Land of the Ever-Living Ones by Anthony Murphy

My next book, called 'Land of the Ever-Living Ones', will be my first work of fiction. It follows three works of non-fiction, so it is quite an adventure for me! Drawing on ancient spiritual wisdom, with a healthy dose of Irish mythology and cosmology thrown in, it represents a journey into hidden depths of the human heart and soul. Here is a synopsis:

Land of the Ever-Living Ones is an extraordinary dialogue between an old man and a young boy that reaches into cosmic and spiritual realms. In one fireside conversation, they explore the universe with discussion about many different things, including natural phenomena, the mysteries of life and the question of what happens to us when we die.

The old man (sean-draoi) has gained much knowledge and wisdom during his life, and readily imparts it to the eager young boy, who is full of questions.

The cover of my new book

Tír na mBeo (Land of the Ever-Living Ones) was an ancient Irish name for the otherworld, the home of deities, spirits and ancestors. It was believed to be a place where there is no sickness or old age and where happiness lasts forever.  In this wide-ranging conversation, the man takes the boy on a journey into his own ancestral past, and through lesson, metaphor, story and dream, creates for him a stunning insight into his spiritual existence, his quest for eternity and indeed his experiences of Tír na mBeo.

The journey is a magical and powerful one, evoking both ecstasy and melancholy, for lost ancestors, for the frailties of mankind, and for the sometimes harsh lessons of worldly life. However, it is an optimistic tale, one that stirs up great hope for the eventual destiny of the boy, and for all his kin.

Its central message is one of hope – a reminder that that light will always emerge out of the darkness, and that all our struggles on this earth are not in vain.

I am hoping to release the book both in printed format and as an eBook for Amazon Kindle. If you would like to make a small donation towards the costs of the printed version that would be greatly appreciated. You can donate via the button below.

A snippet from the forthcoming book by Anthony Murphy

Solon of Athens, the Greek statesman, met a “prodigiously old man” one time, on a visit to Egypt. This ancient elder of the world told Solon of many cataclysms which had purged the earth. “There have been and there will be many and divers destructions of mankind, of which the greatest are by fire and water, and lesser ones by countless other means”.
The previous incarnation of mankind, and the current one, are separated in world mythology and beliefs by a great inundation of the earth. The narrative of this deluge is universally familiar as the story of Noah and the great ark in which he sustained and protected life from utter destruction by the elements.
All across the world, from east to west and from north to south, the recounting of this great ferocious cleansing, this prolific but unconsummated washing of humanity, echoes among young and old, great and small.
If Nimrod's tower is a symbol of our desecration of cosmic sanctity, then Noah's ark is equally a symbol of hope, that we shall not be utterly removed from our place in the harmony of cosmos, and that we should once again plant our seed abroad on the face of the earth so that the flower of humanity should flourish and blossom with the earth's blessing, not retribution.
The waters of the great flood of the earth represented a baptism of sorts, a renewing of mankind and the natural order. We once again became infants, crawling and walking on the land and learning all over again what it was like to be nourished and nurtured and to give and take in equal measure, and to share in the wonders of creation. But our re-education in cosmic union taught us of the sacredness of the world, and the bitter necessities for that union to survive included the utmost requirement for restraint. The people of the new world urgently needed to grasp and maintain the infantile humility which had been demanded of them by the rapacious, apocalypic elements.

This is a brief snippet from my next book, currently in progress, which may or may not be called "The Flood and the Fire - the beginning and the end of the world in Irish myth and prophecy".