The Call of the Triple Spiral

Carol is overwhelmed with responsibility. She's a single mother living in Bristol with two sons, Ben age twenty, Jason age ten and Francis, her abusive mother who has dementia. She is bullied by Ben and distant from Jason. She works at home doing a soul-destroying job as a ghost writer for a pharmaceutical company. She knows that something vital is missing, that her life is not in balance. She parks her difficulties in bubbles at the back of her mind.

Carol hears a mysterious call to come to Newgrange, a Neolithic monument in Ireland. It is a call she cannot ignore but she has a dilemma about what to do with her mother while she's away. Her friends, Moira, Sue and Alison, help her find a solution. Carol's previously uninterested brother takes Francis.

While visiting the Newgrange monument, Carol and Jason meet an unusual woman who speaks no English. She has brown skin and blue eyes and is wearing a crude cowhide robe decorated with the triple spiral symbol. Jason names the woman Tilda. They spend the next few days together and quickly bond. Carol invites Tilda to her home in Bristol. Tilda agrees to stay for six months. She learns that Tilda is an awakened master, a Wisdom-Keeper in her Neolithic community, today called Newgrange. Tilda is part of a circle of Wise Ones whose role is to lead their community into harmony with the cycles of Nature and the cosmos. She has been instructed by Great Mother to travel to the future with a mission to awaken the people and the trees of the 21st century.

Under Tilda's influence, Carol begins to awaken. With Tilda as a model offering a new perspective, she begins to see familiar things in a new way, such as her relationship to food, to Nature and to machines. She becomes open to new experiences. She and Tilda become lovers. But Carol's life unravels as the roles she's been playing become intolerable. Within months, she has a breakdown. With the help of Tilda and her circle of friends at a seaside resort, Carol faces her bubbles. She gives up her unsatisfying job. Her brother takes over the permanent care of their mother. She gains insight into her own and her mother's rages. She learns that it is possible to stand up to her son Ben.

While Carol is facing her challenges, Tilda is also being tested. Her allies are her spirit guides, Crogan and Charmall, and the ever present Great Mother. Tilda observes Carol's world and makes remarkable progress learning English. She discovers wild beasts roaming on unmoving rivers, a curious devotion to machines, an inexplicable significance attached to skin colour and a lack of appreciation for the life-sustaining realms. She fulfils her mission through her relationships with trees, a nearby stone circle and people - primarily with Carol and her family but also with Darren, a homeless man, and Moira's friend Pete who dreams of going on an Ancient Tree Pilgrimage around Britain.

Tilda completes her mission and makes plans to return to her home in Neolithic Newgrange. Pete is the means by which she gets home. He invites Tilda, Carol and Jason to come with him in his camper van. They visit ancient trees throughout Britain and then travel to Ireland to leave Tilda at the Newgrange monument. Although devastated by Tilda's departure, Carol has learned enough to trust her own inner guidance and take charge of her life. She knows that the capacity for love is within her.

Tilda and Carol have an emotional parting at the entrance to the Newgrange monument before Tilda time-travels back 5,000 years. Carol, Pete and Jason continue travelling, bonding as a family. They eventually settle in Wales where Carol and Pete become lovers.

The story ends two years later back in Bristol. Carol hears the call again. It is Tilda who has reappeared in spirit form, offering to be Carol's spirit guide.