I walk in a midnight meadow under the gardens of the Castle. The clouds part and the vault of the sky, Nut's body, reveals herself to me. Moon, Jupiter, Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Cygnus...I have never witnessed such a celestial arc and realize this is why astronomers of great reknown, like Kepler, had lived here. Under a sacred oak in the meadow, on the morning of my 50th year, I make prayers to the Great Mother, and singing from the heart find great joy in the appearance of a wild rabbit who stands listening. Ione tells me later, "it is a sign of return, return of the Goddess." A dear, esoteric friend and Prague Astrologer, brings me to a rare and little known Black Madonna for my birthday. She is something I have dreamt, and She finds Her way into my novel.