The Cirque de Cilaos, a volcanic caldera and community on Réunion. Source: Ingolfson
"Samsara-the Wheel of Existence, literally, the "Perpetual Wandering"-is the name by which is designated the Sea of Life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering, and dying. - Gautama Buddha
The Wandering Sea, The Series
An early Christian sect, known as the Cathari (The Pure Ones), believed the earth was corrupt and that by giving up earthly possessions and wicked ways, the soul could be redeemed and ascend into Heaven for all time. If you did not become Perfect in this life, you would be given another lifetime until you could. But this was only one of the reasons the Holy Roman Church branded the sect as heretics.
After decades of Crusade against them, in 1244, armies of the Pope, allied with the French king and a group of his northern knights, laid siege to the fortress at Montségur in the Langue d'Oc region of what is now southern France. The last remnants of the Cathar sect, including all the remaining Perfecti (those near Perfection waiting for ascension into Heaven), had taken refuge here.
After several months of siege, the Cathari defenders (including some Templars, it was rumored) were eventually forced to surrender. Hundreds of Cathari were burned alive in a bonfire at the foot of the fortress mount in a place that would be know for long after as the Field of the Burned. Some of the Cathar defenders (who were not of the sect) were said to have been so moved by their faith that they joined the Cathari in their fate.
But legend has it that some made defenders and selected Cathari made it out through hidden passages carved in the rock mount with a secret or a treasure—or both.
Resemblance to anyone now-living with anyone long-dead is not coincidental. If the past is playing out once again, will it turn out better for the victims this time?
Crusade: Already Seen
Southern France, late Summer, 1243
When rampaging Crusaders come to destroy their village, Renata and Cebille, the village healers, lead a small group of little girls, including Cebille's daughter, Abella, into the mountains to escape. The little girls have been training in the art of herbal healing, but such healing by women—or even girls—has been condemned as witchcraft by the Inquisitor. They must get the girls to safety, and also themselves, for women are now burned for their craft.
But they don't know who else has survived from their village. The women travel toward the fortress mount at Montségur for refuge, hoping any survivors in their families head there as well. On the way, they hope for news, but they must stay well away from villages, for they make a noteworthy troop and rumor of fleeing witches could send the Crusaders their way.
Unexpectedly, they are helped by Sir Simon de Bresilhac, a knight from the North on a secret quest of his own which he is quite reluctant to reveal, and his brother, Perilla, a priest who has doubts as to their eventual salvation and thinks the women are going to Hell anyway.
But Renata has another desperate secret: Like her father before, who was a knight of an ancient line, she has the gift of healing not just by plants, but by the Laying of Hands. Something comes upon her then, and she mumbles in tongues her mother calls Angel-speaking. Others call it Devil's tongue, so it's no wonder the gift is not something she wants to make well known, given that people get burned for that too.
Renata is tasked with a sacred trust by one of the Perfecti—a Cathar ready to enter Heaven, perhaps sooner rather than later as the fortress mount is about to surrender. Renata has vowed to protect it to the end, but when might that end really be?
~~~~~
Liberation: Seen Again
Carroll, Oregon, mid-1970s
Detective Sergeant Susan Hannah is the first female police officer, now detective, in this small city near the Oregon coast. It's only one of the changes happening here. But when a young woman staggers into a local clinic and dies, Susan discovers a series of rapes and a police cover-up that has gone on for some time—maybe decades.
But her progress is confused: She has too many suspects, including the cops themselves—all local boys she grew up with. Then there's the students and all the other men of the local college, which happens to be a seminary with roots back to the old religion, including a particularly interesting monk named Brother Rico Patrick.
The victims over the years have scattered, and most won't talk anyway, and to her horror, Susan finds that this is not the first time this has happened here. Women were raped years ago. Back then, they put it down to just more casualties of just another war. Same perpetrator coming back for more? That would make her suspect list even longer—and might also include her own father.
But something else here seems too familiar—the people and events—like this has all happened before. But that couldn't be true, could it? Resemblance to anyone now-living with anyone long-dead is not coincidental. If the past is playing out once again, will it turn out better for the victims this time?
Crusade: Already Seen
Time: late summer, 1243 into winter, 1244
The region has been under siege by Crusaders for decades, but now the Cathari are reaching the end of their struggle and face their own annihilation.
It was in the beginning of this Crusade that Abbot Arnaud-Amaury—appointed by the Holy Roman Church as Papal Legate to address the problem of heretics in Langue d'Oc—was asked by a Crusader during an attack on the town of Béziers how to discern Cathar from Catholic. The Abbot is recorded in infamy as replying: "Kill them all, God will know his own."
Béziers fell, with thousands killed, even those who sought sanctuary in the church.
~~~~~
Location: Langue d'Oc (Languedoc) region of what is now south-eastern France
The herbal gardens are in the hills above a village near the Mediterranean coast and the mouth of the River Aude. The group travels toward Montségur, a 3000' mount to the south and west into the French Pyrenees. Sign of human activity in the region dates back to the Stone Age, and there is also evidence of Roman occupation there.
In late summer of 1243, about 10,000 troops of the Catholic Pope, allied with forces of the French King, laid siege to the fortress mount, where the Cathars had taken refuge after decades of Crusade against them. Lands seized by the Inquisitor were sometimes allocated back to the Knights from the North, as reward for their fealty.
By March 1244, the Cathar defenders in the fortress mount, believed to number only in the hundreds, were offered terms and surrendered. Anyone who would not renounce the Cathar dogma was burned in a field at the foot of the mount—over two hundred souls perished this way.
But legend has it that several Believers slipped away with some sort of secret or treasure—maybe even the Holy Grail—perhaps with the help of Templar knights who had been amongst the fortress defenders. Isolated groups of Cathars are believed to have existed in southern France and northern Italy for decades after.
~~~~~
Places of Interest:
The Herbal Gardens, on the hillside above the village of Beaux, near the mouth of the River Aude, in southeastern France.
Cheval Maitre - village near the crossroads where Noel, the horse master, lives. Noel runs a blacksmith and livery station, and was a friend of Renata's father as they served in the Crusades together in the Holy Land. The livery is outside of the town, and next to a mill that had been burned down after the owner's were arrested as heretics. Since then, the whole village has been suspicious of strangers.
Hardouin - Robi's and Halette's village into the mountains from Noel's. They have industry here, and the place is well protected by the landscape.
Asile - Village of the coffin maker (Albaric and Aida) near the fortress mount of Montségur. The village has been overtaken by soldiers looking for entertainments, as well as those types of folks who always follow military camps—in business of every description.
The Fortress Mount - The fortress at the top of the steep rock mount at Montségur where the last known gathering of the Cathar Perfecti and the siege to eradicate them took place. After several months, the defenders were forced to surrender, and the Cathari were burned en masse at the foot of the mount. The fortress was razed, but another was built in its place.
* * * * *
Liberation: Seen Again
Time: Spring, mid-1970s
This was a time of the awakening of women's liberation in America, when women were entering professions and jobs which had always been dominated by men. Some are not taking the change well, including religious organizations who have had to open their doors, not for spiritual, but financial reasons, as well a older men who have always been more comfortable with housewives and daughters in dresses and pearls than in a police uniform or a carpenter's belt.
~~~~~
Location: Carroll, Oregon, USA, a small city near the Pacific coast. The city is home to a seminary and college of the old religion, the Church of the Immaculata. With roots in Europe, the college had been very exclusive, but with financial ruin looming, the Immaculata opened its college doors to secular students after the First World War, and to women after the Second World War.
~~~~~
Places of Interest:
The Clinic - The small city clinic adjacent to the campus of the college run by the Church of the Immaculata. The clinic is secular, and they don't get much you could call an emergency. The night nurses served as nurses in the Pacific in World War II, and have a lot of history in the town.
The Cathedral - Large cavernous cathedral of the Church of the Immaculata, whose numbers have been dwindling over the years. It's near the clinic, on one side of the campus and seminary, with a small secluded park in the back where a cleric killed himself decades ago. Its bell tower is the tallest point in the city, and people use it to navigate.
The Oswego Diner - The diner across the street from the police station in Carroll. Serves as an unofficial conference room, particularly for unofficial police, like retired cops and nurses who just want to help.
* * * * * * * * * *
Simon/Susan
Crusade: Sir Simon de Bresilhac, knight from Normandy, who also has Spanish ancestors. Sir Simon has flashbacks to Roman times, and Roman incursion into Gaul, as well as other battles in the Holy Land.
Bresilhac is also an area in the province of Langue d'Oc and this might have been the last name of a knight who fought at Montségur.
Liberation: Susan Hannah, (her married name is Bresilhac, but nobody could spell it in Carroll). Detective Sergeant Hannah is the first female cop, first sergeant, and now first detective in the little city. She has flashbacks as well, but more with people and places than with events.
~~~~~
Renata/Rico
Crusade: Renata of Beaux, a small village near the mouth of the River Aude on the Mediterranean coast of France. An herbalist and healer by the laying of hands—a trait she inherited from her father, and like him, keeps it well hidden. Her father did not see his gift as a blessing and went on Crusade in the Holy Land to erase his sins. Then he went again (where he died), and she thinks that time it was to erase hers.
Renata tends the herbal gardens, uses the plants in healing, and is training the use in others, particularly some selected village girls. Renata means born again.
Liberation: Brother Patrick (Ricardo "Rico" Patrick) has some healing hands and does some herbal healing, a lost art except in the seminary here. Most people go to the city clinic nearby.
Patrick is from Latin name Patricius, which meant nobleman. St Patrick was a Briton who became Romanized and converted to Christianity. As a youth, he was captured and held as a slave by Irish raiders. Eventually, he escaped, and is believed to be mostly responsible for converting Ireland to Catholicism as well.
~~~~~
Cebille/Francie
Crusade: Cebille, a young widow who married a nobleman's young younger son, a man from the mountains who drowned in the river. She is Renata's great friend and has a daughter, Abella. Cebille is a sensible woman, who knows a great deal about the mountains.
Liberation: Francie Duponte (Sibyl Frances Bacon, married name: Duponte), but goes by Francie as kids kept calling her "Simple"). She got knocked up by a rival high school's football captain, got married, and became a war widow (Vietnam) in a very short time. But she has her daughter, Amanda Susan (Mandy), and seemed happy enough with that. . . for awhile.
Francie is still a great friend to Susan Hannah and works in the diner across the street from the police station. The diner serves mostly cops and sparks (firemen). But Francie doesn't mind women's traditional roles, even with the changing times. Give her a color TV and station wagon, and she'll do the housework, no problem.
~~~~~
Perilla/Philip
Crusade: Perilla, a priest, brother of Sir Simon. He's an herbalist too. And while he doesn't believe that all evil is also named Woman, Perilla thinks women are mostly evil. He's not very strong on his own, willow more than an oak. He follows Simon mostly, and only wavers when he's near to someone of the Church who has more strength than his own. . . like the Inquisitor.
Liberation: Philip Albrecht, a doctor in the city clinic in Carroll, working the night shift. Rumor has it he was disgraced in Seattle and had to move away. He's kind of a whiner, confused about his place in this world, but things keep happening to him. He's very unlucky, but his luck is about to change as he's engaged to Francie Duponte, whether he knows it yet or not.
~~~~~
Robi and Halette
Ruby and Hazel
Crusade:
Robinette (Robi), the wool merchant's widow, who has lots of room in her big house now and takes in the little girls. Robi is the sister of Noel in Chavel Maitre.
Halette Dumars, lives with Robi, collects stuff to dye things, mostly cloth and yarn, but also a few other things that are used in other trades. She's a scrounger, and knows the hills and mountains, including smugglers' trails. She is also the cousin of Albaric de Bastonne.
Liberation:
Ruby Belfair, used to be a nurse in the Pacific in World War II, along with her best friend, Hazel. The women are semi-retired now, and found that for them, women's liberation came a long time ago, but nobody seemed to notice.
Hazel Dumars, long time friend of Ruby, they served as nurses in the war together. She has loved Gary Hannah all of her life, and pretends in her mind sometimes that his children by another woman are hers. A rape victim died in her arms, so Hazel insists on helping Susan investigate, along with Ruby. The women have a personal stake in finding out what happened, because they've seen this kind of thing before.
~~~~~
Noel/Norman
Crusade: Noel, a smith and livery keeper near the village called Cheval Maitre. He was a horse master to Renata's father when they went on Crusade, once and then twice as friend as much as vassal. He gives the group shelter for awhile. He is also Robi's brother, and sends the party of refugees there as Robi's family is grown and left home.
Cheval Maitre is meant to mean the crossroads of the horse master.
Liberation: Norman Masters, Susan's boss, great friend to her father, Gary Hannah. Norman is the chief of police in Carroll, Oregon. Before that, he went to war in the Pacific with some distinction and has loved Marian, Susan's mother, much of his life. He was just about to get over that when tragedy struck.
~~~~~
Raimond/Raymond
Crusade: Raimond de Trebes, squire to de Amauri, does the man's dirty business, but has confused loyalties. No one is quite sure if the man is friend or foe, but the same could be said of his own way of thinking.
Liberation: Raymond Treaves, cleric to the bishop in the seminary and college. His is brilliant in his own way, but given to rants of gothic imagination, sometimes to erotic excess. Oblivious to the obvious, and easily a suspect for just about everything.
~~~~~
Amauri/Arnold
Crusade: Arnaud De Amauri - does the Inquisitor's dirty work, collects locks of hair off the women he's taken on their way to hell (a place he is happy to send them). Based on the character who is credited with the notion, "Kill them all. God will know his own.
De Amauri was a name of one of the Crusaders in Langue d'Oc and southern France, as well as a Church official there years before.
Liberation: Maury Arnold, the Chief of Campus Security, has an unpleasant history with Susan Hannah, but most women would say the same thing. He has a secret of his own, but who knows if he'd kill to keep it.
~~~~~
Soldiers and Crusaders
Cops: city and campus
Crusade: Soldiers and Crusaders, their squires and yeomen.
Liberation: Cops in Caroll, including the local detectives, a random nun of malice, and campus cops who are more hindrance than help.
~~~~~
Frederick de Bayern/Fred Bayrd
Crusade: Frederick de Bayern - German mercenary to the Cathari defenders. Helps them in and out of the fortress mount through secret passages, but once surrender terms have been offered, he means to sell himself to the highest bidder.
Liberation: Fred Bayrd, detective who has a family, was almost killed as a cop in Portland so transferred to the quiet life (he thought) of Carroll. Fred gets a bit queasy at blood now, and there are rumors that he had a mental breakdown as well when his partner was killed.
~~~~~
Fournier/Furnus
Crusade: Bishop Jacques Fournier, Inquisitor at the siege of Montségur. The man loves his work.
Liberation: Jack Furnus, Bishop of the Immaculata, but since they don't really support a hierarchy in the Immaculata, he's more of a local CEO of a diocese. Still, with changing times, the Church is changing too, and he's more concerned with donations for their missions in the Third World. He'll do anything to make the Church go on, and it reminds Brother Patrick of something. . .
~~~~~
Pierre/Perry
Crusade: Pierre, relation to Aida, and to Raymond. Helps them in and out of the fortress, and hopefully to get away. Pierre is more concerned with martyring himself than helping the others get away though, and must be convinced that there are other ways to impress God.
Liberation: Perry Baker, helpful campus cop who just doesn't really want to get involved, but finally figures out that he has to live with himself.
~~~~~
Abella/Amanda
Crusade: Abella, Cebille's daughter, and pupil of Renata, they are going to the mountains to the family of her father. Her grandfather is a nobleman, but has fled with his family to Gascony. When their son left, he was disowned for marrying a common girl, Abella's mother. She has never seen them.
Liberation: Amanda, Mandy, Francie's daughter, soon to be Philip's stepdaughter. She's the apple of everyone's eye and has always been Susan's buddy. Mandy is smart, curious, and asks a lot of questions, which usually gets people thinking.
~~~~~
Renata's students
Victims in Carroll
Crusade: Students of Renata's from this village or those near:
*Celine (hurt knee, tanner's daughter)
*Justine (fat one), from nearby village but staying with family
Bernetta, Lucette, Lydie: students
*Abella, youngest, smartest, Cebille's daughter, and her father was a younger son of a nobleman near Montségur
Liberation: victims, Susan only uses initials for their privacy:
*Celia T (Celia Tanner), whose aunt turns out to be her mother from her own rape in 1953. Her father is the bishop.
*Joleigh Bailor: voluptous Southern girl, who was killed last. . . so far.
Beth L, Lisa C, Laura M: Just mention that they were questioned, and Susan uses their initials as an attempt of respect and privacy.
*Amanda (Abella/Andre): Francie's daughter
*REFERENCED SEPARATELY
~~~~~
Joceline/Joyce
Crusade: Joceline, Renata's half sister, sweet, young (14), simple: raped and killed by Amauri.
Liberation: Joyce Morenci (victim who dies in the clinic), noviciate who worked with Brother Patrick, was an acquaintance with Raymond Treaves, and lover to Norman Masters, (carrying his child, miscarried, bleeding, but it was the smack on the head that killed her).
~~~~~
Celine/Celia Tanner
Crusade: Celine, girl who gets knee hurt, and was healed by Renata. She's the tanner's daughter, and the family lives on the edge of the village, as the trade is very stinky.
Liberation: Celia Tanner, one of the rape victims who has a bad knee, skiing accident. Her aunt—whom she looks a lot alike— is traveling. Turns out the aunt is really her mom, who was raped and got pregnant in 1953 (when Norman was in Korea, but Gary, the cop, and Furnus, not yet a bishop, were around).
Gary, a cop then, figures out that Furnus is a rapist, but let him off with penitence: The man becomes a bishop, but he's also Celia's father. She uses this to blackmail him in order to be allowed to study here for her doctorate.
~~~~~
Justine/Joleigh
Crusade: Justine (fat one), from nearby village, but staying with family to learn the trade of herbs.
Liberation: Joleigh Bailor, round Southern girl, latest victim who was killed, but by who is unclear this time.
~~~~~
Renata's mother/Marian
Crusade: Renata's mother, (not really named) in the fortress, and her grandmother too, who made it to the fortress, but then wandered away in despair. Her mother stays in the fortress to help with the wounded.
Liberation: Marian, the perpetual homecoming queen, she's beautiful, but not. . . deep.
~~~~~
Sir Guntram/Gary (Garon) Hannah
Crusade: Renata's father, Sir Guntram, from an old family name, one of the Merovingian kings of early French history. He came back from Crusade, only to leave time and again in order to balm his sins, and Renata's, though she didn't know it at the time.
Liberation: Garon (Gary) Hannah, ex-cop, retired from heart problems. He supposedly went to war (WWII), but turns out he injured himself on purpose and was nearby all the time (Coastal Watch).
Norman and the nurses were in the Pacific, fighting while he was taking care of blimps. But there were rapes in 1953, during the Korean War. He was a cop then. . . and he was also part of the cover up. What about now?
~~~~~
Alaire and Denyse
Andy Hannah and Daphne
Crusade:
Alaire, the simple stable boy who helps Renata and is tortured later by Amauri
Denyse, his older sister who cares for him, but dies in the raid (they assume) as she didn't show up to get him.
Liberation:
Andy Hannah, Susan's brother, and a fire man, not too bright, but everyone likes him, especially the girls.
Daphne, his fiancé, a carpenter's apprentice and quite intelligent. She has a different perspective that might help Susan sometimes.
~~~~~
Etienne/Elroy Bremerton
Crusade: Etienne, Perfectus in the fortress, on his way to salvation. . . or damnation.
Liberation: Elroy Bremerton, the local drunk in the clinic or a jail cell on a regular basis. He might be a witness, but dies or is killed, and Susan Hannah must figure out which.
~~~~~
Louise de Bresilhac/Sister Louisa
Crusade: Louise de Bresilhac, sister to Perilla and Simon, at home at the family estate in Normandy, capable of running the place. Probably a good thing, since neither of them is likely to do the same.
Liberation: Sister Louisa, nun working with Brother Patrick to open a home for wayward girls, that is, unwed mothers. She is quite disturbed that a novice took up with an older man, and saw their affair as rape. It was not.
~~~~~
Albaric and Aida de Asile
Al and Addie Dasile
Crusade: Albaric and Aida, in Asile, coffin makers, Aida is near Perfectus, Albaric is not taking it well as he doesn't want to lose his wife. Albaric is related to Halette. Their business is doing very well these days.
Liberation: Al and Addie Dasile, the couple babysit Mandy sometimes, live next door to Susan (so take care of her sometimes as well). Addie is a local girl who tells Susan all the gossip of how it was back then.
* * * * *
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
- Christian Bible, from Isaiah (26:19)
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
- Christian Bible: Daniel (verse 12:2)
"Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of
bodies of the world."
- Jesus Christ, from the Gnostic Gospel: Pistis Sophia
"Both you and I have passed through many births; You know them not, I know them all."
-Sri Krishna said in 'The Bhagawad Gita
"Whenever I am born in every life to come, may I meet again my Guardian Angel of this life! Speaking and understanding the moment I am born, may I remember my former lives!"
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead
All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.
- Buddha
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- Buddha
"Samsara—the Wheel of Existence, literally, the "Perpetual Wandering"—is the name by which is designated the Sea of Life ever restlessly heaving up and down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering, and dying. (It) is constantly changing from moment to moment, (as lives) follow continuously one upon the other through inconceivable periods of time. Of this Samsara, a single lifetime constitutes only a vanishingly tiny fraction."
- Gautama Buddha
". . .the individual Soul is constantly reborn into the world, rising or falling in fortune according to Its deed and their consequences, which is karma? Until it awakens to full self knowledge, Soul may undergo reincarnations for long periods of time, touching the highest possibilities of pleasure and the lowest depths of pain. . ."
- Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad (Eckankar: Book 2)
"The souls must reenter the absolute from where they have emerged. They must develop all the perfections; the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life; they must commence another. . . until they have acquired the condition that fits them for reunion with God."
- Kabbalah (Zohar)
"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf in springtime. . . In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life."
- Martin Luther
"A defense in the Inquisition is of little use to the prisoner, for a suspicion only is deemed sufficient cause of condemnation, and the greater his wealth the greater his danger."
- John Foxe
"So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see,
Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me."
- General George S. Patton
~~~~~
Quotes by Jean Paul Richter, (1763 - 1825)
German novelist and writer
"The guardian angels of life fly so high as to be beyond our sight, but they are always looking down upon us."
"The purer the golden vessel, the more readily is it bent; the higher worth of woman is sooner lost than that of man."
"The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying."
"Sorrows gather around great souls as storms do around mountains; but, like them, they break the storm and purify the air of the plain beneath them."
"Cares are often more difficult to thrown off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow upon it"
"Age and sufferings had already marked out the first incisions for death, so that he required but little effort to cut her down; for it is with men as with trees, they are notched long before felling, that their life-sap may flow out."
"Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter."
~~~~~
A priori - From what comes before.
Deja vu - Seen again, already seen.
The Wandering Sea
Incarnations: A Listing of Souls
Copyright © 2010 by Marilyn M Schulz
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Works by Marilyn M Schulz
The Wandering Sea
Crusade: Already Seen
Liberation: Seen Again
Incarnations, A Listing of Souls
Speak of Me In Whispers
Spy Girls: Natalya's Great Game
The Wilde Flower Saga: A Contrary Wind
Shadow Reads: Dark Little Stories
Wild West Women of Some Gumption
~~~~~
All works Copyright by Marilyn M Schulz
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All works copyrighted by Marilyn M Schulz
These are works of fiction, inspired by historical events:
The author makes no claim of accuracy.