“The Haven of Ravens”

2003 – “The Great Mother”

Having made friendship with Oberon Zell and Morning Glory Ravenheart, I follow the Path northwards, coming to stay at their home, the Ravenhaven, here to once more encounter the angelic avatar Julie Woods

The gasoline in my truck replenished by Carl’s actions, I head northwards, following the trail of the magick and fellowship shown to me by the kindness of Oberon Zell and Morning Glory Ravenheart. Here, I am led to their familial collective, a trio of houses on land north of ‘San Francisco’, what I have come to call the City of Clouds. In my gaze, lines of subtle energy criss-cross through the property, mixed with heady clouds of red, passionate energy. The scent of sexual energy, of Fire and Water, is strong. It is here Morning Glory shows me the most beautiful of things, an array of sculptures dedicated to the Goddess. This is incredibly inspiring to me. In the subtle fields of energy I can feel her devotion, her lifetime of appreciation and research into the nature of the Divine Goddess. More, Morning Glory and Oberon are the kindest of hosts, providing me a place to stay, to rest, and to learn. I come to find out that they were the publishers of a magazine called ‘Green Egg’, focusing on the magickal arts, during a time when such things were not nearly as accepted as they are in the blossoming octaves of today’s consciousness. It was themed around the intelligence of Gaia, a theme that would appear over and over upon the timeline of my Quest. This concept of a publishing platform devoted to the mystical path appeared to me greatly. This was far before the Idea of Harry Potter was even conceived, during when such practices and ways of being were often considered heretical, relegated to the fringes of society. As I look over the various bits of media, the toys and sculptures of the science fiction and fantasy worlds that so often inspire the actual practice of the magickal arts, I feel a sense of deep resonance. A kinship. The feeling is mutual and I am to consider them great allies, a waystation to return to, time and time again, as I travel across the realms of the Mythica.

This resonance with the Divine Mother that is our planet goes deeper. As it turns out, Oberon is the channel for the Millennial Gaia, a sculpture of the Divine Goddess, which shall appear on the altars of many priestesses and allies I encounter in the years to come. Though I do not realize it at the time, this dedication to the Goddess, to the Living Earth, shall be a major part of my Quest, in the creation of Into the Mythica and the proof of the techniques that bring us to Heaven on Earth.

There was a kinship between us, as if we recognized the splintered and yet Divine aspect pouring through us both, a subtlety of awareness and overwhelm, met in our own manner by the mechanisms of our own coping. It was a thing I felt I shared with Julie. Of being an angelic being, splintered into a thousand-thousand shards. Forging a noble way across the edges and bleeding clouds of a stable sense of self.

It was a thing I felt I shared with Julie. Of being an angelic being, splintered into a thousand-thousand shards. Forging one’s way across the edges and bleeding clouds of a stable sense of self.

Image and Substance

Oberon shows me around the land, taking me into a beautiful garden within the small enclave that is the Ravenhaven.

It is lovely and peaceful, with a statue of a goddess guardian over the space.

As we about the land, I ask to witness some photos of them as part of my quest to document the journey into the magical world. Oberon obliges me, and dons an outfit from his various presentations as a wizard. The costumes mean nothing to me. While I appreciate their beauty, I recognize them as the surface of the world, the flickering tips of the Fire that sits within. What matters is the character of their being. Such is the stone within their skin. From my elemental gaze it is the colors of his garb which glimmer, the same as the flowers I was led to witness within the garden.

The Sacred Night

In the subtle planes, I could sense the authenticity of their aspect, how they were the version of that archetypical ‘wizard’ and ‘priestess’ in the modern myth. Most beautifully, Oberon and I shared a love of comic books and fantastical tales, both intent on writing and publishing our vantage on the magical World to the people.

On the surface of perception, she simply looked like a woman holding candles, standing in the courtyward of her home.

Yet in the subtle, things were different. In that place, I could perceive energies, orbs of light and resonance hovering around her.

Even then, I could sense the qualities of things as they existed in the ethers. While it flickered in and out, lost in the incoherence of the mind, I could feel something. A set of qualities that lay beneath the surface of our interaction. That of the essence of a school of magic, of water and wizardry.

Later in the evening I join Oberon by the fire as he raises his arm in the motion of spellcasting. As he does, the fire licks across my vision, pulling me to click the shutter of the camera just as an arrowhead forms in it’s substance. I had sensed it then, a manifestation of both Oberon’s sagitarrian essence and the aspect of the Divine masculine that moved through his form. I feel The elements continue to play out before me, reinforcing the idea that I was tracking my way across the signs and symbols along my path, documenting my passage into the magical world.

I learned a great lesson here, that saints came in many packages. It is here that I can say I have met one of the true saints of the World. A beautiful, heartfelt woman by the name of ‘Polly’, Morning Glory’s mother, living in a small cabin on the northern(?) end of the property. Well into her life’s autumn, Polly’s only interest seemed to be her devoted Love for Christ. I found this a beautiful complement to the blatantly ‘pagan’ leanings of both Oberon and Morning Glory, a sign that their spirits were transcendent of the folly of separation between these various ideas of God’s limitless nature.