CONSILIENCE
A Companion Blog to The Ash Girl
Consilience is a scientific method of validating a hypothesis across multiple disciplines. The biologist E.O. Wilson reclaimed the root of the word, which means “a jumping together” in his book of the same name. In it he posed the radical notion that the arts and social sciences might be invited to that auspicious table. This blog, and The Ash Girl, is a bit of an homage to E.O. Wilson’s proposal. Each post offers a deeper look into the story, the symbolism, the science and the themes from the author’s point of view (by chapter) and welcomes you to add yours.
In this way we might come to some expanded understanding and shared awe of our half-known worlds.
The Goddesses’ War
What if all of the goddesses (every goddess ever named in any myth or story anywhere) began their own war to reclaim what has been lost and bring the worlds back into balance? What if Athena, given her nature as warmonger, strategist and embodied wisdom was their leader? And what if all that we are experiencing now, the rise of extraordinary events in nature—tsunamis, hurricanes, plagues—the rise of women, the un-gendering movement, ancient methods of healing finding its healers, ancient ways of seeing finding its muses, was the effect of The Goddesses’ War?
Amelia Disappears
Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in 1937 triggered thousands of articles, books, and theories about what happened to her and her co-pilot and the avid interest of entire nations that still has echoes today. As happened with much of this book, Amelia’s part in the events in The Ash Girl revealed itself in what felt like serendipity.
Born of Ash
Traditionally in novels we have come to expect one central character who is transformed by the end. Others might shift a bit from and to as well, but mostly in service to this main ugly duckling turned to a swan, if you know what I mean. This story is about four human girls born to act out the roles of the four tarot princesses and help the goddesses rebalance the world—all of them will be changed by the end, but as in the Thoth Tarot, no one takes as a big a LEAP as the Princess of Disks.