THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN
- nothing to ptotect
- Jun 15
- 3 min read
THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN
The Woods open without warning.
A Lantern flickers in the dark.
Beyond the trees something waits to be remembered.
Have you the courage?
To read The Book Of The Lantern for free, download the PDF below.
If you’d like a signed paperback copy (with complimentary bookmark), PayPal me $20 at stokedtogetmellow@gmail.com.
Then send an email to loveandmercy83@gmail.com with your mailing address and let me know you’ve sent payment.
I’ll carefully package your book, walk it to the mailbox, and send it on its own journey toward your mailbox.
(Yes, I know this is a ridiculous way to sell a book in 2026. I don’t have an online store. I’m just a dude with some books and a mailbox. Thanks for being here.)
ABOUT THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN
The Book of the Lantern began long before I realized it was going to become a book.
For years, I found myself returning to certain symbols and ideas without fully understanding why. An honest, yet weary, traveler. A humble lantern in the darkness. Desperate flashes of light between the trees as he rushed forward.
And, most of all, the Citadel.
There was something about that image that stayed with me. It seemed to represent both a destination and a mystery—something distant, healing, and just beyond the horizon.
A longing worth following.
Then life changed.
What had once been scattered ideas collected over time suddenly began merging together.
During a difficult period of loss, uncertainty, and unexpected change, I found myself returning to those symbols again and again. They became a way of exploring feelings I was having tremendous difficulty understanding, processing, and moving through.
I’ve always been drawn to philosophy, religion, mythology, and spiritual literature. While I don’t belong to any one tradition, I’ve spent much of my life fascinated by the mystery those traditions seem to circle around, however differently they choose to describe it.
At some point, while trying to make sense of everything, I had a strange thought:
What if I wrote my own sacred text?
Not because I wanted to start a religion.
Not because I thought I had all the answers.
It began as a playful idea and a creative experiment. A way of taking these symbols I’d carried around for years and seeing where they wanted to go.
So I started writing.
What emerged was the story of a Seeker, a Lantern, and a distant Citadel.
The deeper I went, the more personal the story became. The Seeker’s journey began reflecting my own, both past and present. The symbols took on weight and meaning. What started as imagination gradually became a way of understanding the life I was actually living.
Life didn’t stop while I was writing it.
I was still learning. Still searching. Still finding myself face to face with the very questions I was trying to explore. The manuscript seemed to absorb all of it and transform it into story.
By the time I finished, I realized I hadn’t written a book about a journey.
I’d written the journey I was already taking.
This was also my first book.
For most of my life, music was my creative language. Writing a book felt like stepping into unfamiliar territory, and I was fortunate to have the guidance, encouragement, editorial insight, and literary companionship of Conrad Burnham throughout the process.
What began as a professional collaboration gradually became a friendship. His patience, experience, and belief in the project helped transform a collection of symbols, questions, and unfinished ideas into a finished book.
The Book of the Lantern is the result.
Not a religion.
Not a philosophy.
Just one traveler’s attempt to communicate something of the mystery.
I’d also like to thank another new friend, Bostjan Lisec, whose beautiful design and formatting work brought an entirely new dimension to the project. His visual interpretation of the material helped deepen and enrich the experience of the book in ways I never could have achieved on my own.
Thank you for being here.
Have fun!
Jordan Andrew Jefferson
Comments