This part of the site has information specifically on the book Molly O'Brien and the Mark of the Dragon Slayer.
Who is Molly? Molly started out as me. I started writing about Sophia as fiction in 2002. I had a “relationship” or dialogue with Sophia since 1987, when she began appearing in signs, symbols, and visions after the death of my husband in a fire in 1985. She became my daemon, or guide, although I had no language for the relationship at the time.
Molly was me in the beginning of the story: It was all true in the first chapters. I attended a Catholic grade school. I was only happy outdoors, playing; either by myself or with my neighborhood friends. I liked to read, too; by myself, not in school. I also liked to climb trees and hike by myself at the nearby monastery and convent. I hated school so much in the second grade, that I would cry in class so the teacher would put me alone in the library. I really did reach for the wires to commit suicide. Of course, I didn’t. It was almost lunchtime and I was too hungry to make a decision.
At that point, the story takes on a life of its own. Molly is NOT me. I did NOT meet Sophia in the tree. I met MYSELF in the trees I climbed. But when Molly reaches for the electric wires, this is what happened: Two worlds collided. Molly is trapped in the middle of these two worlds: life and death. Or mundane and spiritual realms. Or real and unreal. Or illusion and truth. It is in this “in-between” state that she meets the Queen of Wisdom, Sophia, who becomes her guide and mentor, leading her on a path where she might (or not) learn to discern the real from the unreal.
Molly is “every girl” — she is also that “anima” or soul part of every boy that is pure and whose intention is to help and protect and be delighted with nature and is in awe of beauty. In other words, Molly is that innocent part of every boy and girl who is “captured” by the demands and commands of their culture to go to church, go to war, go to school, and to fulfill the expectations of the family and culture into which they are born. This entrapment occurs before the child can make decisions on her own, before she can reason and decide for herself what she wants.
Because everything is decided for her, and she not raised or trained in any reality tradition, Molly is naive, dumb in a way. She is just following along and doing what she has been told; carrying out the expectations of her family and teachers. Sophia comes along and shows her another way. The adventures in the Middle Realm lead Molly to act on her own and be accountable for her actions. She can’t fall back on the excuse, “Well, everyone else is doing it; why shouldn’t I?”
Isn’t that what we are forced into? Before we are old enough to figure out what is going on, we are forced into war, into marriage, into voting, into making decisions about our career, our relationships — and we get no “training.” We get blame, we get guilt, we get remorse, we get confused. . . In the end, what we get is experience and wisdom comes from experience.
In the core of the book, we meet Molly again as a 14-year-old, who goes on to other adventures in the Middle Realm. In spite of some failings along the way—some of which may in the end turn out to be tests that are passed—Molly learns about spiritual practices such as thought-control and about her own power. She and Sophia see the Great Dragon; Molly witnesses Sophia’s confrontation and incineration of the Great Dragon in his form as the thought-form demon Ialdabaoth; Molly meets a young spiritual disciple who gives her a tour of the middle realm, and encounters her true life-longs love; she enters the women’s temple and sees the goddesses; and she meets her karmic teen-girl nemesis. Molly also learns through her real-world life experiences, from her friends and family, as the terror of the Cuban Missile Crisis builds and wanes, and school days and holidays come and go.
Molly is thus the alchemical metal “lead” — the untrained, the unformed, the confused, and bewildered wanderer in life. After many experiences, she becomes accustomed to thinking and acting on her own, trusting her body and instincts. She gets stronger with every encounter and learns what it means to confront the deadliest threat to humanity: the Great Dragon in his form as the weight of negative thought-forms, the Ialdabaoth—pretender god and usurper of the wisdom of language, as men’s adoration of missiles and other weapons, and eventually as the death-vortex, and as the tick-demon of beliefs that cling to her from her family and society. In this and future volumes, Molly becomes strong enough to recognize, to discern that beliefs are parasites on her life force. She learns to claim her vital, her libido, her attention as her own, is her task, as it is, ours, girls and boys, women and men.
Interview with Kathleen Damiani in the Ithaca Times, Nov. 9, 2011: click here
Click to see videos of my talks in Central New York, Nov. 2011: short talk at my book launch party and reading of a few pages of Molly and talk at Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca.
Molly O'Brien and the Mark of the Dragon Slayer will make great gifts for all your relatives, friends, neighbors, book discussion group members who are into fantasy fiction. Remember-- Molly O'Brien and the Work of the Dragon Slayer is a visionary and transformative work of fiction... as well as great fun!! Order directly from Larson Publications: see http://www.larsonpublications.com/book-details.php?id=99
Infinity Dragon / Ouroboros by RoseMarie Quebral
See the Larson Press release...
Table of Contents and the Larson Publications - webpage with extra information http://www.larsonpublications.com/book-details.php?id=99