Addendum II

Raw Active Imagination Session

(Typos and all.)

Here in its entirety I’ve provided one of my better Active Imagination sessions. I’ve included the process of entering the Iris of Time, greeting my narrator, Lumi Laura, and taking dictation from her. This session occurred on August 1, 2011. It is not edited. I’d prepped myself thoroughly beforehand so that I knew exactly where I was in the story relative to my plot points and what I wanted to get out of it. Still yet, the conversation flowed as if I were watching a movie on Netflix. The narrative, of course, comes in the voice of my author/narrator, Lumi Laura. Here it is typos and all.

I see the lady in white pacing back and forth on the balcony. I approach her and she immediately turns back into thehome, walks through the living room and into the antiroom and hands the key to the Guardian of the Gate. i acknowledge her and she turns the key in the mechanism so that the ir Iris slides silently open. I see Lumi on the tripod.

They [the three protagonists: Alexandra, Jaklin, and Mikhail] entered the monastery grounds from a parking lot where tourists parked, and they walked through up the steps and into the new chapel. They found a monk in the far corner inspecting a painting of Carol I. Alex asked if he knew how they might find Father Zosm Zosimos.

And who may I say whiches to see him?

Alexandra Eidyn, she said.

Oh, my , yes, he said. Follow me please.

They left the chapel through the back door, crossed chapel ground to the old to a row of rooms along the side of the square. past the old chaptel Alex knew was built in sixxteen eighty five. They stopped out from of one of the doors, and he asked them to wait there, and he’d see if Father Zosimos could would be avilable.

Alex felt displaced here at the monastery. She felt little of its religious significance. This was suposed to be holy gru ground, and yet, the gazebo seemed more sacred to Alex.She looked at Jaklin and Mikhail. “I feel so foolish,” she said. “I wish I hadn’t come.”

But the monk returned just then, and Father Zosimos was following behind.

“My dear young lady,” he said. What a pleasant surprise, and I see you’ve brought two friends with you?

Yes, Father. They are the de dearest friends in th all the world to me. I have something important to discuss with you, and I want them present.

then let us find suitable quarters, he said., and he led them away from the row of room and to another chapel where he entered and led them down the id isle where he seated them in the first row and brought up a chair so that he might face them.

Alex noticed that that the cross that Christ’s cross, large and intimidating stood in the background behind him.

He motioned for her to talk.

I’ve a confession, she started, and looked down at her folded hands. She pulled her from from within her blouse, so that she might gain the courage from it she needed to tell this story. First I must tell you the humilitating news that I am pregnant.

And who is the father of ? he asked glancing quickly at Mikhail.

I’ve had a paternity check, and although it could be Mikhail, it isn’t. but the other sad news is that a few weeks ab ago, I was raped It was just before you came to test me of for vampireism with the crosses.

My child, did your grandmother know i of this?

No. No onw one but me knows about this until just now. I There’s a great deal more to the story that you should all her hear. Perhaps you should just let me tell it all, and then you can do with me as you whish.

Please, then. I be quite. Proceed.

You’ve all heard of the serial rapist that was murdered in the park. Well, it was he s who raped me. Since the child does not beli belong to Mikhail, I can only say that it must be the rapist’s child I carry.

Father Zosimos makes an exp exclamation.

I know that you tested me with the cross and proved to your satisfaction that I’m not a vampire, but I know myself that I am one, butcause when he raped me, I attac I turned on him with such ferocity an I can only compare it to that of a while whild animal. I am the one who murdered him while he was in the act of raping me. I sucked every ounce of blood from his body, and such was my hunger for blood that once I had drained him, I attacked the other man right there in the park. It’s a wonder that I didn’t kill him too. I realize that I don’t fit the mold of a normal vampirebut as I told you before, and also have told Jaklin and Mikhail, I was bitten by a woman who sucked my blood. I was told by a divine being nmaed Catalin that the woman was a divine being. he told me that I wouldn’t become a vampire unless I drained killed a human being by sucking their bllo blood, which I did.

“So you see father, I am a vampire, and I have to have blood from time to time, and I go out at night, when I can get away from Jaklin and Mikhail without their knowing, and I find someone to feed on. I’ve don e done it several time, and I’m afraid that I’m causing much of the hysterial now raging in Sinaia.

So here’s my question father. I feel that I should hav have the child. I don’t want to end its little life. It is half me, but how can I have the child of a sesrial rapist?

Father Zosimos started to speak but then fell silent. She Alex could see tears in her eyes.Finally he spoke. Why weren’t you wearing the corss, he said. You promised.

But father, I was wearingt the cross when he raped me. Why didn’t it protect me?

Enough! girl. Pl Please! shouted Father Zosimos. Such profane things spoken here before our Lord in his own temple.I know such things as though you speak exist because I’ve seen them with my own eyes. But never would one of them enter such holy ground as this. He turned to Jaklin. Have you seen any of this. Do their of you, and he looked a Mikhail know this to be true? Is she delusional?

She is not delusional, said Jaklin. Yet she only gives you the sorry side of her condition. forjust a few night ago, we witnessed what is all but a miracle performed by Missy.

Missy? Who is this Missy?

That’s the name Alex gave to us as her own nmae. We’ve know her as Missy from the first.

Go on. Tell me of the miracle.

We were taken to a pla home where Missy was requested to allow a vampire to bite her. This she did, and her blood cured the person of his vampirism. And then another also’And then another also, added Mikhail. She was a wonder. Even the two people whose home it was claim to have been turned bc back from vampireism previously. She has a gift. but these new revelations of rabid vampirism herself, and murder. I’ve not hear of this. He glanced at Alex but immediately averted his eyes, as if finding a repusle repulsion in the very site of sight of her.

And this relationship between the three of you, what is the nature of it?

the room fell silent, none of them wishing to allow anyone to share their secret.

Finally, Jaklin answered. We love her, she said. It’s just quite simply tu true. We love her.

Is it carnal, the pris priest asked.

Yes, Father, said Mikhail. I’m afraid it is.

Father Zosimos rose from his chair and paced about the room a bit. ‘Yet another plus to this perrible afliction is that those off of whom I feed are inoculated from ever having the vampire’s disease. The other man I bit on the night I committed the murder, he was bitten again but has never become a vampire. I am not a normal vampire. It has to do with Velinar, the woman who bit me, that divine being.

Okay. that is enough. I get the picture, said Father Zosimos. I have a de tendency to be lenient in the human failing of the follower of Christ’s followers, But this goes beyond anything of which I have knowledge. Yet, one this seems an absolute certainty. The nature of who you are, and the lifestyle you’ve chosen, say to me that that you must give up the cross. That which I gave to you should not bring comfort to one who practices such acts.

But oh Father, I do so love this cross. Ples please don’t take it from me.

Then promise me that yo will give up these two friends of your, and that you will no longer feed off the blood of other human beings.

But Father. It’s not a choice. It’s a compulsion. I have no more control over it that than I do breathing. And I do them no harm.

Do they voluntarily give up their blood to you?

Alex looked away from his eyes and felt great shame. No Father. I take it by force.

As I thought.And this relationship carnal relationship with your two friends?

They are beyond a compulsion. I love them oboth so completely that I would give them up no more than I would christ.

Is this not lust that drives your need for them? Is it not the carnal part of the relationship that draws you to them?

I don’t deny that that the act is a great joy of mine. But the true essence of my feeling for them is the the love and compassion they show me. Their great kindness and affection for me. Their concern for me. That and their compassion for all things that live on this earth and the love of life here.

And yet are they practicing Christians. are you a practicing Christian.

No Father, not in the sense that we belong and participate in the church. But the way they live their lives is in the true traditions and path shown by Christ’s life and teachings.

Yes, well the carnal nature of yor your relationsip would seem to show a different side of that story, wouldn’t it.

Perhaps, Father.

Handm me the cross, child. I’ll have it back.

But oh Father. It will break my heart ot to do so.

He reached out his hand.

A great sadness rose up inside Alex as she raised the golden chain from around her neck and ove her head. You’ll have to take it from me, she said. For I cannot give it up of my own free will.

With that he reached for it, but she would not turned it loose.

Please, f Father.

Relax your fingers.

She did and felt her cross leave her possession.She cried.

Now, about the child you carry within you. It is a great relief to hear you say that you wish to carry it to full term. It is God’s child, and to end it wold in itself be murder. That you worked this out yourself is a great comfort to me and tells me that you are not beyond hope. but I must tell you, and this may also be your choice. You cannot raise the child. It will should be given to those who can give it a proper family.

The thought of giving up the child was a grief she cu could not bear. Oh, non, Father. I already have a great affection for the child. I love. surely that will be my continual act of contrition, to see to its wellbeing always.

But it is not your comfort and desire, your feeling that should be considered in this but only that of the child, the best situation for the child. Surely you can see that being raised by a vampire is not in its best interest?

T Ath those words, Alex broke. something inside her seemed to crack open and all the grief sadness and grief flowed into her soul, and she cried great sobs. Like great gusts of a hurricane the missery of the soul pounded her being.

Jaklin held her all the way back t home, but Mikhailwas distant, quiet, and kept a pace or two from them.

I’m losing him, Alex thought. He is such a fine young man, and I’ve lost him.

Catalin will tell Alex that the cross is not only from the wood of Christ’s cross, but it is also from the Tree of Life out of the Garden of Eden. It would be be a great crime to take the cross from her because it is from the fruit of the tr Tree of Life that she gains her immortality here on Earth. She is destined to live forever, and it is because of the Tree of Life. Catalin also denies that her relation with both Jaklin and Mikhail is profane. This is not lust. Love is what God puts in our hearts to work the great good in the world. If they share this love for you, then it is one of God’s great earthly mysteries and must be honored.

But I’ve already lost Mikhail, Alex tells him. He’s drifted from me.

Love has its great moments, but it also ebbs and flows. Yes, he may grow distant from you for a time, but if it is the love you’ve described to me, perhaps it will return.

The session ends as the sounds of Lumi’s voice and the visions fade. I walk back through the Iris, thank the Guardian of the Gate and hear it quietly slide shut behind me. Once again I’m home in my bed, and it is the middle of the night.

So that’s what one of my better Active Imagination sessions, with me typing on a Bluetooth keyboard in total darkness, looked like. It was one continuous session with no break. In the novel, this particular event occurs in Chapter 21: Encounter with Father Zosimos.

THE END