While Olivia attended to the needs of her black and white furry familiar, she mused as to Pythagoras of Samos and the connection between music and the divine. "I wonder if he was a son of Apollo, old Pythagoras. Maybe it's time to check into where Master P came from...what do you think, kitty?" Duly ignored, the cybersybil first finished her feline chores, then winged back to the library, so intent was she on discovering what might be up with the ancient sage's home. "Let us see...my atlas of classical geography places the island at Latitude 38N, Longitude 27E, not far from Patmos. Ahhh, there was a Samian Sybil, of course, who presided over the Apollonian oracle near Hera's temple and who went by the name of Phemono...seems she was also the mystic who prophesied the birth of Jesus in a stable. And lookee here, there was also a famous Samian labyrinth, evidently. But it's so confusing because everyone knows Apollo had horrible luck with women...simply horrible....so, how could he be the god of music? And of the oracular? How could he inspire a priestess to ecstasy...unless...hmmm...I feel a revelation coming on...." All of a sudden, downstairs in the kitchen, Olivia's Ipod began to play Pb Airship's classic: Every Inch of my Soul.

You need schoolin', girl, I'm not toolin' I'm gonna get you, here for rulin' Way down inside, girl, you need me I'm gonna give you every inch of my soul Every inch of my soul....

"Curses, I'm in trouble," O shivered, goosebumps all over her body. "I better call 22 because I'm in over my head. If what's happening is really happening, then....I don't even want to think about it! Music is a key to something arcane, obviously...but if that god I saw out back of Peyton Place as a kid was Apollo, then I am so...screwed," she sighed. "Look what happened to Cassandra, for gods' sake...." "...although, if I were to embrace Apollo, rather than reject him....hmmm...maybe things would get better. Maybe I wouldn't feel so alone all the time. Well, Duke is a singer, and he loves the legend of Orpheus, perhaps I already have made peace with the golden god. Yes, I must have. There, another mystery solved!" But deep-down, in every inch of her soul, Olivia knew she was denying a black swan, a dark eclipse of Apollo's sun. Reaching over for her Dali Tarot deck, she cut the cards and, if by Crowley Magick, the Queen of Coins appeared." "Damn buggering son of Hermes," she spit, referring to the trickster whom the surrealist artist Dali had most identified. "Damn him - it's not just any queen, it's the Empress Eugenie, born on my birthday, May 5th. Damn. And look, next to her, a devil counterpart, a goat...a Capricorn. Probably associated with the number 9...uh-oh. James Mage was born on January...no, I won't even think about it, how ridiculous!" she exclaimed, then went outside to the woods to read and meditate upon her favorite book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion.    Copyright © 1999 - ad infinitum cybersybils.com All rights reserved.