Margaret C. Murray

Sun Dagger on Summer Solstice

Sundagger.net, a novel of one family, two worlds and many lifetimes

In Sundagger.net, an unsuspecting Sara McClelland cannot know her hi-tech life is about to collide with an ancient tragedy. Burnt out from her job, haunted by the disappearance of her son, she finds unexpected mystery when she crawls into a sweat lodge.

In the hot stones of the Indian lodge, Sara is overcome by a vision of an Anasazi man, an outcast, who evokes Sara’s seductive telecom boss. When the ancient Anasazi leaves his cave to spy on forbidden sun dagger ceremonies, both their destinies are illuminated.

Defying nature and technology, the past and present come together beyond time and space in the desert surrounding Chaco Canyon, exploding in a searing, turbulent Vision Quest.

Sundagger.net begins and ends with a solstice ceremony using Native American practices. The title is based on an actual phenomenon that occurs on a butte in New Mexico at the solstices when the sun is both closest and furthest away from the earth.

In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the sun “pierces” a spiral petroglyph carved in stone by the Anasazi at the top of Fajada Butte. The sunlight appears like a dagger as it shines through two thousand pound stone slabs. One dagger shines through the center of the spiral at the summer solstice and two flank the outer  rim of the spiral at the winter solstice.

Margaret C. Murray writes, “Sundagger.net was begun in 1999 after visiting the Four Corners area in the Southwest and Chaco Canyon. Amazed and inspired by the mysterious ruins, I began to research Pre-Puebloan culture. I found myself reaching across the barriers of time, space, and national origin, intersecting and contrasting the disparate cultures of the indigenous Anasazi and our frenetic contemporary techno lifestyle.

But how to bridge the gap between the two worlds? I had been attending Native American sweat lodge ceremonies and realized that I could use the sweat lodge as the portal between the worlds.

In Native American history, I saw loss everywhere. Loss of land, culture, identity, power, and pride. It was irremediable, with no happy endings. To this tragedy, I added my own sense of loss regarding my ruined marriage. What could be possible under these despairing conditions? But then I thought of the idea that maybe you get more than one chance–though not in this lifetime. I imagined a story where a man, a family, lose everything in one lifetime only to have the chance to regain it in another. In Sundagger.net, it takes more than one lifetime.”

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