Mirabai Starr – Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
Discover the radical wisdom of women mystics — breaking free from rules and dogma to forge your own path of transformation.
Embark on a journey to unite with the Beloved, ignite your creativity, and realize your inner mystic.
What You’ll Discover in Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
During this 6-month video training with world-renowned interspiritual teacher Mirabai, you’ll:
Reclaim love-longing as a powerful path to union with the Divine Embrace your passion, emotionality, and sensitivity as spiritual gifts, rather than as symptoms of weakness or imbalance Practice relaxing your effort to fix and control your spiritual awakening Connect with your desire to dissolve into Boundless Love Activate the power of devotion and ecstatic union Learn about the Shekinah as the embodiment of sacred creativity Find beauty and meaning in artistic expression, nature and the Sacred Call into your heart the prophetic voices and radical wisdom of the Three Marias (Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary and Miriam)
Explore the Earth Mother archetype across the spiritual traditions and world mythologies Create an altar to the Sacred Feminine, to be added to as this journey unfolds Discover replenishment through mercy, compassion ,and stillness
What You’ll Discover in This Journey
In Mirabai Starr’s Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary, you’ll immerse yourself spiritual practice, meditation — guided and silent — chanting, dharma talks, deepening practices, and more. You’ll discover a deeper refuge, ignite your creative fire, and commune with your spiritual sisters and brothers.
You’ll spend time over live video with world-renowned, spiritual teachers, musician-activists, and authors; share in the joys and sorrows of mystical poetry; engage in creative projects; and receive devotional, contemplative, and non-dual practices.
Deepening your intimacy with the Beloved, you’ll feel less compelled to seek it outside of your own heart, where so many of us have often been disappointed. The mystics, sacred texts, teachers, and themes you engage with, will become a path for wholeness and healing your human relationships and the Earth, meeting each person and challenge with an open, generous heart.
Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones so you develop a holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you need to fill your cup and ignite your creativity and acts of service.
Module 1: Opening Your Heart to the Beloved: Activate the Power of Devotion & Ecstatic Union
You’ve long yearned to be in direct communion with the Divine, yet you may have set aside this desire in pursuit of a more mature and “sober” spirituality that has neglected your heart.
If the ember of spiritual longing still smolders in you, bursting into flame from time to time when you fall in love, have your heart broken, or come into close proximity to death, this time in sanctuary with Mirabai Starr will open your heart for an intimate, impassioned relationship with the Beloved.
You’ll nourish your longing for deep love with the Great Mystery — drawing sustenance from devotional practices and ecstatic poetry of the feminine mystical tradition.
In this module, you’ll: Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
- Reclaim love-longing as a powerful path to union with the Divine and healing in the world
- Embrace your passion, emotionality, and heightened sensitivity as spiritual gifts, rather than as symptoms of weakness or imbalance
- Revitalize your intimacy with the Great Mystery
- Allow your love affair with the Divine to infuse and inform all your human relationships
- Find freedom from expecting your human partner to fulfill your hidden longing for divine connection
- Savor the devotional poetry of women mystics from across the spiritual traditions, such as Mirabai, Lalla, the Song of Songs, Layla and Majnun
Module 2: Opening to Boundless Love Release the Illusion of Separation & Control
Many of us suffer from the illusion of separation from the Beloved, God, Spirit, the Divine… and each other. We engage in practices designed to “get us somewhere and give us something,” driven by a false belief that we are impure, imperfect, disconnected.
Unwittingly, you may also put your attention on the mechanisms — prayer, meditation and mindfulness, for example — forgetting you’re already one with the Beloved, and always have been, and ever shall be.
In this session, you’ll discover non-dual teachings that invite you to release your illusion of separation and surrender to a boundless, unconditional love. You will begin to recognize the presence of the sacred in what is. .. in the ordinary and each moment.
In this module, you’ll:Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
- Practice relaxing your effort to fix and control your spiritual awakening
- Investigate teachings of self-emptying and “holy annihilation” across the spiritual traditions
- Connect with your desire to dissolve into the Boundless
- Learn basic inquiry practice as a means for experiencing the grace of non-dual reality
Module 3: Unleashing Your Sacred Creativity Find Beauty & Meaning in Artistic Expression, Nature & Shakti
Daily demands can take precedence over the things that truly feed our hearts… if only we can get all of the items checked off our to-do list, then we can get on with a meaningful life. Activities like resting and restoring our bodies and minds, making art, and connecting with nature take second place.
It’s time to reclaim your relationship with beauty and nature. You don’t have to be a master artist to revel in the joy of painting or drawing, poetry or fiction, music and dance. When you engage in creativity, you become a conduit for the Divine and an instrument of peace.
We’ve disconnected from the “wild child” of our true nature. In our vulnerability and our creativity, however “unrefined” it may be, we channel Shakti, the sacred life force. Creative expression is not about the outcome, but is an opening for connecting with Beloved.
In this module, you’ll:Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
- Learn about the Shekinah as the embodiment of the Divine infusing all of creation
- Establish a Sabbath practice to restore your body and mind, aligning you with the Sacred
- Commit to creating a work of art, to be completed by the end of the course, and shared on the community page
- Explore the archetypes of beauty and creativity across the spiritual traditions, such as Saraswati and Athena
- Discover the ancient yogic teachings of the Radiance Sutras
Module 4: Finding Sisterhood With the 3 Marias Wise Allies for Your Journey
Rarely do we have access to the true telling of women prophets speaking the voice of feminine power and wisdom, meeting depraved humanity with deep compassion, or creatively overcoming life’s adversities…
Yet through powerful guides such as Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary, and Miriam, a profound path of transformation — for our lives and our world — is revealed.
Their prophetic voices, their radical wisdom, and their loving actions can nourish, empower and support you on your own journey of healing.
Our ability to connect authentically with the Beloved AND respond to the cries of the world — is rooted in feminine wisdom and the heart.
In this module, you’ll:Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
- Restore Mary Magdalene to her rightful place in the mythos of the Christ
- Uncover your own story in stories of Miriam
- Engage in a guided meditation to deepen your connection to the Divine Feminine
- Access Mother Mary as a universal source of unconditional love
- Reframe the Mary and Martha story from the New Testament in light of integrating the inner life with service
Module 5: Grounding Your Being in the Earth Reclaim Your Connection to the Web of Life
Cut off from the feminine, humanity has caused immeasurable damage to our precious planet. In the process, we’ve lost our connection with the land, our bodies and the very life force.
If you ache for the aching Earth, how can you practice not turning away from her pain, but rather leaning in to listen to what she has to tell you?
In this module, you’ll find meaningful separation between the grief of your own losses and your capacity to hold the anguish of other beings and of our Sister, Mother Earth (as St. Francis of Assisi so sweetly calls her). You will reclaim your connection with the web of life — and clearly perceive the earth’s wounds, tend to them, and heal your separation from the feminine.
In this module, you’ll:Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary
- Cultivate a relationship with the Earth as a cherished relative
- Develop a practice of spending time in nature every day (expanding your understanding of what that looks like to include urban environments and accommodate disabilities and other restrictions)
- Explore the Earth Mother archetype across the spiritual traditions and world mythologies, especially Gaia, Pachamama, Mayan and Aztec deities, Greco-Roman fertility goddesses, and the insights of contemporary environmental science
- Create an altar to the Sacred Feminine, to be added to as the journey unfolds
Module 6: Finding Sanctuary and Refuge Replenishment Through Mercy, Compassion & Stillness
The multiple crises unfolding in the world can leave us battered and helpless. Soul-weary, we may feel alone, unworthy, even unloved.
We may also mistake self-care for self-indulgence — fearing that refilling our empty cup will take us away from the urgent tasks of perfecting ourselves and fixing the world.
Yet, fill our cups we must. Embracing ourselves with tenderness and compassion, we can restore and re-energize so we may be a force of goodness in this world.
Lay down your burden. Take refuge in the stillness of solitude and the plenitude of community…
In this module, you’ll:
- Engage in simple practices to counteract burnout
- Connect with existing communities or create new circles of connection around a common interest
- Study the inspiring life and radically optimistic teachings of the medieval visionary, Julian of Norwich
- Explore the bodhisattvas Quan Yin and Tara as archetypes of compassion
- Discover how you can find your unique prophetic voice
About Mirabai Starr
Mirabai Starr writes creative nonfiction 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 interspiritual dialogue. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She’s received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of the mystics John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Julian of Norwich.
She’s the award-winning author of Mother of God Similar to Fire, a collaboration with iconographer William Hart McNichols; God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, and Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation. Her latest book, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, will be published in the spring of 2019. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
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