A forthcoming book promises to challenge conventional history by presenting what its author says are memories of a past life as the mother of Leonardo da Vinci. Mirrors of Time: A Circassian Princess and Secrets of Mona Lisa, a spiritual mystery by MELRA, will be published by Melmar Books Inc. on December 2, 2026. The book is based on a series of hypnotic sessions that began in 1999, when the author, then known as Melinda, sought help from Dr. John Ryder for unexplained infertility. Under deep hypnosis, she began to recall a previous existence as Herminia Yegeruqway, a Circassian princess born in 1436 near Mount Elbrus.
According to the book, Herminia was marked by the blue spot of Genghis Khan and blessed by the Guardians. She remembered a little boy whom she taught to read the stars. His name was Leonardo. That memory, MELRA says, arrived whole and vivid, not imagined or constructed. In 2024, feeling the world was ready for the story, she attempted to write it down. Her first attempt fell short, and the second was destroyed by accident. The third time, she closed her eyes and slipped into self-hypnosis. In two weeks, she says, the whole book was dictated. She describes its source not as archives or libraries but as the Universal Mind.
The narrative follows Herminia's life through the fifteenth century: a childhood of sacred learning in the Caucasus Mountains; capture and sale in the silk markets of Venice; almost four years as the secret mother of a brilliant child; and then a cruel conspiracy that tore her from her son. She carries that bond across continents and decades, from Renaissance Italy to Ottoman Constantinople. Beneath every mystery, the book says, lies one truth: a mother's love is the force that bends time itself.
The book also offers its own answers to riddles that have intrigued historians and art lovers for five hundred years, including why Leonardo wrote in mirror script, the mystery of the three Mona Lisas, the meaning of letters hidden in the Mona Lisa's eyes, where he went during his two-year disappearance, and the spiritual meaning of his lost horse statue. Under hypnosis, MELRA says, she recalled Herminia's deathbed prophecy that Leonardo's great horse, destroyed before it was ever cast, would "stand again in 500 years." One week after her sessions ended, on September 10, 1999, the bronze Cavallo di Leonardo was unveiled in Milan.
Born into Circassian paganism, raised by an Orthodox Christian grandfather and later immersed in Sufi mysticism, Herminia becomes a living bridge between worlds on her search for the One God. At the end of a long life, she finds Christ. The book carries 352 wisdom quotes from the world's religious texts and spiritual traditions. It ranks no road above another, and it asks no one to believe.
"This book is more extraordinary than anything I could have written myself. Memory, or something else entirely? That, like everything else here, is yours to decide," MELRA said.
Part historical mystery, part spiritual autobiography, Mirrors of Time is positioned for readers of The Alchemist, Life of Pi, The Da Vinci Code and Many Lives, Many Masters. A trailer is available at www.mirrors-of-time.com. The book will be available in hardcover and softcover on Amazon, and an exclusive limited leather edition is available for pre-order at www.mirrors-of-time.com/shop. The publisher, Union Ridge Publishing, maintains a website at https://unionridgepublishing.com.
The announcement raises questions about the boundaries between memory and imagination, and about how alternative narratives can reshape public understanding of historical figures. For readers and scholars alike, the book's claims will likely spark debate over the nature of evidence and the enduring allure of Leonardo da Vinci's secrets.
