Becoming
Becoming human, becoming goddess . . . becoming one.
In Chapter 4 of The Ash Girl, the act of becoming (or in traditional story craft - the transformation of the character from - to) is in full swing! Or perhaps full flight is a more accurate analogy!
FIRST let’s take a look at the side by side story lines of Athena and Charlotte. (It might be interesting - but not necessary - for you to peek back at the Desire Line story shape way back in Consilience Blog Post 1.)
CHARLOTTE finds the teacher she needs most, and, to her surprise, the lessons will fulfill her longest and deepest (most secret) desire - to learn how to fly. Now, if you recall the story of the Princesses and Princes and the Ascent (from human to ‘goddess’) we unpacked in Consilience Blog Post 2, in chasing down Helge, Charlotte has ‘called up the mountain’ and he (albeit a Knight) answers her call. And not only Helge, but some invisible force shows up that NEEDS Charlotte to learn to use her SUPERPOWERS in the interest of the bigger story unfolding in the tarot cards. (Hint: pay attention to the repeating theme of “fly us home”.)
Matt, from my beloved writing group (that has since flung our parts to opposite ends of the country), is a gorgeous sci-fi writer but also a WWII EXPERT (aka wonk) and plane buff and called me out on how Charlotte would be able to make those moves in a seaplane (#1) and fly in one night from Oxford to the Eastern front of the war in Russia (#2).
I just stared at him. “You get that she is, like, tapping into her superpower and BECOMING a GODDESS, right?”
I mean, this from a man who writes about breaking the space time continuum in piercer ships made of metal to planets in other dimensions. (Sorry, Matt) And please, no offense meant to YOU if you had the same question or skepticism, I mean that might not be so obvious at this point. That is what the Blog is for!!! And, remember the mantra? IT’S A METAPHOR!
ATHENA, at the same time, is becoming more human. Grief for Artemis is a new condition, as is guilt, and now, at the end of the Chapter (SPOILER ALERT) she is shocked at the urge to comfort Asmeret.
Gods and goddesses, my friends, by design aren’t CONFLICTED. They represent a solid set of elemental qualities and gifts that go nicely together and they stay in their wheelhouse. But Athena is starting to ping all over the place - much to her astonishment and growing existential agony. Not only is her ‘rightful place’ as the incumbent High Priestess (she has, after all been the most storied goddess in all of history and been running the show) threatened, but she is starting to sense the demise of her very existence. Talk about a DESCENT!
So what might this simultaneous Ascent of Charlotte to her higher being and Athena’s Descent to the lower form: human (that is subject to all kinds of conflict where our thoughts create moods create physical conditions in a tangle of synapses and integral systems)? We shall see! And I do mean WE.
I need to confess this . . . like Frieda, who authored the tarot deck but wasn’t trained to READ IT, I wrote this book but am still discovering what much of it means! You can trust (from my early readers) that the book DOES have an ending, that is satisfying (while also a beginning) AND as I re-read, do minor edits to chapters, then craft this blog, I am DISCOVERING meaning and layers I had not realized before. Even better, you readers are showing me, telling me, sending me links that BLOW MY MIND where they thicken this story and connect it to something much much bigger afoot than even my vivid imagination can envision.
NEXT a quick word about the prophecy of the four tarot princesses and orienteering to where they each are:
LAST
Lot of becoming my dear readers. Perhaps it turns you to wondering what you are becoming too?
If you haven’t discovered them yet, QUEST(IONS) for your personal Quest, bookclub, or gathering of friends is HERE for every chapter. Start a group or find one to join. As of this writing, Jen Markow is looking for Questers to join her group! EMAIL JEN here if interested.