Category: Spirituality

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New Egyptian Novel! Interview with Merrie P. Wycoff

Every once in a while someone writes a book that I know my readers will be especially interested in. Merrie P. Wycoff’s Shadow of the Sun is one of them. Merrie tells the story of the Pharaoh Akhenaten from the perspective of his daughter, Merit-Aten. Here’s what she has to say about the book.

Would you please tell us a little about yourself?  I was born in San Jose, CA and when I was 10 years old we took a class trip to the Rosicrucian Museum where I discovered a colossal statue of Pharaoh Akhenaten and was mesmerized. I vowed to discover the truth about this unusual looking man who history had deemed ‘a heretic.’  After college I moved to Los Angeles and worked as a lead Segment Producer for Entertainment Tonight for six years.  Then moved to Colorado where I reside today.

Would you please tell us about your latest book?  Shadow of the Sun is a paranormal historical novel set in Ancient Egypt. The story is told through the eyes of Pharaoh Akhenaten’s and Queen Nefertiti’s first daughter who is born to save her family and bring peace to her country after her parents introduce a revolutionary form of peaceful worship during a dark reign of terror. The problem is that her parents’ have dramatically different views on how she should do it.

Pharaoh Akhenaten desires that Merit-Aten remain chaste and take the perilous path of an Egyptian Mystery School initiate while Queen Nefertiti demands that Merit-Aten choose a consort and produce more heirs to ensure the family’s survival.  Merit is forced to choose her own destiny, but can she do it without destroying everyone she loves?

What made you interested in writing this particular story?  I have always been fascinated with Egyptian history. I am currently earning my Egyptology degree at the University of Manchester. But, on my second trip to Egypt in 2007 with Stephen Mehler, we traveled with an ancient Egyptian wisdom keeper, Abd’El Hakim Awyan who dramatically changed my perspective and introduced me to an entirely different point of view. I yearned to show my readers something new about an ancient civilization.

What does a typical writing day look like?  I love to write. I write whenever I have a chance. Lunchtime, before dinner or late at night. I just need quiet so that my scenes can come alive…like watching a movie. I have to hear it, taste it, smell it and see it. The characters tell me their story. I just listen.

Can you describe your writing process?  Research. Research. Research. Readers want to know what kind of tea they were drinking. It took me seven years to write this.  Probably could have done it sooner if I had an outline.  My next book will take less time.

How did you come up with your title?  Akh means child or shadow of the mother in the Khemitian (Egyptian) language because children follow their mothers everywhere.  The sun refers to the Aten which is the form of monotheistic worship that Pharaoh Akhenaten introduced back after he wiped out the pantheon of gilded gods.  The ruling deity at that time was Amun, the Hidden One who lived in the shadows when the priests ruled Egypt with greed, superstition and fear.

What advice do you have for writers who have not yet been published? Summon up your will forces to sit down every day and write. Then find a great editor to polish your work. Make it excellent. The publishing world is being turned upside down by those of us who are self-publishing.  My story is unique but it isn’t a vampire or zombie novel so although agents loved it they didn’t want to take a chance.

Name three people who either inspired you or influenced your creativity. My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Conant who believed in me.  Drunvalo Melchizidek who urged me to write this story. And my mother who kept a bust of Nefertiti on the mantle while I was growing up. Life plants clues we just have to be aware of them.

If your book were chocolate, what kind would it be and why?  Dark chocolate with a hint of chile because it is exotic, flavorful and a bit spicy.

Tell us about your main character’s psyche or personality. What led her (or him) to be the person s/he is today?  Prior to her birth, Princess Merit-Aten remembers that she made a contract with the heaven lords to save her family. She negotiated for superior knowledge. Unfortunately that gets her into a lot of trouble and doesn’t make her popular with her older classmates.  She discovers jealously, lies, betrayal, murder and magic within the warring court.  Merit-Aten’s ability to talk to animals, see colorful auras around everyone and her obsession with the forbidden use of magic in order to further her cause stirs up a lot of drama.

If you could host a magical dinner party, who are the six people (living or otherwise) you’d include?  Stevie Nicks, Marie Antoinette, Queen Guinevere, Mary Magdalene, Count St. Germain, and Thoth.

What are you working on right now?My second book in The Shadow Saga is called Stealing the Shadow of Death.

Find out more about Merrie and her novels at http://merriepwycoff.com/

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April’s Fool

April Fool’s Day reminds me of switching the sugar and salt in their two bowls and giggling while my mother put salt in her coffee. It also makes me think of the Fool in Tarot.

The Fool is the first card in the Major Arcana with the number 0. But he’s also the last card, number 22. The Fool walks blightly out from the Absolute, the unified consciousness, as the first manifestation on the Tree of Life. He carries with him in his wallet all the knowledge he might need on his journey of creation, but that knowledge is in his wallet, not outside. This suggests that by stepping away from that all-knowing source, he’s already “forgotten” that he knows everything.

The Fool walks off a cliff, which to me shows the audacity of making that separation. He does this with a smile on his face. He’s accompanied by a little white dog. He carries a white rose.

The Fool always tells me to lighten up. Creation, life, the journey of manifestation, is not to be taken so seriously. After all, this separation is an illusion. It’s an experiment. We have all that we need to know in that wallet we carry. In the symbol of the White Rose. And we have the company of the always faithful White Dog.

Have a great April Fool’s Day.

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Christmas–Reaching Stillpoint

This time of year is always special to me, because of childhood memories of beeswax candles and Moravian Advent stars, carols and choir rehearsals, putting up the tree, Moravian ginger spice cookies.

Then there’s Solstice, the darkest night, the longest, when the sun is rekindled in the womb of the Dark Mother. Always the deepest darkness regenerates us, even though we fight to avoid it. But once we surrender, we too are renewed.

At Solstice, the sun stops sinking low in the sky and pauses. For three days it stays still. Then on Christmas Day, it begins to climb higher again.

Solstice and Christmas bring many things, but the thing I prize the most is the stillness. In stillness and silence, all can be found.

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Short Story Sale

I’m honored to have a story included in the anthology Ride the Moon from the new Canadian science fiction/fantasy press Tyche Books, Ltd. Just look at this list of great writers.

My story is “White Moon,” based on the story of the Mayan Goddess Ixchel. Ixchel is a moon goddess, the consort of the sun god, mother of the four jaguar priests. And it’s the name of the mystery crystal skull that was revealed at the 11.11.11 conference in L.A where my own consort, Stephen Mehler, was a guest speaker. The story includes Mayan mythology, magic, crystal skulls and sound healing.

In her myth cycle, Ixchel marries Itzamna, the sun, but grows tired of his hot temper. When she leaves him, she goes to her island, Cozumel, where she lives among women as a midwife and healer. I took this theme of the ebb and flow of relationships, and the ebb and flow of human consciousness.

A special note:  if you find that you resemble a character in this story, remember not to read too much into it. This is not really you, but a character in a story written for fun.

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Halloween, the Third Harvest

Samhain is upon us. Halloween. All Hallows Eve. The beginning of the Celtic New Year. The day out of time in the Celtic calendar. The night when the veils are thinnest. The cross-quarter holiday between autumn equinox and winter solstice. The opposite of Beltane or May Day. The day when the Pleiades shine the brightest at midnight.

Samhain is also the third harvest. We harvest meat on this holiday. Not a pleasant time, like harvesting the grains at Lammas (August 1) or the fruits at Mabon (autumn equinox). This harvest may have contributed to the gruesomeness of Halloween costumes and movies.

My grandmother tried to teach me how to be a responsible consumer of chicken and kill what I eat. She was unsuccessful.

It was an ordinary summer day. She didn’t pick Samhain to teach me, since she was a Christian, a German, and not familiar with Celtic lore. She asked me if I wanted chicken for lunch and I said yes. I was about five. Maybe older. I can’t really remember. She told me to go pick one out in the chicken coop. Not understanding what was to come, I went out and picked a pretty hen.

“Not that one. She’s a good layer,” grandmother said. “Which one looks good to eat?”

It was then it dawned on me. “You pick.”

“No, if you eat chicken, you have to learn how to kill them and clean them.”

I dawdled. I picked the scrawniest one.

“There’s no meat on that one. Let it put on some weight. Pick a plump one.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Come on, now. I haven’t got all day.”

Chicken picked, Grandmother made me catch it and told me to wring its neck. I tried, but I couldn’t make myself do it. She kept telling me to wring it harder. “Just snap it. Don’t make it suffer.”

I tried. My chicken ran off, head cocked funny.

“Now you’ve hurt it.” Grandmother grabbed it and snapped its neck quick. “You need to kill them quick. They shouldn’t suffer,” she instructed.

Then I had to pull off its feathers. But I just sat in the dirt and cried. Cried and cried, while she plucked and plucked. “See how pretty the feathers are? Don’t you like chicken?” I cried harder. I’d never realized the cost of liking chicken.

She cut up that bird and fried it, and I have to say it smelled great. Then she served lunch. She gave me vegetables and milk and bread. No chicken. As much as I begged, she wouldn’t give me any chicken. “If you can’t kill it, you don’t get to eat it.”

Then suddenly her shoulders slumped. “I’m tired of this,” she said.

I imagine she was. She’d taught every one of her nine children how to kill a chicken, and several of her grandchildren. I guess I was the last straw.

She gave me some chicken to eat. I ate it. Feeling guilty, but not enough to declare myself a vegetarian at that age. I did become a vegetarian for a long time. Then I became a lapsed vegetarian.

I’m still an irresponsible chicken consumer, but at least I buy cage free birds that have been fed organically. I have yet to kill a chicken myself.

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Happy Fall Equinox

Today is Mabon, the Fall Equinox. The day and night are equal. The sun rises due east and sets due west. This is the harvest of fruits. Lammas (August 1st) began the harvest season with harvesting grains. In Greece it was the time of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a major initiation. It’s also my granddaughter’s birthday, and she’s bringing us a new life next year!

I remember watching my grandmother and her daughters can during August and September. She had a wood stove, so this was quite an undertaking. Someone stoked the fire, another cleaned the jars, another put the jars in the big pot to sertilize them. Then others were cutting up vegetables or fruits, putting them in the pot to cook just a bit. Then there was getting it in the jars, a touchy business. My favorite was waiting for the tops to seal with a wonderful pop. I was very young then, always underfoot until Grandmother decided to put me to work keeping the fire in the stove burning. It was hot in that kitchen, before air conditioning.

It’s harvest time. Time to enjoy the fruits of your garden, trees, writing, work and life.

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Crystal Skulls

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