When it first began
It all began at a special
place called the Indian Council Caves in the middle of a state forest
near my hometown in Connecticut. Somewhere along those secluded cliffs
and outcroppings hidden deep in the woods I built my first Amity Pillar.
I knew there was significance to what I'd done, but I was too young to
understand what it was. I was a child then.
Much later, after time in the military, Vietnam, college, and while teaching high school art in Minnesota, I rediscovered the Amity Pillar. In Maplewood State Park, a 10,000 acre wilderness area near Pelican Rapids, MN, I came across another special place in the forest. There, along the edge of a hidden marsh, I again built an Amity Pillar. As I stepped back to examine my creation, sunlight sprinkled through the trees and splashed across the tower of stones. The stones sparkled and burst into colors, and from those colors emerged the Lore civilization. I was led through the colors and into the Inner Kingdom. I was a child again.