The Lamb of Sandalwood Blog

The Cupula

The novel mixes the physical with the metaphysical to describe the hero's journey to self-discovery.

The cupula is the meter that tracks the hero's progress.

The cupula in the novel is about the size of a large, high cathedral ceiling (from the author's perspective). Imagine lifting that cathedral dome and placing it upside-down in a special dry dock for cleaning. Sam sees it for the first time as an upside-down dome, like a bowl.

Neither Sam nor the reader is given much 'big-picture' information about it at the beginning. That is by design. The cupula's damaged and encrusted state symbolizes a blocked lens. Should the hero choose to cleanse it, much of the work will involve self-discovery. The lens is patterned after the metaphysical Third Eye (I will leave researching that reference to the reader).

The cleaning work can be considered physical, which then triggers metaphysical work. The metaphysical work follows hints and patterns of visions, discovery, deciphering, and releasing work from a psychological perspective.

As much as possible, nothing is directly told or pre-determined for the hero by design. That is because the meaning is in the journey. For those interested in the psychology theory involved, I would say it is an eclectic mix of Gestalt, Jungian, and feminist theory, with a touch of the Socratic.

The cupula has twelve slices, each like a pizza slice, that organize the progression of cleaning. The hero, and I'm sure the reader, may want to jump to the end. Again, the meaning is the journey. As someone famous said, "You can't have the rainbow without the rain."

The first two installments of the novel clean the first six slices. The Third Seal opens with work to face the structural damages to the seventh slice. Our hero still has five slices to cleanse. What is clear to this author at this midpoint is that the novel series ends when the twelfth slice is cleared.

But since it is a quest, one can only imagine what happens next - this author included!