Seed Appeasement

Orlando and I set out the following morning in the renewing sun, knowing we had to see the Minekeeper, a woman of infinite wisdom and discernment.  Maude has told us so many things, some of which would not be realised until much later on.  Leaving her house was like squeezing though a tiny hole, and when we looked back it was nowhere in sight.  We knew then this was no ordinary journey, to search for and find the elixir of creativity, and Mnemosyne warned us there was something more to this.  She had explained the centre parts of the earth were sacred, like a womb, where things were birthed.  Partly we felt unworthy of this trek, and we knew we did not want to violate the sanctity of the meaning there, as respect had to be paid.  So it was right that in meeting the formidable, simply dressed woman, we gave her the single gold coin, like for like, and some poppy seeds for her rich garden.  It flourished green, bursting the boundaries of the wooden fencing, and forming a lush, long, verdant belt through the valley.  Mnemosyne had reminded us to put these things in our travelling packs, but we had not known what they were for.  “Instinct” — Maude had said, was the key.  Now it seemed right to offer them, and indeed it was true, the Minekeeper was pleased.  Orlando also reassured her he knew the ways of right travel through these parts, as we had been through the darkness of fear and superstition, and stayed a night in Hades.  She smiled as if in feint remembrance, and I wondered if she knew the glowing jewels Maude had, and indeed, if she had been the giver of those.  There was an uncanny likeness, but not sameness about them, as if they were sisters in some way or another.  After she had given us a rich brew of herbs, done in her own special way, she sent us on with brief instructions, and wasted no time at all in planting the seeds we had given her, in her flourishing garden that covered that part of the valley.

 

(copyright Imogen Crest 2006.)