Foreword

The ancient Celtic bards had tales and ballads called immrama, which loosely translates as “journeys.” Listeners were meant to go on the journey with the hero of the tale. They saw the wonders, met the challenges, and learned and grew from the journey just as the hero did. As participants in this old style of storytelling, listeners were more than spectators of mythic greatness; they became party to that greatness. This tale is woven in the tradition of immrama. Enter into the story as a participant in the school of magic named Ezmereld.

This particular tale depicts the beginnings of a journey of personal discovery. It is meant to be a template that readers can use for their own self-discovery and change. An appendix at the end elaborates on the use of this book as a teaching guide for self-improvement. I have described this work of self-knowledge and improvement as “magical training,” but it could as easily be termed “life enhancement.” I hope that readers will be open-minded enough to judge the book’s insights and techniques by trying them out, without getting hung up on magical terminology.

My crew coach in college and co-workers at Van Dusen Racing Shells gave me a taste of the Olympic world of rowing. I realized that it is a relatively small number of people engaged in the highest levels of achievement in any field. This is no less true in the field of magical studies. Those individuals diligently working on their own excellence in magic will either be too few or too busy to provide role models of experience to masses of people. So I offer this story as a readily available model of an excellent setting of magical exploration.

The reader is invited to enter this setting and experience this journey. Open up to the mysteries within yourself and abroad in the universe. All seekers of insight and understanding are welcome here. As the motto of my high school phrased it: “Behold, I have set before you an open door.” Open the door of your mind to explore the mythic journey that weaves through everyday life.

Thanks and acknowledgments

I’d like to acknowledge and thank many of the people who have contributed experiences to my life, which in turn informed parts of this story. Although the story is a fictionalized fabric, its tapestry is enriched by real events that were woven into it. I thank the Reclaiming Witch Camp teachers and organizers for supplying the experience of the Marriage to the Goddess ritual, with special thanks to Wilow Fire Zachubi for her aspecting, and to Evergreen for her harp playing in that ritual. Z Budapest, leading a ritual at a Michigan Women’s Music Festival many years ago, supplied the experience of looking up at a perfect matching circle of blue sky through the clouds over a large circle of ritual participants.

Closer to home, I’d like to thank my housemates—Merlin, Krystal, and Elizabeth—for letting me use their conversations about nightmares, dark things that turn TVs off in the night, and for recounting the plot of the movie Being John Malkovitch, among other things. Special thanks to my partner Adair for our innumerable conversations of magical theorizing, many of which have made their way into this narrative. Thanks to my friend Janus, likewise, for his magical input.

In my own magical studies, many influences have enriched the inner landscape from which I write. Workshops by R.J. Stewart strengthened my skills in guided imagery meditations. Workshops with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki have also added to the richness of my inner landscape and pathworking skills.

I thank my agent, Jennie Dunham, for manifesting a place in the physical world for this story. Thanks to my editor, Heather Bean, for helping turn these experiences into more of a story.

I must acknowledge my grandfather, Arthur M. Young, as the inspiration for Ezmer the Elder, a great philosopher and student of the cosmos. His friend Joan Grant’s books taught me, at an early age, about ancient priestly training and the ongoing journey of the soul. A Silva Mind Control course to which he sent me at age fourteen provided an early base of useful mental techniques. Arthur’s scientific investigations into the paranormal taught me that narrowing the definitions of “real” or “possible” runs counter to the scientific spirit of open-minded inquiry.

Return to Main Page Go to AzureGreen Store Buy Initiation At Beltane