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6 x 9 Paperback cream |
ISBN: 9781432731335 |
$24.95 |
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Genre: |
FICTION / Historical |
Publication: |
Feb 17, 2009 |
Pages: |
426 |
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Nobility of Blood is no longer powerful. Now is the time for Nobility of Spirit. In the time of the Third Crusade, when Richard the Lionheart led the English army to the Holy Land, most women were without voice or rights. Forbidden by the Pope to travel with the Crusaders, twenty determined women set out on a pilgrimage to find their men. From this dangerous and sacred journey, greater awareness of the feminine principle grew and the Sisterhood of the Rose began to flower. Their exciting journey takes them from England, through France to the ancient Island of Gozo near Malta where the stone temples become their home for a time; to Rhodes, the Island of Roses; and to Acre where they find refuge in a Christian abbey, and befriend the wife of one of Saladin's general who gives them sanctuary. They are destined to meet and learn from powerful women who impart ancient wisdom and knowledge that will change their lives and that of many others, for ever. Shipwreck and friendship seal their destiny on The Island of Roses.
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CHAPTER ONE
THE CALL
The call went out and was answered. Hugh, Earl of Montford, commanding a sizable force, was one of the many knights who responded to the summons from his King, Richard I, to join the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. The King’s messengers informed scores of wealthy nobleman in England that this crusade was necessary, for Salah-ad-Din, a powerful Kurdish vizier, had come out of Egypt to unite Islam from the Nile to the Tigris, invaded and recaptured the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in a decisive battle at the Horns of Hattin, annihilating the Christian army of the Second Crusade, and overrun the Frankish states two years earlier. Of the once vast Outremer Kingdom, only Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch remained in the Christians’ possession, along with five great castles. Pilgrims were again being denied access to the Holy Places of Christendom and the True Cross had been lost. Shockwaves echoed throughout Europe.
Richard received a request for help to mount the Third Crusade from the newly elected Pope Gregory III, successor to Pope Urban III who died of shock on receiving the news of the loss. Gregory died after only two months in office, whilst trying to arrange peace between the warring Pisans and Genoese, so that the two cities might be free to participate in the crusades. It took his successor, Clement III, nearly two years to unite all the warring factions of Europe to enable the army for the Third Crusade to be assembled. Many knights volunteered to join the long and arduous crusade to free the major sacred places of their Christian faith and restore the Kingdom of Jerusalem. After many months of preparation, Hugh’s men were ready to depart to join the English army under the banner of King Richard I, later called the Lion-Hearted. Many of the men would never return to their homeland.
The noise in the castle courtyard below awakened Hugh’s wife, Eleanor, from a deep sleep and she wondered what was happening. Quickly Eleanor slid from beneath the warm goose-down bed cover and ran to the window. Looking down she saw Hugh, tall and resplendent in his chain-mail armour and helmet, wearing the surcoat carefully made for him by the women of the castle and emblazoned with his crest, an eagle with talons and wings outstretched, landing on a gloved hand. His ruddy complexion and sandy red hair that escaped from the open helmet gave him a noble, if wild look, enhanced by the glow of excitement in his flecked hazel eyes. Eleanor had farewelled her husband the previous night and now stood alone at the window, with the warm glow of the night of love enveloping her like a gown. Looking up, Hugh caught sight of her rich auburn hair shining in the early morning sun, and raised his gloved hand to salute her, his wife of nineteen years.
Ah, she is a fine woman, he sighed. Will we ever experience each other’s embrace again?
Eleanor knew they would, for she had been secretly making her own plans to journey to the Holy Land to support the knights and their men.
Eleanor was a tall, well-built woman in her mid-thirties with strong features that looked foreboding, belying her amiable nature. Men respected her, and women envied her inner strength. Eyes of startling blue flashed instant anger and forgiveness in one look. She broached the idea that she should accompany Hugh on the crusade when the call first arrived, but he dismissed it as a woman’s foolish notion, adding that women were forbidden to go, which made Eleanor even more determined to undertake the journey, with or without him. She received a powerful dream instructing her to travel to the Holy Land shortly after Hugh received his summons from Richard. Trevor, their eldest son, went with Hugh, leaving Eleanor to oversee the estates and business affairs until his return. As she watched the small army disappear from sight, her eyes wandered over the land.
Mother Mary, she prayed, please protect and keep them from harm.
Her eye caught a flash of light. Just the sun shining on armour, she thought.
The land lay green and still under the early morning sun. Mist drifted lazily from the pastures, drawn up by the warming air. Shadows rapidly retreated as the sun’s rays found them, revealing great forests and cleared land planted with crops and pasture on which fat cattle and sheep grazed contentedly. The robust castle stood on a rise that dominated the rolling landscape giving extensive views of hills, lakes and forests. She sighed.
I am about to leave all this for some foolhardy journey that will change my life. Is it wise?
Her twin sister, Jane, supported the idea of their own pilgrimage, and together they secretly approached other strong, determined women of noble birth whose husbands or fathers also joined King Richard on the Crusade.
However, it would take a year of preparation before they could leave, as Eleanor wanted ten women to accompany them. Initially, the women approached were resistant at the thought of such an uncomfortable journey to places unknown, but Eleanor and Jane were of a determined nature and knew the powers of persuasion. As twins, they were so dissimilar as to not even be taken for sisters. Eleanor’s tall well endowed, healthy body and red hair contrasted strongly with Jane’s small, delicate, dark looks.
Their mother once muttered to Jane, “You are the image of your Celtic grandmother. She died long before you were born. She was one of the old ones,” and never talked about her again.
For many years, Eleanor and Jane were taught mysteries of the ancient Goddess by an old initiate who lived on the de Montford estate in the guise of a peasant. She was a skilful healer, a user of herbs and potions, and many of the local people came to her for cures for various ailments. Hugh gave her a cottage after she successfully restored Trevor to health following a near fatal fall from his horse whilst practising swordsmanship.
Merlynne, as she called herself, suddenly appeared at the castle just after Trevor’s accident when the resident physician, after bleeding the young lad profusely, had given up any hope of his recovery. She quietly set to work and in spite of protests, covered the wounds with a herbal poultice of macerated comfrey, nettle and golden seal, setting the broken ribs and leg, and sedating him with an infusion of valerian, hops and skullcap, to which she added the flower essence mimulus, so that his fever subsided and he fell into a healing sleep. Within three days, he was able to walk, his damaged leg bound with linen strips around strong willow splints, with the aid of a forked stick under his arm. His appetite improved so that he quickly regained the flesh that had disappeared from his body. Hugh and Eleanor subsequently invited Merlynne to remain for as long as she wished and asked no questions as to her origin. A tall, thin woman with grey-streaked, black hair tied back severely into a twisted bun, and fastened with gold pins, intelligent, coal-black eyes and hooked nose, she had the appearance of the ancient Celtic race who inhabited the land long before the Romans arrived over a thousand years before. Usually she wore a long, green, finely spun gown, covered by a long, grey cloak of fine woollen material, unknown in that part of England where the weaving was much cruder.
Shortly after her arrival, Eleanor and Jane visited her to ask if they could learn something of her art of healing, and so the years of preparation for what was to be part of their life work began. Reluctantly at first, Merlynne agreed to meet them in the valley behind the hill near the castle out of view of the workers. Jane and Eleanor were up very early that morning, excitedly meeting at the gate to walk to the arranged place. As they drew nearer, they spied Merlynne half hidden behind a large oak, her long, grey cloak causing her to be nearly invisible in the mist. In her right hand she held a shining crystal bowl filled with clear spring water reflecting the sun’s first rays. Her left hand held a long wooden staff. She seemed lost in thought and startled when they greeted her.
Every morning for three years, the women spent time together. Merlynne’s knowledge of herbal lore was profound. She took Eleanor and Jane on expeditions around the estates and into the forests to identify and gather herbs, mosses, barks, grasses and flowers. On such forays they took the small bowl of carved clear crystal, to be filled with pure spring water in which fresh flowers were steeped in the morning sunlight.
“This,” Merlynne told the women, “makes an essence which, when added to a preservative such as the crude alcohol distilled by the serfs, assists in the healing of the afflictions of the mind and emotions.”
Jane then carefully labelled the precious essence and stored it in small bottles of green Italian glass. Merlynne taught them well.
“The essence derived from infusing the red chestnut flowers is used for those who suffer from over concern for the welfare of others to the detriment of themselves, and the honeysuckle essence helps lift the traumas and scenes from the past which can not be forgotten. I have a long list of these remedies, some of which are boiled with pure water and the bark of trees. Willow, for instance, alleviates resentment and jealousy.”
From the fields they gathered herbs for infusions and tinctures, whilst learning of the properties and preparations.
“Fungus and moss are useful, especially for lung problems and those caused by the cold, damp conditions in many of the poor dwellings. Comfrey, or boneset or heal-all, for it cures many ills, is made into a paste to use as a poultice to aid in the quick healing of broken bones and for the relief of lung congestion. It is also a potent blood cleanser when taken as a tea and helps with the healing of internal wounds. That is what I used on Trevor. It amazed your quack. No healing comes from bloodletting or leeches,” she laughed.
But healing with herbs was not all Merlynne taught Eleanor and Jane. She also taught them how to utilize what she called ‘a universal healing force’ to bring it through their hands into the body of one who needed healing.
“This needs focused concentration and many hours of practice in meditation and prayer, a going within to contact the inner force, which linked with the universal force,” she instructed the intrigued women.
From Merlynne they learned also of the power of the Goddess, the great feminine principle, which had been driven underground by the patriarchal attitude of the church.
“Women have been relegated to an inferior role in the land. This was not always so. Even those of noble birth like you, Eleanor and Jane, are considered inferior to your husbands, even though you are educated and extremely capable,” said Merlynne.
Eleanor groaned. “Some misguided priests even blame the failure of the Second Crusade on women. We were seen as a nuisance and unsuited to crusading, so no women except laundresses were given permission to go on the Third Crusade.”
“The precedent of women crusading was set by Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard’s mother, who accompanied her second husband, Louis VII of France, on the last crusade, causing no end of trouble, according to some”, added Jane. “Queen Eleanor was greatly admired in France as a leading patroness of troubadours. When she was at home in Portiers she presided over a Court of Love and drew up a code for lovers.”
“When Hugh laughed at my wish to make the journey,” said Eleanor, “my determination rose, for I wanted not only to go as a healer to assist in caring for the wounded, but also from a deep inner longing to visit the country and temples where the Blessed Virgin, Mother Mary, brought Jesus into the world.”
Merlynne added, “Mary’s mother, Anna of Brittany in northern France, travelled with Jesus’ uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, to the Holy Land many years before Mary was born in Jerusalem. In our old religion of the goddess, St. Anne is the Christian name we relate to Inanna, the Sumerian goddess who made the journey into the underworld to rescue her husband Dumuzi. The Holy site of Glastonbury where Joseph came with several of Christ’s disciples and the Mother Mary to build the first Christian church in Britain following the crucifixion of Christ is not too far away from here. Do you wish to feel her vibration?”
Eleanor and Jane made a pilgrimage to Glastonbury with Merlynne during their training and felt the essence of the healing waters of a nearby spring. They felt the very presence of Mary by a small waterfall and knew that she had spent much time in contemplation at that spot. By sitting quietly, attuning to the presence of Mary, they felt very close to her and this further inspired them to make the journey. Eleanor’s dream had its origin at that site.
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About Robyn Adams
Robyn Adams has been traveling the world for most of her adult life, experiencing life and learning from spiritual teachers. The Sisterhood of the Rose is one result of her experiences. As a qualified Naturopath, she learned herbal lore and spiritual healing techniques. She was a co-founder in establishing a well-known Spiritual Retreat in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia.
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