consciousness – The Light Behind the Story

In dreams at night I explore belonging. Often, I return to school to discover the outcast searching for acceptance. In my quest for knowledge inside the confines of the walled classrooms I encounter the angst of rejection, over and over again. Belonging becomes possible only when I step outside and become immersed with nature. Here I am held, without inhibition, in the open arms of a mother-teacher who offers no judgement. Unconfined, I discover I am connected to the magic of existence.

Is this not true for all of us? Consider, for a moment, the irritable child struggle to learn inside a walled classroom who is then let outside to run and play without restraints, limitations, or conditions. If you can no longer remember that child as you, allow yourself to become that inner child. Step outside with wonder. Explore. Interact. Discover. Uncover. Open. When we find a safe place in nature to be ourselves, transformation occurs in a manner that brings us closer to the joy of belonging and acceptance.

Infinite possibilities for joy occur when nature is not a forced interaction, but an opportunity for individual exploration. Nature does not ask us for conformity, but for the space to expand and grow. In nature, the strange mingles with the expected. In nature, beauty and the beast coexist as equal partners, and hierarchy becomes a web of interdependence.

There is both science and metaphysics that come into play when we recognize our place of belonging to the natural world. In nature, our heart rates regulate to the mother-pulse of Earth, our emotions become more grounded, and our bodies destress. This is all scientific. We are of nature, and being intimately connected to nature is essential to our wellbeing.

Nature, though, also awakens a deeper sense of connection that moves into the metaphysical. It offers us an opportunity to explore the magic of wonder that expands beyond the sensory. When we open ourselves to the mysteries of the natural world, we realize we are infinite beings playing in a landscape of infinite dimensions. We look to the sky and find our origins. Beneath our feet, we feel our roots. Our breath weaves the air of life through our lungs and back out into the invisible expanse to find another body to nourish. Our mouths feed upon the cells of primordial life, and our bodies repurpose the nutrients into new growth. Sometimes, when we are still enough, we can observe the dance of the untethered spirit, reminding us of the temporary force of gravity. When we feel into the universal hum of life, we can feel the web of light that connects us, always.

A few months ago, I came across an article that said middle-grade and YA readers are now seeking stories about strong friendships rather than romance. Perfect, I thought, because the bond of friendship threads through my middle-grade Warriors of Light series. It is, you could say, a rather non-traditional love story. The six young protagonists are driven by their philial love for one another, as well as their filial love, and their love for Earth.

A giant in the land that helped to inspire the character Albion in *Keys to the Heart*. Photo taken at Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park in 2018

A year after visiting Arbor Low, I journeyed back to England for another weekend of Silent Eye adventures, and to partake in my graduation ceremony. “You need to come to this one,” Sue had urged me. “It’s all about the ley lines and the hexagram star.” Once again, while exploring the ancient landscapes of England, I would discover more insights about the stories that had been whispering their secrets onto my pages.

These sacred waters were the site of my graduation rites

We spent a very busy day following the ley lines (aka dragon lines) in the pattern of a hexagram star, hopping from church to church to feel into their energy. Many of the ley lines/dragon lines in Earth follow geometric patterns and connect to sacred sites. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, churches were frequently, and probably not coincidentally, erected atop ancient sacred sites and dragon lines (it makes one wonder about religious images of dragons being slain or “tamed” in paintings and church windows). Truthfully, the day for me was mostly unsettling. To me, the energy of the land beneath these religious edifices feels not so much sacred, but deadened in an attempt to exert power and control.

Sue standing beside one of the churches we visited that is situated on a hexagram of ley lines

So when we journeyed away from the churches to visit ancient sites that still feel alive in the landscape, I felt much more at home. One of our stops was to visit the chalk giant embedded into a hillside in the Cerne Valley. Legends tell that the Cerne Abbas Giant, with his erect phallus, was a fertility god of sorts. Couples would (and perhaps still do, although it is now fenced in) flock to the hillside to make love in the hope to conceive.

The fertility giant in the background of a “Hardy” sign.

But I was more interested in the idea of a love story about the land itself. The carne giant, as well as a giant I saw a month later in the landscape of Acadia National Park (see above photo), helped inspire me to created the character Albion (whose name is derived from an old name for Great Britain) who appears in book two of the Warriors of Light series. The giant Albion, whose body is comprised of the British Isles, holds within him the heart of Earth. So Albion became part of the love story I was writing. A giant whose body is a part of the body of Earth. The two, like the yin and yang energy that exist inside all of us, cannot live without each other. Keys to the Heart is not the love story of romance novels, but about the love that threads the life into the veins of Earth and all of her children.