More: Lemniscate, Psychopompos, and a Balance

Lemniscate, Psychopompos, and a Balance



In my story, More, I have incorporated a few terms to help readers understand what Bella and Milly are, and to help illustrate how the world of magic that is all around them functions.

For those of you not familiar with the Lemniscate of Bernoulli, it is a figure-eight and in mathematics represents infinity. In More, it is an ancient title associated with someone who is born with magical properties in their blood and who has the power to never die. Now that Bella has been bitten, in my tale, she has met both of these standards and can now be called a Lemniscate.

In ancient Greek mythology, a psychopompos is a "guider of souls" (sometimes referred to as "boundary crosser") who gives safe passage to souls who have just passed on. These guides take those souls to a variety of destinations, depending on where the dead one is called to go. I have also looked into the term with a modern mind and discovered that it pops up now and then in writings of those who study Carl Jung (the Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology). In this Western way of thinking, the word refers to a condition that acts as a balance between the conscious and unconscious mind. This is a significant way to understand the word when we remember that Bella dreams, even though she is a vampire. I want to ask the question, "Where do we go when we dream and why is it that we are not in control of ourselves the way we are when we are awake?"

It is because of Bella's gift of being a boundary crosser that she was able to guide Ma'at to Nya. They are in different realms, but they will be reunited through her. That is also why Milly was able to come to Bella when Bella was sleeping, right before she was changed into a vampire. Milly has magic in her blood as well, and is connected to Bella in this way. I haven't really mentioned it yet in the story, but Milly can always sense when someone is about to die. So, Milly could sense that Bella was about to "die" in a way, which is what happens when one is changed into a vampire, so she came to Bella through Bella's mind. She sent Bella through a door where Bella met a guide. Remember that creepy scene in Ch. 52 ("Portal")? Remember how that child turned out to be Bella? Her journey began there, when she realized that she was her own guide. The journey for others began there too, as we will come to see. Well, we kind of already had a taste of it. Remember when Edward was able to "get inside of Bella's mind" when after she was bitten (Ch. 53, "Follow")? She drew him in to her with this ability. She will do it again.

That brings me to the next point... The Balance. Don't worry, I'm not going to give everything away here in this one little paragraph, but I am going to mention a few things about the battle between Bella and Aro. There will be three entities that pour out of Aro when Bella brings him into the arena of their minds, so to speak. This tar-like ooze is made up of Corcece ("blind heart"), "Abessa," ("being without substance), and Malvenu ("not welcome"). These three entities act as one side of an eternal scale. And by eternal, I don't mean "going on forever," but rather something that has always existed and something that always will. On the other side of the scale we have three more entities called Fidelia ("faith"), Speranza ("hope") and Charissa ("charity"). It is these three women that "ate the fruit of life from a glorious vine," and it was the first three that were in the vine at the cave that whispered to Bella that she couldn't go on and who went so far as to try to bind her down (Ch. 69, "Vines"). The vine is meant to represent that these two polar forces are connected, and yet they give different fruits. Bella will be told by both that it is "by their fruits that the world knows them." People do not meet the Women at the Balance or be drained of their pains until after they die, so they have never met these six entities while in life. Yet, they have met them in a way. They turn up all around people by way of the consequences to what people think, say and do. Anyway, more on that later in the story.

There is one final note I would like to make here:
When I chose the names for Ma'at and Apep (which is Aro's name before he became a vampire), I chose these specific names because of what these two characters represent in ancient Egyptian myth. Apep personified chaos and darkness. Ma'at personified balance, harmony, justice and truth. They weren't perceived as "good" or "bad." That dichotomy didn't come about until several centuries later. In the very oldest recorded myths, they were seen with a different set of philosophical eyes, so to speak. It is important to remember these things when thinking of such ancient legends. It was a very different time and culture.



In closing, I would like to share a little bit of dialogue from a coming scene. I won't say exactly who says, but it is said to Bella. That is as much as I will give away on the matter:

"We are all flawed in some significant way, Bella. Yet, the balance lies in recognizing those weaknesses and working on them so that they ultimately become our greatest strengths. Do not feel deficient and as though you are lacking... you are humble. You know right and you know good... find your balance, Bella. Learning and growth is all that will ever be asked of you. Do not anguish over puzzles... you will be prepared to solve them at the time they need to be completed. Do not rush.

"Remember that if you are not pleased with your feelings that you may choose to turn around. Just never be so prideful that you isolate yourself and think so highly of yourself that you destroy opportunities for yourself and for others. Give reverence to life and celebrate it. Be of sound mind. Go now."