Everyone who read “Mex” loved her, and even so, I knew the book wasn’t in the right format. Still, I kept rereading and rewriting Oklahoma! Hex while I moved back to New York City and established my spiritual therapy practice as well as doing various day jobs.

By then I knew that each book included several components:

1. A show—a musical or an opera
2. A spiritual practice—all different ones, and all esoteric, not religious
3. A romance—of the lesbianic persuasion
4. A lesson—I knew that Mex learned something about herself

Here’s where this all came from.

The show.

I worked on Broadway after I graduated from Smith for many years. On Broadway, and Off-Broadway. I worked on the management side. I was even an apprentice in a union, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.

I’d loved the theatre from the time I was a child. My mother swore it was because she and my father went to see My Fair Lady when she was six months pregnant with me. Whatever the reason, musicals are my favorite. Maybe it’s because of the formulaic (read: predictable) structure, or the usual happy ending, but I’m a musical aficionado.

Besides, it had become clear that the solve in the Mex books came through the lyrics.

The spiritual practice.

I’d been an intuitive from the time I was a child, and because of various extenuating circumstances, had worked hard to distance myself from my own knowing. When I was 25, a friend gave me a psychic reading as a birthday gift. I walked into the session and the woman burst out, “You’re more intuitive than I am!” The lid blew off my own intuition big-time.

I’d been studying all sorts of esoterica for a long, long time when I started writing Mex. I used to tell people that I’d been eating spiritual hors d’oeuvres forever. Taste this Rune. Try that tarot deck. Consider this healing modality, Reiki. I’d sipped and sampled. I’d become good at some things, and rejected others. I was and am a perpetual student.

Mex had her own chequered spiritual past which, not surprisingly, matched my own. I wanted to use my knowledge to bring attention to the fact that we can learn spiritually via any system.

The romance.

Ah yes, well I had my own romantic history, of course, and romance seems a necessary part of any kind of fiction. I use my own past and I change it mightily at times. I am shameless about borrowing from the stories of people I know, and I tell them so. Knowing a writer means that all bets are off. Borrowing, so to speak, is the name of the game. I can’t have every single kind of romantic experience myself! I wouldn’t have time to write.

About Mex being a lesbian. She is because I am. Her gender sliding along the spectrum is similar to my own. Not only am I a lesbian, but I am also a femme, which is a particular kind of lesbian, as is Mex. Editors have said forever that the books would be perfect if only she were straight. Here’s my answer: she’s not.

Mex is really a spiritual teacher, just like her progenitrix—me! Yes, Virginia, lesbians can be spiritual teachers, too. Deal with it.

A lesson.

I learned a long time ago that it’s impossible to be a spiritual teacher unless one is simultaneously a spiritual student. The moment one feels that one has arrived in spiritual work, the place moves. Really.

Furthermore, there is much talk in spiritual circles about service. If one is a spiritual being, one must serve. This, as far as it goes, is true. However, in my experience, most of what passes as service is really a business deal. Here’s the ordinary equation: I “help” you, and so I am serving. This isn’t service. True service serves both parties equally. I’m not kidding. Otherwise, it’s an ego-based business arrangement. When I “help” you, I get to feel “better” than you. When we walk parallel together, we serve one another.

Mex learns a lesson from Spirit, her inner guide, in each book because she’s a spiritual student as well as a teacher.

It took time and reflection to figure out these components, and I still haven’t addressed the format thing I promised you last time. Sorry!

More on that next month …

For spiritual nourishment, visit Dr. Susan Corso’s http://www.susancorso.com” and blog, http://www.susancorso.com/seedsforsanctuary. Follow her on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/PeaceCorso” and Friend her on http://www.facebook.com/algore#/profile.php?id=1365699347&ref=profile.