Tales from the Seasons
Aesthetic Adventures, Mystical Experiences and Poetic Epiphanies in Ross County (1988-1998)
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Here is an excerpt from Book III within Tales from the Seasons; the beginning of a story called:
11. CROSSING AT IONA (2 August 1995)
[Lammas – the Feast of New Bread]
“Whenever the doors between worlds open up, Wisdom finds its friend and nemesis.”
- The Druid Alcuin (16th century)
It’s been a long week. The summer wheat is finally in, and the early hay has been mown. Everyone here at Ravenswood is relaxing from backbreaking labors. Morgan & Angellique are laying in the grass out on the back lawn, talking in the twilight, and just a little while ago I saw Gabriel & Elexus hike up towards the tool shed. Some of the others have gone to their rooms for holy solitude. I’m here writing because something unusual happened after supper.
Abigail, Daphne and Carrie were over from their hermitage; they’ve been breaking their backs with us all week – and so they joined us for a supper of sweet corn and oat bread. During the conversation Daphne just happened to mention their adventure in June; when Damion and some of the others – out boating at Laurel Creek State Park – were visiting a little isle on the lake when it sunk out from under them in that horrendous storm that blew down old Horace’s barn.
No sooner had we all finished laughing at Daphne’s humorous account, than a strange sense of ‘recognition’ passed between some of us at the table; our eyes met, and I became aware that I’d dreamed that Angellique, Morgan, Gabriel, Elexus, Damion, Daphne and I had all been involved in a perilous outing of our own – just last month!
I’d forgotten the adventure, and with good reason! I broke into a sweat and blamed it on the heat, ‘til I saw Elexus looking across the table at me with eyes that said more than just a blessing on my health. Then I knew that what I was remembering had actually happened, once upon a time, though none of us has spoken of it these last seven days.
As we rose from the table I saw Morgan take Angel by the elbow to comfort her. Daphne then came up behind me as I left the kitchen, and whispered knowingly, “I remember, too, though I’d forgotten!” She gave me a furtive glance, and then turned away to volunteer for dish-washing duty; as if nothing were in the least out of the ordinary! I came out here to my cabin, and now I must write out the story of our little ‘adventure’ _before I forget it again! God, give me the courage; and may the Muse guide my fingers on this keyboard! -- Gawain Smythe
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About the Book
Life is an adventure, spiritually understood. In the stories in this book you will follow the adventures of characters living in a fictional world called “Ross County” as they seek out the touchstones of an authentic Life Together in Earth & Spirit. You will hear an account of their hikes, experiences and epiphanies, as well as listen as they reflect on these “moments of revelation.”
Many of the poems in this book are expressions of vivid and self-transformative experiences; stories told in verse that express something of the wonder each character has for life, focused on an event that drew them a little closer to self-realization and self-fulfillment; these being the goals of an earthen spiritual life.
Thus this book is not a collection of ‘short stories and poetry’ in a traditional ‘modernist’ sense. Rather, it is a collection of spiritual vignettes, in verse and prose, intended to inspire the reader to reflect on their own life, in search of clues and keys to ways of living it that would render it more interesting, give it depth and lead on toward wisdom’s dolmen.
If you have read any of the author’s other works, you will recognize many of the characters in these pages. Favorite characters from the novel – Ham-Farir: The Faring of Matthew Thorin Dier (2008) – you will find depicted here in other life-situations. Many of the characters quoted in either The Fires of Yule (2001) or WellSprings of the Dier (2002) are given voice here, in either poems or in stories, being shown living out the spiritualities bodied forth in those texts.
About the Author
Montague Whitsel, an earthen poet and narrative philosopher rooted and sourced in the woods of western Pennsylvania, holds degrees in anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy and religion. In addition to teaching at the college and university levels, Mr. Whitsel has taught spirituality on a private basis for 20 years, aiding students in learning and practicing a variety of spiritualities, especially those rooted in the Celtic traditions. He has been writing poetry and stories since he was 11 years old. As a poet and philosopher, he seeks to express and explore the mystery of life in Earth & Spirit. He is striving to reclaim the best poetics from ancient religious traditions, and is deeply interested in the relationship between science and the art of living, exploring ways of grounding our spiritualities today in the revelations of science.