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PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS
A New Vision of Spirituality and the Inner Histories of the Arts
In legend the arts are daughters of the divine Muses, yet often down the ages such a sublime inheritance has been squandered and abused. It continues in the materialism of our contemporary society. The arts have indeed been prodigal daughters.
Despite this artists have always known that their work has an inner spiritual source and power. It’s why genuine artworks challenge, enrich and awaken us to beauty and our own potentials.
Prodigal Daughters affirms the artist’s vital role as it weaves music, dance, drama, literature, architecture and visual forms into a living tapestry of sounds, shapes, colours, words and movements. Artistic creativity is valued as a dynamic influence in the bloodstream of society.
My aim has been to engage readers in an innovative and accessible way while treating profound truths that shape human destiny. By disclosing the inherent nature of the creative process and exploring each art form I celebrate the rich diversity of artistic expression that connects with the deepest layers of the self. You are invited to re-imagine yourself and the world through the vibrant prism of the arts when you undertake this journey.
Prodigal Daughters is a rare gem of a book, beautifully written, insightful, poetic, a work of art ...
Ken Killeen - Artist and Steiner Art Teacher
MARRIAGES OF THE MAGDALENE
Visions of a Lost Christianity
Marriages of the Magdalene is a work of spiritual fiction informed by in-depth historical knowledge and imaginative reconstruction. It breaks through centuries of dogma and legend to uncover the lost beginnings of Christianity. I have re-imagined and paired the untold stories of Mary Magdalene and the writer of ‘John’s’ Gospel. It's an original view framing this gospel as a record of their initiatory experiences before the formation of the church.
Here is first-century Palestine, seething under Roman rule and suffocating conventions. A young man tries to live by strict patriarchal rules but his rebellious new wife secretly follows heretical goddess traditions. They pull in opposite directions until Jesus the prophet challenges them to walk mystical paths of inner unity. The depth of love they discover for him and each other liberates them from constricting attitudes. They will enter legend as the Magdalene and John the Beloved.
The novel’s narrator, long-time friend Naphtali, wants to set the record straight about their intertwined journeys. Their inspirational love story reveals the true nature of human individuality – as the undivided self, genuinely free and enfolded into a larger social and ecological whole. In our age of trauma, division and a hunger for meaning this story has a compelling message.
I loved this book. Helen is a great story teller and the book is written with great feeling and tenderness. It is a compelling read. I absolutely recommend it.
Peter McRae - Scientist and Spiritual Seeker
In this 2nd Edition I have incorporated many private, never before published photographs. The ebook (av. online) is a large file because I have encoded the photographs at their best resolution for an ebook.
Helen Martineau
SHEILA FLORANCE
On the Inside - An Intimate Portrait
Sheila Florance said with her characteristic irony, ‘I set out aged nineteen with every intention of becoming the world’s greatest Shakespearean actress and ended up as Lizzie Birdsworth, the shearers’ poisoner!’ This much-loved character in the cult TV soapie Prisoner brought Sheila worldwide fame – after fifty years of hard work during the formative years of the Australian performing arts. It culminated just days before her death at seventy-five with an Australian Film Institute Leading Actress award for her last film A Woman’s Tale.
Onstage and off her life was theatre on a grand scale. Everything was extravagant about Sheila – in the parties she threw, her humour and tall tales, her friendships, her anger and loves. As a fighter for justice, her approach was eccentric and front-on. She wouldn’t have called herself a feminist yet she always battled for and supported women.
Sheila suffered a difficult childhood, war in England, the tragic inexplicable death of her eighteen-year-old daughter, two drama-filled marriages and a constant tension between her main passions – family and acting. It was quite a journey yet her courage and determination to be true to herself never faltered.
I was her daughter-in-law and soemtime confidante and this very personal biography reveals the fascinating public career and behind-the-scenes upheavals of a memorable and inspiring woman, who in her final illness found the peace that long eluded her.
'I bought the book as a kind of duty to the memory of Sheila. But I simply couldn’t put it down … You captured her in all her moods and complexity'. Elspeth Ballantyne; warder Meg Morris in Prisoner and Sheila’s long-time friend