Dreams of Darkness and Light

Dreams of Darkness and Light is an inspiring visionary novel about one woman’s odyssey toward personal and spiritual transformation. Anxious to escape the stress at work and her emotional breakup with a man she’d hoped to marry, Michelle Hardtke plans a trip with friends to a little known village in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. According to an old travel book discovered in a trunk, the town of Teotenaca is known for its natural beauty and its artists. But because of a booking snafu, Michelle finds herself traveling to Mexico alone, with friends Maggie, Angel and Max following a couple days later. At first she explores the normal tourist haunts around the colonial city of Oaxaca. But later, after a winding ride through the mountains, she arrives in the town of Teotenaca. It has beauty and artists as predicted. But she senses there are hidden mysteries that no one will reveal. Only after a fateful hike around El Anhelo, the sacred mountain whose name means “longing,” does she fully understand what the “draw of the mountain” will mean for her. While her friends wait for her safe return, Michelle begins a dream journey that takes her to the darkest realms of our history and prepares her to “shed” her old self. As she returns home to Chicago, her transformation becomes apparent to her co-workers and friends. Having gained a deeper insight into her purpose in the world, she embraces her role as an agent of change. Her great gift enables her to undermine the darkness in the world with the light of her powerful imagination.