Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Secret #4: The Bloodline

The concept of lineage holds an important place in religion and mythology.  The Old Testament is filled with passages that relate, "This person was the father of so and so, who was the father of this person, who was the father of another name, who..."  It is commonplace in literature that deals with such paranormal or psychic abilities to see certain "gifts" (the ability to see the future, for example) that are passed down from generation to generation.

If you trace such stories back far enough, you reach a point where something "non-mundane" was added to the bloodline.  Perhaps a hero or heroine was touched by a god or goddess and passed those gifts on to their offspring. Such abilities are often traced back to the children born from the coupling of a mortal and an otherworldly creature - a demon, an angel, an elf, or, as in one of my favorite scenes from the movie The Secret of Roan Inish, a selkie...


In The Awakening, the presence of such abilities indicates that a person is part of the bloodline, that somewhere in their ancestry, a mortal mated with one of the Old Ones.  While such gifts often remain dormant throughout a person's lifetime, in others they begin to manifest during puberty.
Another person had died; she could feel it.  There would be more to come, each one a key, a piece of a larger puzzle that would change the world she knew.  She didn't know how she knew, only that when puberty began to rear its ugly head, she had begun to dream.  She had started to see visions when she looked at people, images of the days they had already lived and glimpses of those still to come.  The teenager didn't know why, only that it had something to do with her ancestry, her bloodline.  She had learned that from dreams, not from the mundane answers with which her mother and grandmother had provided her.
There's a nearly forgotten belief that runs through nearly every culture in the world that, when the end of the world begins to draw near, these abilities will begin to come to life.  For instance, The Bible states, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."  Indigenous prophecy speaks of people "hearing the song of Spirit" a reference to being deeply connected to a world that is beyond the mundane.  In many ways, this "awakening" is one of the final pieces of the puzzle.  It's a herald of the end.

The Awakening (May 13, 2011) sets the stage for A Tide of Shadows (May 2012), which in turn builds to the climax found in Days of the Fallen (May 2013).  You can read the first three chapters online for free.  The Awakening will be published on Friday the 13th in both paperback and ebook formats.

Secret One: Aleph (May 1st)
Secret Two: The End (May 2nd)
Secret Three: Angels (May 3rd)
Secret Four: The Bloodline (May 4th)
Secret Five: Heaven and Hell (May 5th)
Secret Six: What Does God Look Like? (May 6th)
Secret Seven:  Working Miracles (May 7th)
Secret Eight: The Four Horsemen (May 8th)
Secret Nine: Small Town Mysteries (May 9th)
Secret Ten: Photographing the Paranormal (May 10th)
Secret Eleven: Blood on the Threshold (May 11th)
Secret Twelve: Find the Thread (May 12th)
Secret Thirteen: How Does the World End? (May 13th)

6 comments:

  1. I had spirit tingles reading this. :)

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  2. Interesting. This is a very common theme in many books I've read lately. Gifts maturing during puberty. Something inherited through the blood.

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  3. @Raven A little resonance, perhaps? ;)

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  4. @Angela It's no surprise (to me at least) that the concept is becoming more prevalent in books. It's been floating just below the surface for centuries. In everything from poltregeist-themed films to the X-Men, abilities tend to appear at puberty. There are countless theories related to this concept - and why most people "shut them down" by adulthood if they do manifest. It's definitely an interesting concept to me. (And I'm desperately trying to find a block of time to catch up on reading YOUR blog!) :)

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  5. Jeffrey, I think there is some resonance there. I remember back when I was a teenager playing in the back yard with my brother. We were play sword fighting with sticks. At one point during our "fight" a stick came very close to my eye. I immediately pushed it away and remembered feeling like I had done that before. As I thought on it, I realized I had dreamt it.

    I never told anyone about it. It never occurred to me to tell anyone. I didn't think about it again either. Since that time, I have had other experiences of deja vu and realized that what I was doing, I had dreamt.

    As I read this blog, I was reminded of those times and realized that it started when I was a teen.

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  6. @Raven It honestly doesn't surprise me at all. The first time I can remember something like this happening was when I was in fourth grade. I had a series of nearly identical dreams that I was getting up to sharpen my pencil while the teacher was out of the room. As I did, this big bully named Bryan stood up to block my way. (I have no idea why - we never interacted with each other.) Each dream I tried something different - until finally something worked.

    The next day I was in class and our teacher left the room. Sure enough, I had to sharpen my pencil and Bryan stood up to block my way. Remembering the dreams from the night before, I chose the option that worked (I don't remember what it was at this point) and everything worked out fine.

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