Hedgeland tour Guest Post by Ann Nyland

The Kiste.

Hedgeland revolves around the object known as the Kiste - pronounced

kist (as in kissed) + e (e as in He). In Hedgeland it is a device for time travel

but in history it was a sacred object in the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient

Greece. The terms of Cardiwen's world likewise come from the little we do

know of the Eleusinian Mysteries, for the rites and secrets of the Mysteries

have been kept even to today.

Basically, the Mysteries were all about Persephone, the daughter of

Demeter who was the goddess of human cultivation of nature. One day while

Persephone was out picking flowers she was abducted by the god Hades, the

ruler of the underworld. Demeter had no idea where her daughter was, and

searched for her for nine days. Finally she was horrified to learn that Hades

had taken Persephone to the Underworld as his bride, and all this with the

consent of Persephone's father Zeus.

Demeter was so heartbroken by the betrayal that she left the gods and

went to live with humans in a place called Eleusis. For a whole year she

would not allow any crops to grow on earth. Finally Zeus sent the messenger

god Hermes to order Hades to let Persephone go, but Hades was madly in

love with her. Before she left, Hades gave her some pomegranate seeds to

eat.

Demeter and Persephone were reunited at Eleusis but Demeter soon

discovered that Persephone had eaten something in the Underworld, which

meant she had to return there for a few months of the year. And so the story

goes, the earth blooms with flowers when Demeter is above the ground, but

the earth is barren when she returns to her lover Hades.

The Kiste, so important in Hedgeland, was one of the sacred objects

in the Eleusinian Mysteries. In ancient Greece, there was a festival of the

Greater Mysteries which lasted for ten days in September.

The first part of the festival was the bringing of the sacred objects

from Eleusis to a temple at the base of the Acropolis. After the procession,

the initiates entered the Telesterion, a large pillared hall. In the center of

the Telesterion was the Anaktoron. Only the hierophants could enter the

Anaktoron. Before the initiates could enter the Telesterion, they had to

chant, "I have fasted; I have drunk the Kykeon; I have taken the Kiste, and

after working it I have put it back in the open basket."

We do know that the Kykeon was a fermented barley and herb-based

drink used as a base for potions by sorcerers, and that the initiates chanted

after drinking it. No one knows anything else about the rites, as the penalty

for divulging them was death, which was a bit off-putting. The elements of the

Rites were called the "Unrepeatables." To this day, we have no idea of what

happened.

Blurb:

Hedgeland, an urban fantasy of time travel. Dr April Neuland, a Professor of Ancient

Languages turned non-fiction writer, has been plagued by dreams all her life, dreams

of her past life in the Otherworld. Meanwhile, in a parallel dimension of April's

past and Caridwen's future, Worthing, a Future History Professor, has allied with

the Military to access Future Internet communications and use new technology

to influence April to write an ebook novel revealing where she, in her past life as

Caridwen, hid the Kiste, a device to travel through time and space. Hedgeland weaves

all three time/space frames: Caridwen, Worthing, and April. Hedgeland is the first in

the Hedgecraft Sequence, but is a fully self contained novel with no cliff hangers.

Author Dr Ann Nyland was on Faculty at the University of New England, Australia.

She is a grammar pedant, ancient languages translator, and best selling non-fiction

author of such books as The Complete Books of Enoch; Angels, Archangels and Angel

Categories: What the Ancients Said; The Book of Jubilees; A Devil of a Job to Find

Satan in the Bible, among others.

AUTHOR BIO

Author Dr Ann Nyland was on Faculty at the University of New England, Australia. She is a grammar pedant, ancient languages translator, and best selling non-fiction author of such books as The Complete Books of Enoch; Angels, Archangels and Angel Categories: What the Ancients Said; The Book of Jubilees; A Devil of a Job to Find Satan in the Bible, among others. Hedgeland is her first novel.

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