I recently got involved in the madness that is the National Writing
Month. The purpose and task is to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch
during the month of November, starting on the 1st and finishing on the
30th. At the time I signed up, I thought this was a good idea ...
... and then I forgot all about it - until the "Hey, it's time to start!"
email from the National Writing Month organisers landed in my inbox.
When you sign up, you get a page of your own where your novel, an excerpt and
the current word count on the way to completing the task is displayed. There is
an input box on the page called, "Your Novel" and it says, "Title".
I haven't a clue what I'm doing here or even whether I should put myself
through this, as my workload is quite intense already and also, I've already
written a novel this year! Vampire Solstice,
check it out, very good story and educational for those who are interested in
energy matters as well :-)
Anyrate. So I'm staring at the empty box called "Title" and the words just
appeared there - The Magician.
Cool, I thought. So now, I have a title. Wonder what it's going to be about?
Today, November 10th and about 10,000 words into it, I think I'm finally
writing my answer to Carlos Castaneda. Long overdue, one might think.
Here, we have a WOMAN, and an old woman at that, or at least she thinks she's
old even though she's just menopausal, and that's a different thing altogether,
arriving at the dwelling of a magician in order to learn the arts of magic.
Unlike In Serein, where such a thing was promised but never kept in that
sense, here this is really happening. Not just that, the techniques she is
learning are clearly doable and I have had some amazing surprises along the way.
Well, I always wanted to know how you would go about studying magic, and here it
is - courtesy of the National Writing Month!
I am not sure if I am going to stop at 50,000 words, although the way my
energy mind programmes these days, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty much
spot on, but I do know that I am going to complete this novel - simply because I
can't wait to find out what happens next!
Which is the best way to go.
You can observe my progress and read the opening chapter of The Magician at
the NaNoWrMo website here:
(If you do numerology on that user number, you get a 6, which is "Soul -
Conflicts resolved, creativity reborn, creative freedom, the other realms." Nice
:-)
Winning Nanowrimo
It
started as a game, but as so often happens to me, the project turned into this
absolutely fascinating experience that put everything else in November into a
total full stop - November 2006 was only, and all about, The Magician.
In classic Project Sanctuary style, I had absolutely *no idea* what the next
chapter would hold. Not until I got to the computer, and not until the words
were written, did I get to find out what the "lesson of the day" would reveal.
It was really wonderful. I posted the chapters, as they came out to Nicola and a
few select others and then we discussed the revelations, the challenges, the
absolute surprises of the day. Wonderful!
As we were going along, I thought it might work itself out at 30 lessons (there
being 30 days in November), but I was wrong. The conclusion arrived on day 28,
just as we were hitting the stipulated 50,000 word limit of the exercise.
So Nanowrimo was won, and The Magician was born.
The Magician - 28 Lessons In Magic
The Magician
A Novel by Starfields
Anna's children are
grown and flown, as has her latest husband. She decides to take a chance and
find a magician who might teach her about magic.
In midwinter, she makes her way to the magician's house at the
foot of the White Mountains, hoping he will take her in ...
Of course, he does.
And so begins Anna's journey into a very strange world, a
totally different world - a world of challenges that is entirely different to
what she had thought it might be, a world of surprises and most of all, a world
of unprecedented delights.
Join Anna on her
journey as she learns 28 lessons about magic, and about life.
The Magician is a
deeply moving story of one woman's journey of transformation. This extraordinary
novel by master story teller Starfields engages the emotions as well as the mind
and it contains sequences of events and images that will stay with the reader
forever.
Fascinating,
surprising, and entirely delightful,
The Magician is a
book you will want to read again, and again.
A Note For Project Sanctuary users from Starfields:
"The
Magician is an example of using Project Sanctuary to create a custom made
training programme, essentially for me personally. There is no doubt about it, I
am Anna and these are the lessons I needed to learn.
During the month of November, I visited with the magician every night and I
experienced these things, just as they are written down. I have learned more
than I can ever say from this and I am happy to share my adventure with others."
The Magician - 28 Lessons In Magic
This was a fascinating project, one that came literally out of
nowhere but was timed so perfectly in all ways and now it is a
Fantasy novel called The Magician.
The Magician was written by Master Story Teller Starfields on 28
consecutive nights in November of 2006, so that we may learn
something new about magic and in the process of this, should be
entertained and delighted, just the same.
At the very top level we have a story, a fascinating story some
might say, about a woman who, once she had completed her duties of
child rearing, decides to take up the study of magic in her world.
In mid winter, she locks the door to her rented dwelling for the
last time and makes her way to the foot of the White Mountains,
where a magician is said to reside, in the hope that he will take
her in as an apprentice, even though she is already past the middle
of her life.
Her life has left traces, scars and many things ingrained by daily
repetition; and as we follow with the story, we learn that to learn
magic is as much to unlearn all that came before as it is the
acquisition of new skills and the tricks of the trade.
As should be expected of any good story, there are events,
surprises, twists, turns and momentum to keep the story vibrantly
alive and The Magician has all of these things in good measure.
Of course, there is more to The Magician than meets the eye at the
very first glance.
This story is also a sequence of lessons – there are 28 in all,
and as all things in The Magician, this number is not an accident.
28 chapters from the beginning to the end, and each chapter contains
an important lesson, an aspect that needs to be dealt with in one
way or the other before a person can become a magician in all truth
and reality.
As we follow along with the central character and experience the
challenges with her and through her, we as the readers are also
confronted with the puzzles that she must solve.
This is often a very emotional journey, and our responses are a
personal mirror to guide us towards those places within ourselves
where we might well be stuck, or where our own roadblocks on the
pathway may reside.
It is also not just the case that each chapter only contains a
single lesson.
Each chapter contains a central lesson, and a number of secondary
ones, which become revealed to any reader who wants to engage with
the book in that way upon reading it for the second time, and for
the third.
In this way, The Magician is a fascinating book for discussion and
reflection. There are many profound issues being raised, from
practical, technical considerations about magic to very global
questions of destiny and the path an individual may be taking in
their lifetimes and beyond.
The Magician therefore makes a perfect tool for study groups or for
an individual who would look at each one of the lessons separately
and over time, taking time to absorb as well as challenge and
discuss the learnings and points raised.
Clearly, The Magician is a Project Sanctuary habitat. Any Project
Sanctuary player will immediately see that behind the events we are
observing lies an entire world which is ready to take and explore by
anyone who would choose to do so.
Anna took but one of the seven magical objects in the market –
what do the others contain? May there be one for you? May there be
merit to visit with Alarin, or with Satara, or with Cedrick at Rosea
to ask personal questions and start an exploration of your own?
Would you like to face the challenge of the magic book, one of your
very own?
The Magician, being a full and stable Project Sanctuary world can
become a real step stone for self learning in that way, and it
invites anyone who feels drawn to magic to come and explore, to
learn and to be delighted just the same.
The Magician speaks of real magic, of worlds beyond what we have
come to expect around us; of hope and most of all, of delight.
Delight is the healer of the past and the gateway into the future.
One might say that the measure of a person’s life is the total sum
of their delights along the way and The Magician encourages us
gently to let go of old entrainments and to go forth and seek out
those delights this world has to offer us all, on so many different
levels and in so many different ways.
The Magician is an inspiration, through and through.
It tells us that it doesn’t matter if we are old or young, rich or
poor, downtrodden or damaged, wise or silly, or what our lives might
have been like up to this point – The Magician tells us that we have
the right to magic. Magic is real and it is here. It is up to us to
step forward and embrace it, seek to know it, become fascinated by
it and yes, enraptured.
When we do, our lives begin to take on a different flavour, and we
find ourselves in a world that is in essence, beyond our wildest
dreams.