’an which is water, a pit and K’un, earth. PI – Union was indicated, and in the book it said:

“There will be success and good fortune if you re-examine yourself for rightness of thought and action. Others will come to you for help with their problems, and cooperation, trust and goodwill under your coordination will bring good results, a group consciousness from which latecomers will not benefit.”

The Earth speaks: natural communication in the ancient world

With the second novel due to arrive from the publishers very soon, and the official launch date set for 29th March, I have begun editing the third novel, Forever A-Men for submitting to the editor in the next month or so.

Have been spending time researching and honing some of the central themes of the book, including the way the elements play a bigger part in the story. The elements offer a direct channel of communication with the natural world. Earth, air, fire and water can all be used for healing and divination, and elemental scrying is one ancient craft practiced by many seers across all traditions. Knowledge of weather-lore was undoubtedly a fundamental pre-requisite when attempting to scry from the elements. Movements of animals foretold shifting physical conditions such as earthquakes, heavy rain, thunder, drought, and so on.

The manuipulation of the elements or weather-witching was a skill employed to great effect. Raising winds, fashioning cloaks of invisibility, summoning fogs, bringing forth magical hedges between armies – all these are told in the stories and legends of the Celtic peoples.

Developing energy

“…learn of the spiritual intelligence of the night.” The Book of Taliesin.

The night often symbolises the unconscious. One of the difficulties in living in the now is that our consciousness tends to be dominated by the analytical, left-brain, linear male consciousness at the expense of the more wholistic, artistic, right-brain, inclusive feminine consciousness.

Meditating last night, I became aware of the night sky and opened myself up to the influence of the stars, sensing their energies. As the real body enjoys sunbathing, I feel the benefits from bathing in the moonlight and under the stars. The constellation I am particularly drawn to is Orion, especially Orion’s Belt, which I have used in poetry (as in Winter the constellation sits directly above Talliston):

Bound up within the midnight between Orion’s belt
I no longer have to second guess how long eternity felt
So I take the day and stab it
Stab and stab its radiant breast
And when it’s dead, it rises as a ghost and humbly joins the rest.

Dead of Night, John Trevillian

Sister Midnight’s sermon in The A-Men

The core of Esther’s speech at the close of the first A-Men novel is taken from Matthew 18:1-4 of the Bible, which basically says that to enter the kingdom of God you have to become again as a child:

Matthew 18

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them

3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

She delivers this line in her native tongue, that of Tok Pisin of Papau New Guinea:

Na em i tok, 'Mi tok tru long yupela: Sapos yupela i no tanim na i kamap olsem ol liklik pikinini, bai yupela i no inap i go insait long kingdom bilong heven.’

The reason behind this is the central religious theme of the novel, that of the creation of a child-like state in which to encounter eternity. More simply, unless we change we cannot achieve greatness. Esther realises through Jack’s Forevermore faerie tale book that she has spent most of her childhood trying to grow up too fast. We don't want to be children. Children are the ones hurt by divorce, abuse, abandonment, poverty, and predators. Children can't vote, can't drive, can't date, and can't choose at different points in their childhood. While on one hand children rule the day because of permissive or non-involved parents, on the other hand they are in more danger and suffer more abuse than ever before. Who wants to be vulnerable, powerless, and humble like a child? Yet here she revels in the paradox and knows that Jack, in all his self-hatred and tough-love, is actually onto something.