Not Your Ordinary Love Story #KeystotheHeart #lovestories

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.

What If Dragons are Real? #dragons #dragonlines #mysticalcreatures

Although I am not a scholar of mystical beings and their origins, I can think of no creature more popular than the dragon. Dragons, and dragon-like beings, appear throughout history and across the globe. But where did they come from? And are they, in some way, real?

February 10th marks the Lunar New Year of the Dragon. Of the twelve Zodiac signs, dragon is the only “mythical” creature.

A “wood dragon” I encountered on the top of a sacred “dragon” mountain in New England

Spiritual texts and ancient books, as well as countless legends and tales talk of winged serpents and dragons. Sometimes these dragon-like beings are depicted as symbols of evil, and sometimes as forces of good. Gods and goddess adopt the form of winged serpent-like beings to bring forth creation, chaos, good fortune, and prophesies. Dragons and dragon-like beings adorn the coffins of pharaohs and act as guardians on ancient pyramids and temples across the globe. And, dragons appear in literature worldwide, sometimes as benevolent beings, and sometimes as evil forces to be slain. Somewhere along the way, Europeans added dragons to their religious images as powerful creatures that needed to be tamed and even killed.

In some ways, I am particularly fascinated by the Christian portrayal of dragons. Christian churches are often built over ancient sacred sites. Sites on Earth believe to hold powerful energy. Energy that some people believe comes from the dragon lines that run through Earth. These more modern religious structures often contain stained glass images or other artwork depicting dragons. Sometimes these dragons are being tamed by archangels or other messengers from God.

A dragon depicted on the ceiling of a hallway in the Vatican. The Vatican, like many churches, was build upon an ancient sacred site.

Dowsers and people who are sensitive to energy can feel and locate the energy lines that run through Earth. Although I am not a dowser, I often sense these lines of power running through me. As I mentioned in my last post, Earth is a living being, why should it not have energy lines running through it?

A naturally occurring rock dragon (and friend) in Bermuda

There are different theories as to how dragons came into our collective histories long ago. Some people think they were a result of the imagination conjuring up a mythical creature out of snakes, lizards or even the fossils of dinosaurs. Turning the ordinary into something magical. Like a unicorn or a centaur.

But, what if dragons really did, and do exist? Maybe not in physical form, but as a part of the land and its elements?

I thought this looked like a cloud dragon diving towards the lake

How many times have you looked at something in nature and thought it resembled a dragon? I seem to see them everywhere I go: in the stumps of trees, in the rocks and land that tumble into the sea…and sometimes they appear in the sky. But never do I see and sense them more than when I am in ancient landscapes. Here, dragon and serpent heads appear in the stones placed by our ancestors. They seem to watch over the land as guardians.

This cloud made me think of a fiery dragon diving into the hills of Ojai, CA

And, as I mentioned earlier, it is at the sacred sites of our ancestors where the energy of the ley lines, or dragon lines pass through and is often concentrated in vortexes or nodes.

I know people who purport to have close relationships with dragons, and some of them have undergone past life regression where they recall lifetimes of shapeshifting into dragons.

So what if these dragons were real to our ancient ancestors? Real enough to put dragons in their sacred texts and structures. And real enough to name the lines of energy in Earth dragon lines?

The Mystical Mysterious Connection of Dragon Lines of Energy #connection #dragonlines

Sue, Larissa and Ani standing on the body of the dragon in Uffington with its wing spread out behind them.

I am not one to question death. Nor do I, anymore, question the eternal presence of the soul. I’ve had too many experiences that have made me a believer. It is, I believe, something our ancient ancestors also knew to be truth. The mysteries passed down teach of the eternal presence of the soul, as do the ancient sites still lingering in our landscapes.

I love nothing more than immersing myself in the ancient sites of the land. My body’s cells rekindle with memory and I feel a wholeness that is difficult for me to find in our modern world. Here, in the ancient lands, magic stirs to those who open to it. Memories embedded in Earth’s stones whisper their history and lines of energy can be felt beneath one’s feet.

Some people call these lines of energy “dragon lines.” Others, “ley lines.” To me, they are akin to the meridians in the human body. Energy that feeds our organs and tissues, and spread lines of life through our cells. We are living beings made from the body of a living planet. It makes sense to me that we would both have pathways of energy that feed us life.

Sue knew of my fascination with, and connection to, the dragon lines in Earth. She often nudged me into understanding and exploration in subtle ways, stepping back to observe as I explored the energy running through Earth in wonder. When Sue passed, I found myself not only lamenting the loss of a wonderful woman, but also the loss of her guiding presence in the ancient landscapes we visited together. I thought, more than once, I am not ready for your absence.

Until, a short while after her passing, I found a post had appeared on my email feed. It was an older blog written from Sue. I clicked it open to see a painting of the figure of a man in angelic form lifting his foot as though to crush the body of a dragon. As I studied the painting, the brightness on my computer screen increased. I have a scroll bar above my keyboard that shows the levels of light when it is being adjusted, and for several seconds, I watched the bar go back and forth, seemingly of its own accord. My hands on my lap, my body filled with awe.

There are many layers of symbolism embedded in this moment, which I believe was orchestrated by Sue’s energy. And, since it occurred, I turn back to it from time to time to remind myself of this contract she and I continue to play out together.

Since Sue passed away, I haven’t visited the ancient landscapes of England. The timing has not yet been right. This past October, I went on an adventure (dragging my husband along for the ride 😉) to explore some of the ancient lands of Ireland. We concentrated on the northern portion of the country, with a brief hop into Northern Ireland. This area of the world, I learned while there, is filled with earthen mounds. It is a land that was once filled with people who, in my opinion, were deeply connected to and revered Mother Earth. It is rich with goddess energy that was eventually dampened or attempted to be stomped out (recall the painting referenced above) when history began to move towards the domineering masculine energy of power and control.

Newgrange, Ireland

Despite this, though, one can still feel the stirrings of the divine feminine in many of these sites. One of these places is the famous mound at Newgrange where visitors are allowed to walk the ancient passage into the chamber that was aligned to the winter solstice sun, and experience the darkness of being encased inside the mound before the return the light. It is, if you are open to it, akin to a rebirth. One walks back into the womb of the Mother (Earth) to be rebirthed anew. For me, it was a reawakening to the wonder and magic I experienced in the ancient lands with Sue.

It was here that I felt Sue’s presence with me return. We were not in England, and she was not in physical form, but I had little doubt she was beside me. Her presence as subtle and strong as it was in life, returned in another form, which might be called the pure essence of connection. It is this energy of pure connection that threads through the body of Earth when one seeks to find and open to it. The lines of life that feed the body and nurture it.

I believe the biggest downfall of humanity is our separation from this state of connection. We have incorporated disbelief of what is not easy to see or interpret into our mindsets through the conditioning of religious and other dogma. These beliefs are centered around control and limitation, and serve to cut us off from true connection to ourselves and the sources of life that feed and nurture us. I find it both astounding and devastating that we can portend to worship a divine presence, while neglecting to acknowledge the divine light that spreads through all life.

In posts to follow I’ll write more about how this connection relates to dragons and dragon lines.