Numen is the Latin word for a spirit or presence, possibly a place or object, but also simply the energy of an enchanted place. It also refers to the godhead of a deified emperor or hero, to the enduring presence and charismatic spirit of someone who has been a living person, but who has died. In modern times, Numen is sometimes used as synonymous with the Polynesian concept of Mana, of the life energy of a living thing or natural place. In Black Ships, and in the rest of my writing, the world is numinous, filled with presences and spirits that share our world, with angels and demigods and heroes, with spirits of holy places and of the elements. Numinous is a much better word for it than “Enchanted”, because Enchanted suggests that the object or place is not in its natural state; that something has been done to it to make it more special. Numinous suggests the opposite—the natural state of our world is special, and it is only our perceptions that make some things seem enchanted and unusual.
Magic
In the Numinous World, magic is real but rarely dramatic. The energies of the world can be understood and to a certain extent manipulated to do things, but not in ways that break the laws of nature. After all, magic itself is “natural”, part of the way the world works, and subject to the laws of the world as well.
To Gull, magic is a gift from the gods, and is indistinguishable from grace. Her greatest magic is her foresight, her ability to see the future as an oracle for the Lady of the Dead. And while she takes it for granted, her second power is the ability to see and sense, and to be able to talk to the numinous presences around her.
The Gods
The Lady of the Dead
Persephone Kidnapped, by Walter Crane
The Lady of the Dead is Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the Grain Mother, the goddess of planting and harvest. One day, while she was walking in the summer fields picking poppies, she was kidnapped by Hades, the Lord of the Dead. He carried the maiden off to his caverns beneath the world, where he married her and made her his queen. As a result, the Underworld ceased being a place of sorrow, and the Elysian Fields grew, where the dead may enjoy an endless banquet beside the River with all the people they have loved.
However, in the world above, the grass grew brown and died. Leaves fell from the trees. The sun itself hid its face from Demeter’s mourning. Winter came for the first time. She would never give up searching for her kidnapped daughter, and wandered the cold world endlessly lamenting.
The creatures of the world began to die. People began to starve, and to die of cold. So they petitioned the King of the Gods, and asked him to please intervene. At this, Demeter and Hades met, and were forced to come to a compromise. Half of the year Persephone would return to her mother, maiden once more, and live above the earth. Demeter would rejoice and the world would green again. But half the year she would dwell below, Hades’ bride and Queen of the Dead, for the Dead needed Hades’ justice to be tempered with mercy. During that half of the year, the world above would wither.
Images ancient and modern—by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, left, and on a 5th century BC tablet, right
Gull serves Persephone in her guise of Lady of the Dead, the Queen of the Underworld. Her sacred places are deep caves, and her oracle is supposed to live apart, already belonging to Death.
The Lady of the Dead is seen in two aspects, as a golden haired maiden just at the beginning of womanhood, the Kore, and as the Queen of the Underworld, a mature woman seated on a throne, her face white as bone and her eyes dark as night.
The Lady of the Sea
Late Classical Aphrodite, Athens
The Lady of the Sea is Aphrodite, known also as Cythera. She is the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure, as well as the sea. To a people like the Wilusans, heavily dependent on fishing and the sea’s bounty, she is a very important goddess. One of her most important festivals is the Blessing of Ships, around spring equinox at the beginning of the sailing season. In Gull’s world, the Lady of the Sea has a temple and priests and priestesses, but she does not have oracles, as she is not primarily concerned with the future.
Aphrodite, by Ingres
In Byblos, the Lady of the Sea is known as Asheteret, and her fertility aspect is more important than her pelagic one. There, she is served by priestesses and by eunuchs, who have been gelded to make them suitable for her presence. Ashterah is one of these, and has been promised to the temple her whole life.
In Pylos, Cythera is seen as a beautiful young woman, and is sculpted nude, or with a simple white drape. In Byblos, Ashteret wears a long elaborate skirt of tiers of ruffles, while her breasts are bare and her hair piled high on top of her head.
Mik-el
Guardian Angel, an original painting by Jacob Wenzka, owned by Jo Graham
Mik-el describes himself as a young god, one of the messengers who waits upon Baal, who is one of the principal gods of Byblos. Yet he’s clearly different from any god Gull has ever heard of before, because he remembers being a human being who chose not to progress as a human soul, to “pass the River,” because of his love for people still living.
As a human being, Mik-el was king of a small tribe living along a river, in what is possibly now the Nile delta. Mik-el gave his life for his people defending them from a monstrous killer crocodile, and in death was revered as a hero whom hunters and warriors called upon for help. Rather than pass on to forgetfulness and another life, Mik-el chose to remain a disembodied spirit so that he could continue to help his people.
At some point, the descendents of his tribe had entirely forgotten that he used to be a man, and worshipped him as a local god, one of the thousands of small place deities whose job is to assist with minor things.
The story has yet to be told how he came to Byblos, and how his worship was adopted by people there, counting him one of the warriors of Baal.
In the Underworld, Gull saw him in his original aspect, as a dark-skinned handsome man wearing a white shenti, or pleated linen kilt. In Byblos, she saw him as a warrior of Baal, in stained and worn leather armor, with a beard and long hair. Behind him, almost visible, was the shadow of his white wings.
Mik-el takes a very personal (and very human) interest in certain people, and tries to find them through each incarnation. One of the “sons of his heart”, as he terms them, is Xandros. From now on, Neas and Gull will also have his attention and interest.
The Underworld
The Underworld is entered through a cave, whose long, dark and winding passages lead into the very heart of the earth. For that reason, Gull learned as a child how to navigate such passages without a light.
Beyond the passages is the First River, the Styx. The river is patrolled by a Ferryman, who requires payment to bring souls living or dead to the opposite shore. Neas convinces the Ferryman to let them pass by showing him the Golden Bough.
One of the parts of the Underworld just beyond this are the Elysian Fields, where the souls of those who have died and who are yet to be born wait and are reunited with their loved ones. It’s in this place that Neas finds Anchises again, and has his first glimpse of his son, Silvius, who will be born in Italy.
A part of the Underworld that they do not visit, but that Gull is constantly aware of, is the throne room of Hades and Persephone, where she reigns as the Queen of the Dead. In the story of Orpheus, it is there that the harpist goes to plead for the return of his dead wife, and moves the Lady of the Dead to sympathy.
Beyond this, on the opposite border, is the Second River, Lethe. This is Memory, and souls must cross it in order to be reborn. However, when they do they no longer remember anything of their previous existence.
Orpheus and Eurydice before the thrones of Hades and Persephone, in the Torre de la Parada
Reincarnation
In the Numinous World, most souls are reincarnated. Since souls have no gender and are not intristically male or female, any person could be reborn as either gender. Over the course of time, most people will experience life from both perspectives. Since the soul also has no race or ethnicity, most people will be born in a wide variety of places, cultures and circumstances.
However, there are things that do affect who one is or will become. The most powerful of these is love. People are drawn back to others who they have cared about, and naturally try to surround themselves with their loved ones. Because gender, age, and circumstances change, the way that people relate to one another will be different each time. Husband and wife may be brother and sister, parent and child, lovers, friends, cousins. Love, in its wonder and power, changes its aspect as they change.
Another thing that is very important is one’s intentions or oaths. Oaths bind and cannot be taken lightly. Vows to gods or to other people can tie the soul into a path, bringing them back until their oaths are fulfilled.
Sometimes people return to places or situations because they have unfinished business, or because they have not done the things they needed to do. For example, in the Underworld Neas appears as Patroclus. Was Neas drawn back to Wilusa because of the terrible wrongs done to Wilusa by Achilles as a result of his death?
Lastly, everyone has free will. Just because something has happened before does not mean it’s destined to happen again. Each roll of the dice is new.