Gene of Isis by Traci Harding Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t taking up invitations to stay with other people of prominence at their country estates!
    I wanted to cry, but crying would not change the inevitable.
    In the following weeks, I spent much of my time in the library—when I was not practising dance and being drilled on social etiquette. My hunt for every scrap of information relating to nature spirits often kept me up until the wee hours, and it was only the strain of reading by candlelight that would force me to give in and go to bed. Lady Charlotte was gracious enough not to insist that I get my beauty sleep, for she knew how dearly I would miss the library and how the late hours afforded me uninterrupted time to study.
    As the day of our leaving for the Midlands drew close, I began to fear that I would never find the information that was eluding me.
    Two days before we were to depart Dumfries I happened across a book entitled Aradia — the Gospel of Witches, an Italian text which referred tothe ‘la vecchia religione’—the old religion. Although prominent in northern Italy today, its origins dated back to the time of the Roman Empire, or perhaps even further back to the Etruscan era.
    Apart from its references to the Etruscan gods and their mythology, of which Diana is the goddess, and her daughter Aradia (or Herodius) the Messiah, it also contained invocations to the likes of Bacchus, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. It also explained how to prepare amulets over which spells could be uttered, and amongst these I was most excited to find ‘the charm of the ringstone’.
    The text explained that to find a round stone with a hole in it was a special sign of favour from Diana (the Great Mother of creation). The lower orders of her otherworldly dominions could then, by invocation, be urged to attach themselves to the stone and render service to the bearer. There was also a caution attached to the possession of such an amulet—it should never be given away, because the receiver would acquire the good luck attached to it and some disaster would befall the giver.
    The spirits of nature will no longer be able to ignore me, I thought, well content with my discovery. I had only to find such a stone as was described and they would be compelled to aid me.
    Given my psychic abilities, you might wonder what aid I sought to gain from the spirits of nature?
    I wanted protection.
    The nature kingdoms were said to have as many sub-races as humanity, if not more, although they were no longer connected to humanity’s evolution. A cataclysmic event in some bygone and ancient era had caused a portion of the human soul group tosplit apart from humanity’s evolution and develop via an entirely different evolutionary process, on an entirely different plane of existence. The lower orders of these kingdoms could be broken down into four basic races, according to which of the four elements they served: gnomes were connected to the earth and the accumulation of wealth, power and position; undines were spirits of the water and could be employed to help with matters connected with emotion; salamanders related to fire and could assist with artistic and creative endeavour, for they were the very essence of inspiration; the nature spirits of the air were sylphs, the most highly evolved of all. Sylphs brought with them the gifts of ease of travel and communication, and insight into the higher mysteries.
    My experience with Dr Rosen still haunted me, and very soon the safety of the Cavandish family would cease to surround me. Therefore, I took it upon myself to find a means of diverting any calamity that might lie in wait in the future.
    I spent a good part of the night copying the lengthy invocation into my latest diary, in both the original Italian dialect, and then translating it into English.
    I would not be left to the mercy of the fates, for I was determined to have a hand in shaping my own destiny.
    Lady Charlotte’s health took a turn for the worse and prevented her from accompanying