
Reviews
REVIEW OF THE BOOK "ELLA AND THE TREE OF MIRA"
BY RAFFAELLA CORCIONE SANDOVAL AND THEODORE J. NOTTINGHAM
Review by
Prof. Mario Salvatore Senatore, Poet
I have read the book "ELLA and the Tree of Mira" and I am already on the reread, persuaded that I will come back to read it a third time and, perhaps,...
This is the first time this has happened to me!
In scrolling through the pages, I was increasingly disturbed to realize that, strangely enough, my mind, while deriving pleasure from reading, did not remain separated from the feelings that the printed words aroused in my soul. They succeeded - with mysterious power of attraction - in extrapolating it from reality and leading it to other, far vaster and timeless worlds where man, on the way, groped in search of himself.
I experienced the feeling of obeying the gentle call from the top of a hill, to reach it, to admire an area larger than my small valley. Once at the top, I remained in admiration of what I saw, but I felt within me that not all the beauty was given to me to contemplate and, if I had wanted to, I could have satisfied that need... all I had to do was to continue the path and climb the mountain on the horizon and follow in the footsteps of the protagonist, Miriam...
So I did and, happy and light-hearted, I took myself to the highest peak and was enraptured by the prevailing harmony of spaces, colors, transparency, silences filled with happy songs that came to me from a dream world that took on a real dimension through the reading of those numbered sheets.
The book "ELLA and the Tree of Mira" is not an ordinary book, like so many others - maybe beautiful, written with acumen and appreciable talent -. It is the introspection of the Author, of the deep self, it is the search for the eternal "I" that has always lived in Her soul, an arduous journey that She undertakes in Her deepest and truest Essence, and tries, with expressions of Her mind deliberately simple and linear - but effective - to describe it and make it reach the world.
Our friend Raffaella Corcione Sandoval succeeds very well in this intent.
Ella - endowed with a spiritual disposition eager for knowledge, beauty, purity, and the divine - with natural fluency, thanks to her studies, her experiences sprung from her contacts with the greatest living scholars of spirituality - treats the subject in absolute absence of vulgar sensual winking and perverse intent to sow doubts and perplexity. "Ella" opens Her heart and, through Miriam, tells us that everything (but really everything), in every temporal and generational fraction, springs from love and revolves around it, like the water that rises from the spring of Engaddi and nourishes with divinity and purity.
In the concise, yet profound and comprehensive preface, Gianni Pittella brings out the soul that permeates the entire book and connotes the thought, art and life itself of author Raffaella Corcione Sandoval: love! Love inherited, perceived, nurtured, witnessed, sought. Love without limits of space and time. Love so high and pure, which makes the story it tells credible and even makes it an ancient and current protagonist in different moments of eternal time.
Raffaella Corcione Sandoval, through her profound knowledge of the esoteric sciences and her hypersensitivity, holds uncommon arcane prerogatives and testifies to them with respect and modesty, always filled with love. (Love that embellishes the narrative of her other book, "La Fonte di San Giovanni" and creates a link with "Ella and the Tree of Mira.")
In the artistic and existential versatility of our friend I see her passage (or her passages) over time, on par with her famous Work "La Sindone Partenopea." This masterpiece, of intense emotional and spiritual effect, created with a technique of her own invention, consists of a sculpture covered by a veil that allows a glimpse of the perfection of the subject's features and the sweetness of the message of love that it communicates in the flow of time, while remaining out of physical human contact.
Every word in the book has been centered, evaluated, weighed, chosen and is charged with a levity, a depth, and yet an arcane weight that makes it unique, unrepeatable... For me it remains a mystery where she could find those expressions that place her in the bluest, dimensionless astral skies. Her is a crescendo of confrontation with the mystery of reincarnation and the simplicity of reporting in an accessible and unequivocal way, experiences lived over the centuries and millennia and, among these, the unique relationship of Love woven with Jesus.
They daze - at first - her words, but Ella whispers them with such naturalness, modesty and spontaneity, as to make them credible and bearers of great serenity and freedom (not shared by the institutionalized religious hierarchies, for hidden interests... but not too much...).
Through Miriam-Ella's words, through her soul, I see an infinite world of beauty and purity, just as I do when contemplating her veiled work “Miriam”, where, pushing one's eyes beyond the very thin veil of soft, iridescent colors that envelop her, one has a clear perception of the ecumenism of a divine love, which, in its eternal essence, purifies and saves humanity.
I conclude by quoting the beautiful and crystalline words of Miriam-Ella (whom I renamed "MirElla" (i.e.: MIRiam-ELLA)):
"God is love, joy, beauty, happiness, poetry. God is Eros, fullness, ecstasy, contentment, music, song, peace, harmony, faith and much more. The Ego makes us believe that only through sacrifice, renunciation, mortification, guilt, anguish, melancholy do we atone for our sins, and unfortunately, even when we have overcome certain trials, we become addicted to pain. It is only through the discipline of happiness that we achieve connection with God."
The disciples looked at each other in silence, amazed at these words....
They were at the dawn of a new understanding!
Only an elected Spirit can feel and express such profound, true and eternal concepts and give them the value of witness, which will never cease, in the flow of time, to shine with saving divine Light.
July 2022
"Ella and the Mira Tree" by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham.
Sun and Moon Blog
Review by Sveva Borghini
Ella and the Mira Tree is an articulated work.
It consists of different parts; we find a preface and an introduction that anticipate the novel and prepare the reader to enter into dense and deep contents.
At the end of the story we also find an epilogue and a part dedicated to the interviews of the two authors. It can be said that all the sections are functional to the completeness of the work itself.
Ella and the Tree of Mira tells a timeless love story: the one between Miriam (Myriam of Magdala or Mary Magdalene) and Joshua (Jesus).
Obviously the concept of Love in this case is understood in its most sacred and profound meaning, almost ancient and forgotten.
The 'Sentiment' narrated in the novel by Sandoval and Nottingham is tat propulsive engine which pushes the human being to a substantial change of the Soul, of its inner vibration.
In addition to the great theme of Love, and connected to it, the long and difficult path of self-acceptance is also treated. It unfolds through the character of Miriam and her contemporary incarnation Ella. In this regard, the pages dedicated to the characterization of the character of Miriam are very appreciable, of which we quote here a brief excerpt:
"It was strong the feeling of being in front of an old soul, but it was something more and unknown because it was a type of quality that was born from a deep suffering of acceptance of events coming from the will of God. A suffering that had been endured, faced and transcended. What remained to be intuited by those who could, were not scars or unhealed wounds, but a new kind of knowledge, a power of empathy and compassion known only to those who would walk through the valley of tears, in the shadow of death, in the desert accepting self-sacrifice for a greater love: humanity."(pg. 139)
The historical and cultural substratum on which the novel is based is complex and noteworthy: it is the ancient scriptures, the apocryphal gospels (i.e. sacred texts excluded from the Christian Bible) and the gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was lost for centuries and of which only a few fragments have been found.
Certainly, all this feeds an atmosphere of sacredness and mystery that surrounds ancient and important knowledge.
Going more specifically, the main characteristics that connote the novel of Sandoval and Nottingham are:
- Abundant use of flash-back; Ella's story, contextualized in the current era, is intimately connected with that of Miriam (called Mira), that is, the biblical character of Mary Magdalene. It is, therefore, a story within a story that leads to the close interweaving of the destinies of the two protagonists until they become one;
- Widespread use of dialogue: often, between the characters in the work, there are long parts of dialogue that - it seems - also sanction the most significant moments of the novel itself. Not by chance, in fact, the dialogue components are further highlighted with the use of italics. Moreover, it is possible to speak of a sort of metadialogue which literally pierces the narrative plot to involve the reader directly and completely: these are very intense messages of an animic, philosophical, spiritual nature, in short, of inner evolution;
- Deeply metaphysical and spiritual nature of the work. This is a mark that can be traced throughout the text which, with an effort of extension can be defined as a "formation novel" aimed at feeding the innermost, deepest and hidden parts of the human being. Moreover, I used the adjective metaphysical because time and space in this story cancel out, going beyond the material itself.
There is no doubt that the reader interested in these issues will find in the work bread for his teeth, perhaps feeling enticed to do further research on the subject.
As for what concerns, however, the weaknesses of "Ella and the Tree of Mira", they can be identified in:
- A sequence of tenses that is not always correct. This aspect causes some parts of the text to lose their brilliance and fluidity;
- A poor definition of the role of the interlocutors in the dialogic parts: who is speaking to whom? In some cases, it is not very clear and this is a pity since, as said before, the dialogues are the most important part of the text;
Ultimately, "Ella and the Tree of Mira" leads us to see the reality which surrounds us with new eyes, re-evaluating, according to a particular and different perspective, even the story of Jesus and his closest disciples (not least Judas himself, always considered the traitor, in this novel is defined as the only one willing to help the Messiah in his otherworldly project).
The dissemination intent to about spiritual issues and the not always immediate understanding offered to a wider audience, is highly appreciable, encouraging in the reader that spark of critical thinking aimed at developing an open-mindedness and understanding useful to encourage in turn a wider acceptance of the world around us.
March 2021
Ella and the Mira Tree: the mysterious work of Raffaella Corcione Sandoval
WeeklyMagazine
weekly facts, news, culture
by the Editorial Staff
Ella and the Tree of Mira by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval is a mysterious and symbolic novel, which tells of two women far apart in time but united by the same destiny. The intense author introduces us to Ella, an acclaimed artist who is about to present her paintings at the MoMA in New York in a solo exhibition that will consecrate her in the Olympus of art. Despite the important event, she is withdrawn into herself and does not seem particularly interested in the exhibition; instead, she seems to be waiting for a revelation, or perhaps a special encounter. She is described with deep sensitivity by the author, who emphasizes her spiritual virtues and her mission to bring light and truth to the world through her art.
During the reading of the work one realizes that Ella is none other than the alter ego of the author, who wanted to tell a story of rebirth and awareness and who wanted to share with the readers her spiritual search and her esoteric path.
Raffaella Corcione Sandoval then introduces us to a man, Jess Nottinghill, an enigmatic figure who brings a precious gift with him: it is a book, with the significant title The Tree of Mira, and it is destined for Ella, who unconsciously already knows that she will soon come into possession of it. It is a fascinating story that tells of the most intimate part of us, that which is linked to mysterious forces and energies that act without our being fully aware of it. It is a story that speaks of love and predestination, and that travels through the ages to give us an original interpretation of the figure of Mary Magdalene.
The moment she receives the book, we are catapulted into first-century Jerusalem. We meet Miriam of Magdala as she waits with the disciples for the resurrection of the Savior, and entertains everyone with wise and crystalline words that move and encourage trust. She is the chosen one and more: she is the one who can complete Joshua, she is the calm in the storm, she is the soul mate who can help him on his difficult path.
Ella and the Tree of Mira is the story of a timeless love, which moves endlessly in space and is repeated in the chosen ones who must continue the journey of these two enlightened souls; it is a unique story, which affects Ella and makes her memories awaken, enclosed in a scarab that is the depository of a deep bond that can bring, like her art, new light and truth in the world.
February 2021
Ella and the Mira Tree - the new novel by artist Raffaella Corcione Sandoval
Aesthetically: a strictly partial window on the world
By Edoardo Nesi
"It was the day when history changed forever and with it the journey of the human soul": intense words, contained in a novel that has its core in esotericism and unconditional love, entitled Ella and the Tree of Mira by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval.
The quote refers to two characters, Miriam and Joshua, whose story is told in a book given to the work's protagonist, Ella, a highly regarded artist who is about to celebrate a major milestone in her career: a solo exhibition at MoMA in New York. The book is a gift from a mysterious man, Jess Nottinghill, who more or less unwittingly initiates a time-traveling affair that lands in first-century Jerusalem.
Here the reader meets Miriam of Magdala, a wise and loving young woman, a repository of the Savior's teachings. Miriam, called Mira, is told about her fascinating childhood marked by prodigious events that make her realize that she is a special person: the moment she comes into possession of an amulet in the shape of a scarab, her view of the world changes radically because she remembers her past lives - "Memories surfaced in her mind like a dream and passed through it quickly, outlining her physical appearance in another life. It was as if a veil had been lifted and she could see herself before her birth in Magdala."
And when she meets Joshua, she realizes that the revelations that had shaken her throughout her existence converged toward one great purpose: their love - "Each of us is a reflection of the other. Two aspects of the One." In the dialogues between Mira and Joshua one can feel all the power of two predestined souls who have an important task to accomplish; a timeless purpose pursued for the good of humanity and to bring light into the world.
The story of this great love reaches Ella and also stirs her memories: Mira's scarab has always been in her possession (but what does always mean?); an awareness that enlightens her conscience and makes her understand that the path undertaken as an artist is the key to bring truth to the world and to leave a deep mark on those who are lucky enough to come into contact with her. Ella and the Mira Tree is an emotional work; a book to be read with the heart and mind wide open.
February 2021
Ella and the Tree of Mira: love and predestination in the work
by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham
FortementeIn
by Alex Yassin
Ella and the Tree of Mira by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham is a symbolic and evocative work that arouses intense emotions and invites one to reflect on the power of love. We meet the protagonist Ella just before her consecration as an artist: it is in fact the day of the opening of her solo exhibition at MoMA in New York. But the artist is restless, and is unable to fully live this exciting experience because she feels that something is about to change, and the reader himself senses it as he observes the protagonist intent on turning her precious necklace between her fingers, a talisman in the shape of a scarab from far away. She is an intuitive and spiritual woman; always devoted to art, she has cultivated her passion without compromise, interested only in "bringing the Gospel of Truth through the symbolism of art to every corner of the world". The change she feels in the air materializes in the character of Jess Nottinghill, a mysterious man who reaches the artist to give her a unique book, The Tree of Mira.
Raffaella Corcione Sandoval has poured much of herself into the character of Ella, just as Jess Nottinghill is inspired by the work's co-author, the spiritual researcher Theodore J. Nottingham. In this story of encounters between kindred spirits, the two writers live a timeless story through their characters. The story told in the book that is delivered to her could in fact be the core of all the stories: we are in the Jerusalem of the first century, and Miriam of Magdala is handing down the Savior's teachings to his disciples, just before his resurrection. Miriam, or Mira, is a wise woman, who has understood her mission in life; the encounter with Joshua sanctioned her transformation and their love has conditioned the eras and destiny of humanity, until reaching Ella. This novel is an intense story of awareness and love for oneself and others: "We are not alone, we are one with everyone. In that unity, we rediscover our individual self within that collective consciousness". The encounter between Mira and Joshua, as well as the one between Ella and Jess, is an invitation to look around and search for that magic that has always surrounded us; in love there is the key to understand it and to hand it down over time so that others, joining together, can acquire the same awareness: “By discovering who she is, I discovered who I am and my role in her life, and the true purpose of our encounter.”
November 2020
The profound and enigmatic novel by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham:
Ella and the Tree of Mira.
Condividiamo Cultura
by Marco Perrone
If you are looking for a reading full of emotions and symbolism then a good choice is “Ella and the Tree of Mira” by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham.
This is a complex and significant work, a veiled autobiography in which to the existential truth is added the story of a timeless myth. "Memories surfaced in her mind like a dream and went through her quickly, outlining her physical appearance in another life. It was as if a veil had been lifted and she could see herself before her birth in Magdala": these are important words that lead back to the true heart of the work.
Mira's story is in fact the center from which everyone’s stories unfold like branches of a tree. Mira is a symbol, but she is also a woman in the flesh in love with the man who has changed her existence forever. Mira comes from Jerusalem in the first century, and the man she loves is none other than Joshua, the Savior.
The authors allow us to read important pages related to the story of Mira and Joshua starting from the equally exciting story of Ella and Jess, two souls destined to meet. Ella is a sensitive and refined contemporary artist and Jess is a man full of mystery who brings her a precious book, the one in which the story of Mira is told, and therefore somehow also the story of Ella. A book within a book, a story within a story that propagates through time and space, replicating and strengthening itself. In Mira's life story is present the echo of the past, present and future: her scarab-shaped talisman is the symbol of this eternity, lived by a soul without boundaries.
In “Ella and the Tree of Mira” esotericism, mysticism and love co-exist, and every word seems to go straight to the heart, and seems to want to stay there. In the story of Mira and Joshua, as in the story of Ella and Jess, is enclosed the strength that only love can give, and that is invincible when two souls are in perfect harmony, destined to be together and to complete each other.
Through this intense work, Raffaella Corcione Sandoval reveals herself before the eyes of those who have the desire to know that part of existence skillfully hidden among the folds of reality; that part only intuited, sometimes dreamed of, made of energy that expands every day around us, before us and after us.
November 2020
Ella and the Tree of Mira: the story of a love that travels through past lives
Wondernet Magazine
The book by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham, Ella and the Tree of Mira, is not the classic novel of spirituality, but it is an intense book, somehow autobiographical and at times mysterious.
Gianni Pittella writes in the preface Ella and the Tree of Mira: "Ella, in fact, is not a simple novel but a powerful fresco that interweaves the author's biography and the "magical" encounter with the American scholar Nottingham, co-author of the literary work".
Ella and the Tree of Mira, the authors
Before we talk about the book, let's get to know the authors better. Raffaella Corcione Sandoval is an Italian-Venezuelan artist, who in her works expresses a metaphysical philosophy and an uncommon spiritual depth. Theodore J. Nottingham is an American translator, author of works belonging to the spiritual genre.
This book is the synthesis of an encounter and as Pittella always writes, it is "a combination that, far from being a potpourri, is consistent in philosophical and spiritual investigation because it successfully attempts to bring multiplicity back to unity, to govern syncretism by bringing kaos back to kosmos, through a red thread of esoteric wisdom".
The synopsis of the book
At the center of the story is a brilliant artist who is about to crown her career with a major exhibition at MoMA in New York. While she is in her dressing room, waiting for the opening to begin, she reflects on herself, on her life, turning her hands over an ancient Egyptian amulet, a scarab. Meanwhile, a man is coming to her to deliver a mysterious book. When the artist will have it in her hands, the reader will begin with her a spiritual and esoteric journey into a past time, in the Jerusalem of the first century. This narrative expedient serves the two authors to focus their attention on an aspect that is well present in everyone's life, spirituality, regardless of their beliefs.
Pittella writes again in the preface: "How much confusion is sometimes made around esotericism, misinterpreting it with occultism. While the latter indicates the claim through magical arts to modify nature and the laws of physics that govern it, esotericism indicates an "interior" doctrine, secret, the prerogative of initiates, based on symbolic knowledge that recalls the unity of the first archetypes".
What strikes the reader who is reading this book are the different levels through which it unfolds. We have, in fact, the time displacement characterized by the present time and the past time. But also from ancient knowledge, which is expressed through sacred books, and an evolution of thought that is philosophically modern and contemporary.
Ella and the Tree of Mira is apparently a simple book, which can be read in a short time. But once read, it will have produced a small but inevitable change in the reader.
November 2020
Ella and the Tree of Mira in the book by Corcione and Nottingham
Maxima Notizie Magazine
Let's talk about books because one should never stop reading. Today we look at the biographical fiction book by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham.
Ella and the Tree of Mira is a book that goes beyond dogmas, reaching directly to the heart of spirituality. Its authors, Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham, are experts in the subject and through this book, partly autobiographical, they tell us about a journey in search of the profound meaning of existence.
Raffaella Corcione Sandoval
Raffaella Corcione Sandoval is a Venezuelan writer and artist naturalized Italian, who expresses with her art important philosophical and metaphysical concepts. “I know and appreciate the Italian Venezuelan artist” - writes Gianni Pittella in the preface – “and her pictorial and sculptural metaphysical works and I was aware of her spiritual depth and her general knowledge of deep languages, mystical religions, but I was not aware of her writing skills and above all of her articulate understanding of esoteric doctrines.”
Theodore J. Nottingham
Theodore J. Nottingham is a writer and translator, a profound connoisseur of works of spirituality. From the meeting of the two authors this book was born. In this regard we read in the preface: " ‘Ella’, in fact, is not a simple novel but a powerful fresco that weaves together the author's biography and the 'magical' encounter with the American scholar Nottingham, co-author of the literary work, with the re-reading of sacred texts, from the New Testament to the so-called apocryphal Gospels, the scrolls of Qumran, the essays of Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh, the teachings of Sai Baba, and even the doctrine hidden in the folds of the religion of the Pharaohs.”
The book
It may seem like the usual book that brings together the most captivating and mysterious aspects of cultures, peoples and religions. But this is an erroneous and superficial reading, since this book is the fruit of a deep knowledge of philosophies and spirituality, which through a singular history, reaches the unity and the heart of every religious form. This novel tells the story of an artist, who at the height of her career finds herself, thanks to an unexpected gift, taking a long and complex journey through time. The woman comes into contact with the time in which everything originated and will come to understand her true being and the profound sense of all mysticism and religiosity. Everything converges towards uniqueness and towards Love. There are different loves that we live and that are presented to us in this book, but “they are partly different loves, on different levels of existence, but all united by an idea of time and space that transcends the consumerism of today which burns every relationship in the bonfire of narcissistic vanity”.
The authors have been able, with particular skill, to convey their knowledge and profound message through a story that attracts the reader, arousing his or her curiosity. Ella and the Tree of Mira is a book “capable of making people reflect, unleash questions, undermine certainties, sow doubts, feed curious and ready minds.”
October 2020
BOOKS & BOOKS Ella and the Tree of Mira, the autobiographical novel
by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham
by Stefano Barcelona
When art and spirituality meet, priceless works of art are born which have the power to change people.
An example is the book by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham, Ella and the Tree of Mira.
At a first and simple reading, the book can appear as the classic story in which captivating elements, such as esotericism, mystery and ancient religions, are the masters. In reality this book goes much further. It aims to invite its reader to a deep reflection on themselves, as does its protagonist.
The story revolves around a woman, an established artist, who is about to consecrate her art with an exhibition in the most important place in the world, the MoMA in New York. It is the opening day and we see our protagonist reflecting on her life before the event begins. In her hands she holds an amulet, an ancient Egyptian scarab, which already makes us understand the attitude of this woman. She receives a visit, a man who entrusts her with a mysterious book, through which she will make a journey through time, a metaphysical journey imbued with deep spiritual knowledge.
This journey is a literary expedient that serves the authors to show us much more, to show us a precise road, a road already traced, but which we may have lost. Love, not the carnal and ephemeral one, but the universal one, made of sacrifice, devotion, regeneration, is the only one that makes sense, the only one that leads us to salvation.
This novel, as we have tried to demonstrate, is a guide to the discovery of what is really necessary, of what must be kept and preserved in order to preserve oneself.
Ella and The Tree of Mira is a profound book, but one that can be read with great ease. The style is captivating and the setting of the text almost looks like a cinematic screenplay and the literary, or cinematic fiction if you can call it that, soon gives way to a philosophical depth that will not leave the reader indifferent.
The story that Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham tell is somehow autobiographical, in fact in the introduction Nottingham writes: "It is biography, intuition, wisdom, revelation, narration generated through the creativity of the artist Raffaella Corcione Sandoval with my literary contribution. Combining past and present life experiences with timeless insights, worthy of the great masters of spirituality, the reader is taken on a journey that is sure to surprise them and be cause for reflection".
Ella and the Tree of Mira is an original book both for its style and for the message it conveys to us and, to use the words that Gianni Pittella shared in his preface, we can say that: “Ella is truly a beautiful book that can be read in one go but that requires many readings to grasp the multiplicity of meanings and symbolic textual planes.”
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October 2020
Spirituality, mysticism and philosophy in the novel, Ella and The Tree of Mira
by Fabio Fratangeli
If you are looking for a book that speaks to you about Life, Love and Spirituality, you should read the book by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham, Ella and the Tree of Mira. The book, which consists of just over two hundred pages, is an original story, told in an even more original way.
At the center of the story we have a woman, an established artist, who is about to inaugurate the exhibition of her life. She is, in fact, at the MoMA in New York, in a dressing room and is very close to the beginning of the opening ceremony. Those moments that precede this important milestone are an opportunity for the woman to reflect on the path she has taken, on who she is and what matters in her life. In her hands she has an amulet, an ancient Egyptian scarab famous for symbolizing eternal rebirth in the process of becoming, which transforming itself, ensures happy events and the continuous improvement of intuitive and spiritual faculties. It is no coincidence that the woman possesses it, just as it is no coincidence that while she is in her dressing room a man gives her a gift of a mysterious book, through which she can make a journey through time, in the Jerusalem of the first century.
Gianni Pittella, in this regard writes in the preface: “Corcione Sandoval has knowledge of profound, symbolic and mystical languages and has skillfully seasoned the novel, telling a story which, from the power of an Egyptian amulet, leads through Miriam of Magdala to the Moma of New York, along a tale of sacred and profane love between the Elect and the Divine, between the Yin and Yang, between the death and resurrection of the Rabbi Yeshua”.
This book is the narration of a profound knowledge, the manifestation of a very ancient spirituality which has passed through time, peoples, cultures, beliefs and rituals of various kinds, but which has kept in its heart its deepest sense, realized through the manifestation of Love. "Love is the keystone. It is between Miriam and Yeshua, it is between Ella and Nottinghill, it is between Ella and her daughters and between Ella and her friend Angelica. They are partly different loves, on different planes of existence, but all united by an idea of time and space that transcends the consumerism of today that burns every relationship in the bonfire of narcissistic vanity".
Ella and the Tree of Mira is not, therefore, a banal novel but a profound reflection on spirituality, "a story of initiation, of a transmission of ancient knowledge, of mystical knowledge, through love, sacrifice, regeneration, pain, resurrection". Do not expect, however, a book that is complex or difficult to read. The style is composite; there are alternating narrative, wise quotations, which make the book extremely enjoyable. Reading is done on several levels. The first is certainly the most superficial, which stops at the simple narration of a story, the second introduces us to the possibility of going beyond the surface, until reaching the third and final level, where the reader lives and savors an ancient knowledge, which will lead him to the archetype, where everything began and where there is and can only be Love.
October 2020
“Ella and the Tree of Mira”, the suggestion of the week of Names, Books and Cities
by Antonella Quaglia
Ella and the Tree of Mira by Raffaella Corcione Sandoval and Theodore J. Nottingham is an enigmatic work, rich in symbolism. It is the story of Ella, an artist about to crown her career with an exhibition at MoMA in New York. The woman is presented alone, while she is about to join all the people who want to celebrate her art. However, she is not particularly interested in glory, but only in the messages that she has always wanted to convey through her works: “Her sense of honesty and purity had prevented her from making compromises with the Art System, because hers was a mystical and not speculative work.”
She wants to bring light and truth to the world, a noble purpose that has nothing to do with the splendor of the evening in her honor.
The protagonist - none other than the writer's alter ego, Raffaella Corcione Sandoval, is a visual artist as well as a stylist and designer. This closeness between the character and the author makes the work even more intense and complex.
Another character, undoubtedly decisive, is Jess Nottinghill, also inspired by the writer and researcher Theodore J. Nottingham: a mysterious man, who is about to approach the artist in order to give her a book of vital importance, entitled “The Tree of Mira.” This book is the core around which the story revolves.
She will receive the text and begin to read it, finding herself catapulted into the Jerusalem of the first century. She will then meet Miriam of Magdala, the chosen one, with the task of accepting the teachings of the Savior and passing them on to the disciples. Miriam is a luminous, magnetic and above all wise woman; her encounter with Joshua is vibrant and, from the very first moment, both of them understand that they have always been destined for each other, because one is the completion of the other: “In their growing love, one transformation after another had taken place in her heart and soul, becoming more and more who she had always been.”
It is the story of a unique and unconditional love, which would plant its seeds in the world, of a feeling that, traveling through the centuries, reaches Ella and awakens her from the usual torpor of a life that flows inexorably and slips away. It reminds her of who she really is.
“Ella and the Tree of Mira” speaks to the reader's heart and gives him or her an incredible story, where to the myth is added an intense personal interpretation. In the scarab she wears around her neck are enclosed mystery and truth, that long journey that will lead her to her destiny: to be reborn in the name of a love that has changed and will continue to change - forever - the fate of humanity.
October 2020
Peter Hubscher
Marketing and Distribution Manager at Hepipress
The author is always a link between universes, a fragile crystal bridge that seems ready to break but is extremely resistant to the presumption of false interpretations.
The relationship or rather the bridge between our infinitesimal small and the infinitesimal large, the universe, is the result of our efforts to contribute to the recreation of the harmony of Creation. The perception of our contribution is that of a painter who places a point on a fresco, a minimal thing but, for an infinitesimal moment, allows him to look at the painting in reaction.
The painter does not see the dimensions of the work but is aware that his infinitesimal is the element that was missing in the completion of the perfection of the harmony of creation.
This harmony can also be defined as the result of love which is the aspiration of two or more souls to merge into One.
The love that we feel and that attracts us to our rediscovered part is the mystical process that brings harmony back into the universe and that wants to make us participate in this recreation of harmony.
The narration of the present, which seems to us already lived, is the confirmation that we have existed in previous lives and that we have a guide for future lives because tomorrow is nothing other than yesterday lived in different forms and therefore the subjects of our love are the spirit of the loves of yesterday that will become the loves incarnated in tomorrow.
We must overcome our desire for internalization which is nothing more than the fear of collaborating in the continuous recreation of cosmic harmony through our witness and our toil in the search, being aware of the immensity that can overwhelm us.
This is the season of Easter "In exitu Israel de Egypto" which indicates the passage from the state of humiliation and slavery that is the fruit of disharmony to the state of harmony through a path of purification which the texts narrate in symbolic form. This writing is the instrument that helps us on this path, ours can only be an individual search that leads us to confront truth that we only intuit.
The drive to research driven by forces that we do not yet understand makes us realize that the harmony of the universe is the result of the integration of opposites that define themselves as deficiencies or completeness. Let us take the essential principles; immobility can be defined as lack of mobility and vice versa. Love is measured by hate and masculine and feminine are reciprocated.
These last two poles are the true engine of the Universe. They attract each other as parts of a whole and we call this attraction love.
Human beings have glimpsed these principles, but as said, we think we are alone in the search. Perhaps. But the intuitive feel the obligation to communicate, to teach others how to travel the path. Narrating the present, past and future by highlighting which events have opened our sight we become, albeit in a microscopic dimension, adherents of the guiding spirits who in a cosmic dimension have attracted and possessed us.
Credit to the writer for intertwining the discovery of these truths with the warp of a fabric symbolizing a revelation of love that persists and is renewed in time.
April 2020
Shawn Williamson
Sculptor and writer
I know the Art of Raffaella Corcione Sandoval as did my mentor Dr. Andrew Sinclair.
This novel of metaphysical dimensions will take the reader on a multi-dimensional inner journey connecting, as Edmund Burke called it, “the great chain of the living and the dead.” And like her Art, it is a gift for those who can learn to see beauty through spirit through her words.
April 2020
Maria Gabriella Lavorgna
President and founder of the non-profit Foundation ‘’Il Mandir della Pace’’
This book, by the author Raffaella Corcione Sandoval, from the very first lines of reading, highlights and unfolds in a fabric, imbued with an intense spiritual journey as well as the fruit of the knowledge of one's own Self, in the perspective of the logic of creation, drawn from the source of ancient Vedic wisdoms which allows access to Truths of a higher order than those acquired intellectually or culturally. I have known Raffaella for about 30 years, whose friendship is rooted and consolidated in recognizing each other in similar paths and parallel lives, so I can testify that this book is the ''mirror of her soul'', the bearer of subliminal messages that are intertwined in an alchemical fusion of symbolism and esotericism, in the encounter between '' matter and spirit '' to the integration of the opposites, in the crucible of the Universal Matrix of the '' I am,'' and whose end corresponds to the objective of awakening consciences, obscured by the illusion of the separation from the One, interconnected and belonging to the great Human family as drops of the same Ocean!!!
April 2020
Dr. William J. Nottingham, Ph.D.
President Emeritus, Global Ministries
I am happy to comment on the imagined love affair of the Savior and faithful Mira. To think of possible intimate connection
based on the attraction of an elevated spiritual nature common to both is an inspiration to readers. Who can say what
the Disciples observed among their comrades? That the ordinary is changed into new life is true to the meaning of the biblical history and the power of God.
Beyond the theological is the mystery that weaves its own story of signs and symbols free from the literal tradition of Christian doctrine.
The blending of two books through the art exhibition in New York delineates legendary interpretations of Scripture with Essene folklore. This is liberty for the reader's religious imagination and mystical enjoyment.
April 2020
Carmen Alida Oletta
Microbiologist, Masters in Science
"Ella and the Tree of Mira" is a beautiful human and divine story about the individuation through the experience of the sacred, the connection with God, the spiritual destiny.
A journey that calls for reflection on the authentic manifestation of the meaning of life.
A delight of images and wisdom.
May 2020
Sofia Sandoval
Counselor. Master in Jungian Psychology. Accompanying psychologist. Writer.
This book has been for me an initiation into the deep knowledge of my dear cousin Raffaella, who recognized and revealed herself in every page, with all her complexity and beauty. It was also an initiation into the mysteries of the women of our family: "interpreters of dreams, healers and seers". And as a translator it was an initiation into English, from a poetic and hermeneutical dimension.
But above all, it was a gentle initiation to that sapiential knowledge that brings us together as a family and universe on the same shared path, where duality dissolves into a harmonious unity that embraces the physical and psychic world, body and soul, micro and macro world, west and east ...
"Ella" is a priceless gift in the elaboration of my mystery: the knowledge of myself, the world and the divine.
Thank you and Namaste!
June 2020