The Alchemy of Blood, and Voice

This post is for all my fellow ladies who have ever feared their own voice, desires, and ambition. If you have ever kept silent, or endured for fear of scorching the Earth with the power of your hunger—this post is for you. 

When I came to the woods, tucked in and wrapped myself in the work it was an instinctual, desperate, almost animalistic move. Very few people understood it at the time, but it felt primal to me. It was sequester and build—or be devoured by the machinery of conformity.

My books, my writing style, my personality, my very dreams were contrary to the way the industry, the corporate world, and mainstream programming work. It was bend to the expectations of fitting into the matrix, quiet my voice, and be less--or leave.

So I left.

But I wasn’t idle for three years, I was creating. I closed down all unnecessary energy expenditures, let go of all corporate support, ditched relationships that were feeding toxins and contributing to the lag. I grew more fierce, protective, and feral as time went by.

And I wrote. I wrote like my fingers were burning, because my spirit was on fire.   

The Pillars of Dawn, The Life Erotic, and The Creative Revolution, all grew exponentially in purpose while I was in hermitage. The meanings behind them, the purpose of why I was creating them, the lightning to be drawn down and channeled into the fuel of words all began to take shape and develop into a heartbeat with an even stronger sense of mission. Message was birthing into story, and it was a painful, sweaty, exhaustive process.
It’s funny when I go back through twenty-five years of work and re-discover old stories and books, manuscripts, film scripts and so on that were learning modules for my development as a storyteller. I unboxed three books I wrote ages ago. Two of the books were the beginning of a fantasy series I wrote when I was 16-21. Then, there was one other book I wrote at about age 23-26ish, The Alchemy of Blood.

I had completely forgotten about it. When I opened the box it was still labeled by the work-in-progress name and it took me a moment to remember what it was about. In the first days when I really began to own that I would be a writer, and that my life would take the course dictated by the pathway upon which that dream would be mapped—I was struggling with what voice meant. My mentor at the time, Jessica Morrell, was teaching me about voice—but I still didn’t know what it meant to me on a personal level. There’s writing voice, personal voice, and then there’s me, right?

Or was that right? I wasn’t sure at the time. I was also in a marriage at that point that made me feel trapped, cornered. There was no way out. My voice as a woman was insignificant, my needs and dreams secondary or treated as nonsensical (humored, at best). I was pretty sure that marriage would be my death. I was angry, tired, lonely, and aching to be allowed to be strong, but terrified that I would destroy everything and everyone if I reached for my power. The power of voice.

So, I wrote a book: The Alchemy of Blood, as a practice run to try and connect with my voice. My author voice, and my personal feminine voice. I needed a safe place to explore the consequences of self hood as designed by me, rather than imposed by my world. It was a fictional obstacle course to work through my fear, my dis-empowerment, and my terror of owning my own rage and channeling it into discipline and purpose. I had a secret fear that if I spoke my true words—I’d accidentally burn the world down. That’s how afraid of my own voice I really was. So, I borrowed my namesake and leaned into her mythology as a support to produce a book exploring the individual sovereignty and powerful journey of being a woman in a world built for men. A world built from the blood of women…for men.

The most interesting part of The Alchemy of Blood was that I forgot about it. Then some twenty years later, I no longer fear my own voice. I no longer fear accidentally causing harm. I no longer fear the conflicts that arise when my true nature rubs up against the system. Writing it took the clamps off my brakes.

The book did exactly what it was meant to do. It gave me a place to practice, explore, rethink, reconfigure. It lanced my rage, gave direction to my meanings, and offered an outlet for creativity and craft. It’s probably safe to say that manuscript was the basis for the tone and purpose I carried onto my storyteller path. It might also be the manuscript that kept me alive when my whole world tipped ass over teakettle shortly after I started writing it. There was even a brief moment when I wondered if my world had imploded because I’d started writing it. But when I realized those comforts, patterns, and relationships were contributing to keeping me stuck and in fear. I let go of them, and embraced the voice even tighter and held on for the ride.

I also discovered during the last two decades of writing, that I was not the only woman who feared her own voice. Who lived in terror of what they might feel or say. Who lost sleep trying to keep silent. Or slept alone for having spoken and scorched the Earth with her desires. It was during those years, discovering all these other women with the same fear that I had resolved to own mine, control it, then express it for others who may need path to safety.

As far as names go, my parents could have done much worse. My dad still calls me the wise-ass goddess, but that’s another story, I suppose.

All this is to explain, as I’m going through all the archives and sifting material for the coming rebrand and launch—it seems fitting to post the prologue to The Alchemy of Blood since it pretty much underscores the nature of my work in female empowerment and literature for the last twenty years. The trick to finding a voice and brand that will present well, and be able to be inspire and empower without repulsing or causing fear, well, I’ll need some help and direction with that. But, you know, all in due time and with the right collaboration.

​In the meantime: Prologue: The Alchemy of Blood

Prologue
The Alchemy of Blood
 By Athena

I am. That is my first knowledge, the first memory of my birth. As I stretched and sighed into my newest form, I remembered the truth that though I am, I also was, and would be again as long as the stars spawned light into the void; though that memory was quickly forgotten through the pain of becoming.

I stretched, pushing against the space too small for my growing self. The contractions became unbearable. All else was forgotten, but that I am, and that my name is Athena.

Legends claim I sprang from my father’s head fully formed, dressed for battle, and wearing the frown of an inconvenienced woman. I will tell you, I was not dressed for battle, whatever the legends may say.

Zeus believed that his headache would be relieved upon my birth. Yet history proved my birthing did not cure his pain, it only set events in motion to break his heart, and raze his kingdom.

I swear by the tears of dreamers, by the blood of heroes, and the songs of the epic bards—it was never my intention, nor was there longing in my heart to break the world. I beg on my mother’s life, whom I never knew, for mercy--mercy to tell my side of the story.

It was never my plan to bring down my beloved father’s pantheon, or shatter his reign. I beg you to consider the story of how I tried to heal my father’s aching mind, to bring comfort to his chaotic imbalance. The rest of the story I’ll leave to your discernment, and I will defer to your judgement thereafter.

I was not born into the incarnation of a goddess lounging in temples with flowers in her hair, and offerings at her feet. Mine was not the path of adoration or worship, with followers to be bedded and crops to be sown.

No, I was spilled onto the floor at my father’s feet, soaked in his blood and vital fluids as his cranium split, unable to contain me any longer. I was not brought to cradle with mother’s milk and the joyful welcoming songs of women. I was laid bare and naked on Zeus’ throne room floor, shivering in newly formed limbs, trembling at sounds and energy and life.

My uncle, Hephaestus, placed his cloak over my body. Then he stood and pondered the puzzle of my unexpected appearance. My father pushed his skull back into shape.

When the tide in my belly finally settled, and the rush of the world drew to a murmur, I reached for my father. Words could not form on my lips. My tongue moved unintelligibly.

Zeus stepped back with a look of curious horror. “There will be hell to pay for this,” he muttered. “The Fates will demand an explanation.”

The rejection stung, but I did not yet know why. I knew only that my umbilicus, the thread tied to my birth would not accept me. That which created me would not offer solace or comfort. My becoming was unplanned, and there was no place for what I was.

Hephaestus knelt beside me, then glared at his brother. He put an arm around my shoulder and said to me, “We were not expecting…anyone.”

My legs were uncertain, but I pushed against the floor, wobbling to stand. In my ungainly effort to find balance, I reached for my uncle’s sword. Whether I took it from him by surprise, or by his generous allowance, I will never know.

I know only that the first time I stood before my father, dripping in fluid and blood, I clutched his brother’s sword.

And it would not be the last time.
 
Chapter One: A Lesson Forged in Flames

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