Turtle Dreams: A History of Love & Magic

CREATION STORY

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” (Genesis 1:1)

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PROLOGUE

Roused from deep dreaming and plunged into a yawning black oblivion, she swam without knowledge; without thinking; guided only by instinct — forward toward the tiny shimmering circle of light ahead, a circle growing steadily brighter and larger with her every stroke.

She swam as though life depended on it — and it did.

Finally, exhausted, and nearly blind from her intense focus on the radiance ahead, she was abruptly expelled into a brilliant watery world and bathed in warm golden light. She rested briefly from her labor, floating on the surface, rocking gently as the sea water lapped up against the contours of her body. As her vision cleared, she marveled at her surroundings — the dazzling play of the light on the water, the dark hard line of the horizon, the searingly blue sky above, streaked with white. She made small deliberate movements, flexing and testing, becoming acquainted with her new limbs, head, and body.

All at once, the calm was interrupted by an explosion of movement and sound. A multitude of flying creatures raced across the sky as far as she could see. So thick, they eclipsed the sun, turning day into night, and filling the air with a deafening cacophony of caws and screeches. The surface of the sea itself roiled, agitated and wild — rising up mountains of water which crested and crashed, sending up ever more wet bouquets of spray and froth. Sleek shiny large-bodied creatures launched themselves out of the waves in arches and backflips, their heavy tails slapping the surface of the water.

Violently tossed and rolled herself, she dove below the surface of the sea to escape. As she descended, she passed through massive schools of fantastical sea creatures. Flora of all shapes and colors burst into bloom before her eyes and thousands of small agile sea-creatures, floated, swam, slithered, wiggled, scurried, crawled, and settled amid a neon carpet of coral and the waving fronds and plumes of a glorious sea garden.

In that moment all became known to her — what was, and what was to come. From the womb of the Great Mother Whale all had been born into consciousness and she, the High Priestess of Love, was the bestower, the guardian and the memory keeper of this world’s most powerful life-giving force — that of love’s desire.

As new life surged all around her, she took a moment to take it all in, to savor her role as the shrine mistress of tales of love without end.

Now, resolute, and sure, she tucked this— the birth of love’s potential — into safekeeping in the shell home encircling her body, where she was to collect all such memories beginning now and for all time.  She rose to the surface of the sea to take in oxygen, dipped below once again and, with the grace and strength of a sea turtle in her element, swam purposefully toward the waiting horizon, to the land, to walk among humans as one of their own, as a woman — to wake their world to its destiny.

And the Mother of All Dreaming Spirits saw that it was good and was pleased.

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