The Sun and the Wind - The line of the land makes a sound; a music that sings in my heart, stitched together with a thought and a dream
"In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive and what people wanted to happen could happen –
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this.
That’s the way it was."
Nalungiaq
The beginning of the book of Aoife
In our beginning years my Sisters and I lived as one with the all. We drank from the Trees, the Rivers gave us breath, the Clouds our food & the Earth our swiftness. At the same time we were the animals &the animals were us. We were as one. We spoke in one voice, in one thought & the words that we spoke had magic and powers. One thought, one word come alive could create strange & wondrous events to happen. We had only to speak the word & it would be so. No one knew why this was as it was. It was the way it was.
My sisters & I were created from the dreams of all the living. Our form was an fiach dubh, the raven & our form was the humanimal. Our dreams were the dreams of the humanimal.
For all time we lived as we had lived & our lives were rich & full to taste. After a time as the humanimal moved about we also found ourselves spread further & further afield, apart. We found that our dreams were not ours alone, they were also the dreams of the humanimals & we dreamed with them. We did not mind for all lived as one & we were free.
But the humanimals changed. They began to own, to take, to kill and to destroy. They kept what was not theirs to keep. Their dreams changed & became distorted & cruel & hateful. My sisters & I were forgotten & found ourselves taken with them against our will against our dreams.
My name is Aoife & this is my story.
My name is Aoife :::: the radiant :::: she who becomes :::: I live in the transitions the transitions between animal & human & animal between meadow & forest between ground & sky between female & male & female between thought & movement between joy & anguish between :::: I am the teller :::: the warrior :::: I exist to tell :::: that this path is false that all are lost that need look within behind ahead ::::I exist to show progress endless craving for more for destruction :::: All will come to its end must :::: It all does not matter end choice is one for the whole not the one the choice is walk the path to the end when it may come with honour & compassion for all for all for all for all the earth the ground especially for the tinniest to the most massive all choice includes all :::: This is how it is :::: This is how it must be
My name is an Mór Riogan :::: I was born in mists in the myths out of the animal I oozed not wanting not seeing my language was the language of all the living but the people changed they started to think less of themselves they thought that they were different & I was dragged with their thoughts unwilling I believed that it could not be that I was to go with them but so it was :::: My new form was brought to the fore I lived I killed I ate I fought how much I fought and killed I cannot say none could defeat me all feared me and bowed before me I killed with clear eyes. I fought the people :::: The deer I killed I killed I ate the deer I thanked and cried for the deer :::: Over the people who killed as they own I cared not of their ending
For many millennia I lived this way between the two but still loyal to my true self my true past I had sisters and we all could soar an fiach dubh we were in the old language the black bird the raven the wolf was our friend :::: Now I am lost I cannot find the way I see as the people see & I am ashamed & yet I still have a memory of the way distant though it is :::: I left the old land the language that I had come to know to love I left on the final days when I could remember to be an fiach dubh we were in the old language the black bird the raven the wolf was our friend ::: & to the new land I found a home for a short time I could be who I am who I was who I could be :::: but that land that people too succumbed to the ways They began to own, to take, to kill and to destroy. They kept what was not theirs to keep. Their dreams changed & became distorted & cruel and hateful. My sisters and I were forgotten & found ourselves taken with them against our will against our dreams and now I am here on the ground my flight forgotten by me by all and for many many hundreds of years I have been so :::: As the humanimals go so must I :::: so I am told :::: No more No more No more ::::
My name is Aoife & this is my story.
Aoife is a name, only a name - the radiant they said - one of my names given to me by northern peoples. The transforming raven who flew above the wolves their kin. I also was set the name of An Mór Riogan - the great queen; the phantom queen; the goddess, they thought, of battle, strife and fertility. There were many other names given over the years. I was seen to take many forms, many thoughts and they sometimes called me Aoife. I do not know this name. it holds little power for me though it is true and honest in it's own way and that is what I am often called.
After a time, I moved as the wind took me. Always seeking to keep my spirit and will. I now search for my true spirit once again. I leave behind those that made the myth that carried my sisters and I along. I leave behind their shame, their lying tales, their manipulations that hold little truth. Perhaps I cannot exist without the myth makers, though perhaps the lies have no power anymore. I don’t know. But still, I leave them behind.
the beginning of the book starts with a picture of myself
taking a look at a big land above me
the hills are so big, I don't have any idea of where to go.
I'll take a book, read a line, take a look, see a mine
of jewels and flowers and trees and grasses
and leaves that fly through thought with the speed of light.
I'll take a look on a hill of blight
that took my family away from me
with unrepentant hate
that takes my life and the past with so much weight
that I don't know where to go next
on my journey far from here.
To walk and not stop 'til I reach the land
where there is no beginning
an end to the pain and suffering of others.
I hate that I must leave
that there is no more place for me to go
without a conscience
to guide me a way from the hills
and the crags of living.
I can not feel sorry for my loss
because I have lost so much
that there is nothing lost at all.
That there is nothing but a new beginning
and from here all is base without judgment.
Maybe I will have to stay alone
to not ever see my sisters.
The old hills are gone
and the new ones lie before me.
I have traveled moved lived on and on and on. Pushed further & harder & now I have nowhere left to be & so am here to tell my story to those that would listen. I emerged so very long ago. My hair was black like an Fiach Dubh, the black bird, the raven. Still. I remember. Once upon a time the people were true with the world & we all lived the life of all the beings…
… to be continued.