Mystery writer Steve Berry puts a section at the end of his books that talks about what’s real and what’s made up. Yes, mystery and fantasy  writers do research and use it in their novels. What we do with that research is sometimes made-up, but it’s the mix of the real and the imagined that makes for a compelling read.

In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Megan attends an Emergence Ceremony at the age of thirteen to discover her place in Atlantean society. She travels with her parents to the Temple of the Oracle where she consults with a circle of crystal skulls.

Crystal skulls do exist. Crystal skull researcher Nick Nocerino classified three types of crystal skulls:  contemporary (less than 100 years old), old (more than 100 years old), and ancient (more than 1,000 years old). There are thousands of contemporary crystal skulls carved in Latin America and China predominantly.

But why? After all, the skull and cross bones is used to label poison. We think of them as representing evil. Mexican and Latin cultures use these skulls on the Day of the Dead and to meditate on death, but the Maya see these skulls as images of enlightenment.

Why enlightenment? Next time you’re in a crowd of people, look around at all the faces. Notice how different everyone is. Yes, we have two eyes, one nose and mouth, etc. (for the most part), but we all have particular features and are each different from the other. But imagine the bone beneath the face. Imagine the skull. They all look alike.

The skull represents this underlying sameness. It represents Divine Consciousness, that I Am presence that we all are at our very foundation.

Are there really ancient crystal skulls? We’ll talk about that in another post.

This was the day I met Stephen