"Salutations again and again to the Goddess who abides in all beings as consciousness. Salutations to Devi who is of the form of the moon and moon-light and happiness itself."
--Devi Mahatmyam
A magical realism novel of romance, goddesses, and an elder's search for meaning
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With a sense of urgency, writer Anne Demaree escalates her elder years quest when she moves from New Mexico to a bungalow by the sea in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Before she settles down in Maine, she and a friend take off on a two-week trip to a Kali Temple in India. Shaken to the core by her experience, Anne is determined to dig into the essence of this controversial Hindu deity. She must align with somebody or something as least as powerful as her uncontrollable anger, so she can heal.
Anne neglects to take into account that you do not ask for Kali’s help without accepting the consequences. Kali is, after all, the Goddess of Transformation.
One stormy morning on a trail by the sea, Anne stumbles upon a mysterious old woman who tells Anne she must follow her, because Anne is running out of time. Is the old woman real? Anne asks around. No one has heard of her.
Nevertheless, the old woman keeps showing up in the most unusual places and times, telling poignant stories, delivering exotic experiences and visions, often related to the Goddesses Anne has been studying and writing about. The essences of these ten wisdom Goddesses, the tantric dasa mahavidyas, interweave Anne's heroic elder journey.
Meanwhile, Anne has found a tender love interest in Adam Waterfield, a retired philosophy professor and Cranberry Island native. A crisis with Adam’s drug-troubled grandson soon finds Anne at dead-center of the turmoil.
Falling in love and helping a teen boy were not part of Anne’s plan. Will these two throw her completely off track? Or be somehow vital to her elder journey?
Savitri
Author, artist, and counselor, Savitri has been a devotee of Amma for 20 years and lived in Amma's ashram in South India, for months at a time annually, from 1992-2005. From 1973-1980, before Savitri met Amma, she was resident of the Shankaracharya ashram in the Poconos, PA. In 1980's, she opened and directed her own yoga and meditation center in Tucson, AZ. With masters degrees in fiber art and in counseling psychology, Savitri is a recipient of Fulbright and National Endowment for the Arts grants. She continues on her path with Amma while living on Mt. Desert Island in Maine, where she weaves, writes, and offers a private counseling practice.
The Sophia Secrets is dedicated to my guru Amma, a living embodiment of Mother Kali.
My blogCrossing the Tidal River: My Life as an Elder
