Hortense de Beauharnais Bonaparte was born on this day in 1783

This project is a mystery, even to myself, and it all swirls around this person.

Back in the late 90s, I started to realize that I had been generally tricked about this person called Napoleon. He was portrayed to me in the media that had been spoon fed to me as a bit of a monster.

By overplaying their hands, the current rulership often ends up overturning their apple cart.

Once I looked into Napoleon, even those books were disinformation, I realized I was seeing someone who was extraordinarily similar to me. Someone who just didn’t want to be in this realm. Someone who found it unacceptable.


My father maneuvered himself into a situation when I was a teenager where he put his partner in authority over me. This person treated me with abject hatred.

When I found out that Napoleon had been a very good stepparent, I was really shocked. It was the opposite of everything I had been led to believe.

Why had I never even heard that Napoleon had stepchildren who were so central and important to him?

Well . . .

Then it turned out - as I was learning - it was widely believed during Napoleon’s time that he had been the lover of his stepdaughter Hortense.

This set me on a sort of hero’s journey because I definitely wanted to know the truth behind this.

When I was in France looking for that answer, I started to remember life from her perspective. She was a musician and an artist who had been obviously madly in love with Napoleon.

I have wondered and wondered if it could possibly be true that I was this person. That is an underpinning of what is happening here. Was I her? Is Napoleon in this realm too? Now what? It’s been shown to me that he is. But now what?