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

On March 15, 2017March 15, 2017 By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, Mythology, Origins of Gaia's Majesty, Women RisingLeave a comment

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

On October 3, 2015October 14, 2015 By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, MythologyLeave a comment

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All I can ask is, What if?

Gaia understood that struggle and conflict is at the core of the nature of life both within and among creatures. 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 did not want to give up on her experiment easily and so she reserved a population which might be needed if she had to start the experiment all over again. These people were called the Progenitors. Since the females were central to the continuation of humankind, she reserved cities in the sea where these women would live. If need be, from them could spring a new race. These cities 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.

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 in other regards they never touched on the wonder of the reality. But one reality was essential. While in the sea Progenitors had partly fishlike bodies with tails and webbed fingers. The image we have of the mermaid is correct in many regards.

Andromeda Defense Force

Brigid Lynch
My editor called her the “flaming haired assassin-for-good”. Life seemed to hold 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. But she was taken under the care of people who were chosen to defend and direct humankind. Her pain was transformed into dedication as she came to head the crucial Andromeda defense force.

What Is a Functional Reality? – Can It Include Spirit Guides?

On September 25, 2015 By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of RealityLeave a comment

Learning From The Other
In our own minds we engage in fantasy and dreams. We also explore legends and myths. But I have also found that my understanding of reality or lack thereof has been built by my clinical experience which means interacting with other people. I found it essential to adopt varying frameworks when I was talking to people. Their world may be quite different from my world and that means there is a different reality. Early on in my studies I was told that being involved in psychotherapy meant learning from your clients. How true. Not just in psychotherapy but learning from others is a lifelong process.

Don’t Talk About It!
It is really odd that in most of our lives we simply do not discuss this much. But at the same time I understand why we don’t. What a time sink! In contrast I would argue that it is a worthwhile time sink if we would only focus it. We need not spend all our time on it but in a social context, for example, we can clarify our policies in a meaningful way if we will see how and why we differ and how it might be reconciled for the common good. Also, in the abstract, it is useful as we look toward the future of humankind.

Where Is This Going?
When it occurred to me that I wanted to write a post about functional reality I had a sense of what I was thinking. Let’s face it, if you are going to write something it helps to know where you might be going with it. In preparation I googled it and to my surprise I found I was not alone in thinking about it. See what you find when you google functional reality.

Functional Versus Unfocused
I found it useful to create a view of functional reality in my thinking for my clients and as I said I believe it is useful in social planning. Of course, while dealing with the lives of real people it cannot be anywhere near as abstract as this discussion.

We move to another range of functionality when we think about stewardship whether it is of our fellow humans or our planet. At that point we come to a utilitarian functionality.

And there is the matter of tools which leads me to my interest in speculative fiction. In fiction we can create a functional reality of sorts which guides the development of our story and our thinking. That in turn lets us look to future possibilities in our writing and for our own lives.

Maybe I’m a little odd in that regard but I like to know where I’m going and love to look ahead in other regards. In short, I like to speculate. Perhaps you have similar inclinations. Who knows? We might even uncover the meaning or existence of things such as spirit guides. We really do not know what other life forms there might be nearby. And particularly as we forage in creative lands it just might be that we will get unexpected guidance. Or, sometimes, it is a matter of being willing to go out there and take a look. There is a range of functionality. There is what serves for right now and it extends out to the utility of what might be and where our dreams may lead us.

What is the usual focus of speculation for you?

Life Inseparable

On September 21, 2015 By Roger B. BurtIn Life FormsLeave a comment

Do you “have a life” or did you “get a life”?

What Are We Trying to Say?
When we refer to life what are we talking about? Are we talking about the body, mind, spirit collectively? Or are we talking about something which is a form of earth energy. We use the word “life” carelessly. At times it is hard to imagine what we are meaning when we use the word. We use it to refer to the form and elements of our existence as well as referring to the underlying process itself.

Rarely do we question what we mean by life. It’s not just a matter of the kind of life we lead. We joke with each other when we tell someone to “get a life”. Clearly they already have one but it is the form of it which is at question. And then there is the matter of the quality of that life. It can be highly variable but we will inevitably cling to it regardless.

Groping For Meaning
At the end of the day we do not really know what we mean by life. We can refer to inanimate things as having life or a life span. Such as a light bulb. It may be there is more truth in referring to life in such a context than we ordinarily realize. Certainly a clump of grass has a life as does that insect on the wall. But in other regards we can raise questions.

Does our planet have a life or do we simply refer to it as having a life span? We understand that our sun has a life span and there will come a day when it ceases to have its present form. But we also understand that it has a rhythm to its activity as seen in its more active and quiescent periods. Are those cycles indicative of a life form.

A SearchFor Meaning
Does humanity as a whole have a life span? Do we die out as a life form if we are unwise about our choices? Certainly we can cause death but do we create our death as an organism?

There is much more to the term life than we can believe at one simple level. Our definitions can diminish it or enhance it just as our behavior can diminish or enhance it.

Life Deserves More Attention Than It Gets
Are you still there or did I lose you? What I’m getting at is that the word “life” has a multitude of layers of meanings. But one of the things I came to in writing the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy is that we seem to suspect we are not alone. Of course most religions have such a belief but there is another level. It may be a matter of imagination, projection of feeling, or a recognition that there are so many different kinds of life forms. But, as I wrote, I kept coming back to the feeling that in this kind of story lay the perception that there are a multitude of other life forms which may be quite sentient and intelligent. But it may be a matter that we simply cannot ordinarily perceive them much less communicate with them. One of the wonderful things about telling a story is that it is possible for the author to rectify that problem.

What are your beliefs about life?