The Sphinx

Currently titled: Black Magic,

is a tale of shapeshifting.

Disappointed in love, weary of war, Goran von Hagen retreats to his idyllic alpine estate. He does not know the dark and ancient secret of the looming mountain--or that it will change his life forever.

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She/He is 241 Feet long, 20 feet wide and 66 feet high and carved out of bedrock on the Giza plateau. Some years ago, an excavation beneath her paws discovered several rectangular chambers buried there. This, of course, set off a flurry of speculation, for the seer Edgar Cayce years ago prophesied that an ancient "hall of records" was buried beneath the Sphinx, and that here we would finally discover all the lost knowledge of ancient, vanished antediluvian civilizations. Sadly, no such luck. The original monster is perhaps an image of the one of Khufu's sons, either Khafre or Djeddefre. He does resemble the surviving bust of Khafre, that we know.

I became involved with this creature later, in her Greek guise, when I purchased a set of Susan Eleanor Boulet's Goddesses Knowledge cards umpteen years ago. Recently, I have been pulling a card a day, and, after reading the description, I go searching in various books I have on mythology and sacred symbols to refresh my memory. (This is better for my mental health than watching the news.) 

The Oedipus myth comes from the Greeks. To the Egyptians, the being was similar, but not identical; the Great Sphinx doesn't have wings and is masculine. I have a feeling that this goddess was downgraded by the patriarchy in Greece, because an Eternal is not the kind of lesser being who would become so despondent after hearing the correct answer to her famous riddle that she would hurl herself off the walls of Thebes and kill(!?) herself. Maybe she just left town, which is another, and IMO, better, version of the Oedipus story. Besides, this sort of entity always wins the game one way or another. The Sphinx certainly had the last laugh with Oedipus, who survives her riddle game only to kill his father, marry his mother and then blind himself in horror after he makes his belated discovery. The Sphinx is an emanation of Nature, and Nature, (as we are all soon to learn,) "bats last." 

"Part animal, part human" the card says, but, of course, those designations are essentially meaningless, a false separation.  Perhaps, the Sphinx is a being who represents both the rational and the instinctive natures of conscious beings, as her image--woman, lion, eagle--appears to represent. Sphinx in Greece were often found as mortuary decorations, a fierce guardian of a last resting place. "Sphinx" is from the Greek, and it means "strangler," because that is how lions kill their prey. Lions and eagles are typically royal, solar deities, and Michael Babcock, who wrote the text on the Boulet cards, believes that she is also an oracular being, "keeper of the great mystery."  

In Barbara Walker's "Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" she describes the Sphinx as a "two-faced Goddess of Birth and Death," because in many glyphs she looks in two directions, with two heads and two foreparts, xerefu and akeru, which translates to the "Lions of Yesterday and Today." You can see xerefu and akeru rendered, one in black, and the other in white, in many Tarot decks on the VII card of the Major Arcana, called The Chariot.  The material triumph of the conquering Charioteer may be completely overturned by neighboring cards, or, if it presents in reverse. 

~~Juliet Waldron

Aunt Judy

Before the filles du roi...Desperate to escape her past, Jeanne, a poor widow, accompanies a rich woman to Quebec. The sea voyage is long, one of privation and danger. In 1640, the decision to emigrate takes raw courage, but the struggling colony of Quebec, so far a collection of rough soldiers and fur traders, needs French women if it is ever to take firm root in the wilderness.

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My Aunt, as she was in the 1930's

Hope you don't mind coming along with me for a little family history. And history it now is,  sorry to say. We're all inescapably riding Time's Arrow...

Below is an excerpt from my aunt's obituary. I am her namesake. On the day this blog is published, she would have begun her 98th year. The day following, I will be attending her memorial service. At this time, I will reconnect with members of the family--cousins, and their children and grandchildren. Some, I haven't seen in twenty years, others I have never met in the flesh, only via pictures. 

      

Juliet “Judy” W. (Liddle) Hennessy died Jan. 10, 2025, at home in Yellow Springs. She was 97 years old. She was born March 28, 1927, in Rockville Centre, New York, to Dr. Albert W. and Ruth P. Liddle and joined two sisters, Dorothy and Jean. At the time, her father taught English literature, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and others at New York University. He was recruited by Arthur Morgan to come to Yellow Springs and teach at Antioch College.

Shortly after Judy’s birth, the young family moved to Yellow Springs in a 1925 Model T Ford, arriving and camping in a tent in Glen Helen near the Birch Creek Cascades for several weeks, until lodging was available. When Mrs. Lucy Morgan came to welcome the family to Yellow Springs and Antioch, she left her calling card in the tent flap, as they were out and about.

Somehow or other, I have come the oldest living member of my grandparents' descendants.

My Aunt had all her wits about her when she died, something you can't always say about such old people. When I was born, World War II was still in progress, both in Europe and in the Pacific. My Dad was in Burma. My Uncle Richard, married to sister Jean, was in Europe. Judy was not married yet, because her beaus were away at war. Judy worked at Wright Field (Wright Patterson)  in those days. 

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L to R: Aunt Judy, my Mother, Dorothy, & Aunt Jean

The three sisters, Judy, her sister Jean, and my mother, Dorothy, were all still living in their parents' house, a big four square with an enormous maple which shaded the brick patio behind the kitchen. There was an astonishing garden, too, filled with roses, spring bulbs and many other flowers and also--long before our time--native plants, such as Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Ferns, Trillium, Dutchman's Britches, May apples, Trout Lilies and Dog-Tooth violets. Grandpa also grew grapes on arbors, raspberries, rhubarb as well as lettuce and huge, delicious tomatoes. There was a pear tree and cherry trees, too, all benefiting from horse manure from my mother's much loved mare. 

My earliest memories are of moonlight coming through the leaves on that old tree and making patterns on the crib sheet where I was dozing. From the room next door, a large bathroom, I could hear the women of the house talking and bathing. This was a safe place then, and it remains so in memory. 

Here are some B&W pictures from the late 40's and 50's. That's me, the flower girl at Judy's wedding, wondering what the heck the grown-ups are doing? I could tell it was some kind of adult in-joke, and somehow I felt a little embarrassed by this undignified, giggly moment. However, it was clearly the time of breaking into that delicious cake, so of course I was intrigued, especially if this odd behavior meant there's soon be cake for me! 

The groom is my Uncle Leo, a great guy she'd met at Antioch College where she was working, and where he was studying chemistry on the GI bill after tours of duty in the navy, where he served in both WW II and in Korea. He was a favorite uncle, with a legendarily dry wit, and a taste for jazz, both cool and hot. He and my father sometimes went stag to jazz clubs in Dayton. In those days Dayton was a big melting pot, still bustling with factories and employing hosts of workers. Leo became a brilliant chemist, and he had a successful career. 

Homecoming Court picture

At Ohio State, my aunt was on homecoming court as the independent representative, sponsored by the returning war veterans. She graduated with degrees in Sociology and Home Economics, but all she truly ever wanted to be was to be a wife and mother. She worked for some years, however, at Wright Field (Wright Patterson Airforce Base) in Springfield, and at Antioch College, until my cousins began arriving.

This picture is of my first bus trip--off to a department store for shopping and lunch. I remember being lectured by my mother about being a good girl and not causing any trouble, which probably accounts for my anxious expression. However, once I was away with Aunt Judy, there was no worry at all. We had lunch in a tea room at the department store, and I remember feeling rather grown-up. 

My Aunt was very special to me. One memory I have is of staying overnight with Judy and Leo when they lived in a tiny apartment. I have memories of sleeping overnight in a space that might have been a deep closet shelf, proceeded by many cautions not to fall off, but I remember this as a grand adventure. Judy and Leo always made things fun. 

Those happy days when our family lived together in that unique little college town eventually came to an end. My parents were the first to leave, heading to the Finger Lakes area in New York, near Syracuse, where my Dad worked in the then nascent industrial air-conditioning business.  Here's a picture of me, my 6 month old Cousin Kevin and my  Aunt in an upstairs bedroom when they came to visit us. 

~~Juliet Waldron