MAPS
explore the stories behind the story of
The Ash Girl
facts, truths, images, links, treasures, and juicy bits by chapter
Reader Map
where in the world is The Ash Girl on its quest?
MAPS: Chapter 5
Eritrea: Birthplace of Asmeret. How in the world did I come up with that? When this story emerged from my personal journal writing (with a sudden shift to third person) “She stood on the edge of the cliff . . .” I knew we were in Africa, but I had only been to South Africa and I sensed that we were north.
MAPS: Chapter 8
The Ace of Disks has long vexed me. Aces are hard enough, the best most can do is explain them something like, “Aces include all of the suit but only in the sense that it represents the seed or the source without any of the attributes.” Huh?
MAPS: Chapter 9
9 Stories of Goddess Energy Rising
Inspired by The Ash Girl
click on an image to follow the path to goddess work all over the world—opens in new window
MAPS: Chapter X
Arsema’s 13th year initiation ritual and painted tattoos were inspired by all nine of the ethnic groups that comprise the Eritrean nation, while faithful to not any one.
MAPS: Chapter XI
Freya, The Fortuneteller, came into this story much as Charlotte and Alicia did—a thin wisp of character whose voice and story grew more insistent until I had to make the space they demanded.
MAPS: Chapter XIII
ATU XIII DEATH deserves to be Re-storied for our times. The Thoth deck took this on explicitly. Harris and Crowly laid the groundwork for contemporary readers, mystics, and makers of Tarot decks not to fear the Death card, or instill fear in their clients, but to take the metaphor into one’s bones and face the grief and the glory of re-making one’s self out of light and dark and ash and heart.