NAME & PEN NAME
The pen name of Elayne M. Neal is “E. N. Light” because “EN” are her initials and she has used “light” in some form in all of her businesses and hobbies, email addresses, one of her Twitter accounts, websites, and license plate.
POETRY
Elayne took a course in modern American and British poetry at Bridgewater State College and did her senior year teaching assignment on poetry with seventh graders. Although Elayne has always been interested in poetry, she did not consistently write it until 1979 when she began "channeling" a variety of philosophical poems after a long period of meditation directed at balancing her energies.
MYSTICAL/SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATIONS
In 1977 Elayne joined the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and later its affiliate, The Traditional Martinist Order (TMO), that are mystical, educational and fraternal organizations aimed at helping the student to master him/herself and is now a life member of AMORC. Around 1979 Elayne was introduced to ECKankar and began chanting HU, which, along with her Rosicrucian exercises, called in an inner master. In 1981 she began attending the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Chestnut Hill, then the Watertown Siddha Center when the Boston ashram became a Gurukula (Guru's School). She later had Shaktipat by its current living master, Swami Chidvilasananda, also known as Gurumayi, that uncoiled the Kundalini energy at the base of her spine.
POETRY ORGANIZATIONS
In 1986 Elayne joined the Massachusetts State Poetry Society (MSPS) and later the North Shore Poet's Forum. She served several years as Contest Chairman, Vice President, and Corresponding Secretary of the MSPS and is currently on the Board of Directors and often a contest judge. In 1991 Elayne founded The Poet's Circle, the first Chapter of the MSPS that met monthly at the Waltham Public Library where members read their own poems and shared poetry techniques. In the beginning of the 21st Century it disbanded due to the death of several members, including Lou LeBlanc to whom Elayne had turned over the leadership.
POETRY FORMS
Regarding poetry forms, Elayne prefers free verse, different types of rhyme, short poems such as haiku and tanka, and continues to learn and experiment with other forms. Elayne's muse tends to prefer free verse for educational or mystical poems and Elayne's version of the Japanese forms for short informative statements. Sometimes the "muse within" will channel an entire poem or provide Elayne with the first line from whence a poem seems to flow without too much conscious effort. Occasionally, a poem comes spontaneously after Elayne spends time dwelling on a particular law or aspect of life.
PUBLICATIONS & POETRY AS AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIUM
In February 1991, Elayne decided to try to write some of her higher consciousness experiences in poetry form. Some of these poems have been published by Unitarian Universalist PSI Symposium in various newsletters, in Massachusetts State Poetry Society bulletins and anthologies, Poet’s Circle anthologies, and have been integrated in Elayne's seminars and public talks on self-mastery as well as a photographic PowerPoint program she created titled “The Four Seasons with Poetry.” It is Elayne's belief that since poetry provides a structure for presenting the most images in the least amount of words, as well as complex mystical laws in simple analogies, it is an ideal mechanism for educating others.
PUBLISHED BOOKS
Elayne published four booklets in the 1990s, but decided to begin publishing books in 2019 beginning with Return of The Eagle: Poems with Their Stories of Higher Consciousness. This book contains poems and information published in her booklet with a similar name but with a lot more added poems and chapter introductions. In August 2021, Elayne published her second book Kabir-Like Chastisements: To Get on The Return Path Material to Spiritual, a compilation of short, terse poems she mostly created in the years 2003 and 2004 after viewing people's activities and thinking how these activities could be changed to align with Spirit. Elayne calls it her "kick-ass" book. In December 2021, she published The Pyramid Discourses: Co-Partnering with God. This book almost got published by a friend in 2003 under a different subtitle. Elayne changed it to a smaller size with a different cover and more formatting. The end of June 2022, Elayne published Creating & Changing Realities: A Dynamic Tool for Self-Mastery that contains information from her booklet with the same name plus over 150 pages of additional techniques and experiences. Unlike Elayne's other books, this book is full of self-help information that has changed and can change people's lives for the better. In March 2023, Elayne published Spirit of Life Poetry: Views of the Dual World, her third poetry book, which is a compilation of 285 of her more mundane poems created from 1979 to 2023. Then in September 2023, she published The Light, The Sound & The Rose: Autobiography of a Psychic and Mystic, a 484-page book that she worked on for one year. It has photos, some poems, lots of spiritual and psychic experiences, and details of several trips including a 1963 14-country European summer trip hitchhiking and hosteling. The end of the book contains numerous lists.
All Elayne's books are self-published and can be purchased on Amazon. Go to her Author Central account (www.amazon.com/author/enlight) and click on "See More Details," which will bring you to Amazon's ordering page. Her Author Central provides a lot of basic information along with her bio but in 2023 book trailers can only be viewed on the ordering page.
Copyright 10/1/19, Updated 1/16/24