IML Publications www.imlpublications.com is proud to announce ACROSS THE DIVIDE TO THE DIVINE: An African Initiation——the first of a 3-book series of I. Murphy Lewis. This book is about inner and outer pilgrimages, cultural reconciliations, and a woman choosing to go to the eternal beginning of things to heal herself.

"This is why you have come!" From across the crackling flames, the Maasai laibon, the shaman Sarototi, rises, points, shouting at me, "Someone has stolen the flow from your life, and we can give it back to you!" His words ricochet off the stars, off the trees of the Sacred Forest of the Lost Child, from dimensions of time, penetrating through the walls of my porous skin into the very cells themselves— "...and we can give it back to you...back to you...you." Without me revealing much of anything, someone has heard, listened, grasped, is willing to hold my story with all of its complications. 

ACROSS THE DIVIDE TO THE DIVINE: AN AFRICAN INITIATION is of an American woman's initiatory journey before, through and after the Maasai Warriors, a story of reclamation. Inspired by the stories of the Kalahari, in search of more, Lewis takes flight from her fashion career to Botswana. Only to discover through an intuitive, she had been a San Bush-woman in 1787, who was kidnapped by the Maasai and dragged across the continent to heal their elderly. This pronouncement will lead her to Kenya in and out of NYC on her holidays where she will be immersed in the culture through a naming ceremony, a water ritual and the final fire walk, which will open her heart, awaken her to her gifts, catapult her out of the corporate world, transform the way she sees the seen and the unseen the worlds.

Review: “Deeply rich and beautifully cinematic, this book is an escape into a secreted and disappearing world. A page-turning glory that holds the power to bring you beyond the demands of the overarching culture into the divine calling that is waiting in your wildest dreams. Incredible.”—Suzanne Kingsbury, The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me, The Gospel According to Gracey.  

Review: “ACROSS THE DIVIDE INTO THE DIVINE is an unceasing journey from America to Africa and back and forth, but also an unceasing journey into the self. Both are compelling for their passion. One learns much about the Maasai and the San Bushmen, as well as the many ways, here and there, to travel deep into one’s own psyche. This book is for a traveler and the relentless, intense searcher of the self, who is committed to divining the divine.”—Gay Walley, author of Erotic Fire of the Unattainable: Aphorisms on Love, Art and the Vicissitudes of Life, Venus as She Ages Collection, Lost in Montreal.

I.MURPHY LEWIS, is the author of Why Ostriches Don't Fly and Other Tales from the African Bush. After her initiation with the Maasai Warriors, Lewis left her executive position with Badgley Mischka to complete a PhD in Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She lives, writes, edits and coaches authors in Paris. www.imurphylewis.com