Welcome to the world of my epic fantasy series! The Akashic Archives is set in two primary locations—the Otherworld, and modern day Melbourne in Australia. If you’ve never been to Melbourne, I’d strongly recommend a trip there, but for a journey to the Otherworld you’ll need to rely on your imagination.
Origins
When I hit upon the idea for a portal fantasy, the first thing I imagined was a world to which we would travel if we could somehow cross the threshold between the living and the dead. Pretty heavy stuff!
In the very early drafts of the Akashic Archives, my main character was a young girl whose father had died suddenly in rather mysterious circumstances. Bereft at her loss, the young girl visited an old wishing well where she made a wish to see her father again. The crumbling wall of the well gave way and she tumbled in. When she came to, a tiny bespectacled mouse guided her down a dark tunnel into a totally alien world where a long journey awaited her, one that culminated in a reunion with her lost father.
I completed a full draft of that story before deciding I needed to learn more about the Otherworld (the land of the living dead where the young girl found herself). So I set about writing a prequel story that made the world itself as much a character of the story as the people themselves.
And that’s where the Akashic Archives, as they are today, originated.
Overview
The Otherworld is my idea of where souls go after they’re done with their current life here in our every day world. The premise for the existence of the Otherworld is that souls cycle from one world to the next, over and over, until they finally learn all the necessary lessons. At that point they ascend to the next level of existence (the astral plane). Souls are born, live and die in both worlds, however one very important distinction separates the Otherworld from our every day world: souls arrive in the exact state, and at the exact age, required to maximise their learning in the shortest amount of time. Hence souls can arrive at any age—newborn, children, adolescent, adult, even elderly—and integrate into their new life as though they’d been there all along.
I’ll create a separate page detailing the finer points of life in the Otherworld, but for now, read on to learn more about the towns and settlements, the palace and the academy, and, most importantly, the Isle.
The Isle of Akash
The centrepiece of the Otherworld and home to the Akashic Records, the Isle of Akash was first inspired by the legend of Avalon. The Mists of Avalon remains one of my most favourite books and I was (and still am) enthralled by the Isle of Avalon, the priestesses, the Lady of the Lake and, most importantly, the mists. As my stories developed I moved away from the essence of Avalon, instead favouring an isle which housed the Akashic Records, the universal storehouse of information on every soul in existence.
The Isle of Akash sits within Lake Sulis and is protected from the mainland by the mists. These mists are not a weather phenomenon. Rather they are a manifestation of the minds of men who do not understand or abide by the will of the Goddess. It is said that any man who attempts to pierce the mists without the Goddess’s permission will go mad and drown. The only way to travel to the Isle is by barge, rowed by oarsmen loyal to the high priestess, and in the company of an ordained priestess of the Isle.
The Isle of Akash is home to the High Priestess, her mistresses, priestesses and the young women in training to become priestesses. Girls are selected by the High Priestess to train on the Isle, where they arrive as maidens (regardless of their age), before moving to novice then initiate level. Not all who train become ordained as priestesses. Like any place of learning, some will pass, while others fail. That said, failure as a concept is not used to describe lack of achievement on the Isle. Should a girl, or woman, not reach the level of ordained priestess it will be because the Goddess has identified another path for her. On the Isle of Akash, the way of the Goddess is the only way.
Teaching on the Isle centres on four domains—fire, earth, air and water. Fire governs all intuitive practices such as scrying, astrology and development of the Sight. Earth governs all physical practices, such as herb cultivation, weaving and control of the physical world. Air governs all strategic practices such as problem solving and thought-capture. Water governs the healing practices. No element stands alone. Each one dips into the others in order to be fully realised.
Not all priestesses remain on the Isle, with many leaving to take up the roles of healers, midwives and seers throughout the Otherworld.
The Akashic Records
The storehouse of the records of the past, present and future of every soul in existence. The Records are contained within The Vault which sits atop a grassy knoll in the centre of the Isle of Akash. Only the high priestess has unfettered access to the Vault but she can grant access to others should she desire.
The Vault has no doors or windows and only the high priestess has the ability to open it. Once inside she will find herself amidst a deep, starry sky, with ethereal orbs whizzing around and past her. Should she wish to access a particular record she need only hold out her hand and conjure the person, or soul whose record she wishes to access. The record, in the form of an orb, will appear and settle into her hand. At that point she will be able to shuffle through the record as though viewing it on a fast forward/rewind on a video screen. Once she has finished, she simply releases the orb and it flies off into the night.
Think of the Akashic Records as the google search of souls. I first became aware of the Akashic Records when a psychic told me that I could access them. I had no idea what that meant and it was before the internet so I had limited means to discover what the records were let alone how to access them. Only years of wondering, then research, revealed the truth to me. We each can access our own Akashic Records at any time, by being aware of our emotions, our instincts, synchronicities and by developing a relationship with our Higher Self. Astrology is another brilliant way to access your own Akashic Record, with the Moon’s nodes being the storehouse of much past life data within your chart.
Sovereign Hill
Home to the Otherworld’s royal family, Sovereign Hill is home to the palace and Sovereign Forest (aka “the Sov”). To my mind, the royal family functions very much as the British royal family—figureheads with a controlling hand over the government of the day. When I imagined the palace itself, I saw a structure similar to the one pictured here—more of a large English country home than a palace. In the Akashic Archives, King Alexander Ravenscroft rules, with his wife Imogen by his side, and his son William is the sole heir to the throne.
Academy of Alchemy
Perhaps my favourite place in the Otherworld, the Academy of Alchemy is my dream magical school. While not exactly Hogwarts, it is the place where literally anything is possible and absolutely nothing is discouraged. The Academy itself takes in students of all ages, with seven being the youngest age a pupil has been accepted, and no upper limit on anyone wishing to learn or contribute to the vast storehouse of knowledge held there.
While Wellstones is the more traditional academic institution in the Otherworld, where pupils study history, politics, mathematics, poetry, science and the arts, the Academy of Alchemy has seven primary areas of study each signified by a specific colour. Red signifies animal studies including mythical creatures, orange represent the experimental arts, all the way from light to dark and every shade in between, yellow is potions and tinctures, green is nature studies—herbs, plants, and the potions made from them, blue is astronomy, indigo is divination including astrology, runes and scrying and violet is alchemy.
As a former student of the University of Sydney (pictured left) myself, when I imagined the Academy of Alchemy, my mind went straight back to the Oxford-like structures at USyd. The original buildings are well-preserved, and yet the stone steps leading from the ground to the first level are well-worn with deep dips where they’ve been trodden by millions of feet. That’s the feeling I wanted for the Academy of Alchemy too—that sense that many, many scholars had been here before the current crop of students, and the steps would remain to carry many more pupils in the future. And like USyd (and unlike Hogwarts) the Academy caters for, and encourages, post-graduate study, making it the greatest storehouse of magical knowledge in the Otherworld.
I’ll keep adding to this page, so come back and visit! Next up I’ll add the main towns and settlements mentioned in the Akashic Archives, including Gemtown, Loomsborough, Anglers Rest and the Wastelands.
