Hidden within the proverbial pages of The Journeybook Adventures is a somewhat hidden secret that has only been mentioned in one of the chapters thus far.
Among the items taken on each adventure is a single hand carved stone votive (22 votives in all). With each adventure one votive is left behind, hidden somewhere in the landscape at the far edge of the journey.
Each of the stone votives are unique and each depicts the Goddess Hera, one or more of her personal icons, and (always) her name.
This semi-secret mission hidden within each chapter of the ongoing adventure makes each of the stories into an untold evolutionary ritual that includes multifaceted levels of sacrifice and hardship ending with this simple tribute to a very specific Goddess. The ongoing ritual is a proving of worth and devotion for yet another hidden purpose.
Included with the 22 votives of each chapter and trial are many other creations and stories. Such as the trial of the 7 mile altar stone, the rebuilding of the altar room, the procession to the river for a ritualized bathing of the Altar Statue, the writings, videos, and other tributes, the scholarly studies, meditations, and more. All smaller pieces of a much larger story that now spans years.
It is a hard path of many body bending, soul torchering challenges that breaks many boundaries and preconceived limits. It is the art of sacrifice and tribute, the path of devotion with many pains, the practice of going beyond all reason and doubt.
22 stone votives, 22 chapters in story of passing the tests and placing them.
When the 22 trails, adventures, and tributes are completed they hidden stones will form a pattern over the map of the land that extends over 30 miles in every direction with the altar room and my home at the center of it all. Here, where the largest of all stone votives to Hera within this story is held - the 7 mile altar stone itself.
The Journeybook has been a wonderful experience for me and I hope that it has come to be the enjoyment of the many who subscribe and watch the story unfold. This is simply a glimpse of the story within the story. The somewhat hidden, the somewhat mysterious, the absolutely pagan.
