Essays Of A Modern Mystic

The contents of these essays touch the fundamentals of human interest, such as birth, man’s mission, his concern with the afterlife, and practical problems of ethics and morals. The author writes as though he were personally counseling one who came to his study for advice as did several thousand persons during his lifetime. Dr. Lewis was the executive officer of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, one of the world’s oldest and largest fraternities devoted to mystical and metaphysical study. Thousands have read and benefited from his books. This book you will want to refer to often. Though you will find it interesting, it is intended to be helpful and informative. For this reason you will find it a useful reference work pertaining to the mysteries of human existence.

This title was first published in 2000: These essays ecplore the spiritual culture shared by texts and writers in Western Europe from the 13th to 17th centuries; the visionaries, mystics and nuns who were poets or scholars and the creative writers who drew on spiritual themes. The topics range chronologically from the late 13th to late 17th centuries and geographically from Germany, England, Italy, France, Spain and New Spain (Mexico), though the volume's centre is the spiritual culture of 16th-century Spain. Common concerns of each essay are the exploration of spiritual culture; how some texts and writers shape expectations attending the life of the spirit; and how they are in turn shaped by them. The sub-themes many of the essays share are the gendering of spiritual culture and the relationship between traditional literary genres like poetry and drama and spiritual discourse. Each text or spiritual figure covered here has a distinctive spiritual voice - a mystical gesture - that contributes an individual mysticism to the common spiritual culture they all share. Each scholar in her or his own way defines this mystical gesture. The essays analyze Mechthild von Magdburg, "Piers Plowman", "The Second Shepherds' Play", Catherine of Siena, Bernardo de Laredo, Teresa of Avila, Alonso de la Fuente, Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, Cecilian de nacimiento, Margaret Mary Alaconque and Sor Juana.

Offering different essays of the practice of mysticism Underhill gives a thorough treatment of the practice that relies on experience rather than logic to justify the matters of faith. While a dangerous path to follow as it can quickly lead to paths away from God, this thinking is valid to a point in that we must be able to experience the fullness of God in some way to be fully alive in the realization of who God the Father is.

Interviews with modern-day mystic Andrew Harvey yield a discourse of mystical depth and beauty.

The Christian mystics were seekers of God's wisdom and presence. They sought out, as described by the Celtic Christian tradition, those places "worn thin"; where earth and heaven lose their distinctions. They serve as guides to those "thin" places for the modern day spiritual seeker. The goal of this book is not to update the tradition, but to locate the ancient wisdom and spiritual insights in a modern context. In this book, the two thousand year long tradition of spiritual seekers, the Christian mystics, will be explored for the purposes of mining their insights and wisdom for today's seeker. Their wisdom has been passed to us through what is called the Contemplative or Mystical path. It is a tapestry threaded with ecstatic visions of divine love, personal revelation and a deep sense of God's direct presence. This book will introduce you to the history, major themes, characters and practices of the Christian mystics. The mystics will serve as your spiritual guides to the love of God. The purpose of this book is not to update the ancient Contemplative wisdom and practices of the Christian mystics. Instead, the intent is to understand their wisdom in the hope of articulating it in such a way that spiritual seekers from a modern context can understand and apply what is gained for the benefit of their spiritual life.