Directory: The Tower

Jan 21, 2024

What’s Here:

Synopsis, A Word About Time and Pronunciation, Character List, Table of Contents

Synopsis:

The Tower is the second book in a series set in a world called Webbd. The book is divided into ten parts, beginning and ending (Parts 1 and 10) at a lighthouse, built by the DWARVES and DVORGS, on cliffs above the sea. Each of the remaining eight parts corresponds to one six-week period during the Neopagan Wheel of the Year.

In this second book of The Webbd Wheel series, a mysterious destructive force threatens the natural world of Webbd, weakening portals and thresholds, forests, and the sea. Constellations disappear from the night sky.

At the same time, social and cultural tensions escalate between Dvorgs and Dwarves, underground craftsmen and builders. PERSEPHONE and HADES come to terms with the miscarriage of their first child. RAPUNZEL agrees to live in a remote tower by the sea, collecting information. CLARISSA and CHRIS face the loss of their father, IRVIN.

At Rowan Tree, ROSE RED, MARIA, GINGER, KUNIK, EURYDICE, and other characters face external threats as well as community disruption. RADULF joins forces with DELPHINUS, a dolphin, the MERFOLK, and POSEIDON, seeking to comprehend and protect the sea he loves and rescuing sea species targeted by black market profiteers,

As the characters try to understand what’s happening to their collapsing world, characters, including ASH, a little brown bat, and BEATRICE, a bark beetle, exchange news and information, play marbles, tell stories, engage in ritual, dance, and follow guides while working to repair and create healthy connections between the Underworld, Rowan Tree, the sea people, Dvorgdom, Nephthys’ desert between the worlds, and points across Webbd.

Filled with familiar characters from The Hanged Man in addition to new ones, The Tower explores aspects of social breakdown and complex communities, including the tension between those who desire power over others and those who desire to share power, as well as the consequences of ignorance and mistreatment of the living planetary system. Individuals and groups contribute to the balance of destruction and creation within the framework of the ever-turning wheel of cycles and seasons.

A Word About Time and Pronunciation:

We in modern Western culture view time as a linear progression, as in telling a story from the beginning to the middle and the middle to the end. However, physicists hint that the idea of time might be considerably more flexible and complicated than a straight line, and of course, there’s a long history of writers and thinkers who have played with the concept of time in interesting, if confusing, ways. In addition, several spiritual traditions see time as nonlinear, including the concept of the wheel of the year, which likely has roots in traditions honoring the cycles of seasons. Cycles, of course, are by their nature nonlinear.

As a traditional storyteller, I’ve learned several ways in which an oral story might begin and end, including, “In a time long past and coming again soon…” This is a verbal cue to the listener/reader that we are out of time, traveling to inner and outer worlds of connection and understanding in which time becomes unimportant.

As you read this book, I encourage you to hold the concept of time flexibly. You will encounter stories being told before they’ve happened and characters, both familiar and unfamiliar, involved in stories spanning a lifetime, but not necessarily in chronological order! Our idea of linear time can be limiting. What can our imagination do when freed of time’s restraint?

I was born and raised in an English-speaking family, and aside from a smattering of Spanish, German and Latin, have read, written, thought, spoken and dreamed in my native language. This work is filled with characters from a variety of cultures and traditions and many of the names and terms I use have several different pronunciations on a cursory internet search. I respect and honor our cultural global traditions and resources and have provided readers with one or two available pronunciations, where appropriate, to the best of my ability. If you happen to speak Welsh or Egyptian Arabic and note an incorrect pronunciation, please forgive me! I’ve done my imperfect best to provide you with workable pronunciations to facilitate your relationship with the characters.

Cast of Characters:

(In alphabetical order)

Alexander: Brief lover of Rapunzel. German fairy tale.

Artemis: Carries silver bow; guardian of wilderness; mentor to Rose Red; consort of White Stag.

Ash: a little brown bat.

Baba Yaga: Hag who is Mother of Witches; Primal Mother; Slavic.

Bald Tegid: A giant; Ceridwen’s husband; foster father to Morfran; father to Creirwy; Welsh.

Beatrice: A bark beetle, friend of Ash.

Beth: Resident of Rowan Tree; makes paper from plants.

Blind Mother (Briar Rose): Grimm’s fairytales.

Baubo: (BAW bo) Old woman who uses humor and dance to guide and help others. Greek.

Calliope: A muse; mother of Orpheus.

Cassandra: Seer and prophetess; under the protection of Minerva; first met in the shape of a sparrow. Greek.

Castor: Mortal twin of the constellation Gemini, brother to Pollux.

Ceridwen (KER id wen): Powerful enchantress. Welsh.

Cerunmos: Also the White Stag; Horned God; Lord of Wild Creatures; The Hunter

Cerus: A constellation; a white bull.

Charon: Boatman in the Underworld; Pele’s son; smith

Chattan: Sacred consort to Rose Red; shapeshifter from man to Lynx.

Chris: Son of Irvin and Margaret, brother of Clarissa.

Clarissa: Daughter of Irvin and Margaret, sister of Chris.

Dar: A peddler. Twin to Lugh.

Dago: Seed-Bearer, Shala’s mate, iteration of Lugh.

David: Lives at Rowan Tree; dislikes women and non-humans; seeks power over others.

Delphinus: A constellation; a dolphin.

Demeter: The Corn Mother; Persephone’s mother. Greek.

Dvorgs: Dwarves who stayed below ground, avoiding the sun and people, especially women.

Dwarves: Race of short statured men who mine; smiths; gem masters; a branch of the Dvorgs who came above ground and mentored young women.

Elffin: Seren’s foster father.

Elizabeth: Rapunzel’s foster mother, a witch. German fairy tale.

Enzu: A peddler; twin to Dago; iteration of Dar

Eurydice: (yoo RID uh see) Brief wife to Orpheus; olive tree nymph. Greek.

Euterpe: A muse.

Firebird: A large bird with glowing feathers who leads one to treasure. Slavic folklore.

Fire Salamanders: Sals; small underground lizards who create light and fire with their fire milk.

Flint: A Dvorg; referee for marble game between Slate and Charon.

Gabriel: Old man at Rowan Tree.

Galahad: Enzu’s horse.

Ginger: Dancer; eldest of 11 sisters; German fairytale collected by Grimms.

Grant: Dwarve.

Gwelda: Giantess who becomes assimilated with Yrtym to form

Hades: Rules the Underworld; Persephone’s consort. Greek.

Hecate: (EC a tay) Queen of the Crossroads. Greek.

Heks: Bruno’s mother; charcoal burner’s widow; midwife.

Hel: Runs a boarding house on the Northern Sea that is a threshold between one thing and another. Norse.

Hope: Hades’ wolf, gift from Odin.

Hyash: Water.

Ig: Fire Salamander

Irvin: Merman; father of Clarissa and Chris; storyteller, lighthouse keeper.

Izolda: A Rusalka who takes the form of a bat; lover of Ash.

Jan: Gwelda’s husband; a woodsman.

Jasper: First Dwarve to explore aboveground and mentor a female, Pandora.

Johan: Shapeshifter; takes form of black swan. Danish.

Kadmos: Manservant to Hades.

Kunik: A man; mother human, father a polar bear; sees shapes within shapes; makes flutes for the twins who turn the wheel.

Layla: Injured sea wolf.

Lugh: Lugh (Loo); also, Billy in goat-foot aspect; Mary’s consort and male Seed-Bearer; twin to Dar.

Mag: Fire salamander.

Marceau: A merman. A sea king. Morfran’s maternal grandfather; Vasilisa’s father.

Margaret: Mother of Clarissa and Chris.

Maria: Murdered her two sons and committed suicide; leader at Rowan Tree; also known as La Llorona. Hispanic traditional tale.

Mary: Lugh’s pregnant mate; Seed-Bearer.

Minerva: Associated with wisdom, ingenuity, business and weaving. Symbolized by the owl. Workshop in Griffin Town. Mentors Jenny. Roman.

Mingan: Shapeshifter bodark.

Mirmir: A giant gossipy snake who guards and lives in/under Yggdrasil, Tree of Life. Norse.

Morfran: Foster son of Ceridwen and Bald Tegid, foster brother to Creirwy; nephew to Vasilisa; shapeshifter, magician; Welsh.

Nephthys: (NEF this) Lady of Bones; lives in desert; so old she’s a child again; can take the form of a falcon; associated with transformation. A life-death figure. Egyptian.

Norns: The three Fates; old women who live with Yggdrasil and Mirmir; Norse.

Odin: (O den) Wind God; head of Wild Hunt; owner of Valhalla; one-eyed; marble champion; father of Valkyries. Appears as Timor, Shabu. Norse.

Orpheus: Musician; husband to Eurydice. Greek.

Pandora: First female, mentored by Jasper, first Dwarve.

Pele: Lady of Flames; Stone Shaper; Earth Shaper; mother of Dvorgs and Dwarves, creator of Dvorgdom, Poseidon’s consort

Persephone: Demeter’s daughter, Hades’ consort. Greek.

Pim: Half human, half selchie, from the far North.

Pollux: Immortal twin of the constellation Gemini.

Poseidon: Lord of the sea; consort of Pele; brother of Hades.

Pricus: A constellation; seagoat; son of Delphinus and Hyash. Greek myth.

Proteus: Old Man of the Sea; breeds sea horses and sea wolves; plays marbles. Greek.

Radulf: Attends Ostara initiation; associated with wolves; frees Ginger; merchant sailor.

Rapunzel: Foster daughter of Elizabeth, a witch. German fairy tale.

Rose Red: Handmaiden to Artemis; consort of Rowan the fox; daughter of Queen Snow White. German fairytale.

Rowan: Shapshifter, fox/man; Rose Red’s lover.

Rumpelstiltskin: A Dwarve.

Rusalka: Nature spirits who assist Baba Yaga to guard the birch forest and rye fields. Shapeshifters; Slavic.

Sedna: Mother of the Sea; Mistress of the Sea; divine connection between people of far North and sea. Inuit mythology.

Seren: Found as a baby in a coracle adrift on the sea; grows to become a musician and storyteller.

Shala: Pregnant Seed-Bearer; mate of Dago; iteration of Mary.

Skuld: A Norn; cuts the thread from Verdani’s spinning. What will happen; endings and beginnings.

Slate: A Dvorg; self-appointed leader of Dvorgs in hatred and violence against Dwarves, females, and abovegrounders; plays marbles.

Sofiya: One of the Rusalka; mate of Morfran; owl aspect.

Sonia: Candlemaker at Rowan Tree.

Talcrys: Mineral, rock, sand.

Urd: A Norn. Winds the fiber from Verdani’s spinning after Skuld cuts it. What has happened.

Ursula: A Rusalka who takes the form of a bear; guards the Blind Mother.

Valeria: Leader of Rusalka at Rowan Tree; takes shape of wild boar.

Valkyries: Warrior women; daughters of Odin. Norse.

Varvara: Rusalka

Vasilisa: Student of Baba Yaga; daughter of Marceau; aunt to Morfran; carries fiery skull; guided by a doll in her pocket. Russian.

Verdani: A Norn; spins fiber under Yggdrasil; current events; what is. Norse.

White Stag: Also Cerunmos.

Yggdrasil: Tree of Life; Norse.

Yr: The sun.

Yrtym: Matrix of matterenergytime, the consciousness of Webbd.

Part 3: Samhain (SAH-win or SOW-in) Halloween; begins the dark half of the year and is the midpoint between autumn equinox and winter solstice. Fire festival; third of three harvest points in the cycle. Self-assessment and reflection, a time to let go of that which no longer serves. Ushers in a period of peace and rest.

Tarot Card: The Heirophant: Faith; allegiance; trust

Post #14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Part 3 Samhain, Entire

Part 4: Yule Winter solstice. Return of the sun; birth and growth.

Tarot Card: The Fool: Beginnings and endings; freedom from convention; innocence; impulsiveness; creative vitality; unlimited potential

Post #26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38

Part 4 Yule, Entire

Part 5: Imbolc (i-MOLG) February 1; strengthening light, fertility and creativity. Awakening of youthful, chaotic energy. Midway between Yule and spring equinox.

Tarot Card: The Star: Creative potential; renewal; new cycles

Post #39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51

Part 5 Imbolc, Entire

PART 6: Ostara Spring equinox; balance point between Yule and summer solstice. Increasing fertility and creativity.

Tarot Card: Ace of Cups: A journey into feelings

Post #52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67

Part 6 Beltane, Entire

PART 7: Beltane Sexual energy and power; balance; interconnection; interdependence.

Tarot Card: Justice: Balance; equality; courage; Nature’s power

Post #68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75

A Stone, a Web, a Story

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