The Enchanted Peacock

Scarlett A. Starling

Jul 9, 20232 min read

Updated: Aug 5, 2023

Part IV | The Paisley Crystal Ball | The Enchanted Peacock

“Those who feel eternity are above all fear. They see in every night the place where daybreak will occur, and are assured. Summer requires fearlessness.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, The Florentine Diary

Follow the paisley staircase that leads to a never-ending abyss, through the doorways of time and journey to a cosmic library in order to discover the mystery of the enchanted peacock.

At the end of the Stone Age.

The Orkney Isles Sun Festival {1}

Before a sandstorm buried their village of Skara Brae, {2} the people of the Orkney Isles built an enormous sundial that cast shadows so long they seemed to stretch into other dimensions. Every summer solstice, they dragged quarried stones and lifted them upright in order to form a sixty-stone henge that marked the annual solstice's sunrise and sunset. According to legend, this henge, known as the Ring of Brodgar, {3} also marks the beginning of the Age of Aquarius with a native red flower, known as the Papaver rhoeas, or the common Poppy {4}.

"It was a land of both fairytales and nightmares." - Brahma

The Sanskrit word for "India" is Jambudvipa, or land of the Jambu trees. {5} The Jambu tree (Syzygium cumini) is also known as the java plum or black plum. {6}

Brahma {7} is a Hindu god, referred to as the God of Creation or Creator of the Universe. Brahma was said to have been born from the Jambu tree that sprung from the center of Mount Meru {8}, and he returned there often in his later years, trying to reach the top.

Kali, a young woman from the Orkney Isles fled the sandstorm that buried her village at the end of the Stone Age. {1} She obtained a Golden Scythe and was employed at a watchtower to keep an eye on an ancient gold supply in the Caspian Sea Region. Kali eventually met and married an Indian man and gave birth to a daughter who became Brahma's wife. They had many children, one of whom was Indra.