The Bookshop
CHAPTER 145
The Bookshop
The story for the new moon eclipse time:
Oct 2 – Oct 16
MOON DETAILS
New Moon +
Annular Solar Eclipse
10°04′ Libra
Oct 2, 2024
2:49 PM EST
REFLECTION DATES
Mar 31 – Apr 15, 2018
9 MINUTE READ
The inside is sparkling.
Books cover wooden tables and line the walls. They fill the shelves that run from front to back and continue up the stairs where a balcony overlooks the checkout counter.
A shopkeeper stands behind it. She tucks a brown curl behind her ear as she leans over the cash drawer, prepping for the day. A handwritten sign next to the register reads “Cash only. No plastic.”
And the register itself is unlike any you’ve seen before — except for maybe in the movies. Like in the old soda shop in It’s a Wonderful Life. But that was in black and white, and this is in color — bronze and gleaming. Like it has just been taken off the manufacturing line.
You run your hand over the covers on the front table and fear opening the books. You swear, no one has ever touched them. They are pristine. Not a single spine has been cracked. It’s as though they were abracadabra’d into the room rather than shipped in cardboard boxes and unloaded here for display.
A bell dings as the shopkeeper closes the drawer and you look up. She smiles in your direction before eyeing your left hand, covered in black tattoos. A “job stopper” — that’s what you once heard a tattoo artist call hand tattoos — or really, any tattoo that can’t be covered.
You’d seen a Help Wanted sign in the window and are suddenly feeling nervous. Like maybe you’re not good enough or not what they need, and you need money. At least, you assume you do. You assume that money is the basic economy in this new land as it was in the land from which you came. You believe this firmly despite the fact that ever since jumping into the Lake of Miracles, you haven’t needed a cent to satisfy your needs. Rather, gifts have just appeared.
And perhaps, you think, the Help Wanted sign is yet another gift. You start to open your mouth to ask the woman about it, but she turns and disappears down the stacks.
Not wanting to appear as though you’re following, you pretend to look at all the books in the direction that she walked. You’re reading the titles of biomedical texts when the you hear a door creak and look to your right. The woman has disappeared even farther now, into the back room.
An “Employees Only” sign hangs on the door, which failed to close completely behind her, leaving it open just an inch.
A blue light glows through the crack — the same neon shade that recently started spontaneously glowing through the palm of your hand — and in your mind, you hear the words from the Jack London quote you saw hanging in the window: “the mysterious something…called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”
And the next thing you know, you’re walking toward the door. You’re opening it wide. You’re stepping inside only to find yourself standing at the top of a long staircase. The blue light is coming from whatever is below.
“Hello?” You call down, hoping to get the woman’s attention, but you hear no voice or footsteps in reply, only the inaudible tug of the mysterious something that calls you now.
You begin your descent.
Save for the blue light at the bottom, the stairwell is dark. The walls and steps have both been painted black, and as you descend deeper, you find yourself wishing you weren’t alone. You miss the flap of Andra’s black wings and wonder if she’s still sleeping at the inn. You never wanted a bird for a pet, but now, here you are, wanting nothing more than that silly crow’s company.
You reach the final tread and step down, into the soft edges of a bright blue light.
Your eyes open wide — you are standing in the most enormous library you have ever seen. Shelves curve around the cylindrical room, and a railing marks the start of yet another staircase at the center. You walk toward it and lean over, triggering a fear of heights you didn’t realize was possible this far below the surface. But here you are — facing what appears to be an endless spiral of shelves, leading so deep you cannot see the bottom. All you can see is the bright blue light shining up like a beacon through the stacks.
For a moment, you wonder how the heck anyone dug this deep without hitting water, but then you remember that typical logic need not apply. That this world — whatever it is — is not like the one where you were raised. Here, bodies of water become fields of rubies, queens reign over burning flames, and crows whisper wisdom in your ear. Whatever this is…however deep it goes…you are ready.
You look around, expecting to spot the woman, but she’s nowhere to be seen. For all you know, she’s all the way down at the bottom of the stacks. If a bottom even exists. You peer down again and see a flickering light coming from a shelf, ten stories below. You steel yourself and begin the spiraling path toward it.
As you walk down the steps, you realize there is not a single title on any of the books. You are passing blank spine after blank spine, and other than the blue beacon, casting its soft light throughout the library, the only other light is coming from behind the books. The walls of the shelves are twinkling like the night sky. No, not like the sky — it is the sky. The starry night wraps itself behind the books, supporting every invisible word.
By the time you reach the flickering light, you wish you had a bottle of water. That was quite the climb! You think before wondering, Is climb the right word? If I was going down. Regardless, you made it. To your inverted summit.
The light stops flickering, and you see — words. A title! A name on a book.
And the name is yours.
You can feel your heart beating as you extend your hand toward it, but before you can lift the book from the shelf, the woman appears, standing right beside you.
“Good. You found it.”
Startled, you turn toward her, but she doesn’t appear how she did before. The glasses that framed her eyes are gone. Her dark curls have turned a golden red, and her skin is sparkling like the walls of the library, the stars in the sky.
“Go ahead,” she encourages. “Pick it up.”
As you turn back toward the book, time slows. Your hand freezes mid-air, and as you stand — frozen, reaching for the book — a voice moves through the library. A message floating in the air:
“Most people think they need to do something specific to make magic work. That there’s a rule book to follow, some great pattern of behavior laid forth in a grimoire written by another soul. But the only real rule to magic is to learn to listen — to the earth, the air, the plants, the leaves, the water pooling in the sky and falling on the dirt. Listen to every little thing around you, including your body and yourself, and in listening, you just may hear the voice of something greater, the voice of magic itself, teaching you about the world and giving you instructions on what you should do next. For you are connected to the world — and every little piece of it — as only you can be. You influence and impact things as only you can. And only once you can hear these instructions — truly hear them — can you follow them. And only then, upon following, does the practice of magic begin.”
The voice stops speaking — the message complete — and time unlocks. Your hand falls on the book, and you pull it from the shelf.
You hold it in your hands — your own book of magic, written by you.
“And now, we can really begin.”
You look over at the woman as a smile spreads across her sparkling skin. She winks in your direction and flaps her wings until she’s small and soaring up through the beacon of blue — a crow in flight.
Andra?
☆
To be continued…
Star Summary
It’s almost here — the complete fairy tale.
This Libra new moon eclipse is the second to last eclipse of the Aries/Libra karmic cycle that began on July 17, 2023. The cycle named: A FAIRY TALE.
What happened then? In July 2023? I heard a ringing in my ears. I sat above the clouds, saw the floor open wide, and a great light descended.
It’s making its way — rippling, rippling, like the sun across a lake.
The first eclipse of this cycle was on April 19, 2023. The last will be in March 2025. This Libra eclipse now (and the Aries full moon on Oct. 17) mark the second to last big push of this dreamy period of creation. This time of NEW BEGINNINGS.
Look out and you will see: the world is a beautiful place.
This life is a beautiful life.
No need to worry so much.
No need to try to get it right.
No need to do anything but be be be — for you are magic and magic is moving through you and it has returned and it is time to remember — not in fits and starts but in the incessant pulse of remembering.
This is THE FAIRY TALE.
See it in the stars:
Sun and Moon (aka new moon) conjunct Mercury, Lilith, Astraea, Asteria, Hekate, and the south node of the moon: Old wisdom is returned to you. It’s heard, spoken, and understood in its most pure and wild form — in harmony with the stars and what was once a Golden Age. Relationships and all other things shift to bring light and dark, yin and yang into focus until they are perfectly balanced inside of you, and you — YOU — are left with a confidence and surety you haven’t felt in years as an old hex is lifted and the power of magic is returned to you. Side note: This is an especially powerful time for relationships and welcoming great teachers (of all forms) into your life.
Annular Eclipse: This new moon is forming an annular solar eclipse — aka a ring of fire eclipse — visible in Argentina and Chile. The eclipse will also be partially visible in other places like Hawaii (visibility).
Where’s this going? This time is leading to the April full moon and is deeply connected with the Mars retrograde cycle that runs from October 5 to May 2. See the Mars retrograde reading: The Great Wave.
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