The End   Wellbrunnr was a small village located on the Westside of the head of a river. Surrounded by impenetrable forests, bogs, and wellsprings, the village of Wellbrunnr had the resources it needed to survive but never progress. The geography of the landscape prevented the people of Wellbrunnr from developing a familiarity with the world outside of their immediate space and place. A seemingly hearty group of people, the men guarded and protected the village, hunted, and insured Wellbrunnr’s safety.   In distant communities, ‘others’ knew the men of Wellbrunnr as Warriors and, consequently, no one dared encroach upon Wellbrunnr. The village remained isolated, yet safe, but unexposed to other ideas or ways of being. The only individual that they knew of outside of the village was a Messenger, the first-born son of a carpenter. They had never been exposed to any one other than him. Naturally, he was revered since he brought them an outside message. As the messenger he seemed to speak a truth beyond the boundaries of Wellbrunnr. Due to their lack of exposure beyond the village, they could not fully understand the messages he communicated. Subsequently, an elder of the village was anointed as Wellbrunnr’s deacon. In a dominant position of control, his duty was to interpret the messages of the outside messenger on behalf of the pantheon of elders so that the villagers might understand what the Messenger had communicated. In this regard, the deacon was expected to maintain control of the narrative on behalf of the elders, and therefore served a specific village function that required a tremendous amount of responsibility to ensure that their traditional stories stayed intact – particularly those interpreted using the Words of the Messenger.   The deacon took it upon himself to interpret the message for the people of Wellbrunnr. The storylines used by the deacon were communicated in a way that the populace, unexposed, could understand. The elders believed that the populace was not intelligent enough to understand the complexity of the history, or the ideas that underpinned Wellbrunnr and thus were often dictated. The cultural narrative of Wellbrunnr centered on traditional notions of masculinity. New ideas were not permitted, as they were confined to the boundaries of the village. The deacon often told the stories brought by the Messenger; retelling these stories from his own perspective. His objective was to uphold the ideals of Wellbrunnr. In other words, meaning was connoted through the deacon’s sole point-of-view, which was black and white; right or wrong; as well as moral or immoral.   Each morning the women of Wellbrunnr would begin their daily tasks: cooking, cleaning, and tending to the young children of the village. The women knew their role and were unable to speak, only the men could speak. The women remained voiceless, as the men knew all, or at least they knew all that they knew about Wellbrunnr, and what they thought they understood about the Messenger.   The men believed that the women of the village existed to tend to their needs, and create order where the men continuously created chaos. They used the name of the Messenger to create a sense of legitimacy around their ideals, and communicated consequences to instill fear in order to uphold the notion of the sacred in Wellbrunnr. The women were always required to listen. In fact, if they attempted to question, clarify, understand, or offer an opinion they would repeatedly find that they could not speak. The men would raise their voices and bluntly remind them of their place. Even when the women listened, the men felt unheard because the women were not responding, as they remained voiceless. The daughters, invisible, were continuously trained to remember their function for the men, to remain silent and perform their role. It was expected that the men were fed immediately upon arriving from the fields, their boots slowly drawn from their weary feet by their wives whom were perpetually creating the superficial appearance of having boundless energy to serve their men. Anything other than seemingly endless energy to serve the men was construed as threatening to the perceived sanctity of the home and the village. When marrying, women were required to change their name so as not to disgrace the men of Wellbrunnr.   The men were often so busy seeking food, constructing abodes, and training their sons to become Warriors that they often forgot that there was a world beyond Wellbrunnr. Consistently under threat of the unknown, they were well trained to defend and die at all costs for the people of Wellbrunnr. Ideas such as honor, loyalty, and integrity were continually perpetuated in order to create a sense of solidarity, as well as a collective identity for the people of Wellbrunnr.   The world that they constructed was entirely imagined and designed to create an unquestionable identity that the Warriors were trained to defend, no matter what! Any actions that threatened their identity were squashed with severe force. To further create a sense of collective legitimacy the men of Wellbrunnr raised a flag, created songs about Wellbrunnr that the villagers would sing each morning. If the Messenger communicated anything counter to the image and identity created, the deacon of the village ensured that it was reinterpreted so that it would be aligned with the narrative constructed by the elder men of Wellbrunnr. They justified their interpretations by arguing that it was important for both principled and strategic reasons.   By drawing upon the stories of the Messenger to reify their own identities they attempted to create order out of a seemingly unfettered chaos. Wellbrunnr might very well be destroyed, or collapse if the Messenger’s words were not communicated hermetically. The idea of anything but Wellbrunnr was beyond their capacity to comprehend. Everything they discussed had to do with Wellbrunnr, the history of Wellbrunnr, and the elder men of Wellbrunnr. The men did not see stories in the sons, the sons were expected to only articulate the myths handed down to them by the elder men, whom would repeat the stories over and over again until they felt that the sons had captured the narrative. By so doing, they ensured that the sons of Wellbrunnr used the language of the elders, their traditions, ethical viewpoints, and the same moral compass that always pointed to devotion to the elder men.   Only able to see the past, the men avoided permitting the sons from articulating a new ideal, or questioning the validity of any of the ideas communicated. The elder men thought that any new story might undermine their position. The deacon understood the importance of controlling the ancestral narrative handed down. If a story was questioned or contested, the sons were told to be quiet and were then severely chastised. The elder men made it clear that if they had not completed their right of passage into the world of the spoken Word that it was better to say nothing at all.   Although the men idolized the sons of the village, they truly believed that the sons were the physical manifestation of them, and thus expected them to show unquestionable respect, even when respect had not been earned. The sons performed unadulterated admiration for the fathers. If the sons questioned the elders’ authority they were punished through unreasonable and abominable force. The fathers were always right, no matter what and, thus the sons were pressured to maintain the image that the fathers had always projected. Any actions counter to their ideals led to the sons’ rejection from the village, as their role was to reify the elders identity through everything that occurred in Wellbrunnr.   One day the deacon asked the people of Wellbrunnr to assist with the construction of a mound that would contain the stories that were communicated by the Messenger. The mound was not only designed to protect and contain the narrative, it also became the grounds upon which they worshipped the Word. There was a single entrance into the center of the mound, which spanned 100 yards in diameter. The tunnel was small and dark throughout the entirety of the year. On the Winter Solstice sunrise light penetrated the oval chamber for approximately 15 minutes. At the moment of enlightenment Oenghus, the God of Love, appeared. Many thought she was male upon entering, yet realized she was truly feminine upon departing.   Oenghus was responsible for taking the ashes of the elders that had passed the previous year and ensure their safe passage into creation. Oenghus left three stones in the center of the chamber when departing. After spending nine months inside of the chamber a new Being emerged. The citizens of Wellbrunnr made a choice to name him Stephen, meaning wreath, or crown in Greek. They followed his name with the Hebrew word Mattityahu, meaning gift of Yahweh, and chose to call him Matthew of Wellbrunnr. The women sought to call him O’Cingeadh (King in Gaelic) but the men of Wellbrunnr would not have it, as they felt it was important to uphold the ideals of the latter.   Mattityahu was thus known as both Wellbrunnr and O’Cingeadh, but the women of Wellbrunnr used the latter, but only in private quarters as its use was a threat to the traditional patriarchal structure of Wellbrunnr. One evening, after the men had been fed, the women of Wellbrunnr had gathered near the river to discuss O’Cingeadh and his fate. It was an enormous risk, but they thought that if O’Cingeadh could be placed in the river he might make it out of Wellbrunnr and thus be able to one day change the narrative.   When the deacon died unexpectedly from a hard heart, chaos emerged in Wellbrunnr. Seemingly left without a leader, the people were confused. Furthermore, the link between the Messenger and the elders had been broken. The women of Wellbrunnr took the opportunity to take O’Cingeadh to the river and placed him in the arms of Proteus whom had traveled to the head of the river from Poseidon beyond the river’s mouth.   Upon leaving O’Cingeadh in the river, he was quickly carried away by the water. At first, he struggled and began to try and swim away, which didn’t work. The currents aggressively tossed him around. His struggle grew more and more complicated as Proteus pulled him in multiple directions. Beckoning toward the head of the stream, he immediately realized the futility of swimming upstream. No one could get to him along the shores due to the deep bogs that kept the scrambling elder men from coming toward the water. Even if they were able to approach, the Naiads were far too frightening for them to take the risk of being enveloped by their own blindness. The Warrior men, however, began to yell: Do not forget your origin, remember Wellbrunnr, you cannot forget where you came from, you are a Wellbrunnr!   Swept away, O’Cingeadh was continually grabbed by Eddies that were continuously appearing. Struggling to move downstream, O’Cingeadh was trapped in the reverse currents as he drifted through the undiscriminating waters of the Lethe River. As he confronted obstacle after obstacle and struggled toward shore, he was swept into a void, creatively swirling toward the edge of each obstacle that he confronted. Instead of swimming against the current, he began to try and swim across the current. To his chagrin he felt that he had continuously failed to get back to where he had come from, and eventually accepted that the river was only going to continue moving rapidly forward as Hericlitus spoke – Το μόνο πράγμα που είναι σταθερό είναι αλλαγή.   Rather than taking the easy path and drifting with the aggressive current in which he was enrolled, he began to swim as fast as he could, thinking that he would reach the end more quickly. Tiring him, he succumbed to the waters of the Lethe, forgetting, he was pulled down by the undertow. Arnemetiae rescued him and passed him to Nereus, who promised his safe passage to the mouth of the Lethe where Trition would meet him and take him to Poseidon. Poseidon had been appointed the gatekeeper to Yah and asked, do you remember? O’Cingeadh did not respond, his quick passage through one of the canals and the trauma resulting from being spewed to the other side left him blank. He could no longer remember Wellbrunnr.   After standing before Yah who provided the conatus for him to go, O’Cingeadh traveled far and wide. His solitary journey through the world would never be known to anyone but Him. Yah had indicated that the journey back to Wellbrunnr would never be completed in its entirety. Yah had also warned that the people of Wellbrunnr would barely recognize him upon his return. He had also told him that his ideas would seem offensive, disgraceful, and disrespectful of the elders of Wellbrunnr and would threaten the very foundation and structure of the culture and the version of truth communicated by the deacon. Yah explained that the Messenger’s words, rearticulated by the deacon, had been interpreted in a way that the people of Wellbrunnr could comprehend. He continued; however, upon your return, you will attempt to clarify the Message received. You will be shunned, rejected, and discounted O’Cingeadh; but if you can stay the course, you will become King.   O’Cingeadh felt lost, all that he had known was no longer, all that he had been taught had faded with experience, all the stories contained at the mound that he had been born to were distant memories crowded out by revelation of a new way of being. Everything that Wellbrunnr represented had crumbled into the past. He found a tree and sat beneath it, peered into the sky toward Venus and was soon approached by Astarte, who was accompanied by two lions. A beautiful female messenger, Astarte began to speak to O’Cingeadh of love and war, creation and destruction, as well as fertility and infertility. She began to explain to O’Cingeadh that he would have to return to Wellbrunnr and its mound, as the place of his entry into this world would inevitably be his exit from the Earth.   O’Cingeadh indicated that he could not return to Wellbrunnr, no one would understand him – his own brother, Metatron was the perfect example of what might happen to him if he were rejected upon his return. Metatron had nearly died as a result of the limited and constrained identity the people of Wellbrunnr attempted to impose, never being recognized for who he actually was, rather than whom the elders thought he ought to be.   O’Cingeadh received the good fortune of the women by being placed in the river of his youth. The act led the elders to feel as if their world was being undermined and so they began to unleash their powers more assertively by punishing Metatron, he too had been attempting to escape the dogmatic world of Wellbrunnr. Metatron’s resistance was carried out in a way that eventually led to his own demise. The wrath that had fallen upon him changed him, and Wellbrunnr forever. O’Cingeadh had been gone; Metatron became an outcast, marginalized, and was perpetually talked about and viewed with disdain. To the people of Wellbrunnr, Metatron was contesting their very identity through his actions, ruining the name of the people of Wellbrunnr. These same people sought to redeem the name of their village by looking toward the prodigal son, attempting to find pride to fill the emptiness that had befallen them as a result of the tragedy of Metatron. Thus, O’Cingeadh became held in high esteem, making it nearly inevitable that Metatron would never be able to escape his lesser position in Wellbrunnr. For the people of Wellbrunnr, O’Cingeadh had become a myth, an ideal that they had sought to use in order to replace the negative energy related to the befallen Metatron. O’Cingeadh, became a way for them to convince themselves that the people of Wellbrunnr had something to hope for, which would keep the village’s identity intact.   Astarte explained to O’Cingeadh that his return to Wellbrunnr with a new name would result in his own atonement. Astarte began to explain that it was not his job to try and change the people of Wellbrunnr, so much as to create the path for a different future. She candidly stated that nature and nurture were the way forward and that some of those in the world of Wellbrunnr would understand, and that others would not   Astarte explained that the most difficult part of his return would be the Father’s perception that he was rejecting him and his name. She indicated that his whole world had been constructed through the deacon. The Father had not been exposed to alternative ways of thinking, or seeing the world outside of the narrow conception passed down by the elders of Wellbrunnr.   Astarte also told O’Cingeadh that he must reassure the Father that the name with which he is returning is drawn from years of thought, struggle, and contemplation. You must reassure him that your return and your new name were not chosen, but given through the path taken. You must make it clear that your journey is only an extension of his, and of all the elders that have come before you.   The public will perceive you as rejecting the Father, because they too have constructed narrow worlds confined by tradition, and antiquated values that will prevent them from hearing the message you will attempt to articulate. You must make it clear that you had to come through Wellbrunnr to become King, and that you only seek to create a new image of what it means to be from the place and space of Wellbrunnr.   Fearful, and lacking courage, Astarte and the two lions surrounded O’Cingeadh to reassure him that he was safe, and that he need not fear the dominating aggressive patriarchal Warriors of Wellbrunnr – the lions will protect you. Astarte also made it clear that the elders would reject “O’Cingeadh’s new name – Matthew Wellbrunnr O’Cingeadh King. They will argue! They will feel as if they have failed the people of Wellbrunnr. They will think that all that they knew and thought to be true is fading into history. However, they will one day understand that you could not have become a King without having gone through the passage of the mound at Wellbrunnr. Astarte faded and the lions followed, and Matthew King returned to Wellbrunnr, with a deep respect and admiration from where he came, but bringing a new worldview that will change Wellbrunnr forever.     The Beginning   All:   I have made the decision to assume my mother’s maiden name; King, rather than keep Wilburn (paternal name) as I continue the rest of my journey through this life. The name is rooted in the Irish name: O’Cingeadh. As most of you know, my heritage is of Irish and Scottish origins.   Surname: King   This ancient and distinguished surname belongs to that sizeable group of European surnames that were gradually created from the habitual use of nicknames. These nicknames were given with reference to a variety of personal characteristics, such as physical attributes or peculiarities, mental and moral characteristics, and to habits of dress and behaviour. The derivation, in this instance, is from the Middle English “king”, ultimately from the Olde English pre 7th Century “cyning”, king, used to denote someone who conducted himself in a kingly manner; one who had played the part of a king in a medieval pageant, or perhaps won the title in some contest. This surname has the rare distinction of being recorded prior to the Domesday Book of 1086 (see below). Further early recordings from England and Scotland include: Geoffrey King (Cambridgeshire, 1177); Wuluricus le King (Suffolk, 1182); and Robertus dictus King (Aberdeenshire, 1247). When found in Ireland, the surname may be either of English origin, introduced following the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170, or of Gaelic derivation. In the latter case, King is an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic “O’Cionga” or “O’Cingeadh” (first Anglicized O’Kinga), a family which in medieval times were seated on the Island of Inismor in Lough Ree. Robert King, second Earl of Kingston (1754 – 1799), was M.P. for County Cork in 1783, 1790 and 1798. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aelwine se Cyng, which was dated 1050, in the “Old English Byname Register”, Devonshire, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, a Saxon, 1042 – 1066.