Glynis Nesta, whose story is told in the forest tales, has  warned me to watch out for “spiritual ’splaining.” 

Ever since we met during Attars, I have been asking her what is the way, how to proceed, and how to develop this process. She has not ever answered in words. There is no “spiritual splaining” here at all, for she only directs, attends, and demonstrates. 

Is she a real person, a wise woman archetype or what?

She is the convener of the Sea Temple Inn remembrance event, the annual conference of the researchers identified as the “finders keepers” – jokingly known. The real name of the department is Search and Recall.

She is emeritus now and only comes out once or twice a year; no one knows where she lives, and the ways she finds us are unknown to most, except for the founder and the head archivist. they seem to have access to her comings and goings. They joke that it is by bird, and somehow, I think that is appropriate. Something about a breeze or a brief flight. 

I know she was the one who brought me back into the game and recommended me. My diligence with the essences and all the reporting done on the experimental refinements were duly noted back then. She was so encouraging to me in producing that section of my Book of Secrets. But after that I was stuck – I went back into life in the world as most people know it. The episodes in the dunes were fondly remembered, but as stories or events, not as living remembrances that replayed the deep experiences they referred to. It was all kept on the surface of life, and that was for the best. You see, I wanted to be sure that I could handle the charge, and it wasn’t always possible. But you know all about that. 

Okay, so with my sweet memories of dear Susannah, I looked across the sea for help and sustenance. But that is when reality came crashing back into my life – for I had not been told the truth. Susannah had not died accidentally; she had been lifted, taken, and transformed even before she was born. Her destiny was set in mine at that early time, and there was no way she would come into life. 

It was the Book of Thel all over again.

Anyway, I had been living in “deep cover” for some time after that, and Glynis had been observing, until the time came for me to surface with a new assignment: cataloguing Wonder Cabinets all over the world and perhaps in other dimensions as well. 

Many of the objects I discovered are decommissioned magical instruments. Retrieving or renewing them has enormous potential to save humanity and restore Earth’s magical realms. 

Doing this put me in spiritual danger and metaphysical intensities. For these spiritual discoveries were established to develop a direct understanding of self at the moment of death.