Aum, She Who is Most Auspicious

Light seekers. Familial secrets. And parentified children.

AUM, SHE WHO IS MOST AUSPICIOUS is a coming-of-age screenplay about what it means to care for others – and for our selves. On the morning she expects to leave for Europe to pursue music studies, 17-year-old Elise Lichten wakes to find her plane ticket gone – and her mother, too. It’s not the first time. As daughter to guru-seeking Paula, Elise and her sister Lily are used to their mother’s spiritual malaise and unannounced retreats at ashrams overseas. Elise is beyond ready to be free of her family. She has to find a place for her little sister to stay till their mother returns. At first, 17-year-old Gavin Cahill’s adoration for Elise comes with a family – a stable family – for Elise to entrust her sister. But when she begins to warm to his affections, she opens to a world she’s adamantly rejected: one of spiritual devotion, non-duality and an assuredness in the divine. Soon, she loses sight of her dream to study music and finds a new dream in Gavin.

But their love comes at a cost: their relationship reveals long-hidden family secrets. When Paula returns, distant and vulnerable, Elise has to decide what she cares for most – and what she’s willing to lose in order to stand unapologetically in who she is.

Combining research in storytelling, feminine psychology, and archetypes and mythology, AUM is a heroine’s journey about a young girl’s descent to the underworld and auspicious return.