Singing Spirit Books Interested? Christopher Foster will be reading from "The Raven Who Spoke with God" and signing books at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Jade Creek Books, 123 N. College Ave. The novel is available for $12.95 from Jade Creek Books, City Newsstand, 534 N. Cleveland Ave., in Loveland and The Book Rack, 422 E. 4th St., in Loveland.

In his celebrated 1845 poem "The Raven," Edgar Allen Poe calls the raven a "thing of evil." The bird is a bad omen that tortures the speaker by answering all his questions with a haunting, "Nevermore." It's hard to think of the raven without conjuring Poe's dark and ominous specter.

Loveland author Christopher Foster has put a more positive spin on the figure of the raven in his new novel "The Raven Who Spoke with God" (Singing Spirit Books, $12.95). The book is a fable about a raven named Joshua who overcomes countless obstacles to fulfill his mission in life -- to restore meaning and purpose to the lives of ravens. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of the legendary raven that was entrusted by Noah to search for land after the flood and, Foster imagines, gave his life in the process.

"I presented the idea that long ago, the raven was truly honored by humankind and by God," Foster said. "Joshua's journey was a mission to restore experience of being a friend to humankind."

In "The Raven Who Spoke with God," Joshua intuitively knows that he is meant to fulfill a purpose in the course of history, and he embarks on what psychologist Carl Jung and mythologist Joseph Campbell would have called a "hero's journey," Foster said. The hero's journey is a mythical structure observed in life and often used in storytelling in which the hero must proceed through various stages in his path toward a meaningful life, Foster said.

The hero's journey has been recognized in countless stories, from ancient myths to Hollywood movies. In a typical journey, the hero leaves the ordinary world and experiences various tests, culminating in one final test against the greatest villain, Foster said.

"If the hero is triumphant, there is a reward. He comes back to the ordinary world with a gift that he or she was able to win through the trial. He returns with the 'elixir,' " Foster said. "What people like Jung and Campbell said is that these stages are coded into our genes."

Joshua's journey is in some ways typical of other's hero's journeys. Earnest and interested in spiritual questions, he puzzles his siblings and his father. Despite the skepticism of those around him, he strives to listen to an inner voice that guides him toward fulfilling his purpose.

"His biggest tribulation was that some boys massacred a bunch of ravens, and Joshua's family is among them," Foster said. "He is saved because a voice tells him not to go. So he sees his whole family killed."

Joshua's journey is meant to draw attention to the importance of listening to one's inner voice, which, Foster said, is clearer when we are connected to nature.

"Everyone has some sort of impulse," Foster said. "That voice isn't separate from what we call nature. If you make it separate, then nature doesn't mean much. It's like putting a veil over your own soul."

All fables have a moral of sorts, and Foster's is no exception. Joshua's role as a goodwill ambassador between the animals and humans is meant to remind us of the oneness of nature and the fact that there is "web of being" underlying all of life, Foster said.

"Between nature and ourselves there is a warm symbiotic relationship, one of mutual cooperation," Foster said. "The real sense of sacredness of nature has been lost -- not for everyone certainly but for many. We've created a society that figures it's the most important thing on the planet," he said.

Foster intuits that a fable would be much more effective than nonfiction in reminding people of what nature can teach us. With "The Raven Who Spoke with God," Foster seeks to touch readers on an emotional level and create a bond between them and the charming Joshua rather than to try to appeal to them on an intellectual level.

"If people can feel that they have a bond to the raven, it carries more weight," he said. "Our mind isn't equipped to take all of those factors (of nature) into account. But our soul can take it into account."

Born in London, Foster has himself traveled far from home in his own spiritual journey through life.

He has been a reporter in the United Kingdom, Africa, New Zealand and Canada and was the editor of a weekly newspaper in British Columbia before moving to Colorado in 1997.

In recent years, he has devoted himself entirely to writing books, completing a biography, two books of poetry and two novels.

"I felt a calling to write books that would offer something," he said. "I've always felt a yearning to get close to the mystery -- I end up calling it a mystery."

Fable takes readers on a sweet, spiritual journey