Underwater cave in a tropical coral reef (Photo from 4freephotos)
Underwater cave in a tropical coral reef. Public domain photo courtesy 4freephotos.

Here’s another lovely musing from fellow mystic-writer (etc.) Mirabai Starr.

I recently shared a perspective from her on the Feminine Mystic.

This one is how she describes her own experience of walking the InterSpiritual Way.

Different from interspiritual or multi-faith, Interspirituality is the path of exploring the commonalities and underlying wisdom that can be found at the mystic-heart of many traditions … religious, spiritual, indigenous-ancestral.

Here’s how Mirabai Starr responding to one question in an interview with Tami Simon of Sounds True. You’ll find the link to the full interview just below.

“Brother Wayne Teasdale coined the term Interspirituality, and it refers to the interconnectedness of all the spiritual ways of the world.

The Interspiritual movement is much more about sharing prayer, sharing spiritual practice, sharing those heart-opening and spirit transforming experiences of the Divine that happen when you actually engage with what matters most at the heart of these various traditions.”

Our Lady of Lourdes, Valais. Photo by Armin Kübelbeck, shared via Creative Commons SA, Wikimedia.jpg
Our Lady of Lourdes, Valais. Photo by Armin Kübelbeck, shared via Creative Commons SA, Wikimedia.jpg

“It’s about having a direct experience of other wisdom wells, dipping into those wells and drinking deeply and allowing those waters to change who you are.

So it’s a much more transformative experience.”

…

“I feel there is an alchemy that happens when we go to the altars of these sacred spaces and bow down to them.

So I’m not talking about a superficial dipping into these traditions. This is not a shopping mall I’m talking about.

This is a radical practice of showing up completely and wholly and practicing deeply. Three or four, we can manage. I think we’re deep and wide enough beings that we have the capacity to love in many ways.”

Saint Paisios of the Holy Mountain.
Saint Paisios of the Holy Mountain (See The Rebel & The Mystic Sell post for more).

… it’s not a fluffy feel-good spirituality.  I’m not talking about taking what feels nice and take the good and discard the hard parts.

I’m talking about a narrow path, as Jesus put it, where we give our lives to the Divine, to the Sacred, to the Great Mystery, everywhere we can encounter it.”

~ Mirabai Starr, Naked with the Beloved, interview with Tami Simon, Sounds True

It seems that the Interspiritual way is one well-understood, and walked, by the mystics of many traditions, now and far back into our ancestral roots. Touching into the sacred heart that beats and pulses between and beneath them.

But not all are called to that path.

Some are called to go deeply into one tradition (and even one particular vein of that tradition), while others explore interrelatedness in some way. Others skitter along the surface, avoiding the depths and their challenges altogether.

If you tend towards the Interspiritual path — have been called to the common spiritual threads that run through several traditions — how does your own experience have you defining or speaking of it?

Big Love,

Jamie