You have no idea how happy I am to announce that Hell’s Gate, the book I’ve been working on for the past three years, and a much better version of Forging the Blade are now nestled snugly beside the second book, Mainly by Moonlight, on Amazon. They are ready to read in either paperback or eBook format.
It was a long, head-banging process. If someone had told me how difficult and confusing it is to set up a series with a second edition as one of the titles for Amazon books, I would never have believed them. Fortunately, KDP has patient and knowledgeable techs.
Hell’s Gate is a popular title with authors, so be sure to also type in C. LaVielle, and if you want the second edition of Forging the Blade, be sure to get the 2021 edition.
I have author copies of all three books if you’re in town and want to buy them from me. But if you buy them on Amazon you can leave a review, which would be more valuable to me than the extra money I would make if you bought an author copy.
Amazon statistics show that products with zero reviews and ratings don’t sell. This is a daunting Catch 22. On Amazon, a customer has to buy a product before they can leave a review, but no one will buy a product that hasn’t been reviewed. So, reviews and/or ratings from you, the folks who care enough about my books to buy them, even if they don’t have a hundred five-star reviews, are more precious than gold.
If you want a signed copy, I am planning to have a book signing in Grant Park, which is beside Grant High School, which is Molly’s high school and where much of Mainly by Moonlight takes place.
I have always thought that the first edition of a book is special, the one to own if you’re going to buy the book. Maybe I somehow convinced myself of this because first editions are often quite expensive, due to the fact that they are no longer in print.
However, I never bothered to follow this logic one step further. Usually, the first edition is no longer in print because the author/publisher has created a second edition and taken the first edition off the market. I know from first-hand experience that creating a second edition is a pain, and no one in their right mind would do this unless they firmly believed that there were major flaws in the first edition.
And there was a major flaw in the first edition of Forging the Blade, not to mention a few niggling errors that we didn’t catch first time around.
I have been told from the time I began studying tarot that the major arcana, when considered in order, tell the story of an individual’s spiritual development. As a writer, the concept fascinated me, and since I’d never seen it done before, I decided to write Forging the Blade, my version of the story of the major arcana.
The book begins with Molly Adair, a sixteen-year-old with cut scars tracking up her arm, learning of her parent’s death, moving to Portland, Oregon to live her mysterious grandmother, and being transported to an alternate reality by a crazed young man with a magic cell phone. As she struggles to find her way back to Portland, she experiences the lessons of each major arcana card, beginning with Chapter 0, The Fool, and ending with Chapter 21, The World.
At the time the book was published, I was convinced that it would be best not to put the name of the tarot card at the head of each chapter, and to let the reader figure it out.
Bad idea.
The more I write, the more convinced I become that if a concept is important, I need to jump up and down and point at it, and make it as crystal clear as possible; otherwise the reader will either miss it entirely, or come to their own conclusions—which will probably not agree with mine. In the case of Forging the Blade, the main criticism of the book was that readers had trouble figuring out which chapter went with which card. In fact, many readers couldn’t even see that it was a book about the tarot.
The second edition has the names of the major arcana cards at the head of their chapters, and it’s beautiful.
My last blog asked a question that’s been on my mind since I began writing Hell’s Gate, which will be available very soon—really.
I asked, “What if demons are real?”
I should have known better.
Never ask a question unless you really want an answer. And, of course, I got an answer.
After I finished writing the blog, one of the images that I’d used, a picture of a demon from a 14th century Arabic manuscript, remained on the monitor. In fact, it was on both of my monitors. And I couldn’t figure out how to get it off. There were no Xs in the upper right hand corner. Contol-alt-delete didn’t work, and neither did the escape key. The demon remained, grinning out at me from the screens.
I have been writing this blog and inserting images into it for over ten years and nothing like this has ever
Archangel Michael, by Guido Reni, Wikipedia
happened. Totally weird. And I was beginning to get just a little bit freaked out. Well, maybe more than just a little bit. If demons were real, this is just the sort of thing they’d do.
“It’s late,” I told myself. “You’re tired, and not thinking straight. And probably seeing trouble where there isn’t any.” So, I restarted the computer and went to bed, hoping that would fix things.
The next morning when I opened the computer—up popped the demon.
Oh shit. I shut it down and unplugged it. Now what was I gonna do?
In cases of possession, an exorcist will often ask help from an Archangel. And my computer was definitely possessed. So I cast a circle around it and begged Archangel Michael, who has a really big sword and knows how to use it, and Archangel Raphael, the archangel of healing, to get rid of any demons and demonic influences in my computer. Then I blasted it with electric violet light until they told me to stop.
Archangel Raphael, Wikipedia
It was quick and didn’t feel like they did much, but when an Archangel says they’ve fixed something, you don’t argue. I plugged my computer in and re-booted it.
And up popped the demon. Still grinning and still on both monitors. But this time I knew what was wrong. A voice in my head whispered, “That’s a desk top image.”
Sure enough, the demon was ensconced in settings as the background image. I pulled him off the monitors so fast I could almost hear his fangs click and reset the slide show that had been running. My computer has been fine ever since.
But how had the demon gotten on my desk top?
I told a friend who is a magician this story and he laughed. He said that stuff like this happens to computers more often than we think. They are so complex, and work so quickly that they, like us, are susceptible to nudges from other dimensions. And he reminded me that since the image appeared in an Arabic manuscript it was a double no-no and very powerful, because Muslims are prohibited from drawing or sculpting figures of people, animals, or spirits.
I told my son, a geotechnical engineer, and he rolled his eyes. “Oh, Mom, it’s simple to put an image on the desk top. Just right click on the image, and a menu pops up, and you select ‘move to desktop’”
“But I didn’t do that,” I replied.
“You did. You just don’t remember or you did it by mistake,” he said.
My son is more willing to believe that his mother’s memory is failing and/or that she’s a computer idiot than in the possibility of demons. Which, I’m pretty sure, is just fine with the demons. It makes their job easier.
What if they aren’t just grumblings and backlash from the unconscious?
What if they aren’t just another name for our psychological challenges?
What if they are actual, malevolent beings from another dimension, Hell-bent on possessing our bodies and souls and using them for their own evil pleasures?
“Impossible!” you say. And most folks would agree with you.
Except for the millions of people who, over the course of thousands of years, have claimed to have seen them or experienced their presence.
And the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Sumerians, and Greeks; and some modern Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and many Magicians would also disagree with you.
Asmodeus, demon-of-lust, in Dollin de Plancys Dictionare Infernal-Wikipedia
The Catholic Church trains some of her priests as exorcists, and they have been ridding people of demons for centuries. In fact, according to a December, 2018 article in The Atlantic, “Priests are fielding more requests than ever for help with demonic possession, and a centuries-old practice is finding new footing in the modern world.”
King Solomon, noted for his wisdom, was said to possess a magic ring, the Seal of Solomon, that allowed him to control demons.
“So, fine,” you say. “If, by some chance, demons are real, How come we’re not all spazzing out, and speaking in tongues, and doing horrible things?”
Seal of Solomon, one version, from the 17th century grimoire, The Lesser Key of Solomon, Wikipedia
This kind of behavior only seems to happen when the host tries to get rid of the demon, otherwise it lays low. So, in theory, your best friend and half your co-workers could be possessed and you’d never notice. Which, if you think about it, is exactly what a demon would want.
But most sources say that if you have a strong, comfortable relationship with your body and what we perceive as “reality,” you are virtually demon-proof.
Unless you invite them in.
Priests who do exorcisms say that 80% of the possessed have suffered sexual abuse.* One reason for this may be that victims of abuse often dissociate from their bodies, leaving them open to possession. Another significant portion of the possessed have dabbled in occultism.* Occult practices often involve this same sort of dissociation, and if no safe-guards are in place, this also leaves the body open to possession.
Japanese-Oni-or-demon-Wikipedia.j
My new book, Hell’s Gate, which will be out soon, has demons scattered all through it. When I began writing it, I realized that I knew very little about them. And so, several years ago, I began researching demons. I suspected that anything I could make up wouldn’t be nearly as fantastic or hair-raising as the real accounts. And I was correct. It took every bit of writing skill I had to portray how powerful and terrifying they are supposed to be.
So if you ever hear little voices in your head asking you to let them in: Don’t!
more requests than ever for help wit
*The Atlantic, December 2018, “American Exorcism”, Mike Mariani.
Hotel Biron with its extensive garden is the Paris site for the Musee Rodin. Photo by Wikipedia
In 2015 my husband and I spent several days in Paris. The friends we were traveling with were surprised that, out of all the amazing stuff to do in the City of Light, we decided to visit the Musee Rodin, a relatively small museum that was in the throes of renovation and that featured only one artist.
I went because I was plotting Hell’s Gate (which will be out soon) and needed to have a picture in my mind of what the Gate, a device that strips away the magic of anyone who walks through it, looks like. Years ago, I had seen portions of Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell” at the Rodin exhibit at Maryhill Museum of Art , and decided that my Gate would look something like this. But I really wanted to see the entire piece.
My husband went because he’s my husband and he loves me. He also likes art museums.
Rodin began work on “The Gates of Hell” in 1880 when The Directorate of Fine Arts commissioned him to create an entryway to a Decorative Arts Museum they were planning to build. According to the Musee Rodin, the Directorate requested that the entrance commemorate Dante’s Divine Comedy, Wikipedia says the subject was left up to Rodin. Either way, I can’t imagine a less inviting entrance to an art museum than “The Gates of Hell.”
But, even though the museum was never built, Rodin continued to work feverishly on the massive, complex sculpture until 1890 and in fits and starts until his death in 1917. Although he never completed the Gates, many of its figures were enlarged and became some of his most famous sculptures. In 1917 the component parts of the “Gates of Hell” were at last assembled according to Rodin’s latest model to make three original bronze casts, one of which is the one I saw at the Musee Rodin.
“The Gates of Hell” and the author in the gardens of the Musee Rodin
It was terrifying and awe inspiring. It depicted so much pain that I had to force myself to look at the details. My eyes tended to slide away form the masses of tortured figures. “The Three Shades” at the very top were originally pointing at a sign that said, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” Rodin decided to leave out the sign. He probably thought it would be redundant.
Upper portion of “The Gates of Hell” Yes, that’s “The Thinker” Author PhotoA rare view of “The Thinker” Author Photo“The Kiss” is another spin off from “The Gates of Hell.” However Rodin decided to use another pair of lovers, so it is no longer part of the “Gate.” Photo Wikipedia
The trip to the museum was well worth the time. I knew exactly what my Gate would look like, but had a suspicion that no matter how vividly I described it, it wouldn’t be nearly as mind boggling as Rodin’s sculpture.
Below is the cover of “Hell’s Gate.” It shows The Illustrator’s (Ture Ekroos) take on my description of the Gate.
It’s the bitter end of October, and all of Nature seems to be intent on dying. Leaves have lost their vital greenness and are falling from their trees. The last green tomatoes hang hopelessly on their withering vines. The flowers have faded, leaving behind brown seedpods, their visible prayer for continued life. Even the weeds have showed down to a near halt. The life-giving light is fading and the nights are longer. And those who are sensitive to such things say that the darkness is alive with ghosts and spirits. The souls of the dead.
Over the past few years I have been thinking a lot about ghosts and spirits and souls because I’ve been writing Hell’s Gate*, my next book, which will be out soon.
Hell’s Gate is a structure that strips away the magic of anyone who walks through it. But I couldn’t just say it does this, I needed to give the reader some sort of explanation of how it does it.
I have found that reality, what is known or believed, is much more bizarre and interesting than anything I could make up, so I sorted through what I know about existing religions and their ideas about death and how we interact with the divine. As far as I was able to determine, they all include something comparable to a soul.
Christianity is familiar to most English speaking readers and so it seemed like a good source to borrow from. There are a plethora of different kinds of Christians, but they all believe in the concept of the soul. In fact many say that, like their god, the Father-Son-Holy Spirit, we are also a trinity, made up of a body, soul, and spirit. The soul is intimately connected to the physical body and is the seat of our personality and desires—everything that makes us an individual. Our spirit is the part of us that connects us to God.
But Christianity doesn’t mention magic or gods and goddesses. And gods and goddesses and magic are alive and kicking in the Mage Web series.
The Ancient Egyptians were practitioners of magic, from the high priests and priestesses to the most humble housewife. And they had gods and goddesses. They
Wikipedia
believed that when the god Atum created the world, he imbued everything in it with magic.
They also believed that a human’s magic is contained in their Ba, which is close to the Christian
Wikipedia
concept of soul, and their Ka, pictured as a pair of upraised arms, which is close to the Christian concept of spirit. At least I think they are. During the three thousand plus years of Ancient Egypt’s existence its priests defined at least nine parts of the invisible stuff that gave the physical body its life. All of them probably weren’t in use at once, and since we don’t have an Ancient Egyptian priest or priestess around to question, we really don’t know the exact function of each one. A simple, present-day explanation of a very complex belief system is that when a person dies, their Ba (soul) and Ka (spirit) not only leave their body, but also separate and must be put back together so the deceased, as reunited Ba and Ka, can make the perilous journey through the underworld, stand before Osiris, and have their heart (Ib, the seat of their wisdom, spirit, and personality) weighed. If it is found to be lighter than Maat’s feather the deceased is admitted to the afterlife. If not, their heart is fed to the monster Ammit.
Wikipedia
These were exactly the concepts I needed. In the Mage Web Series, the soul embodies the personality and desires—everything that makes a person who they are. Spirit is what connects the person to the divine, or integrates them with the multiverse, which allows them to become something even greater and more powerful. Because without the spirit connection, they can’t practice magic.
Hell’s Gate takes away a person’s magic by trapping their soul and spirit in their physical body and isolating them from the multiverse and the divine.
Beautiful, rare, precious gold. It has the power to drive us mad with desire. It drove the Spanish conquistadors to kill off nearly the entire native population of Mexico, Central, and South America.
A visit to our adventuring son and daughter-in-law in beautiful coastal Colombia made me look a bit more closely at this mystical substance.
the coast of Colombia long before the Spanish arrived. They remain alive and well, despite our best efforts, and have much to teach their “little brothers”. One of their teachings that caught my heart and imagination is about gold.
They know that gold is an excellent conductor—but not just for heat and electricity. The Momas use it to journey between the worlds and bring back both practical and spiritual knowledge for their people. It seems that all the indigenous people of South America understood this and prized gold for this reason—not just because it was rare and valuable.
The bat is another conductor. It is a mysterious winged creature that flies at night, and has the ability to venture between the worlds or dimensions.
So what better conductor or psycho-pomp could there be than a golden bat? And, indeed, Tairona cultural artifacts include great numbers of golden bats.
Golden Bats in the Museo del Oro Tairona
Shaman’s Bat Pendant
Bat Pendant, Museo del Oro
Vases in the Museo del Oro Tairona
The vase on the left is one of many native Tairona containers that feature a man turning into a bat. We know that this was done ritually because his cheeks are pooched out by coca leaves. The museum explanations say that the Shaman priests chew these (even today) to give them the stamina to get through their rituals. This may well be, but I strongly suspect that there is also a spiritually uplifting component in those leaves.
Even in these materialistic times, gold is recognized as more than just a symbol of earthly riches.
One of the modalities I use in my massage therapy practice is Pranic Healing, a system that uses light to clear and energize and, therefore, heal. To set a healing more firmly in the body, we are taught to use gold light to conduct it from the outer dimensions into the physical dimensions.
The conquistadors and the padres may have converted most of Mexico, Central, and South America to Catholicism, but the people of those areas remember their native roots. This holy card of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most beloved manifestations of the Virgin Mary of all time, shows her radiating comforting light to her worshipers.
