CLEA AND MY POST FOR VISIONARY FICTION

CLEA AND VISIONARY FICTION

HAVING JUST COMMENTED ON MY LAST POST ABOUT THIS PIECE, I DECIDED TO INCLUDE IT HERE.

(The image of Kali, above, is an illustration I designed for the book cover. Unfortunately it's the only one I can find at the moment, as this ferocious Goddess only appears briefly within the pages of the book. However, she still has the power to impact the imagination!) 

This takes me back quite a few years - 1999, I think. I bumped into a friend in Town -- Simon. I’d just got out of my car on the way to the Post Office, when he called me and asked if I’d done any more writing since we last met. I told him I‘d just started a new book. Simon had a shop in town; moved into it recently -- branched out from the much smaller one he’d owned before, into this fine, new establishment in the centre of Bath. It had been his dream to have this New Age emporium with all the accoutrements of the time; crystals, Native American incense and pouches, essential oils, beads, bells and smells, downstairs; meditational, spiritual and esoteric-type books, disks and tapes on the upper floor.

Simon had stayed with us for a while during the time he and his partner, Andy occupied Arcania. That was the name they’d given their small shop. Cramped, and crowded though it was,  it already had many customers eager to squeeze into its dim interior and sample its fascinating array of goods. At the end of the Nineties, I was leading workshops, meditation and spiritual awareness groups, some in larger venues, depending on numbers attending, but mostly in my own house. Simon was living with us as a tenant for a while, and he was a regular member of our group. He once asked me if I could contact my Guide and ask if he could tell us about the ancient origins of the City of Bath, where we lived. What came through at first seemed to me like gobble-de-gook. I’d felt somewhat unsure of my channeling abilities at times, but was astounded, a few days later, when I happened upon something in an ancient book which completely backed- up everything I had just been given.

It spoke of a time thousands of years before, and a king who became father of Lear, the ill-fated King Lear dramatised by Shakespeare. But this channelling mentioned that this king (Bladud) had travelled to Greece and taken part in the Olympic Games there. That he’d also learned to fly! All this sounded utterly unbelievable to me -- that is until I later met a fellow author, Moyra Caldecott.  When we got to know each other better, she told me that most of what I’d received from my guide was correct. She had done a of of research herself, and the king in question was Bladud, King of Bath from 863 B.C. (Vis: The Winged Man, by Moyra Caldecott.) I showed her the book in my possession, Camden’s Britannica, printed at the end of the 15th Century, and she was amazed to discover there a passage by Geoffrey of Monmouth, an ancient chronicler of the British Isles. Maybe his was the first mention of the legend of King Bladud, (Welsh version Bladdyd,) and the Pigs. 

This is a long, and fascinating story of itself, and one I shan’t go into in detail here. But there is something further I would like to add: Michael, my husband, a landscape gardener at the time I knew Simon, was commissioned by him to create for his new Arcania store, a living fountain in the shop window, the water for which would be brought from the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, 30 miles away. This water was also legendary for its miraculous properties. So Michael created this fountain or waterfall which constantly gushed, trickling down over specially chosen rocks, into a pool below -- and in fact, attracted many passer’s-by who would not otherwise have entered Arcania’s wonderland.

 However, to return to my meeting with Simon back in1999.

“What’s this new book about” he asked. “What’s its title.”  

“Clea and the Fifth Dimension,” I told him.

“Wow! Great title” he exclaimed. “What’s it about?’

I gave him a bit of a summary, as well as mentioning my subtitle, which was; A Tale of Manifold Realities, explaining that I’d intended to put, A Tale of Co-Existent Realities, but thought most people wouldn’t understand that.

“You know what you’ve got there,” he went on. “That sounds like Visionary Fiction. Let me know as soon as it’s published and we’ll get it on our shelves.”

This was the first time I’d heard the term, Visionary Fiction, but it felt ‘just right’, it fitted me, and I took to it then and there.

At this moment, however, back in the 2013 Now, and having published Dreaming Worlds Awake about 18 months ago, unlike before, when bursting with new ideas and couldn't wait to begin writing them down, I don’t feel I’m about to start a new book. I won’t force it. If it happens, It will happen. But, I have been feeling the urge to design a new cover for my previous book; This Strange and Precious Thing. I seem have done the designs for all of my books to date. Not by ‘design’: I had commissioned other illustrators to do one for me, yet each time I felt they had missed the mark; not understood the book in question well enough, and I ended up doing a design myself. After all, I am art trained as a sculptor, and only came to writing late in life.

Strange and Precious is definitely a work of Visionary Fiction, but  I decided to relaunch it with a new cover, as I wasn’t too enamoured with my last effort. Also, while I’m at it, it presents an opportunity to see if it needs a bit of re-writing. And this is what I’m in the midst of right now, and so far, although I’ve only read the first 60 or so pages, apart from tweeking a word or two here and there, I’ve not discovered anything major I want to change.

So, there we are. This is the project I’m engaged with at this moment.

Well, it seems quite some time since I visited my own blog. I've been busy, but with other social networking things. Facebook has taken up most of my time, and that's mainly because I get many people visiting and commenting - lots of fascinating comments too. Also I visit Goodreads and add books I'm interested in; posting my reviews on books I've read and would highly recommend, and looking at other writer's reviews. 

Visionary Fiction, too is a favourite drop-in spot of mine. I was invited by Jodine Turner, one of its founding members,  to come up with a guest post a week ago on the themes of 'Who influenced you to write Visionary Fiction?' and 'Is Spirituality an important theme for V.F?' The piece I wrote seemed to fit both of these.

(Victor Smith, whose review see below, is also a member.) 

WHAT, I WONDER, WILL PEOPLE MAKE OF THIS REVIEW BY FELLOW VISIONARY FICTION WRITER, VICTOR E SMITH?

But first,Victor, let me give my comments on your review of me. (The actual review is in larger type below.)

I so like, ney admire, your style of writing. It flows with strength and intelligence. However, before I comment on the review itself I'd like to pick up on one comment, quote; your patently masculine mind. It's a subject that's been on my 'mind' lately. Even on BBC radio news this a.m. there was an item; Why, when girls do better in school, getting higher grades than boys, do they come off worse in achieving top jobs? And the answer it seems is, they are not disruptive enough. Asked what on earth that meant, the report said: They don't take risks or dare to challenge enough. 

I brought the subject up with Eleni (of the VFA) re her writing from the male point of view in her Jessie's Song. In my last Visionary Fiction book, This Strange and Precious Thing, I write, or made the attempt in my writing, to inhabit the worlds of my 2 main characters, one male and one female. It would never have occurred to me if you hadn't put it in parenthesis, that your questioning of my Kuthumi quotes, e.g. and if they were made up, as particularly masculine or feminine. Does this imply that female writers don't question themselves?  Isn't it an author's duty to be in both camps? And indeed, isn't that what my chapter, In a Nutshell, in the aforesaid book, demonstrating? But the answer to your question re Kuthumi is; No, I didn't make then up. They were channelled by Marisa Calvi, and she didn't make them up either.

Hope this doesn't sound like I'm criticising. On the contrary, I just find the subject fascinating. 

So, here is my comment on your actual review, (followed by the review itself.)

I smiled at your discomfort, Victor -- if it was discomfort - of having to arbitrarily decide between, was it reality or fantasy, objective or subjective, non-fiction or fiction, and that's because I'd had such a hard time myself finding something to say on the back cover; defining for myself what kind of book this was. I settled on calling it a miscellany, but I love your potpourri as an alternative. What serendipitous flash of insight led you to that? Though what would the general book-buying public have made of that word? On the other hand, what do they make of VF itself?

It's said that people buying books have a quick look at the picture on the front, then turn to the back, and if the blurb catches them - intrigues them sufficiently, they might just buy it! (Maybe I should commission you to write me a good blurb!)

On your question is it reality or made up fantasy, the simple truth is: It's all real. I made nothing up. I dreamed the dreams exactly as I wrote them. But that begs the question; what is a dream? Is it fiction, fantasy or an incomprehensible rambling story? Or is it something revealed to us, carrying within it deeper truths than our conscious minds are capable of seeing? I guess you can guess my answer to that. 

Now to Victor's actual review -- and thank you for the 'Highly Recommended' accolade!

Esme Ellis’s Dreaming Worlds Awake is a “potpourri” in several of the word’s meanings. As announced in the subtitle, “Stories, Synchronicities, Dreams and Correspondence, with a scatter of poems,” it is a miscellany of literary extracts exploring: “New consciousness, New energy, New writing.” The book is true to its description.

But there were times while reading that my (patently masculine) mind went, “Hunh, why is this in here?” or “Are these actual quotes from a disembodied entity named Kuthumi or something the author made up?” In which case the book struck me as a potpourri in the sense of “any mixture, especially of unrelated objects, subjects, etc.” Perhaps intentionally, some of the tidbits tossed out left me hungry. I bless the Internet when it came to the sections on Jacob Epstein’s work—my education in sculpture is shamefully limited. It took the images there (e.g., The Rock Drill) to add substance to the author’s enthusiasm over art objects I’d never seen. But I don’t complain: I like a book that makes me look further to learn something new. What a gift to have come to know Jacob and the Angel and its powerful message, as Esme explained it: “Aspects of the human being which are normally, in some parts of the Christian world at any rate, seen as separate, the Divine and the born-in-sin, fallible human, here they’re in a process of attaining a Wholeness which embraces both Light and Dark.” I experienced, perhaps for the first time, a stone statue whirling with dynamic energy.

“Potpourri” has a third meaning that perhaps best, if metaphorically, applies to Esme’s delicately woven web: “a mixture of dried petals of roses or other flowers with spices, kept in a jar for their fragrance.” It was not a book I could toss aside upon completion, facilely assigning it five stars or one. Its impression lingers, evoking “I wonder if…” at unexpected moments. The bloody line between reality and fantasy, between the objective and subjective, between non-fiction and fiction, which I’m supposed to be able to count on when all else fails, has again been blurred and I’m left in that excruciating but oh-so-present “space between” where it is all up to me to decide, arbitrary as it may seem, what is and what isn’t.

Highly recommended, especially to those curious to get inside the writer’s mind and see the visionary genius at work.

A NEW ARTWORK.

THIS, MY LATEST PAINTING WAS FINISHED A FEW DAYS AGO.

I call it a painting although there's as much charcoal as paint; mainly it was done after severalamazing experiences. But I'll leave talking about them until later. I just want to post up this new 'painting' first. Secondly, I'd like to post another painting done a few days prior to this one. This earlier one I titled; LET THERE BE LIGHT. The following one I called; AND THERE WAS LIGHT.

LATEST REVIEW FOR DREAMING WORLDS AWAKE

REVIEW BY JODINE TURNER FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE VISIONARY FICTION ALLIANCE.

This is a book that offers glimpses into the soul of the author.

It could have gone the way of many memoir or Visionary Fiction books and been self-absorbed or pedantic. This does not happen in 'Dreaming Worlds Awake.' Esme expresses her life experience through narrative, through life synchronicities, through her dreams, through conversations with mentors (dead and alive), and through poetry. This variety proves creative and interesting. Esme's writing drew me in.

I particularly liked  her description, (quoting Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey), comparing the Hero's journey with the Writer's journey as being one and the same. How fashioning words, and paragraphs, and stories is magic and is in effect casting a spell ... (in its most basic form, when you 'spell'a word correctly you are casting a 'spell!)

In one of the dreams and past-life remembrances Esme related, a priestess appears and gives symbolic messages about the inner feminine and masculine of both herself personally, and the world at large. These reflections are so crucial to our world today, where these two aspects are out of balance and struggling to come together in harmony as they are meant to be.
She also asks an intriguing question which bears further contemplation -- Is there an unconscious aspect  to Divinity?

While studying the art of sculpture, one of Esme's earliest mentors chose her to be in the college program because he said she had 'presence'. This indeed, comes through in the art of her writing.

Jodine Turner, award winning and best-selling author. "Carry On The Flame. I am with you. Goddess of the Stars and the Sea" 

EXAMPLES OF MY MOST RECENT ART

BEGINNING WITH FOUR COLOUR DRAWINGS

(All from my sick-bed, winter 2012/2013) 

Monolith, usually a single massive rock or stone, but here it takes on a lighter, transformational aspect.

Tri-Pod, comes next, also resembling a piece of sculpture, but with a slightly humorous, light-hearted feel.

With Cock-a-Doodle --- well, it's left to the viewer to to decide, but it's title suggests a jokey take on a Doodle.

Finally, Lark Ascending; my favourite, depicting, I feel, the joy of a bird in soaring flight, captured in seconds in one stroke of the pen. A dash of blue sky; a touch of green grass.

And now I'd like to add:-----

Another group of 4. These were actually the first drawings I made while sick in bed. At the time the illness was affecting my brain, and for several weeks I had been having horrific dreams and was hallucinating. It came to me that it might be a good idea if I got all this horror out of my system, using my artistic abilities, but in a completely new way. I would suspend my mind; I would simply take a sheet of paper and a strong, thick pencil, pen or charcoal and allow, allow; allow all that was in me to emerge freely, instantly, without time for thought to creep in.

I had been haunted by a strange series of figures coming in through the door to my bed-room, and on one occasion dropping in from a trap-door in the roof. This was one of these drawing which emerged, titled after a school-cild's verse; Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today: I wish to Hell he'd go away.

MAN WHO WASN'T THERE

This second such drawing I have given the title;  NEW ENERGY.

I could explain this title at length -- or just leave it to explain itself.

The Third in this group arose from a story, BLACKBIRD SINGING in my Dreaming Worlds Awake book. The subject was in my mind before I took up my drawing implement, but the resultant image was spontaneous and beyond-the-mind.

BIRD IN A BUSH

Lastly; it just happened; it just came. A spontaneous image.  HERMAPHRODITE.


A FURTHER GROUP OF FOUR STARTING WITH:---

Portrait with Charcoal Hair. These drawings emerged after the episode where I had been hallucinating; they illustrate a completely new approach to Art, which culminated in the colour drawings which I placed above the pencil/charcoal drawings. Spontaneous, non-thought out, in some cases a single line which captures in a stroke, in less than a second, a form emerging in space.

 Emerging Form 1

Emerging Form 2


And finally I leave a space for the last of this group, titled, Stellaris.
which unfortunately has escaped for the moment!




AND, Finally, FINALLY! The last; a group of three, beginning with:---

 This is First Movement.

 This is Second Movement

And this is Third Movement.

THE WYE VALLEY

A few pictures from our recent trip. 

1/ Showing the Wharf where boats coming from the Bristol Channel unloaded their cargo. It was reloaded onto smaller boats which took it further upstream.  

2/ The village of Underhill where we stayed, showing cottages and the road bridge  crossing the river from where the picture of the wharf was taken.

3/ Tintern Abbey built by Cistercian distinctively white-robed monks in the 12th century.

4/ Another view of the Abbey. Same day, same time of day, but quite a different feel. More romantic; more dramatic.

5/  This is one of the cottages in the Village looking at least as old as the Abbey.

A NEW REVIEW FOR DREAMING WORLDS AWAKE

Having been absent from my Blog for several months due to illness, I would like to post a review I received 6 months ago from Visionary Fiction author, Pat Perrin which I was unable to do at the time.

I read and later reviewed Pat's great book, Mayan Interface, to which she replied, 'a very intelligent and insightful review,' In return she offered to review Dreaming Worlds Awake. This is it:-

PAT PERRIN’S REVIEW

Dreaming Worlds Awake, by Esme Ellis.

This is a personal book, a narrative of experience that leads the reader through some very nice juxtapositions. In her introduction, the author says, “Of its own volition something began to take shape. Stories arose, dreams came, a poem or two, a letter here and there.” And that is what the book consists of. In poetry and various prose styles, Esme Ellis describes dreams, synchronicities, channelled entities, and everyday life. She treats them evenly, finding something to learn of all of them

Esme Ellis is open to the wondrous without insisting on dogmatic interpretations. She says that dreams may, “if you learn to ‘live alongside’ them without pressing for instant disclosure, reveal their secrets later, in their own good time.” She could be describing her approach to adventures of all kinds. Her discussions range from the philosophies of Freud and Jung, to insights from the spirit of the sculptor, Jacob Epstein, to advice from an ancient consciousness, to encounters with animal totems and other unconventional topics. She looks on it all as a “playground of boundless discovery and spiritual expansion“ that is simply not to be missed.

My personal favorite is a brief story about helping a blackbird to protect its nest from a feral cat by .... well, you’ll just have to read the book. I recommend it for those who are searching for a playground such as this.

Review by Pat Perrin.

It might be nice at this point to add one or two reader's comments. To my mind, this first says a lot in a few words. 

What an amazing book. It has the impact of a spiritual depth charge. Pat Panton.

Another one which pleased me, and which also used the epithet, amazing, was from an Australian friend who came to visit me in Bath last year. 

It left me raw, turned upside-down and inside-out. Amazing!  Suzy C

The Visionary Fiction genre seems to puzzle many people and commercial publishers shy away from using that title. Even on the FVA website there is still an ongoing discussion about what exactly it means. 'Visionary' ? Well, it doesn't mean having a vision in the literal sense of the word -- seeing shining figures with wings, and all that. It is about having a vision though. A vision for what the future on mankind could/can be, and about writing a book which, as well as creating a gripping story which people can enjoy for itself alone, may also have an impact on human consciousness. The Visionary Fiction Alliance's 'mission statement' speaks of "getting in touch with our inner wisdom". For myself, personally, I'd like to introduce another term, 'gnost' meaning, inner wisdom connected to, or stemming from our Soul. VF too, 'envisages humanity's transition into evolving consciousness.' Again, I'd like to take that a stage further. Evolution is still within our present understanding of Time: Past, Present and Future. Whereas Expanded Consciousness steps out of Time and into the Eternal NOW. 

If all this sounds too complicated and 'esoteric', remember VF's aim is to create a spanking good read! 

Oh, by the way, Dreaming Worlds Awake  can be bought from:
www.lulu.com/spotlight/Esdragon
or from my website: http://www.esmeellis.co.uk