Mystics, Prophets, and Goddesses

Here are some key terms from this book, defined in my own Mirabai language. They may or may not conform to established theology.

       •  Mystic  A person who has a direct experience of the sacred, unmediated by conventional religious rituals or intermediaries, transcending established belief systems, bypassing the intellect, and dissolving identification with the separate (ego) self.

       •  Prophet  A person who answers the call to step up in service to humanity and the earth, even when it is inconvenient and unpopular, and who experiences this calling as sacred.

       •  Feminine  An aggregate of qualities such as mercy, loving-kindness, wildness, inclusiveness, radical truth telling and tendencies such as nurturing, subversive, relational, community building, heart centered, honoring of embodied experience, comfortable with ambiguity.

       •  Feminine mystic  One whose relationship with the Great Mystery is grounded in the feminine qualities and tendencies listed above. In my experience, “the feminine” is pretty much synonymous with “feminine mystic.”

       •  Goddess  An archetypal being who represents certain spiritual attributes to which we may aspire, such as tenderness or ferocity, and also carries a metaphysical energy we can tap into when we need the support of our invisible allies.

       •  Divine Masculine  The sublime aspects of the masculine spiritual paradigm, an inclination toward detachment and transcendence, intellectual clarity and religious rigor, purification and perfection.

       •  Patriarchy  A social or religious system in which men hold the majority of power and women and children are marginalized. These systems are designed, constructed, and operated with men’s experience as the default paradigm, while women’s experience is not considered or is minimized. Both women and men are harmed by this imbalance.