The Firekeeper (Excelsior Editions) [Paperback]

Robert Moss (Author)

Book Description

Series: Excelsior Editions | Publication Date: July 8, 2009

An epic adventure based on the extraordinary historical story of Sir William Johnson and the author’s dreams of a Mohawk “woman of power” who lived three centuries ago.

“To read The Firekeeper is to be transported to another time and place, and leave it measurably enlightened.” — James A. Michener

The Firekeeper brings alive the world in which America was born, when the clash of empires produced the first worldwide war and Albany, New York, was the Casablanca of the age. Filled with great men—George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Mohawk Hendrick Tehayanoken—and the battles that opened the way for the American Revolution, The Firekeeper follows the exploits of Sir William Johnson, an Irish adventurer with a rage for life, who created a tribal kingdom on the New York frontier.

Johnson defended the First Peoples against white men who were bent on genocide and led the Mohawks into battle on the English side in the French and Indian War. His story is interwoven with those of three extraordinary women: Catherine Weissenberg, the Palatine German girl who fled the wars of the Old World to make a life with Johnson in the Mohawk Valley; Island Woman, a Mohawk shaman and mother of the Wolf Clan; and her granddaughter, known to history as Molly Brant, the only woman who managed to tame Johnson. With Island Woman, we journey deep into the dream practices and ways of healing of the Onkwehonwe, the Real People, and through her The Firekeeper also becomes the indelible story of a native people’s struggle for survival, and of how dreaming can bring the soul back home.

“Some rare novels defy labels. The Firekeeper is such a book. An intricately detailed historical novel, a mystical journey, a breathtaking adventure tale, and a passionate exploration of the human heart. This is a book to savor when you truly want to lose yourself in another world.” — Morgan Llywelyn, author of Lion of Ireland

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Robert Moss is a writer of considerable skill. In The Firekeeper, he shows a talent for accurate historical detail and an ability to recreate the past, both as it was and as it might have been. To read The Firekeeper is to be transported to another time and place, and leave it measurably enlightened." -- James A. Michener

The Firekeeper brings alive the world in which America was born, when the clash of empires produced the first worldwide war and Albany, New York, was the Casablanca of the age. Filled with great men--George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Mohawk Hendrick Tehayanoken--and the battles that opened the way for the American Revolution, The Firekeeper follows the exploits of Sir William Johnson, an Irish adventurer with a rage for life, who created a tribal kingdom on the New York frontier.

Johnson defended the First Peoples against white men who were bent on genocide and led the Mohawks into battle on the English side in the French and Indian War. His story is interwoven with those of three extraordinary women: Catherine Weissenberg, the Palatine German girl who fled the wars of the Old World to make a life with Johnson in the Mohawk Valley; Island Woman, a Mohawk shaman and mother of the Wolf Clan; and her granddaughter, known to history as Molly Brant, the only woman who managed to tame Johnson. With Island Woman, we journey deep into the dream practices and ways of healing of the Onkwehonwe, the Real People, and through her The Firekeeper also becomes the indelible story of a native people's struggle for survival, and of how dreaming can bring the soul back home.

"Some rare novels defy labels. The Firekeeper is such a book. An intricately detailed historical novel, a mystical journey, a breathtaking adventure tale, and a passionate exploration of the human heart. This is a book to savor when you truly want to lose yourself in another world. You may never come all the way back." -- Morgan Llywelyn, author of Lion of Ireland

"The Firekeeper by Robert Moss depicts with accurate and exciting detail the time of the French and Indian War. Through the fictionalized lives of historical individuals, Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weissenberg, and memorable, almost mythical characters such as the Iroquois shaman Island Woman and Ade, a former slave, the narrative springs to life. The characters, even the minor ones, are clearly drawn in this fast-paced tale, and the pages keep turning as we learn about the lives of the original inhabitants of this land, and of the early European settlers. This fascinating historical novel offers just the right mix: an involving story which imparts a deeper understanding." -- Jean M. Auel, author of The Clan of the Cave Bear

"Moss backs his vigorous adventure story with detailed research, summarized in extensive source notes." -- Publishers Weekly

"I admire Robert Moss' skill in weaving an elaborate web around his larger-than-life characters. In his latest novel, The Firekeeper, readers are swept back into the eighteenth century to the veritable fusion of our country's diversity. An epic adventure of William Johnson and the Mohawks. I found the story so good it was hard to do much until I had read all of it." -- Anna Lee Waldo, author of Sacajawea

"It's a remarkable book . . . I love his take on the history, and the Mohawk stuff is really extraordinary. Island Woman and Swimming Voices in particular are inspired characterizations. . . . The sense of place is very intense as well." -- Cecelia Holland, author of Pacific Street

"Based on exhaustive research into history and into the practice of dreaming, this is a splendid and captivating book by a master storyteller, a book that is richly textured and inspiring." -- Stanley Krippner, PhD, professor of psychology, Saybrook Graduate School, coauthor of Personal Mythology

About the Author

Robert Moss is a novelist, journalist, historian, and lifelong dream explorer. For many years he has taught and practiced Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanic techniques. His many books include Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life; Dreamgates: An Explorer’s Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death; Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul; The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination; and The Secret History of Dreaming. His novels include the three-volume cycle of the Iroquois, Fire Along the Sky; The Firekeeper; and The Interpreter. Moss lives in upstate New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (July 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1438429347
• ISBN-13: 978-1438429342
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,265,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Moss is the pioneer of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of shamanism and modern dreamwork. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming and a lively online dream school. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His eight books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates and Active Dreaming: Journeying beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom.

Moss describes himself as "a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture." He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Moscow Rules) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer - a woman of power - and that they were calling him to a different life.

Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss's approach is that dreaming isn't just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.

Core techniques of Active Dreaming include

The "lightning dreamwork" process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the "if it were my dream" protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream
Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution
Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming
Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and "symbolic pop-ups" in ordinary life as "everyday oracles".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, June 2, 2010

By 

James F. Morris "Jim Morris" (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Firekeeper (Excelsior Editions) (Paperback)

I have read several of Robert Moss's nonfiction books, but this is the first of his fiction that I have read. Of the probably thousands of novels I have read in a long lifetime I rank this among the very best. As an author I am humbled by his skill, his knowledge, and his heart. This novel seized me, and kept me away from things I needed to be doing, and from sleep. What an epic adventure of the spirit! I simply cannot praise it or recommend it highly enough.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE FIREKEEPER - a Mystical Journey of Spirit and Soul, July 14, 2009

By 

Wanda Burch "Wanda Burch" (Fultonville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Firekeeper (Excelsior Editions) (Paperback)

In the dry, often dull, chronicles of the colony of New York, the researcher and student of history meets the names of personalities who shaped the cultural and geographic boundaries of the lands bordering and expanding beyond the Mohawk River into the thick forests of the eighteenth century western frontier. Principal among those names is that of Sir William Johnson and his intricately woven web of clients, agents, military personnel, merchants, commissaries, politicians, tenants, and tradesmen, all back-dropped against the powerful Iroquois confederacy of the Six Nations.

In THE FIREKEEPER, Robert Moss plunges beneath the carefully penned records of the Iroquois conferences, the broken promises of negotiations and land deals; searches the giving and receiving of thousands of belts and strings of wampum and chests of silver broaches, ruffled shirts and flashy red coats dreamed in historic memory to find the phrase, the innuendo, the pause, the missing sentence that allows one to grasp the beauty and power of the raw courage, stamina, and charisma of the men and women who were the real heroes of the New York frontier.

William Johnson held the British title for the negotiation of Indian affairs for the Six Nations but - raised to the powerful position as the only white chief of the Iroquois of the Six Nations [The Firekeeper] - Johnson proved the extraordinary confidence and credit in which he was held by the Iroquois in his care and use of the magnificent symbols of native power and authority--the belts, the sacred calumets, and the energy of dreams. In the dreaming culture of the Iroquois, William Johnson was caught up in a delicate balance between the magical world of spirit and soul in which he donned the antlers of the forest stag and the competitive white world where wills, personalities, and cultures clashed and fought for survival.

Woven in and among the threads of the fascinating story of THE FIREKEEPER is the powerful story of the women in William Johnson's world -- Catherine Weissenberg, the young Palatine girl who pursued her dreams across the sea from bondage to the purchased freedom of a frontier pulsing with the clash of desire and spirit; mystical fusing of the sacred and profane in a forest peopled with refugees from her own country, converging with the magical dreaming women of power of the Six Nations, of the Mohawks. Women with names like Island Woman and Sparrow bring the reader into the shadow worlds of spirit and mystical intrigue made flesh and desire in the romance and spirit of William Johnson's world. Molded from the dreaming energy of many cultures, Robert Moss' THE FIREKEEPER takes the reader on a magical journey of waking dreams, spirit and soul, allowing us to push the limitless boundaries of our own imaginal frontier.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept me interested, hard to put this book down!, October 26, 2009

By 

Grace Osora "G. Osora" (Hadlyme,CT) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Firekeeper (Excelsior Editions) (Paperback)

I am not one for the study of history as I always found it very dry, but Robert Moss brought history alive in a very real and dramatic way for me. This book kept my strong interest over the course of reading it, and I found it hard to put down. The characters had much depth and their inner lives and dreams were revealed, along with a feeling of magic and destiny.
There's a great deal of adventure in this book, some realistic warring scenes that made me wince, but I believe that is how our frontier actually may developed. Life is full and not always simple or easy and this book reveals much of that.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read that will whisk them away very quickly to another time, it's entertaining in that way, but also has food for thought about the past and how we got to where we are now in this country, it's fiction that speaks of soul and life.