Alina Meridon

The Quest

Yïri súsaral n'alïnas qárdan méridon helïsio.
Stars shine in the harbour of the city of silver spires.

Alina Meridon does not exist, and will never exist unless we search for it, but the city may be glimpsed in prophetic dreams - visions of one possible future out uncountably many.

Like Atlantis, Alina Meridon is a city of fable, a utopia of uncertain place and time. In this case the fable is mine, a concept born in a novel I have written (and hope to publish), and though it lacks the literary splendour of Plato's famous creation I find the idea of Alina Meridon equally exciting.

The Gate

The gate (torii) in the picture marks the way to one of the many beautiful shrines (jinja) in Nikko, a town in the mountains north of Tokyo, Japan.

In passing through a torii one enters not merely a shrine but also the world of spirits - of gods (kami) and demons (oni). Neither the kami nor the oni are wholly good or wholly evil: the gods are associated with holy places, such as mountains and waterfalls; the demons may be responsible for many of the woes that befall us, but their presense is an indication that the natural order has been disturbed. This faith is Shinto - the Way of the Gods.

Shinto has much in common with other folk-mythologies, such as the fairies of Europe or, perhaps, the aliens of modern Western culture. The world of nature spirits may not be visible to most of us, but most of us believe in something beyond what scientists call `real', whether it is the heaven of Christianity, or the reincarnation of Buddhism, or another of the many variants on the immortality of the soul.

Scientists say there is no evidence of the supernatural, but science by its very nature is incapable of providing such evidence, and science is yet to explain consciousness. I do not seek to dismiss science - perhaps science is right! - but I do seek to caution: Science is just another religion, based on Articles of Faith that can be challenged. Who of us can say yet what the Truth is?

My faith is evolving with time. My search is for the Truth. I hope that I will recognize it.

Poetry & Tales

Tales of the Dancer, or of InDiRiOhLo:

Love & Pain:

General:

The following owe their existence to the evening writing course I was taking:

Longer stuff:

Older stuff:

True stuff: