A woman is sitting in her kitchen in Liverpool reading a letter she has just received. As she reads the words she realizes that this is not just an ordinary message but one that comes from some forgotten place that has been inaccessible up until now. Large, unexpressible emotions come rolling through as the words are read, like the rumble of thunder from a far away storm that is coming closer all the time. A meeting. In her home. Six others will come. She must get things ready. She grasps at the meaning as the words tumble by. She has always known that something like this, so very familiar yet unimaginable, would finally emerge.

    Besides speaking about the upcoming meeting and the six other characters that will join the woman there, the letter also refers to a dusty old trunk that contains many things that are needed to prepare for the meeting. The woman only vaguely remembers that she has such a thing, but eventually she finds it amongst all the things she no longer uses. The trunk has some writing inside the lid:

There are twelve ancient Giants sleeping throughout the world. One of them is in Liverpool and it’s dreaming as it sleeps. It’s dreaming a dream of waking up, and all the people of Liverpool and everyone coming to visit there are part of the Giant’s dreaming. The Giant is calling to all of us to help it awake, and the very fact that you’re dreaming this now and I’m part of your dreaming just goes to show that the time of the Giant’s awakening is drawing near.

    Inside the trunk are the following items: A map of the Giant’s seven chakras, a tea pot, an hour-glass, an engraved glass bowl, a container used for carrying coals, a clay candle holder, seven foot-long bamboo tubes, seven strings of prayer flags, a dried red rose, a rusty key, a red clay pot, seven walnuts, an abalone shell, a small quartz crystal, a jar of glass sand, seven small cups and an old railway lantern.

    After finding the trunk, discovering the items stored inside and reading the writing on the lid, the woman begins to remember many things that have been hidden below the surface of her conscious mind for some time - that she has stayed behind in Liverpool while the other six characters coming to the meeting have gone off and away to other Realms away from the Everyday World; that she is a Keeper Of The Heart and that even though she’s forgotten what this role entails, she was never able to leave the place where this role was to be actualized. She doesn’t remember much at first, but little by little she remembers more, though never all and never enough. From time to time she is able to see just the smallest glimpse of what she has always yearned to remember for so many years.

    As she picks up and examines each of the objects inside the trunk she remembers a bit about what she must do to prepare for the meeting. Each object is associated with a task that must be done in a particular order to be effective. The first task is to take a bowl of root-spring water and carry it up to the Sleeping Giant’s crown chakra. The second is to receive fire in the Sleeping Giant’s crown chakra and carry it down to the root. The third task is to dig the seven bamboo tubes into the ground at each of the chakras. The fourth is to release the invitation from the heart into the air at each of the Sleeping Giant’s chakras by impressing it onto prayer flags which are hung nearby to each of the clay spikes.

    The woman of the Heart knows there is so much to do that she’d never be able to do it alone. She talks to her friends and enlists their aid. They help her perform the first four tasks. The group is small at first, but soon grows larger. The woman and her friends soon realize that the work of the heart is not performed by one person alone but by many together. The responsibility that initially seemed to be solely the woman’s is taken on by the entire group. Together they remember more and more of what must be done to prepare. The group becomes known to themselves and to others as the Keepers Of The Heart. They continually prepare and take care of the space where the meeting is due to occur. Some of the items in the trunk are often used by the group (they use the teapot when they have tea together). The abalone shell and the quartz crystal are also important tools they use to strengthen their remembering.