"Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life."
~Arianna Stassinopoulos
Last week I had the opportunity to travel back to the very spot where this story began and spend the week in the Gardens of Lisocea which have changed somewhat since my last visit. The central lion head fountain is where Hera left the peacock feather that began this tale is now surrounded by over 100 solar lights. One of which sets right inside the fountain marking the exact spot where the feather was discovered.
The sacred spot continues to be built upon, changed, and maintained with votives of all kinds added throughout and has come to also include 3 graves within the central garden of the lost and beloved pets of the family who maintains the grounds.
Over 50 different species of flowers have already been planted throughout the gardens for the season with work also being done to the nearby frog pond and river of flowers that flows into it. As of now, not a single day goes by that the Gardens of Lisocea are not tended by the caretakers.
This photo (left) was taken near sunset over the central fountain, showing the solar light marker where Hera's feather was discovered years ago. The story of which was recounted by the family while setting around a campfire on the third night I was there.
Many spiritual people can recall the events that led them to the path they have found themselves on. Not so many have a photo of the exact spot where that path began, the spot where everything in their lives changed (for better or worse), a spot considered to be sacred - not only by those on the path but to all those who have heard the tale and believe.
This week long visit back to where this very story began marks a turning point and insights into what is to come. Gifts and votives for Hera's Altar Room were brought back from the trip including a rare hand blown crystal wine glass from Romania. While there I also had the rare opportunity to film a lightning storm which passed over. Oddly, there was no rain and little thunder. Just a grande display of lightning which I was able to film and include into a recap video for The Journeybook titled Hemitheos. (See Below)
Both the visit to the gardens and the new video mark a turn in the video documentary of this journey as I prepare to head west, back into the wilds, in one of the most action packed adventures of the season. The quest is to find and obtain a golden chain votive that long ago was dedicated to Lachesis - the second Sister of Fate and guarded by a giant spider.
The golden, crystal encrusted talisman is thought to have the ability to cloak the fate of anyone who wears it, rendering them invisible to oracles as well as the Sisters themselves. While the talisman does not have the power to change ones fate it does offer the opportunity for the bearer to change it themselves through their cloaked actions.
But Lachesis did not make the ritual trails to obtain her golden chain easy. It is hidden somewhere in a forested labyrinth, in a hole that was naturally carved into the earth itself by a mighty waterfall, deep within a river valley that is surrounded by dead falls and crumbling shale cliffs. A hard place to find, a hard test to come.
