Religions

Religion is a complex topic for this novel since we have the interplay of at least five different religious views converging together. Our heroine, Elena, picks up bits and pieces of each.

Religious confusion is a necessary element of combining cultures as happened in California during those days. There’s the Ohlone and other native beliefs, the Jesuits, the Protestants, Marisol's fortune-telling, and then there’s crazy Ramon Emmanuel and his self-centered cultish beliefs forced on his commune where Elena spent years being misled and falling for his charisma. At one time she accepted his leadership unquestioningly. It was her growing doubt based on fears for her children than eventually got her kicked out of the commune.

In SF she slowly heals and eventually realizes that Ramon Emmanuel was using fears and beliefs to control the people living with him.

Now as to the specific elements of Ramon Emmanuel's belief system... I am still learning myself. He placed himself as the leader of both men and women. He believed he was like King Solomon, the wise one. In fact Ramon Emmanuel wanted his followers to call him "Wise One". Like Solomon, Ramon Emmanuel writes his bits of wisdom and then mixes them with Biblical teachings during daily worship services which every cult member must take part in - on the beach during good weather or in the barn during rainy weather. Ramon Emmanuel considers the barn a lesson on the humility they must show him, like shepherds visiting Christ when he was born. Ramon Emmanuel says his wisdom is being born in a barn just as Christ was born in one.

There's a darker side to all of this, but this information won't come out until the end of the novel. Until then its somewhat of a psychological thriller. We're sure Ramon Emmanuel is evil but we're not quite sure why. She keeps having flashbacks to what happened and as time goes on more and more is revealed to the reader. By the end the truth is revealed and we are just as worried about her children being abused by Ramon Emmanuel as she is.