*
…On our way back through Little Kimble, we pass St. Nicks of Ellesborough.
There are banners and notices outside the churchyard proclaiming that tomorrow the church and its tower will be open to the public and that for a small fee the tower can be climbed and… refreshments will be available!
“Can you believe that?”
“Just another coincidence.”
“To add to all the other coincidences that we seem to be collecting on this particular quest.”
“Maybe we’ve finally found the key.”
“…The key to what?”
“To the doors of the St. Nicholas Churches.”
“It’s got something to do with the landscape. We had to do that today, we had to see the land like that, and now that we have, we’re ready for the next stage.”
“Two till five… we can do that after we’ve done St. Lawrence’s. That’ll be three Churches in two days that have previously been locked to us.”
We flash past the Stone crucifix that guards the gate of St. Nick’s…
“It’s odd to have two St. Nick’s… so close to each other.”
“Well that one is very evidently the Catholic version.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, about the emphasis that is placed upon the crucifixion. If you regard it purely on its own terms it loses some of its distaste.”
“Expand…”
“It is a symbol after all.”
“Okay…”
“And symbols are not supposed to refer back to historical events. That’s the big mistake that almost everyone makes….”
“You’re right of course, most people read symbols and symbolic stories literally…”
“…symbols are supposed to point to something ordinarily, and in any other way, inexpressible.”
“So, it isn’t the body of Jesus that is crucified on the cross of the world, or the tree of life, but rather, it’s the ego of Jesus, the crucifixion symbolises the transformation of the human personality during Christ’s ministry.”
“And that though you probably do not realise it is something that is ordinarily inexpressible because most people don’t recognise themselves or anyone else as anything other than a personality.”
“It would throw a distinctly different light on the resurrection if that were the case.”
“On the whole story, actually. Try re-running it from that perspective…”
– The Initiate
*
*****
THE INITIATE
Book One of the Triad of Albion
Stuart France & Sue Vincent
The Initiate is the story of a journey beyond the realms of our accustomed normality.
It is a true story told in a fictional manner. In just such a way did the Bards of old hide in the legends and deeds of folk heroes, those deeper truths for those ‘with eyes to see and ears to hear’.
Don and Wen, two founding members of a new Esoteric School, meet to explore an ancient sacred site, as a prelude to the School’s opening event. The new School is to be based upon a nine-fold system and operate under the aegis of the Horus Hawk.
The trip does not unfold as planned.
Instead, Don and Wen, guided by the birds, find themselves embarking upon a journey that will lead them through a maze of spiritual symbolism, to magical mysteries and the shadowy figure of the Ninth Knight.
As the veils thin and waver, time shifts and the present is peopled with shadowy figures of the past, weaving their tales through a quest for understanding and opening wide the doors of perception…
Now available via Amazon worldwide.
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France & Vincent 
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