Prologue: Ellegua

(Notes on Prologue: Eleggua opens and closes the path to mankind. He rules the crossroads. One prays to him in matters of destiny or fate. All prayers pass through him first = St. Peter, patron saint of net-builders, shipbuilders, fishermen and locksmiths = Archangel Jophiel; represents wisdom, beauty, and heals negativity and chaos by uplifting and changing perspective. Patron angel of artists.)

PROLOGUE:

EGG walks into the middle of a semi-circle that is in perhaps, three layers: ANGELS, audience members, and then the other SAINTS.
It is a listening circle.

EGG: Do you hear that? That’s the wind blowing across the heavens, opening all the doors between this life and the next. The veil is so thin this time of year—ancestors closer than they’ve ever been. So many lost...and still so many suffer. (Slight pause) But a lost breath can be found again on the wind. Step through the doors of your mind, onto these paths that I watch. Today you can walk these paths, listen to sacred music, and watch the heroes all around you—who are you—people who were all made in the image of the first celestial saint—the Saint of Stars. You see, there was once a tiny blackbird whose mother left to find her a safer home but never returned. The baby cried every night for her mother. So much crying caught the ear and eye of a sinful serpent who watched the bird carefully, inching ever so closely to her nest. The snake moved so slowly and so quietly that the sound it made as it slithered up the side of the tree where Baby blackbird sat, lulled the little bird to sleep...and once asleep, the hungry snake reared his head and moved to pounce. This startled the baby and she tried to fly from the nest, but was too young to know how to move her wings. Baby bird went crashing to the ground, her bones becoming dust beneath her. The first saint heard her falling and thought it was time to make something that could care for the fragile bones of creatures too small to care for themselves. And for some reason, he thought of human beings. So that ancient Saint decided to create human beings from the fragile bone-dust of that blackbird by pouring starlight from his fingers onto what remained of the baby bird. The light turned her wings red, and pumped like blood through her torn veins. The Saint followed the soul of that bird as it lifted up into the sky where her mother and a nest made of starlight awaited her. Then from the ground rose a human who looked very much like a red-winged blackbird. She had every color in her skin that shone like ebony, with hair streaked with red. The first human was strong and brave and would multiply for centuries, sometimes forgetting her way, but always coming back to the right path, the one that led to the stars that were her heart. The one that led her here to remind you who you are and how much you mean to us. How much you mean to each other.

(EGG moves to each circle of sound, as HE does so the action of the Circle begins. After one round of the Circle, HE moves on to the next. It is as if he awakens the Saints to speak. Perhaps HE begins each Circle action with the action of casting his net into the Circle.)