The Test

In a few short hours I'll be setting out on the longest journey of the season and the first of the final two. I'll be traveling over 50 miles filming and capturing images along the way for "The Battle With the Furies" chapter of my story. Beyond the journey itself - I'll be doing it all without any sleep.

I always get restless when I get close to the end of my ongoing quest. A lingering sense of urgency, anxiety, nervousness. I've been on enough adventures to know what I am about to go through - to know that much of it is going to hurt.

That's part of the deal.

My story is one of suffering and sacrifice. The old kind. Something most modern pagans try their best to run away or hide from. None of them having the slightest clue what it takes to "honor the gods" they claim to follow and serve. Easy to talk of a path, not so easy to walk one.

As before, once again Zeus interfered with the set task. Sending thunderstorms across the area, delaying the journey for three days. But the clouds have parted and soon the next steps of the journey will be taken.

I'll be traveling far to the east, further than I have ever ventured before, into a forest steeped in history and urban legend as I wrote of in the previous entry. I'll set out hours before sunrise in order to make it to my destination with enough daylight left to do what is to be done. The days are getting shorter, the nights colder and the area I am traveling into is not the type of place one wants to have to pass through after dark.

A few short hours away from sacrificing more of my body and soul - glorious.

For now, a hot shower and a hot coffee. Then it will be time to check my gear and prepare to take on a beast of a challenge, worthy of the Furies themselves.

The Battle with the Furies

I've gotten to the point with The Journeybook chronicle of this very tale that I've begun to forget some of the adventures I've had along the way. Looking back through the video chronicles I often run into chapters where I have "Oh yeah..." moments.

It's been a long quest. I've been to so many places, seen so many things. All of them extremely beautiful, many of them equally difficult. Now the end of the journey comes into view as the second season of The Journeybook sneaks up on the season finale where I will once again take on the challenge that injured me last year.

The second season of The Journeybook has primarily been a training season. All of these journeys testing a multitude of things and pushing the physical limits in preparation for one last great adventure and the ultimate goal of capturing the ritual of the final votive on film. A ritual - which last year proved - that is designed to be beyond all physical, psychological and spiritual limits. The ritual itself being a test - a proving of worth.

When i set out to complete the final ritual and place the final votive last year I thought that somehow I would find a way to pull it off in spite of the ritual being designed to defeat me.

That failure comes with a price, same as any oath or promise broken to a God. And that price is to be paid before the final votive can be placed.

This photo (right) is an aerial view of the ancient Erinyes Crater, a portal to the Temple of the Furies. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath".

Time and the Sister of Fate played a role in causing me to break my promise to Hera that the final votive would be placed upon the Summit of Sacrifice last year. Before I can attempt to do so again I have to pass the test of The Furies by traveling to the peak at the center of the crater and obtaining an artifact from their temple. One that they have no intentions of allowing any mortal to have.

There are other dangers to this next journey aside from the Furies themselves. The area is said to be plagued by melon heads. According to local lore, the melon heads were originally orphans under the watch of a mysterious figure known as Dr. Crow. Crow is said to have performed unusual experiments on the children, who developed large, hairless heads and malformed bodies. Some accounts claim that the children were already suffering from hydrocephalus, and that Crow injected even more fluid into their brains.

Eventually, the legend continues, the children killed Crow, burned the orphanage, and retreated to the surrounding forests. The same forests where I must travel in order to get to the crater. 

I'm not the only one in history to know of the powers of this forest. Berea sandstone from this place was taken to build the foundations for many local buildings, including the Kirtland Temple, which was completed in 1836 after a man by the name of Joseph Smith was reportedly visited by "an angel" who directed him to a buried book written on golden plates containing the religious history of an ancient people. From the temple built of these stones rose the Mormon faith and the endeavor to build the city of Zion - which never happened. (On a side note: Lindsey Stirling, the violinist who opened up the second season of The Journeybook and has appeared in several of the videos just so happens to be a Mormon herself. She is also one of the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.)

And so the plot thickens as the final battle with Zeus comes ever closer.

The Rage of Zeus

Years ago, when the riverbank beach was chosen to be the destination of the annual Spring Precession of Hera's Altar Statue to the river a long stretch of Datura stramonium began growing there. As a result of the appearance of the plants they were consecrated and named "Hera's Star" and since have been listed as the most sacred of all plants dedicated to Hera within the Heraian tale.

It is an extremely potent plant. Ingestion of parts of the plant can cause delirium (inability to differentiate reality from fantasy), hallucinations, elevated temperature, flushed skin, fast heart rate,  and agitation (bizarre, and possibly violent behavior).  The changes in mental status can last for days in cases of severe intoxication.

Several seed pods were gathered from the 'wild garden' from the sacred riverbank and allowed to open in their own time at the foot of Hera's Statue. Once fully opened the seeds were allowed to dry and then placed in small glass viles which rest upon the altar until the following spring when they were finally planted and the transference of the plans from the river was complete.

Yesterday I once again visited the riverbank  while out fishing and I was anticipating seeing how the riverbank was growing with all of its many plants and wildflowers. But much to my heartbreak this is what I saw instead:

Every one of Hera's Stars have been killed while all of the plants surrounding them remain. They are dry, brittle, their stems twisted, their still developing seed pods hanging lifeless upon broken stems by a thread. where there was once a long beautiful stretch of dark green and bursting white blossoms there is only desolation. But only here and only of these sacred plants. Nothing else has been damaged or touched.

Of these consecrated plants, the only ones still in existence are those from which I grew from the seed pods I took after they were dedicated to Hera. 17 of them grow today in a protected area and are blessedly producing new seed pods of there own. One of which grows in a terracotta pot inside the altar room itself where it is kept under strict guard and tending. Especially now that its parental stock has been eradicated. One final vile of the sacred seeds also remains inside Hera's Altar Room. There are perhaps 200 or so seeds in the tiny glass vile.In addition 3 full roots of the plants were also taken during the first dedication. The root systems were placed in the altar room and allowed to dry for use in ceremony.

The protection of this dedicated and blessed stock is now a priority with the remaining few under constant guard and given the best of everything so that they might thrive and produce the now precious seeds needed to resurrect them.

In response to the insult to Hera and the destruction of her sacred wild garden along the riverbank it hs been decreed that a new, protected, and private garden dedicated to the Goddess is to be constructed beginning immediately with an estimated completion time of next summer.

The new garden dedicated to Hera will include Hera's Stars from the consecrated seeds along with dozens of other flowers and plants. Seeds from the newly built Gardens of Hera will be taken to the river during the annual Spring Procession and with luck will rebirth the original sacred stretch.

Lightning in a Bottle - Thunder Wine

I woke up before down this morning to flashes of lightning and claps of thunder and I welcomed it. I've been in and out, playing in the storm, soaking up the rain all morning.

Completing the challenges on the Path of Gaia I returned home to check in on another challenge I had committed to some time back. The challenge was to fill a crystal bowel with less than a cup of rain water from every thunderstorm of the season until the Greek vase I was storing it in was full. The rule was that there had to be both thunder and lightning present during the gathering of the water. Reason being, lightning alters the chemical composition of rain water. Without lightning there literally would not be any life on the planet. It took a dozen thunderstorms, filling the crystal bowel one raindrop at a time, in order to fill the vase.

 Once I had collected the storm water the trick was to turn the water into wine. And so I set about brewing, mixing, filtering, fermenting, and creating a perfectly balanced sweet amber red wine from the storm water. Not red in the traditional sense. This wine happens to be made primarily of honey. The red tint comes from the pomegranate and herbs I used during the fermentation process. The result has come to be a rather potent potion and a measure of that exact potion can be seen here:

This small measure taken from the main stock is enjoyed (no more and an ounce at a time) on days like today when there is a thunderstorm present. Some is offered up as an offering to Hera upon the altar, while the rest is to be sealed in a very special, hand etched lightning bolt wine bottle. Once corked the cork will be sealed with a special red wax embedded with a fulgurite crystal (a petrified lightning bolt).

This wine has a sweet start with a spicy finish that lingers. it is the perfect embodiment of the elements from which it was created. It also happens to be a one of a kind wine. This wine cannot be reproduced. This one batch is all there is and all there will ever be.

Crafting unique items such as this has become an important part of the path with the Goddess Hera. Historically the ancient gods tend to be hard to please and even harder to remain in the favor of. This list of things I have done in Hera's name has grown exceedingly long. I've even developed a habit of sleeping before the altar more times than not. A practice that seems to be linked to the lucid dreams I've been having and also a deep sense of reserved calm. 

A calm before the storm. Very soon I will be taking on the challenge of all challenges on this path thus far. I have put everything I have ever accomplished, created, loved and suffered for on the line with this challenge. The ancient bond on Hera still remains in effect, Zeus still holds some measure of control over her. Golden chains that I intend to break. Whatever the cost. 

The Island of the Gods and The Spear of Keravnos

 Without question one of the most influential locations for my story has been a single island that rests in the middle of a river seven miles south of my home.

It was from this island that I took my altar stone, this island where I discovered the Eagle, this island where three bald eagles appeared during the season one finale of The Journeybook and this island where I was to return.

A return that was anything but easy.

Persistent rain, threat of flash floods, unknown dangers on the murky river bottom, no idea what I would encounter if and when I was able to set foot on the island again. In fact, there were so many unknowns that it would take two entire chapters of Journeybook to pull off. One dark, one light.

The first leg of the quest took me through a far more ancient landscape than the island itself. A dark forest of rocky ledges, a shallow streams, caves, and waterfalls.

This was the difficult part of the overall quest. I got lost twice and had to backtrack several miles in order to correct the mistake. The rugged terrain made the correction alone take nearly two hours. With the sun in the western half of the sky before I even reached the forest, things were even darker than they might have been mid-day.

While the dark forest was enchanting in its ancient feel that landscape was difficult to capture on film. Twice the camera fell during filming and while the camera itself didn't suffer any damage the tripod did after tumbling off of one of the slopes when a loose rock fell, hitting one of the tripod legs.

There is a cave in this same forest that I wasn't able to get into because the recent rains I mentioned had flooded the valley that cuts through the heart of the forest where the cave lies. By the time I got into the area the cave had already been flooded.

But... I was able to navigate through the ancient forested landscape and make it safely back into the light, even if the gear did take a beating in the process.

I came out of the dark forest with some of the most stunning images of the season to date and a twisted knee - an injury suffered while making the jump to the lower valley floor. The injury just happened to be captured in the video. You can hear the impact, the instant sting, and see me stumble when I hit the ground.

Island of the Gods - Part One (VIDEO)

This photo (above) is of a shrub that grows on the Island of the Gods itself which I was able to reach after a tenuous river crossing that I took inch by inch - having to keep my body turned sideways against the strong current. If I had tried to face it directly the river current would have swept me downstream. To date, I have not been able to identify these shrubs that grow in the Island of the Gods and no where else in the entire river valley. In all of my travels this is the one and only place I have ever seen them.

The island was pretty much as I remembered it. Here everything seems to be 4 times the average size from the stones themselves that make up the island to the various types of shells and sea glass that liters it. Even these mysterious shrubs grow to incredible heights and girths - somehow able to withstand the frequent flash floods of the temperamental river.

I really had no idea what motivated me to go back to the island aside from some of the most memorable stories in this series coming from it. I simply woke up one day knowing that I had to go back.

Once I made it to the island I set up a spot for my gear and began searching the island in a grid like pattern, looking for whatever it was I was suppose to find with no idea what that something was. Of course I found peculiar stones, large shells, huge chunks of sea glass, a wealth of goose feathers strewn about, and all of the other standards. The island happens to be huge in comparison to most others along the river with a swollen center where the shrubs grow.

It was amid these shrubs near the highest part of the island where I discovered this (above) wedged deep into the sandy crust. A discovery that was captured in the film because I just happened to be recording video of the island when I came across it. The piece is hallow, almost as a spear head but far heavier than one would expect a spear head to be. Still, that was the first thing that came to mind when I discovered it.

I've been working with the piece for weeks now in order to forge what will be called The Spear of Keravnos. 

The piece currently rest inside Hera's Altar Room.

Island of the Gods - Part Two (VIDEO)