How to define The Water Mosaic By Denice Finnegan? Fiction, spiritual, metaphysical—it is all these and more.
The story is set in Australia and revolves around Jo who works at the Centre, a place that provides healing services for the community, including energy work, acupuncture, osteopathic services, herbal healing and meditation. Clare and Skye are new employees that Margaret, the Director of the Centre, asks Jo to orient to the facility. Jo is a grim person who prefers not to be bothered, but she and the new girls are forced to work together after a flood to help rescue the others.
Jo is guided by an old Koori woman whom she recognizes as her childhood friend, Ella. Ella is a visitor from another realm and tells Jo that her destiny is to repair the earth (Gaia’s) broken energy grid which has caused the flood.
“Before time, the light beings created a grid of energy around the earth. It protects and supports all life. Our people are custodians of this grid, and of the sacred places where the energy is greatest. You must go there, access this energy, and make it strong again.” (p. 169)
But first she has to repair her own energy grid. Jo is walked through each of the seven chakras (energy centers in our body in which energy flows through) and must be healed through one before she can move forward to the other chakras in her journey. Through the course of their journey, we learn that Jo’s daughter, Katie, died of an overdose and Jo’s partner of seventeen years left her because Jo refused to accept that she was dying of cancer. Jo’s bitterness and anger at these events threaten to not only destroy her, but our world. Can Jo forgive herself and others for the hurt they’ve caused? Can Jo open her heart to healing and forgiveness? It doesn’t matter if you believe in beings from another realm, chakras, or any of the other spiritual references in this book—what you will identify with is the hurt, anger and pain that Jo feels and deals with throughout her journey.