Author: Noah Clinch

Narrator: Sallybeth

Intro music:   Finola Ó Siochru singing An Goirtín Eornan.

You are the dark blue butterfly, You are the green parrot with red eyes, You are the thundercloud, pregnant with lightning, You are the seasons, You are the seas, You are without beginning, present everywhere, You from whom all the worlds are born. [Chandogya Upanishad]

We’ve reached the end of this highly unusual story about the liberation of Pretty Raven, known as Maxine Yo, the best ward sister in Tunbridge Wells. Because of Maxine’s brave honesty and total devotion to the hot fire whom she calls Onion, she is finally getting free. It's been quite a journey, but looking back she can't find any deep regrets. Somehow it all seems to crystallise round that strange fragment of a poem of old Hafiz:

"..Forget the common reason, Hafiz,  for it always enslaves - there is something alert and active deep inside of you that wants to lie naked next to God."

That's what she and Onion have been exploring during the fifteen-odd years they've been together. Wait - it’s even longer in Onion’s case, if you count what she learned during her seduction by the eccentric Gilbert O’Connor when she was just a girl. And it’s not too much to say that everything changed for her after that extraordinary encounter with a man called Birdfeather. But I think you already know all about what happened to Onion in that cabin at Porcupine Lake!

Perhaps you’d be interested to know more about what happened between Onion and Gilbert during theit canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness? Or how it came about that Maxine is the Mistress of Quill Farm in Golden Green? Or what exactly happened to Onion during her second adventure in Manitoba? You'll find it all in the extra POSTS on this website (https://pretty-raven.com).

Or should we go on to look into what happened to Onion and Michael in Little Grand Rapids during the winter of 1990, and how things turned out for Maxine, left on her own back home at Quill Farm?

Why not take a few minutes to tell Sallybeth and me what you’ve liked and disliked about the Pretty-Raven podcast. That way you can change the future of the world, maybe.

Thanks for listening to our story!

Noah

It was all wrong for me if I’m honest. I mean going to a concert with a man like Robin was alright, but the whole point of it wouldn’t be the music, would it? We would both know that something else might happen afterwards. In his car. Or up against a wall somewhere; or we’d stop at his office on the way back. For the umpteenth time I imagined myself across Robin’s desk and this time the thought was truly appalling. OK, true it was also fascinating. A bit of flirting was fun, but actual fornication was different. And men are so rough! What new ghastly trouble was I letting her get me into?

I thought again of good old Saint Paul, writing so passionately all those years ago to his disciples on the subject of love. It’s easy to see how the Corinthians might have misunderstood him though – he was describing what they’d be finding in themselves as they opened their hearts to a deeper reality:

“Love is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love has no fear; it does not worry; love keeps no records of wrongs; never fails."

Onion said thoughtfully, ‘You know, that’s actually a pretty good desciption of you at the present time, darling.’

This is a serious post that deals with a theme that runs through everything in this blog. Yes, believe it or not, there IS a central theme - it's the idea that commonsense holds us back from knowing the blissful Reality that we all carry within us - what Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven. Onion's teacher had shown her that this simple realisation will coincide with a great New Renaissance - the next big step forward in the evolution of Mankind. Years ago Onion had called it her Primrose Hill Protocol, and on this particular winter day we suddenly felt that it was within our grasp at last - or if not, then it soon would be.

This is the end of the beginning of the strange story of Onion and me, and how we had Hafiz under our skin. I's a red-hot story for our times. The first episodes told of our joyful innocence right at the beginning, and now we stand at the threshold of a completely new chapter in our lives. It was over ten years ago that Onion was given her Eagle initiation in Little Grand Rapids, Manitoba, and since that time she's been faithfully practicing the program of meditation she was given. Now she's ready to go back for more instruction. Gilbert always thought she was a Dreamer. Maybe he was right, and this time she'll be taking Michael to meet his father for the first time, bless her.

Saint Sebastian by Lorenzo Marco (Lordenzo the Elder) 1490; the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

By now I was getting accustomed to seeing Annie at my breakfast table on Sunday mornings. She was always polite to me, and no trouble in that way, and Michael and my Dad were starting to get used to her. We’d all got into the habit of it – she’d come on the last train down on Saturday night and Onion would meet her at the station. You see, when Onion told me that she’d break me if I wasn’t flexible, she’d meant it. And although I knew that she loved me as much as ever, she enjoyed twisting the knife in me. She said it was getting us ready for our next big step in life. It wasn’t always easy.