DARK MIST RISING: AVALON UNVEILED

The True Picture of One Pict , by Theodor de Bry, 1588 You might ask: What in the name of Jack Pumpkinhead is the Cult of the Severed Head?  Don’t act like you’ve never heard of it.  It’s all around us, even in our so-called civilized era.  I mean, open your eyes. There’s the famous scene from The Godfather when the movie director ends up with his prized stud’s head in his bed ‘cause he apparently refused an offer he couldn’t refuse.  There’s the harrowing episode at the end of Seven when Federal Express delivers a box to Brad Pitt, who opens it only to find the severed head of his beloved wife.  And there’s the now-hallowed mantra of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts: “Off with her head!” The King and Queen of Hearts , by John Tenniel, Illustration from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Cult of the Severed Head is everywhere nowadays.  So, why is it so unheard-of?  And what in the Sam Head – I mean, Hill – does it have to do with Queen Guine

The Empress Card, Rider-Waite Tarot Deck Jung was right.  We have all within our individual psyches certain archetypes, stereotypes, caricatures, tarot cards, whatever you want to call them. The “Warrior” does our fighting for us: on the street, in the boardroom, in the shops with that rude salesgirl who won’t put down the phone to wait on you.  The “Priest/Priestess/Hierophant/Sage” is the brains of the outfit.  I have one friend who describes her frugal, penny-pinching, budget-making self as the “Hooker”. The Fool Card, Rider-Waite Tarot Deck Then there is the “Child”, or “Fool”.  I won’t even go into that one, except to say that you see it on the street every day when someone’s trying to drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time. And the “Empress” is the homemaker, the nurturer, the queen of the household, and sometimes, the “belle of the ball”.  This post is about the “Empress” aspect of Guinevere. Just as we have different archetypes, we also have different names. 

Boudiccea Haranguing the Britons , by John Opie I’m just going to say it: Boudicca was a badass.  And, don’t say, “Whooooooo?”  Boudicca.  That’s who. Queen of the British Iceni tribe after her husband died.  Freedom-fighter against the Romans after they flogged her and raped her daughters.  Burner of London, amongst other cities.  And suicide: she killed herself after the Romans finally beat her in battle. Boudicca.  That’s who.  Anyway, she was a badass. You might ask: What does this have to do with Guinevere, King Arthur, Camelot, or my book, The Tyrant and the Twins , which is really the raison d’être for this blog?  Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you that my book has not one, but THREE narrators. Yep, that’s right.  THREE.  All female. Two out of three are – or over the course of several books will become – what scholars, archaeologists, and snobbish history-buffs like me like to call warrior women, battle maidens, or, in the Tolkien tradition, shieldmaid