Monday 29 May 2017

High Priestesses

SM Stirling, The Scourge Of God (New York, 2009), Prologue.

The High Priestesses seeing visions are like the Nine Witch Queens of Ys. Both groups are told that a storm is breaking over the world.

One Priestess says:

"'An oracle's voice speaks like the wind in a forest, turning and twisting like Time Herself.'" (p. 11)

Wind and Time are Andersonian themes although we are not familiar with a feminine "Time." The Priestess continues:

"'They don't show us more than we can bear.'" (ibid.)

In meditation, too much self-knowledge too soon might be unbearable.

Are the Priestesses acquiring some of the clairvoyant powers of Yasmini in The Peshawar Lancers? Have I asked such a question before? I am getting some deja vu feelings.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

No, I would not say the priestesses we see at the beginning of THE SCOURGE OF GOD are acquiring Yasmini's abilities. My recollection is that they appealed to their "gods" for true visions. Which makes it more like FANTASY. What happened to Yasmini and her sistren of the Order of True Seers (if I recollect the name right) was more science fictional, ESP related, something they gained from being bred by the priests of the Peacock Angel to strengthen those ESP abilities.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Very good.
Paul.

S.M. Stirling said...

Yes, that's about it. Yasmini has a "gift", like Andersonian telepathy; it may or may not exist in reality, but it's conceived of as that sort of thing -- to be precise, as an offshoot of the quantum nature of consciousness (using Penrose's 'The Emperor's New Mind' as a model.

In SCOURGE, the High Priestesses ask, and a Person replies. Who and what exactly the Person is, that's another matter.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

Thanks! That is what I more or less was trying to say.

Sean