The Story Behind the Stories of Elandra, Spiritual Warrior

 In Articles, Blog

Welcome to our Stonewisdom blog from sunny, currently snowbird and tourist crowded, Venice, Florida. In these trying times may we embrace 2021, even if we cannot yet embrace one another. Always pray for peace but be ready to act. That action might be to sign a petition, say a prayer, or march in peaceful demonstration. Perhaps it is to help your neighbor out, feed the hungry, or shelter the homeless. Adopt a furry friend. Perhaps today, like we did here, you planted a milkweed plant to help propagate the Monarch butterflies. Butterflies are our precursors for transformation, and we hold them sacred.

In this blog, I am going to explain my books the Elandra Spiritual Warrior series. I am in the editing stage of book 5, The Art of Balance. It takes place in 2025, in the aftermath of the 2023 War Against Evil that was fought in book four. Book 5 is set right here in my lovely community of Venice, Florida. I am proud to share some of our nicest secrets with my readers and of course, my great literary licenses and fun. After all, God forgives me. Even if you are an Elandra hater, you can forgive me, too.

Elandra is based on a real spiritual journey. Mine. I have been open-heartedly sharing my lessons, strengths, weaknesses, mistakes, beliefs and the shifting thereof. I have presented my battle with my inner dark and light wolves. This is a battle we must all engage. It is based on a Cherokee legend I often return refer to in my writings. Why the light and dark wolves? You will learn it is because it matters which one you feed. Or it did in an old energy. Now, I am thinking we must “marry” or “mate” or otherwise merge the wolves. We are all aspects, as is Kali or Shakti or other goddesses and gods who are empowered by acknowledging their whole and authentic selves, even the part we are most uncomfortable with.

For example, in my books, do you feel I was brutal in depicting Elandra’s mother figure as harsh and evil? Rest assured, she is my mother. Or rather, inspired by my mother. My mother laughed at my ideas and enjoyed the power of Elandra’s evil sorceress mother. She is the one who encouraged me to write these stories, right up until her passage/transition, in late 2020. She is now my fuel for finishing up what she and Elandra started. Thanks, Mom!

Are you wondering about my other characters? Most of the holy ones you may recognize, although I do draw from many religions. Some may feel I am blaspheming. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a devotee. It is who I am. Yes, I have taken liberties with my stories and ignored church dogma. Such is the warm and consistent safety of having a great heart-relationship with Spirit. I really think I hear heavenly laughter when Elandra falters in comedic ways. The same way I hear muted groans when Elandra is stubborn. (She gets that from me.)

Do you feel inquisitive about my gurus? I highly recommend the writings of Paramhansa Yogananda. Start with his epic Autobiography of a Yogi. His writings on Jesus and other religious saviors are inspirational and influence all my books. That said, so were the Grimm’s Brothers Fairy Tales. Many of their stories failed at “happily ever after”. Shakespeare and certainly mythologies from around the world impact my writings. Search for background on my characters and you will find they are all alive and well in the mists of time (in some version), but not exactly my version. These archetypes are real energies.

Elthaneos. Elandra’s husband. Don’t you just love him? I do! He is based on my beloved current husband whom I have shared 25 years of spiritual and life exploration with. He is our “grounding” while I am our “wings”.

In The Art of Bravery, Elandra’s grown children and their significant others showed up. Yes, they were based on our real children. The “magickal powers” in their lives truly come from the sacred places assigned to them in my books. That is how deeply my soul knows them. And that is how awesome they are!

So why do I write books? It is both my passion and my art. A shaman once told me (after soul retrieval journey together), that she saw in my future three finished books, if I could but heal some past soul issues. A completed trilogy. So why now is my intended “trilogy” (hilariously) five books? It is true we plan, but then we must turn the results of our actions over to God, for we cannot always foresee the grand “better way.” That shaman, or more correctly, shamama, had even given me the trilogy title. Years later, I was indeed writing. Then I made a mistake. I shared my trilogy journey story, (and my book story, content and characters).  I literally shared finished chapters, and teachings I had developed through my self-questing, that I shared in my writings. As a result, my character descriptions, names, content, theme and even the title were stolen. I was betrayed. My faith misplaced. So, I started all over again.

There are two morals to that story:

First, keep your “special treasures” close to your heart when they are a work of (any type of) special personal art. People can be opportunistic, envious, even lazy. All manner of things neither good nor supportive. Those people become our toughest teachers. And so, another big teaching in betrayal became part of my life lessons. The silver lining? My new work felt superior to my old writings. Also, instead of belaboring a trickle of writing, it was as though someone had opened a faucet and the flow was good, clean, constant and delicious. It has never stopped since.

Moral lesson #2. Never let anyone unsaddle your ride without dusting yourself off and remounting your life. Your life is about you! No one can steal who you are and get away with it unless you let them.

There is a moral lesson #3: if you turn your dream into action it will happen, but in Spirit’s time and way, not yours. God has a better action plan than you. Trust in that. Trust in that even when it is hard.

Does it matter that my eclectic Elandra series may never be bestsellers? No. They were consciously created with butterfly wings. These morals, teachings, adaptions and faiths I write about, and believe in, have been unleashed, floating vibrationally around in our world. I cannot be stopped.

In present time, I hear and see chaos, changes, and healing paralleling in our real world, and I think to myself, “I wrote that into one of my books and here it is, manifesting for all the new world to see.” And that, dear ones, is why my books will always have happy endings.

Always in faith!

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