At the moment of sunrise the Lord Khu-ren stood at the standing stone that marked the Spring Equinox and was transformed by the beams of the rising sun as it touched the gold that was everywhere upon him, from the band around his forehead to the sandals upon his feet. He seemed to be made of light, and as the reflection of the sun from the gold upon his body reached the priests who were gathered around him they all bowed to him. They then rose to full height to sing a song of praise and glory to the Sun and to its father, the spirit of light, and its servant, the Lord Khu-ren.
Deva, the shining one, had the task of bringing the High Priest’s crown solemnly along the processional way from the Midsummer Sun Stone to the Lord Guiron, whose last work as Lord High Priest was to place it upon the head of his successor.
Kyra, in long blue robes, threaded with white and gold, watched proudly from her place at the head of the inner council of priests.
Deva, small as she was, carried herself like a queen, and her father, tall and handsome, bore himself with dignity and humility as the greatest power in the land.
From the ceremony at the Temple of the Star Studies the procession moved solemnly and sedately the long distance back to the main Temple of the Sun.
Night was passed at the Sanctuary, the other priests and Spear-lords camping on the hills around, while the new High Priest sat alone in the centre of the Sanctuary and communed with spirits.
At dawn the procession moved off again to the Temple along the Sacred Way, the Lady Kyra walking beside the Lord Guiron, a few paces behind her Lord, the High Priest.
Within the great circle, concentric rings of people were moving to the sound of drums. The Lords of the Sun were to be called to take part in the final ceremony.
As Kyra took her place in the inner circle with the three great stones at its centre and waited for the Lords from across the world to come and pay their respects to her husband, her mind went to the stone sea urchin she had found so deeply buried in the earth.
It lay in her chamber now and was not with her in the circle, but so vividly did she think about it, so accurately did she visualize it in every detail that it was as though she held it in her hand and gazed upon it.
Its centre became the centre of the circle she was in.
Her husband was waiting, crowned and magnificent, in the very centre of both the stone circle and the stone talisman she held in her mind. From him radiated out beaded lines of power reaching to every point of the universe, and from every point of the universe beaded lines of power reached back to him at the centre.
The simple sea creature, immortalized in stone, was a symbol of the universe!
She looked up, and wherever she looked and wherever she turned she saw each and every thing joyously as itself and yet, at the same time, in its role as symbol, pointing to everything else.
The bird that rose in flight was the developing Being who sees everything from a new angle as it rises.
The blade of grass was the living Being who draws its nourishment from earth and sun, from dark and light, from matter and spirit.
The tall stones that surrounded her reached for the sky, but were embedded in the earth, and formed a circle that was at once closed and open.
The sunlight sparking off the faces of the minute crystals in the stone reminded her of the flashes of inspiration she had experienced that had led her spirit to rise, her vision to lift in amazement at the blue depths of the sky and the immensities she knew were beyond it... One of those moments when, balanced on a point of beauty almost too great to bear, she could sense the presence of an intelligence and a love so overwhelming that she could only presume it was what men called ‘God.’
The words ‘Magnificence’ and ‘Purpose’ burst in her mind like exploding Suns.
She lifted her arms...
And her heart sang...
* * * *
Today Haylken, the Temple of the Sun, is known as Avebury. The college of Star Studies is now known as Stonehenge, and the ‘haunted mound’ is Silbury Hill. They are all in Wiltshire in England. The ancient road, the Ridgeway, can still be walked and the ‘Field of Grey Gods’ can be found on the Marlborough Downs east of Avebury at Fyfield, Burton and Lockeridge Dene. The desert country from where Khu-ren comes, and which played such a part in the former lives of Guiron, Isar, Wardyke and Deva, is Egypt. The ‘Island of the Bulls’ is Minoan Crete (Quilla, the bull leaper, appears also in my novel The Lily and the Bull). Readers might recognize the mountains where Kyra meets the hermit while spirit-travelling in Chapter 15 as the Himalayas, and her dream of the future in Chapter 5 as the twentieth century invasion of Tibet by the Chinese.
* * * *
All locations are both actual and mythic, existing at once on the material plane and in the spirit realms. The adventures occur in actual Time and in the Timeless zone of inner transformation. All the protagonists exist today.
About Moyra Caldecott
Moyra Caldecott was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1927, and moved to London in 1951. She married Oliver Caldecott and raised three children. She has degrees in English and Philosophy and an M.A. in English Literature.
Moyra Caldecott has earned a reputation as a novelist who writes as vividly about the adventures and experiences to be encountered in the inner realms of the human consciousness as she does about those in the outer physical world. To Moyra, reality is multidimensional.
See Moyra’s website at www.moyracaldecott.co.uk for more information.
Books by Moyra Caldecott
Titles marked with an asterisk are either available or forthcoming from Mushroom eBooks. Please visit www.mushroom-ebooks.com for more information.
FICTION
Guardians of the Tall Stones:
The Tall Stones*
The Temple of the Sun*
Shadow on the Stones*
The Silver Vortex*
Weapons of the Wolfhound*
The Eye of Callanish*
The Lily and the Bull*
The Tower and the Emerald*
Etheldreda*
Child of the Dark Star*
Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun*
Akhenaten: Son of the Sun*
Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Ra*
The Ghost of Akhenaten*
The Winged Man*
The Waters of Sul*
The Green Lady and the King of Shadows*
NON-FICTION/MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Crystal Legends*
Three Celtic Tales*
Women in Celtic Myth
Myths of the Sacred Tree
Mythical Journeys: Legendary Quests
CHILDREN’S STORIES
Adventures by Leaflight
eBook Info
Identifier:1843194279
Title:The Temple of the Sun
Creator:Moyra Caldecott
Rights:Copyright Moyra Caldecott, 1977, 2006. All rights reserved.
Description:The Temple of the Sun is the second book of the Guardians of the Tall Stones series. It continues the story of Kyra's hazardous journey undertaken with Karne and Fern to the Sacred Temple, where Kyra is to receive her training as a priestess and renew her love for the Lord Khu-ren. But a malevolent spirit still opposes them. Wardyke has returned, and his influence has already permeated the sanctity of the Temple. Kyra is forced once again to face the evil Magician-Priest, whose thirst for revenge and power threatens the balance between good and evil... (77000 words)
Publisher:Mushroom eBooks
Date:03/2006
Type:Text
Subject:English eBooks
Subject:Novels
Subject:Fantasy
Subject:Historical Fiction
Language:en
Keyword:bronze;age;stone;sacred;circle;prehistoric;britain;stonehenge;avebury
Critic:
Price:4.99
Currency:USDollar
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