Holy Lament Grief and Transformation

In this gathering we will share interspiritual teachings from the mystics of various traditions that illumine the connection between loss and spiritual longing.

Many of us who have suffered profound loss experience a palpable sense of the sacred filling the atmosphere and flooding our hearts.  Sometimes we are afraid to speak of this numinous gift for fear that we will seem as if we are not “sad.”  But our beings are vast enough to hold brokenness and exaltation in the same shattered container.  When we investigate this state with curiosity and compassion, we may find that the pain of loss is intimately entwined with our deepest yearning for connection to the Divine.

The teachings of the sixteenth century Spanish saints, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, show us how we may approach the radical mystery that often accompanies profound loss as a spiritual opportunity rather than as a problem requiring a solution.  By engaging a contemplative in favor of a cathartic approach, we cultivate an environment of emotional safety and deep peace.

Our time together will include teachings, mystical poetry, questions and responses, a writing exercise, chanting and contemplative silence.

BIO

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her latest book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was named one of the “Best Books of 2019” by Spirituality & Practice. Mirabai is on the 2020 Watkins List of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of the World.” She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

Daughter of the counterculture, Mirabai was born in New York in 1961 to secular Jewish parents who rejected the patriarchy of institutionalized religion. Intellectual artists and advocates of social justice and environmental responsibility, Mirabai’s family was active in the anti-war protest movement of the Vietnam era.

In 1972, Mirabai’s mother, father, and her younger brother and sister uprooted from their suburban life and embarked on an extended road trip that led them through the jungles of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where they lived for many months on an isolated Caribbean beach, and ended in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico.  There, the family embraced an alternative, “back-to-the-land” lifestyle, in a communal effort to live simply and sustainably, values that remain important to Mirabai to this day.

As a teenager, Mirabai lived at the Lama Foundation, an intentional spiritual community that has honored all the world’s faith traditions since its inception in 1967.  This ecumenical experience became formative in the universal quality that has infused Mirabai’s work ever since. Mirabai was an adjunct professor of Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years.  Her emphasis has always been on making connections between the perennial teachings found at the heart of all the world’s spiritual paths, in an effort to promote peace and justice.

Mirabai speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She is available for interviews, speaking engagements, workshops and contemplative retreats. She lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with her husband, Jeff Little (Ganga Das). Between them, Mirabai and Jeff have four grown daughters and six grandchildren. Mirabai’s youngest daughter, Jenny, was killed in a car accident in 2001 at the age of fourteen. On that same day, Mirabai’s first book, a translation of Dark Night of the Soul, was released. She considers this experience, and the connection between profound loss and longing for God, the ground of her own spiritual life.

The Divine Power that is Love
Love has been described many ways but the most precise description of love is that it is power. Love has the power to transform us, to heal us, to destroy us in its absence, to motivate us to endure the unendurable, to do the impossible because of love. Love is not a simple power to describe or to understand. We require love to sustain us. We fear loving others and being loved and we know our lives are empty without love. Why do we struggle so much with love? Why are love wounds so difficult to heal? Why is being a loving person so difficult at times?  Love is more than “love”. It is the name we have given to what the power of the Divine feels like in the human experience and deep within our souls, we know this to be the truth. We struggle with love because we know this is our greatest power. We’ll discuss the divine nature of love in our time together.

BIO

Caroline developed the field of Energy Anatomy, a science that correlates specific emotional/psychological/physical/spiritual stress patterns with diseases. Her research proved so accurate that it became the subject matter of a book co-written by Caroline and Norm: THE CREATION OF HEALTH.

In 1996, Caroline released ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, a New York Times bestseller that has been published in 28 languages and has sold over 1.5 million copies. Through the investigation of the underlying reasons why people sabotage their healing processes, Caroline identified a syndrome she calls “woundology,” characterized by a person’s reliance on the power of illness for manipulation of his or her world, as opposed to attaining an independent, empowered state of health. As with her other seminal research, this syndrome is now a recognized psychological condition. Her third book, WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL AND HOW THEY CAN, became another New York Times bestseller.

Caroline then pursued her interest in the language of symbols, myths, and archetypes, conducting research that enabled her to profile an individual’s “Sacred Contract,” a complex of 12 archetypal patterns that reflect in mythic language the agreements the soul made prior to birth. Based on this work, Caroline released SACRED CONTRACTS, which became her third New York Times bestseller. It is published in 18 languages and posts sales of well over 1.6 million copies. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey gave Caroline her own television program with the OXYGEN network in New York City, which ran successfully for one year.Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned speaker in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine, and the science of medical intuition. Caroline established her own educational institute in 2003, CMED (Caroline Myss Education), which offers a diverse array of programs devoted to personal development and draws students from all over the world. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show on the Hay House network, Caroline maintains a rigorous international workshop and lecture schedule.

After completing her Master’s degree, Caroline co-founded Stillpoint Publishing and headed the editorial department, producing an average of ten books a year in the field of human consciousness and holistic health. Simultaneously Caroline refined her skills as a medical intuitive, with the assistance of C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon.

Caroline followed with two more New York Times bestsellers, INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER in 2004 and ENTERING THE CASTLE in 2007. Caroline’s latest book, DEFY GRAVITY, was released in October 2009, a book exploring the mystical phenomenon of healing that transcends reason.

In addition to her written work, Caroline has produced more than eighty audio/visual products on subjects that include healing, spirituality, personal development, and the study of archetypes.