Science Fiction - by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Blind Vision by Marguerite Kraus, Speculation Press, 2000
Secret of the Wolf by Susan Krinard, Berkley, 2001
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, "Its Hour Come Round At Last"
Time Future by Maxine McArthur, Warner Aspect, 2001
Stronghold Rising by Lisanne Norman, DAW, 2000

The most powerful Initiations take hold -- i.e., manifest in your daily life -- at the points where Pluto transits one of the angles (1st; 4th; 7th or 10th House) of your natal horoscope.

Pluto represents power and the angles represent the points where your soul is tied into your real-time life -- i.e., your relationships.

Neptune, Uranus and Saturn tend to manifest whatever Pluto is doing to your life.

When a writer sets out to write a novel -- to take readers on a journey of initiation -- he or she looks for the period in a character's life when things change for that character. That kind of dramatic change is an initiation usually tied to one of these powerful transits -- or in the case of really good fiction, to a complex orchestration of these transits.

But transits signify the timing of outer-world events. Solar Arcs and Progressions signify the readiness of the inward psychology to accept change, flow with it and transform the Self within an Incarnation.

Reading a good book or watching a good TV show, one where you can become one of the characters and experience that kind of change, can be in and of itself a symbolic or ceremonial initiation when you are inwardly prepared for it by a Solar Arc or Progression.

These "good books" or stories are the ones that leave you sobbing hysterically, gasping in the grip of a tremendous emotion you can't identify or articulate, but which is very real to you.

The experience by itself isn't enough, though. For that kind of symbolic Initiation to "take," you must follow up with much meditation, spiritual seeking, prayer and invocation, all focused on the issue brought to the surface by the work of fiction. In other words, you must let yourself change in response to walking a symbolic Path via a work of fiction.

But that kind of story has become increasingly rare these days.

I have two books and a television show here which can take you on that kind of a Path, and two books which have stories and characters which are just as well focused on initiation but are written in a style which insulates you from the emotional immediacy of being the character walking the Path. That insulation may be necessary for some people who can't tolerate a more powerful confrontation.

Blind Vision by Marguerite Krause is from the publisher I highlighted last month, Speculation Press, and thus requires a "conflict of interest" warning since I've just sold a short Vampire story to their upcoming anthology Heaven and Hell.

Blind Vision is about a Seer in a world where precognition is an acknowledged skill. Kings, Dukes and other titled nobility employ Seers -- smaller towns may be lucky enough to have a resident Seer. It is an inherited trait.

This novel is also about the daughter of a Duke who is handicapped by a facial birthmark that has the superstitious believing that she is doomed to an early death and that her doom can be inherited.

These two are the viewpoint characters, and the shift in point of view between them hugs the plot development so perfectly you never feel the jar. You can be either one or both of these people living through the confrontation with a "doom" foreseen by a now dead Seer.

Many of you know that I have a book available on amazon.com titled The Biblical Tarot: Never Cross a Palm with Silver. That book discusses in some detail the problem of using tools such as astrology and tarot to foretell the future.

This novel Blind Vision will take you through the process of learning to use divinatory tools, one emotional step at a time. It is a must-read for anyone serious about treading the Initiatory Path. Watch for Marguerite Krause's name again -- she may become one of those who earns my blanket recommendation as Susan Krinard has.

Secret of the Wolf by Susan Krinard is another installment in her werewolf saga begun with Touch of the Wolf and Once a Wolf (both of which won rave reviews from me). Buy and read anything Susan Krinard writes.

Here, one of the family of werewolves Krinard is following has run from his family and his heritage to the Old West. He has multiple personality disorder, and his alter-self takes over and leaves blank holes in his memory. His alter is a drunk who gets belligerent and sometimes murders people in his rages then retires, leaving the primary personality holding the bag.

He encounters one of the very first women to practice the earliest version of psychology. (Okay, it's more like a television show set in an alternate history, but I have little problem with it here. This really might have happened and never was recorded in our history.)

The two develop a relationship that eventually penetrates the barrier between his two personalities and we see a dawning hope for his future.

Both of these novels have love stories in them -- both are very close to the "Romance" novel without being entirely Romance. Love does not conquer all without some help from pure, raw, heroic guts and Divine Intervention.

Both of these novels show us how the events that challenge our souls and call us to change can open us to love. These challenges are the kind we have seen swoop into people's lives and totally destroy them with no hope of rebuilding.

But both these novels show us how to walk that Path and come out the other side ready, willing and able to rebuild. The secret is the willingness to change -- the willingness to let go of treasured philosophies, attitudes, and convictions.

These two stories are novels -- and so have the depth and context to be plausible and believable. A one-hour television episode is rarely able to tackle such abstract subject matter and make it seem plausible and real.

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda did achieve that in the episode titled, "Its Hour Come Round At Last" in which each character on the Andromeda (including the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that runs the ship) had to face their worst nightmare.

For many that was the Magog, who are intelligent beings who reproduce by laying eggs in other intelligent beings. They are the scourge of the Galaxy, the destroyers of civilization.

The spiritual leader on the Andromeda is a Magog who resists the impulse to savage other species. The resident tech genius was orphaned in a Magog attack on his homeworld. The AI (whose name is Andromeda) has a backup copy of herself overwrite her current self.

No matter which of the characters appeals to you most, you find in this episode a confrontation with nightmare, and a solid path out of nightmare.

Maxine McArthur's Time Future takes us on a ride within the mind and emotions of a woman whose job is to head the crew of a space station set far out in the galaxy -- the first space station to be owned by Earth. The other species of the galaxy are politically hostile to Earth. And the station is currently cut off from Earth, from re-supply, from political and military support.

The station is under siege from an unknown alien race, and her job is to be the liaison with these aliens -- which means going into their environment, which damages her health. This novel tests the heroes to destruction and shows how sheer grit and determination can lead to survival. But the writing style insulates the reader from the emotional immediacy.

Lisanne Norman's Stronghold Rising likewise uses point of view tricks to insulate the reader from really becoming the characters. This is a long series of very long novels, and I am completely besotted with the characters. However, the way this story is told, the focus is more on the vast sweep of political history of the galaxy, on alliances and lining up sides in a war -- on history in the making.

We are privy to the way that the deepest, most intimate details of the lead characters' lives shape and direct that sweep of history -- and the destinies of worlds teeming with billions of lives. It all hinges on love.

That, ultimately, is the message of all intimate adventure novels. What goes on inside of us, the emotional battles we fight, the initiations we accept and reject, the growth we endure, is reflected outside of us in the world at large, in the greater group minds of counties, countries and continents.

In these Sholan Alliance Novels, Lisanne Norman has shown us the broader picture that validates the close-up shots depicted in Blind Vision and Secret of the Wolf.