Update: The Cross and the Cosmos

I think it's worth putting here an update on some matters.

Due to pressures on my time, I thought it worthwhile to put aside my hoped-for novel-writing project for Marcher Lord Press. And due to my perennial angst about creative writing in general, I thought I'd be well-advised to put aside speculative fiction entirely - as I have countless times before, only to have it revive zombie-like from the grave of my unconscious mind in some other and even richer form. (Mark Twain said about quitting smoking, as I've said about putting aside my fancies, that it's the easiest thing in the world to do. We know this is true because we've each done it a thousand times. ;) )

Some forthright counsel by a pastor I work for, one who's had some specific experience with speculative fiction and what effects it can have for good or evil finally made me reconsider the way I think and feel about the subject. It's not all I need to understand about how to apply my natural gifts in the Lord's service, but it's a solid beginning. And thanks to that beginning, I finally understand that the way I wrestle with my own imagination doesn't mean there's something wrong with me; it means there's something right with me. It means the Holy Spirit seeks to lead me to balance on the subject as a "see through a glass darkly" about what the ultimate Destiny of Man will be.

At the same time or thereabouts, I discovered an online e-zine associated with Marcher Lord Press called The Cross and the Cosmos (TC2) and decided to dust off and revise some ideas in order to submit short fiction for publication. (Short fiction, at least, I figured I had time to do on occasion.) To my surprise, all three pieces were accepted at once - pursuant to contract conditions, which should be finalized this coming week. The pieces would be held as it were in speculation for a year, but one should show up as early as the upcoming issue (which will focus on dragons, and for which I specifically got permission to submit something for consideration).

Meanwhile, I've taken down (from here, at any rate) the sketches put forward as starting points for a novel. (They're still on the "Jack Shepherd" channel of Triond.com.) One of them got reworked as short fiction and it remains to be seen whether I have time to try a novel project anyway. I doubt it. I really have a lot to do. But somehow, my ideas never quite let me go and I may literally be compelled to try putting that novel down, the Lord and my health permitting.

- John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב הסופר)

Metacosmos: Origins (The Portal of Light)

On occasion I get asked about various aspects of the Metacosmos, or Metacosmic Tree, and the Realms that are in it and those who inhabit it. Here is the first of a series describing the origins and background of my fictional multi-verse – this one from the perspective of someone living within the Covenant Realm where my chief protagonists make their home.

Read more here...

The Nine Gifts of Lightchildren

I owe much of the following content to the works of Carl Jung, Linda V. Berens, Margaret Haas, Gary and Margaret Hartzler, Vicky Jo Varner, Howard Gardner, and others who study personality type from a multi-model perspective. I also draw upon biblically based ideas, particularly the order of cognitive processes given here (which is based on the order of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and includes the Holy Spirit as the first and most important cognitive process).

The names [in brackets], like the names of the Nine Gifts themselves are my own fictional creations and some of all these are featured in more detail in the book Realmwalkers by E.V. Medina and Jack Shepherd.

Since my fictional Metacosmos is allegorical, its chief heroes – the Lightchildren – are the equivalent of Christians with miracle-working powers added through the presence of the Holy Spirit. In their ensemble the Nine Gifts are called the White Hand and may be wielded “Within Measure at Need” – the “need” being determined by the sole contextual discretion of the Lord Joshua Davidson, the Hooded Man (a very thinly veiled allegory of Jesus Christ).

Hs [Dove] – The Light [asks and answers existential questions]

• The Gift of Light

Si [Scroll] – The Conservator [Library Computer - compares present to past]

• The Gift of Memory

Se [Eye] – The Scout [Sensors - collects data objectively through senses]

• The Gift of Strength

Ni [Flame] – The Seer [abstract ideas > symbols > visions and images of the future: Navigation? Sees connections and possibilities in the internal world]

• The Gift of Foresight

Ne [Net] – The Brainstormer [Sees connections and possibilities in the real world, focuses on how things and relationships could be - Alain Harper's primary mental attribute]

• The Gift of Insight

Fi [Diamond] – The Conscience [internal value system that maintains personal integrity - Alain's supporting mental attribute]

• The Gift of Wisdom

Fe [Balm] – The Guide [attempts to educate other people as to appropriate behaviors in given situations, takes cultural values as if they were personal values and decides accordingly; loss of personal relationship through disharmony is to be avoided at almost any cost]

• The Gift of Healing

Ti [Framework] – The Analyzer [fills in gaps in taxonomies; continually sorts and resorts ideas and data into categories, seeking precision]

• The Gift of Understanding

Te [List] – The Administrator [Objectively and logically organizes people and resources and evaluates against measurable goals and standards; also used in natural science]

• The Gift of Knowledge

How these supernatural Gifts are applied in an individual depends on his personality type and the archetypes that are associated with it. Thus in an ENFP (Ne’fi) like Alain Harper the array looks like this:

Process – Archetype: Gift
Hs – Divine:* The Gift of Light
Ne – Hero: The Gift of Insight
Fi – Good Parent: The Gift of Wisdom
Te – Innocent Child: The Gift of Knowledge
Si – Aspirant:* The Gift of Memory
————————————
Ni – Opponent: The Gift of Foresight
Fe – Critical Parent: The Gift of Healing
Ti – Mischievous Child: The Gift of Understanding
Se – Daimon:* The Gift of Strength

(*) The terms so marked are more or less my own, based on modifications of ideas and terms put forward by others.

The dotted line marks the boundary of the psychic Shadow: of the mostly-unconscious mind in a mature adult.

Originally published here: http://authspot.com/short-stories/the-nine-gifts-of-lightchildren/

Tales of the Undying Singer: The Middle Kingdom 01

Wherever and whenever the Undying Singer goes, he causes change without changing himself. Can he help a leader used to believing in his people’s, culture’s and kingdom’s superiority appreciate the gifts of others?

Guotin Ding-Bang Sying – which is to say, the Strong Leader or Admiral named “Protects-the-Country / Star” – somehow found non-Adamim, not-Humans, easier to deal with face-to-face than “round-eyed barbarians” such as the barley-blond White Tribesman sitting with him in his quarters and drinking ginseng-flavored green tea with him. The very uniform he wore – flight jacket, belt, trousers and boots all in charcoal gray, a white collared shirt, and nothing else – seemed rough and uncouth compared to the silk robes and sash that the Guotin wore. Sying didn’t insist that his visitor take his boots and socks off according to custom, partly because it made no sense under the present circumstances, partly because even as clean as the stranger was, he had muskiness in his natural scent like no Yellow Tribesmen in the Middle Kingdom had. It was much worse after White Tribesmen exercised, although not as bad as the aftermath of exercise by Black Tribesmen. Sying had enough experience with mercenaries of both Tribes of Man, and with Red and Brown Tribesmen too, in pitched battles to know what to expect in that department. The Yellow Tribesman didn’t really want to find out firsthand how his visitor’s feet smelled after being cooped up in the faux-leather straitjackets that both of his guests seemed so fond of wearing.

But that wasn’t the end of the oddities of the stranger. Recessive genes such as caused his blond hair, fair skin and (as Sying erroneously thought, naturally) blue eyes were unknown in the Middle Kingdom, and the shape of his eyes, nose, cheekbones and chin were much different from what most of the Huang Fu would find attractive. Sying had heard that Alain Harper was considered very handsome by his own people, and the rest of his body was as slender and fit as one could ask for, but the Guotin still wouldn’t want his daughter to marry him. Thankfully, Alain had married a princess, an Enoshi no less, and she had the grace to follow Huang Fu custom and bow out while men discussed the business of men.

Read more at Triond.com...

The Ring of Stars: The Cube

The Ring of Stars is a barred spiral galaxy very closely parallel in size and form to the Milky Way Galaxy of the Old First Realm. It is called the Ring of Stars because from the inside of its spiral plane, it appears to be exactly that.

Overlaid on an illustration of part of the Milky Way (substitute Helios for Sun and Kesil for Orion and one has all the nomenclature correct for this part of the Ring of Stars) is a planar view of "the Cube" and several of the major Galactic Treaty Powers within it:

• the Kingdom of Ariel, ruled over by the Lord Joshua Davidson and the sixteen-member Council of Light, in addition to the Archon Hegemons over every inhabited star system within the Kingdom;
• the Bruin Hegemony, a Treaty Power and one of the Archon Spheres of Influence;
• the Cluster Federation, ruled over by no single Archon or group of Archons, but rather founded as an experiment in mortal self-government and as a refuge from the conflict between the Treaty Powers and the Hostile Powers;
• the Arrakhi Prides (top), the Sphere of Influence and Treaty Power centered on Markus IV (where the eponymous Markus IV Treaty, defining the relationship between the Treaty Powers, was signed);
• the Nihekhi Knot (far left), another Sphere of Influence and a Neutral Power;
• the T'h'l'khi Imperium (lower left corner), another Sphere of Influence and a Hostile Power.

The Cube itself consists of a cubic volume of space 12,000 slys (Standard Light-Years) on a side. It contains 1,728 sectors of space, each 1,000 slys on a side. In each sector the Kingdom of Ariel has placed an Elyon-class Deep Space Station, of which the prototype is the D.S.S. Mahina orbiting the world Mahe'alani deep within the Kingdom.

This illustration shows the boundaries of the Kingdom of Ariel in C.Y. (Covenant Year) 5000 - that is, 5,000 years after the Founding of the Sphere. The Kingdom is in fact an ever-expanding spherical volume of space, with its radius advancing by one sly every Standard Year. Its boundary is the Node Field, an n-dimensional field that prevents hostile Archons and mortals alike from re-entering the Kingdom from which they have been banished.

At the time of this presentation Chris Alan Starbright has just been born and the Treaty Powers and the Neutral Powers alike are beginning to feel the pressure of the ever-encroaching Node Field. Within the next millennium - in some cases far less - they will be forced to choose between annexation by Ariel, being destroyed by it and fleeing further into space from it. But the Hostile Powers are not idle and they will have their say as to which side (for or against the Lord Davidson) the peoples of the Ring of Stars will choose.