A cross of the sun´s wheel...

Submitted into Contest #99 in response to: Begin your story with somebody watching the sunrise, or sunset.... view prompt

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Christian Fantasy Indigenous

 Lin woke up one early ´morn, and saw the sun hit the window with a glowing glare. A brilliant tone of light from the spheres above. And this glare, this very gaze, the eye from the window was a silly salute to the dawn. A poetic heritage this Midsummer day. Lin turned around in bed, still sleepy. Still not wanting the day to chase her to yet another work. No, she was not a workaholic.

As a matter of fact her work at Samhall, a state-owned company, was a place for handicapped people. Handicapped both physically and mentally. But the sun gave no care of sickness or of disease. Lin turned around yet in another clumsy manner. Her body did not want to go to work. Very well. But the sun sneaked behind the curtain and made her feel the relief of light itself, as she saw the twinkling rainbow drips on the dew from the window. Glittering all over the place. Colours of the radiant sun that talked about the new day´s beginning. Oh how she wished she could explain what a sun could do. It gave summer a new fresh start. A season with its own values. No, she was certainly not a workaholic at Samhall, although she could handle all paperwork with a shift hand. And that was just about it. She stretched out like a cat. Legs between sheets. Sheets that became whiter from the hitting light of the sun…

Finally she got up. Took a shower. Brushed her teeth. Rituals of the dawn. Rituals as old as that. Rituals that were so common she paid no notice of them anylonger. But the sun was determined to wake her up, it was stubborn about getting the new day into order and balance. The balancing point of the solstice.

She slowly got her sleepy mind to think it over. The balancing point made a cross on heaven. Four different point on the spheres above that made Midsummer´s feast a ritual when queens had to make friends with the thralls during the Viking era. And the thrall women could make love with the king so that nine months later brave warriors were born into all families. Although odd enogh, Lin hated war, but still liked to drink a cup of vodka. The cup for an old tradition. Also she hated to dance like the frogs. Cause frogs, when kissed at the nights of Midsummer could turn out to be princes. Oh how she hated the very idea of meeting some handsome young prince , who would give her – of his status? A highborn boy would give her – what the heck? ! Silly tradition just because of solstice´s balancing order of the sun´s wheel on heaven. Grrr, no more f-cks to give! No more love if warriors of the clan came to kill her best friends. Grrr. The sun´s wheel of heaven! Such a silly joke! Herring and vodka! Silly, nothing else than silly. But?

How about getting dressed for work. Samhall here she comes. Clad in colours of the rainbow…

She took the bus. The sun rose higher, hitting the buildings with its glare. Its one eye touched upon the whole city to make everybody wake up. And lots of them did. Children were not at school. Some people still went to work. Lin one among them.

At work her spiritual friend had already arrived. Now he sat down at the desk, in front of piled up paperwork. He was on a strike of his own, as usual. The dawn had no reason to let out his spirit if it was about work. He thought the job mean. He refused to do the work. He asked Lin if they could go out to smoke a cigarette or two. They did so. Sat down on two garden-chairs. Sat there gazing up at the sun. The company was gonna give them a Midsummer´s plate of herring that day, because they could be worth it. And handing over a present for the workers vacation. Something Lin did not need. Anyhow.

Lin had no Midsummer feelings. Did not know how to have them. Had been a bit lonely in her youth. Not knowing two many people. So she said to herself that because of that tradition of drinking the hell out of themselves, she could not care less. Did not like to drink anymore. Herring she could eat. Nice food.

At dinner time the catering firm came around with the workers plate of food. Coffee and cake afterwards. They sat indoors. The sun smiled through the windows in that huge hall. Lin could pretend it was their own Viking hall. Loads of space. And the same kind of tradition with jokes about sex. Viking tradition, see. And that lonely lovely spirit of sacrifice to the nature. Must be from a heathen tradition. In her dream-world Lin saw horses hanging from the tree of Mankind. The pigs slaughtered to give food to the highest god, Oden. Oden must have been connected to the highest spirit, although Balder was more Christ-like and kind and mild. He was to become Man´s sacrifice because of death. The nature mourned his funeral. Where was his spirit now? Inside the sun? Sun smiling gently, harsh but gently. Like a touch from the high worlds of folklore. How about it, Lin?

But Lin had began to ride her inner stream of consciousness, like riding on the thread of weaving web of the nornes. Those Female spirit who cared about Mankind´s destiny. Weaving a web of life. And like death could tear apart the web of future if they did not pay tribute to the gods. That meant that the web of death needed to sacrifice animals. Or Jesus Christ? Or Oden himself? Or Balder? Lin took a piece of herring in to her mouth. Chewed on it. Drank some lemonade. Had her coffee afterwards.

Her friend of spirit was sort of nagging with a work-mate. Was sort of in love with Lin. And she had told him about the wheel of the sun. And about her poetry. That the highest god, Oden, wanted men to become warriors and tradesmen, and gave the duty of spirit to the priestess. She had to know about the ceremony of Midsummer. Although it was silly. She wanted to escape it. Wanted to go with another fresh start. From where? The new cross of a new solstice beginning? A new Messias? Where from? Where to?

And as the sun stood high on the middle of heaven´s round each corner of the wheel shaped a cross. The cross of the solstice circle. Circling round and round in eternal dance from the past in to the future. The web of life was shaped by the sun, the planets and the moon.

And as the herring on Lin´s plate was uneaten but still fresh she thought that everything was now back to order. The full circle should end in another cycle of six months. Midsummer was in opposition to Christmas day. Two points of the sun´s wheel. Only a priestess of the Vikings was allowed by Oden to wake up the spirit of – secrets?

As the hall finished their plates and coffee and their cakes the music began. Traditional Swedish songs. Folklore that began to fall into distrust because they were thought of being too commercial nowadays. Lin smiled. Commercial? As the sun would care about it? But then again, the tradesmen of the Vikings had been on routes all over Europe. Where the tradition of Midsummer came from had to do with the sun. And the sun was all over the planet to bring light, love and unity. The one and only. Weaving weaving weaving the web of rays...over and over again!

And at a second thought Lin came back to an old conclusion. She did care about the heathen tradition. And had heard that Jesus Christ was taking on the burden of the four solstices...Maybe, perhaps...and then the son was webbed into the sun...

June 24, 2021 12:46

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