Tag: Amazons

The Women of Andromeda – Brigid Lynch

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A Core Person

One of my readers of Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called referred to Brigid as the “flaming haired assassin-for-good”. I have to confess I’m not entirely sure where she came from. Each of the Andromeda women seemed to show up unbidden. Of course, as a psychologist I understand they don’t materialize in the author’s mind our of the ether.

My initial concept of Andromeda was not that these women were ruled by men. That is not exactly how the world of the Tethyans is. What fell into place was that the warrior women had to have some form of autonomy although clearly there would be some form of organization. It was all curious because they had a mission but it was not like they came from a corporation or an established government. So Brigid was chosen as the early leader and she had relationships with other leaders among the people.

The Tethys, or cities in the sea, were reasonably autonomous, certainly from each other but there was some form of general independence among other parts of the Tethyan people. I have to admit I’m not sure how this all came about.

Brigid as a Symbol

Certainly Brigid was needed as a warrior. There would inevitably be considerable conflict and leaders had to exist or emerge. As the story developed it was clear that Gaia had to be giving some guidance and where Brigid was placed suggested that she was part of that guidance. In the story she is indicative of women who are strong and independent and it was apparent to me that she probably had to have a troubled history to push her into this position. So she was a symbol of the strength of women and their dedication.

Curious Origins

I’m still trying to figure out where a lot of this came from and specifically what the origin of Brigid is. It was only later that I found Adrienne Mayor’s book The Amazons. As I’ve said elsewhere, I thought Amazons were mythological. And I came to find out that they were real.

In the ancient world the women of Greece were subjugated but just outside of that region were the Steppes of Asia. And on that plane were nomadic and semi nomadic tribes. The warrior Amazon women rode with their men into battle. They were skilled archers and excellent horsewomen. Women seem to have an edge in horse management as we see today.

And before I knew about the real Amazons I chose her to be a flaming redhead. Such hair color speaks to origins in Scotland and Ireland but what I learned was that the Amazon women were often redheads.

Something Else

And then later I learned about my own genetic heritage. My most prominent group is made up of people who were celtic,viking and saxon followed by a generic far northern European people. It included 5% neanderthal. That’s right, we now know their genetic code and are finding they are among us. When I looked farther back I could see that these people from whom I was descended came out of near Asia as the last ice age ended. In short they were part of the tribes made up of Amazons.

What I had done was create a character who was clearly from my own background when I didn’t even know about my background. It becomes kind of creepy.

Knowing that I wanted this woman to do battle with the Overlords I wrote (in my head) a background in the estate of a brutal Overlord who abused her mother. Finally her mother committed suicide which devastated Brigid. She was cast out of the estate and was taken in by the Tethyans.

Another Book

As you can see the story kept growing. It is clear to me that I may well be writing books about each of the lead women of the Andromeda. A similar process occurred for each of them and their stories continue to unfold in my head.

Have you had similar things emerge from inside of you?

 

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The Women of the Andromeda

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What do you think is happening to women?

Numerous Roles for Women

From the beginning, in writing the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy, I was clear that the women had to be extraordinary. Related is the fact that I have always been captivated and intrigued by the movement to empower women. There is a battle and clearly there was untapped potential. And in that battle women are showing how tenacious they can be.

But I felt I could not begin from pure fantasy. Of course part of what intrigued me was my love of mythology and how it speaks to us. Mermaids keep appearing in myth and I chose them to join us for the adventure. But there were other elements in history that were intriguing. In Adrienne Major’s book The Amazons I learned about some of the real warrior women in history.

Presenting Themsleves

And so the women of the Andromeda came into being. Many Tethyan women were reserved in the sea against the day when the mission for the salvation of our beloved blue planet and humankind would be called. But especially on land there was presently to be a confrontation and warrior women were needed to help.

In the Beginning

But in opening the series it did not seem right to simply have the women rush into battle. Two realities collided. One was that major human conflicts often begin in a low key fashion. One thing with which I collided was myself. I wanted a “normal” beginning related to how people are. So I chose innocent Avery as the lead character who thought she had lost her family and felt abandoned. Little did she know she had an extraordinary family.

But her family wasn’t merely hiding in the sea. It had an organization and women had been chosen and chose themselves to be defenders in the movement to come. And there were certainly enough issues to be combatted in the real world as we understand it today.

Among the People

The Tethyan people fell generally into three groups. The people who lived in cities in the sea called the Primals, the women who came to the land to form families and the defense force of women called the Andromeda. The women in the sea cities searched history and precious documents for the meaning and substance related to their future. The families on land positioned themselves for future dedicated possibilities. And the Andromeda women took on real world missions. These women could be dangerous and violent if needed.

Dedicated Women

The roles women assume are often complicated and in what they feel they must do they often have to resist restraints imposed by the larger society. And such was the case for the Andromeda women. Certainly they could embed themselves in government and corporations, but they could also engage in other forms of intrusion which might be useful. And so some of them became consorts with the powerful, greedy men called the Overlords. From that position they gained valuable insights and information.

I’m sure there are those who will criticize me for putting these women in such positions which are often frowned upon and they may be unfairly criticized for what they dedicated themselves to do. But that was a component of the real world and it needed inclusion.

These women took terrible risks, gave valiant service and, in the writing, addressed a reality which exists now and will in the future. I took delight in them. Brigid was most prominent and strong. She came to her position through tragedy which, of course, is often what leads to dedication. And darling Luisa was irresistible. She was so engaging and clever and seemed innocent. Except she was not innocent but dedicated.

And so fantasy and reality meld and talk truths about our world as it is whether realized or not and the future as it may be. Such dedication often leads to transformation of many kinds.

And I think in the future I may just write detailed stories focused on these amazing women. In the near term there will be posts on each of them.

Do you admire such women?

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The Myth Underlying the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy – Part 3

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All I can ask is, What if?

Struggle and Conflict

Gaia understood that struggle and conflict is at the core of the nature of life both within and among creatures. In fact she created it to test her creatures and aid their development. Central to this struggle would be the matter of power which was not easily shaped or yielded—especially by predators. But Gaia had a plan.

She knew struggle might involve failure, but she found the clever creatures called humankind intriguing and did not want to give up on her experiment easily. So she reserved a population which might be needed if she had to start the experiment all over again.

Creating a Refuge

While humankind lived on the land, she chose to make the sea available as a refuge. She reserved cities in the sea for a population made up mostly of women who were called Progenitors.

Since they lived in the sea, Progenitors had fish tails and webbing between their fingers while in the sea. But they could also morph into usual human form if they chose to come to the land. If need be, from them could spring a new race.

The cities in which they lived were called Tethys and among the women were a few men to insure diversity and because they might be needed if the population was to be restored to the land. The people who lived in the Tethys and those who came to land to live were collectively known as Tethyans.

The Reality of a Legend

While the existence of the Tethys was not widely known, some of the residents of these cities were sighted from time to time. The legends about mermaids were born of those sightings. And, of course, as with all legends, they took many forms going well beyond the matter of what actually existed. But the legends touched on one element of the reality of what Gaia had created. The image we have of the mermaid is correct in many regards.

The story of these people is deep and rich. Through it we experience the enhancement of the power of women and the benefits of partnership between those women and the men with whom they join. And then there is the matter of where the development of these people may lead.

The first book in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy is Gaia’s Majesty – Mission Called: Women in Power

The Andromeda Defense Force
Brigid Lynch

A Core Person (See her picture above.)

Of course safeguarding the future is not as simple as placing women in the sea. Their roles had to be diverse and there had to be a defense force called the Andromeda. In the first book, a woman by the name of Brigid Lynch is introduced. She is a talented and core person in the force. One of my readers referred to her as the “flaming haired assassin-for-good”.

An Interesting Origin

In fact, innocently, I created her as a redhead of Irish origins. Later I read the book The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor and learned not only that the Amazons were not mythological characters but originated in the area to the east and north of the ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean. And incredibly many of these women who fought in the nomadic and seminomadic tribes had red hair. Evidently it seems over time they migrated West to settle in places like Scotland and Ireland.
Dedication to Our Future

Brigid began life innocently enough. But life held a cruel fate for her after her mother’s suicide. The evil Overlord of the Irish estate where she had lived with her mother had her dumped on the street with no future at all. Or could it have been that Gaia had an ordained future for her. In time she was taken to a Tethys off the coast of Ireland in the care of Andromeda women. Her pain was transformed into dedication as she came to be an important figure in the crucial Andromeda defense force.

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Introducing the Women of the Andromeda

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They Came and Conquered

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In the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy the Andromeda women are the women who are the defense force for the Tethyan people. They were not in the initial construct of the series, but showed up demanding not just attention, but place. Their role kept expanding and evolving.

They Are Real!

We’ve all heard of the Amazon warrior women. Were they real or a mythological construct? It didn’t matter. I wanted warrior women in the story. Were they real and did they live along the Amazon River in Brazil as the name might suggest? No.

And then I ran across the book The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor. What I found was an amazing encyclopedia—a life’s work in some ways. She opened my eyes and gave an additional perspective on the role of women in the world. Fascinating.

The Reality Expanded

The Amazon women fundamentally are from the region called Sythia which was a territory stretching “from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea (northern Greece, European Turkey southwestern Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and former Yugoslavia” The warrior women are also found in the Steppes into Asia. These areas were inhabited by nomadic and seminomadic people who fought among themselves and were involved in changing alliances. While there is no perfect clarity in this fraught region, the women were often referred to as Amazons. Yes, they were warriors and fought fiercely along side their men.

Ancient Essential Equality

In so many of these tribes the women had remarkable equality to live, love and die in battle. There was evidence of free sex and it seemed that paternity was not at issue. Life could be short, brutal and, it seemed, exciting. It was a challenging environment where survival was at issue. Does paternity as an issue fade away when there is nothing to inherit as there might not be in these tribes? The continuity and survival of the tribe was the primary issue.

Prejudice against women is an issue in today’s world. The ancient world too had deep prejudice about Amazon women in some of their societies. In ancient Greece, for example, women were subjugated at home. In the Greek tales of their heroes these men went to war against the Amazon women.

Another World to the North and East

Among the Sythian tribes women were equalized and went to war. One of the reasons was their management of horses. In today’s horse culture we still see women prominently. One suspicion was that horses respond better to a woman’s less confrontational approach. Women also were at no disadvantage at all on horseback and so did well in battle. Since archery on horseback was common, women could easily and effectively participate. And it seems that iron weaponry was first developed among these people and the women put these weapons to good use.

Prejudice in the ancient world was just as widespread as presently. Interestingly the term Barbarian, which we take as a negative, referred to anyone who didn’t speak ancient Greek.

Extensive History

In history women often fought alongside the men. In the TV series The Vikings we see the Shield Maidens standing in battle along side their men. Warrior women were prominent in the Middle East and all the way into China. In India and China in the martial arts the battles were often fought without weapons and women could participate and triumph.

Forgive me for not being more definitive. The stories are long and the information is detailed. There are very few universals to lend simplicity. I recommend Mayor’s book for detailing of all kinds. It goes deep into myths, ancient stories, even to such things as who invented trousers, sagas, tattooing and on and on.

The import of the book to me was that it speaks to the reality of women and cultural differences. It is illuminating and liberating.

They Came and Conquered

And then there is the matter of my choosing to have warrior women in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. I did most of the writing before I found Mayor’s book. It reinforced my choice to include these talented, smart and brave women who stood for the defense of their people and ultimately the future of humankind. Interestingly I chose to have them evolve through the series and Mayor’s book supports such an involvement.

I’ll be blogging more about the Andromeda women. Early on I thought they would be useful for the plot, but found my feminist leaning led to a steady increase in their part in the story. I’ll be commenting on their role but also be blogging about stories related to individual women.

What I love more than anything is that currently I’m seeing illumination and empowerment of women in all regards. It is not just right and not just time, but as in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy it may well lead us to an enhanced future.

Is there an Amazon in your life?

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Women and Our Future

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Note: This is the last post for 2016. The next post will be on January 4th. 2017 The first book of the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy was published in late 2015 but I withdrew it because I wanted to do additional work. The second edition of book 1 will be published this winter. In advance I will comment more deeply about essential themes, the present and developing role of women and, among other things, specifics about the caste of characters.

In these troubled times, what is your view of what is unfolding?

To Repeat

By now you understand my view that the changing and developing role of women is deeply important to our future. And in this trilogy, as I was writing it, the importance of women grew. And recently, somewhat belatedly I ran across an encyclopedic book about the women warriors called the Amazons. It is called The Amazons by Adrienne Major. How interesting!

I thought Amazons were pure myth. It turned out that is not even close. Yes, they were real and of great significance in the ancient world.

Our World

When we think of the ancient world we tend to think of Greece, Rome and Egypt. Certainly they were great and important civilizations. But recently we are gradually hearing about other parts of the ancient and medieval world. In the Middle Ages the story of the Vikings revealed shield maidens fought along side the men. And in ancient times in the near Middle East all the way into China there were prominent women warriors.

And, when we step back dispassionately we see considerable diversity among women. There are many perceptions depending upon the culture involved. And comparisons with men are diverse. Today women serve in the military in highly variable roles depending upon the country. The bottom line is that men and women are not utterly different except by reproductive measures. On any given ability or talent there are usually overlapping bell curves. That means that on a given variable some women may exceed the capacity of many men. Think about height. Not all men are taller than all women. Likewise for ferocity in battle there are some women who will exceed the capacity of many men. We may be different but neither men nor women need to be placed in the extreme or totally detached from the other sex for some ability or talent. The future is open and diverse.

And Today

Looking at history reveals that the current role of women in the west is not a matter of how women are but how our cultures are. Gradually women are taking very different places. The spirit of the past and the reality of humankind is being drawn more deeply into the West and across the world.

An Expanded, Exciting World

The changes are being fought and resisted but the wonderful news is that devastation is not assured. And there is so much richness to be gained. Throughout history it is clear that men and women fought and loved together. The rich lives of men and women in our world together can clearly instruct us about how it can be for us. Some men are resisting the autonomy and empowerment of women but their hold will inevitably fade which is already apparent.

The Women of the Andromeda

Since I only recently found Mayor’s book I learned I had no idea what I was doing in including a defense force of women warriors in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. But as I was writing they kept me intrigued and their role kept expanding and deepening. And I had to laugh. One of the most important woman warriors (among the Andromeda women) has red hair. She came from Ireland. But then in The Amazons I learned that many of the women inhabiting the steppes in the ancient world had red hair and even blue eyes. It seems many of these people moved west. In the trilogy, many of the women have a common role, but each had a different history and contribution to make.

As we move into the new year and I introduce the first book in the series I’ll also be posting in detail about these women.

In the meantime have a happy holidays and I’ll see you in the new year.
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