Deliverance of the Spellbound God: An Experiential Journey Into Eastern and Western Meditation Practices

Marie-Laure Valandro, the author of Camino Walk and Letters from Florence and a long-time student of Anthroposophy, takes readers on yet another journey--this one more inward. Marie-Laure begins this journey with a Vipassana Buddhist retreat in southern Québec with the well-known meditation teacher, Goenka. The meditation retreat becomes the touchstone of the author's travels, while Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy serves as the ground. The author describes the spiritual dimensions of her travels in India and Europe, while always returning to her deep understanding of Steiner's spiritual science. As always in Marie-Laure's writing, in Deliverance of the Spellbound God we discover the sublime in the ordinary, and wisdom in even the most foolish of situations. In her descriptions of people and places, as well as in the details of her travels, she shows how we can look outward to know ourselves, and look inward to know the world. Deliverance of the Spellbound God offers gifts of wisdom from an extraordinary life lived.

About the Author :
Marie-Laure Valandro was born in 1948 and spent her childhood in Bourgogne, Morocco, Algeria, and Bretagne. At fifteen, she moved with her family to Boston, where she received a B.A. in modern literature, romance languages, and education and taught in the Boston public school system. Later, she moved to Vermont, and obtained an M.A. in literature. At twenty-three, Marie-Laure returned to Paris to study at The Sorbonne, to teach and to travel around Europe to various Christian Holy sites. She later moved to Tehran to teach technical English and to tour throughout the Eastern world, studying Sufism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism as seen through the eyes of its believers and through visits to holy sites. Marie-Laure returned to the United States to care for her son. She lived in the community of Wilton, New Hampshire, where she first encountered Anthroposophy. She ended her school teaching to care for her daughter, son, and husband, a medical doctor. Meanwhile, she continued to travel and trek in South America, both alone and with her children. Later, she moved to Wisconsin and began the Liane Collot d'Herbois training in painting. On her family farm in Wisconsin, Marie-Laure uses biodynamic methods and has developed master gardens, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, and an orchard. She has also established a painting studio, where she creates large veil paintings. Recently, she moved from Wisconsin to a post-and-beam house built by her son in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. Her goal is to continue walking across this beautiful Earth, meeting people with love and sharing her journeys in meditative books, sprinkled with insights from Rudolf Steiner's works and the many talented students of his teachings. She continues to make large veil paintings to "heal people and spaces."