Chapter 1 Summary

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk is a post-apocalyptic novel that focuses on one family in the egalitarian community in what was formerly San Francisco. The utopia of the City or "The North" contrasts with the dystopian climate of the rest of California that exists under the control of a Christian fundamentalist military regime. The Stewards are the military wing while the Millennialists are the religious wing of the regime. Through flashbacks, the novel traces some of the events that led to the fracturing of the US and of California and the founding of the communal governance of the City, and leads up to the invasion of San Francisco by the Steward armies. Told from the perspective of three members of the Black Dragon House, Maya, Madrone, and Bird, the novel is a fictional exploration of many of the spiritual, ecological, and political...