From My Fantasy Writing Desk
If you received this blog post already, you are not seeing double. I made a quick copy and resent to my subscribers because I realized the subject line has been stuck on a title from two months ago and, if I saw that, I’d have been deleting them… Sorry for my error!
We’re all spending time scrubbing away invisible contagion from our homes with bleach and cleansers, wiping down surfaces and packages from the store. It feels more than a little crazy.
My historically-based fictional characters can sympathize. The Hittites had an obsession with curses and “pollution” of all sorts. They didn’t understand, of course, the scientific processes of transmission, but they were dedicated to eradication no matter how bizarrely. So, for example, since they believed that hair carried impurities and possible sorcerous curses, there were rules for the royal cooks to keep the king’s food free of any hair. The penalty for serving the king “polluted” food was death, so I guess our current mania is not as extreme.
Tesha, my Hittite priestess, battles contagion and curses within the covers of my books. In Sorcery in Alpara, she’s powerful and creative as she drives away a contagion that I visualized as a black, sticky cloud absorbing person after person—not a bad metaphor for our world today. Sometimes wish fulfillment is a satisfying escape. In the interest of all of us visualizing our collective victory over corona virus, here’s Tesha’s triumphant moment—her power of light is also a good metaphor. May it be a sign of our conquests to come.
Excerpts from Sorcery in Alpara:
Around her, soldiers fought off the same invasions of black swirls that wrapped like cocoons around them, binding their arms and legs, covering their faces, and pulling them into the blackness. The soldiers’ writhing motions spread across the slope below. The cloud dragged in all the men who had accompanied her.
. . .
“Reach for it.” A strong, loud voice gave the command.
Tesha did not know what she reached for, but she obeyed. She spread her arms wide, dragging against the webs that adhered to her. She set her legs firmly in a broad stance with her head tipped up. Her hair, free of the veil, lifted as if in a strong wind, although the air lay stagnant and cloying. She stretched outward with all her strength, her muscles straining, her limbs seeming to extend into the earth and sky as if guided along taut threads beyond her sight.
Each time she reached a point where she could no longer endure the wrenching sensation, flecks of golden light ignited inside and fueled her until finally, with a fiery jolt, she connected with a power even greater than those golden flecks. The goddess had sustained her until she could span out into the same source that Ishana herself drew upon.
Through her fingertips and feet rose the power that crackled in the stones of the earth, the light of the stars, the rampage of streams, the winding of vines, and the steady growth of mighty oaks. Her body expanded and served as a channel for absorbing the sacred potency. The small golden glow that had rested under her heart for most of her life now filled every part of her as a blinding light. Threads of it wove her together with all that lay around her, farther than any eye could see.
This light drove back the vaporous muck from her chest and belly. The sparking strength flowed down her limbs into a ball at her core, drawing from the promise of the world. This glowing sphere whispered without words and she followed its wisdom. She rounded her hands and brought together her spread fingertips, creating an empty ball of space. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the inner sphere until she no longer felt separate from its light. Drawing its power up, she blew it softly into the round enclosure of her hands.
A bubble of light shimmered between her fingers. She widened the space between her hands and the sphere grew. She experimented up and out, expanding it until it surrounded her. She stepped forward, pushing the bubble’s edge outward beyond the actual reach of her limbs. With each step the sphere enclosed more territory of grass and bushes, pushing back the tendrils of unnatural darkness that it met.
. . .
Step by step, she grew her kingdom of light. She reached deep into the earth and far above to the stars, asking for the blessing of their power. She absorbed several struggling soldiers into her sphere, shaking with the outpouring from her that this required.
Again and again she stretched wide until she had liberated a battalion of men from the black cloud. They stood up and tried out their newly released arms and legs, gazing in awe at the light that shone around them in the middle of the night.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Both of my archaeological links this week are designed to let you travel virtually and escape those four walls that might be feeling a bit buggy right now.
Who doesn’t love a good museum visit?
Need an entertaining armchair/smartphone trip to a museum? The Oriental Institute at University of Chicago has a good app that lets you explore the objects in their collection, learn about fashion in the ancient world, the expeditions and digs they have sponsored over the decades and lots more.
I love their Anatolian collection. There are several objects in it that I gave to Briseis in Hand of Fire. One of my favorites is included in the app, a cosmetic box carved of steatite with multiple dividers and a handy lid that pivots open on a peg (although they show it open with the lid beside the box). Click here for a direct route to a large photo of “Briseis’” cosmetic box. There’s a lovely Egyptian mirror (no longer functionally reflective) with a slender female figure balancing the round bronze “mirror” on her head and outstretched arms. Go for a trip and escape into the past. A cup of tea or glass of wine as company is recommended. Click here for The Oriental Institute of University of Chicago “Encurate”
Up Close with Ur’s Ancient Artifacts
We all need to get out of the house while staying in our houses. So today I went online to the view the objects excavated from the ancient city of Ur, one of the largest and most important cities of Mesopotamia. This grand website is not set up as an organized tour. You’ll select objects to view as you like, random meandering through their collection works just fine. They have it organized in various categories to choose from. Definitely expand the photos with your fingers to get a good close view of the objects. I promise you’ll be in a world utterly unlike your own bedroom. Here’s the website’s description of themselves:
Michel wal Wiki
Ur Online offers an insight into the unique site of Ur, near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, and one of the largest and most important cities of ancient Mesopotamia. Excavations at Ur between 1922 and 1934 by Sir Leonard Woolley, jointly sponsored by the British Museum and the Penn Museum, uncovered Ur’s famous ziggurat complex, densely packed private houses, and the spectacular Royal Graves. Half the finds from Woolley’s excavations are housed in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, with the other half shared equally between the British Museum and the Penn Museum. Through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation, lead underwriter, the Kowalski Family Foundation and the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, Ur Online preserves digitally and invites in-depth exploration of the finds and records from this remarkable site. Click here for Ur-online.