Wild Goddesses & Mystics of Mercy Soul Sanctuary – Mirabai Starr

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 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:

• 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

Guest Teacher: Nina Rao, internationally renowned musician and teacher of kirtan and chanting of the Hanuman ChalisaNina Rao learned traditional chants (bhajans) from her grandfather in a village in South India when she was nine years old. The chants quietly stayed with her until she rediscovered chanting with Krishna Das in New York in 1996. She now tours and records with him, playing cymbals and singing. Her own albums include Antarayaami — Knower of All Hearts. She regularly leads kirtan, chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa, and sings in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, and beyond.

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:

• 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

Guest Teacher: Miranda Macpherson, renowned teacher and author of awakened living and non-dualism

Miranda Macpherson is a celebrated teacher of non-dual spirituality, known for her presence and refined capacity to guide others into direct experience of the Sacred. Within a tangible atmosphere of unconditional love, she teaches and transmits a synthesis of self-inquiry, devotion, meditation and psychological wisdom. Her integrated approach to non-dual realization is borne out of her own awakening process, inspired by the silent presence of Sri Ramana Maharshi, A Course in Miracles, extensive study of the world’s wisdom traditions and the Diamond Approach. She’s the author of Boundless Love and The Heart of Being mantra CD.

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:

• 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

Guest Teacher: Azima Kolin, internally renowned classical musician and Sufi artist

Azima Melita Kolin is an award-winning, world-renowned musician, writer, and scholar. In 1997, inspired by the 13th century Persian mystical poet Rumi, Azima began a series of concert-readings, combining Rumi’s poems with classical music by Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin, and Brahms. In a joint effort with readers of various nationalities, she’s given hundreds of concerts in England, Scotland, Germany, and Spain. In 1991, she collaborated with Persian artists in a performance in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

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:

• 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

Guest Teacher: Mona Haydar, globally celebrated rapper, poet, sacred activist, and tireless God-enthusiast

Mona Haydar is a celebrated rapper, poet, sacred activist and tireless God-enthusiast. Her debut song Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab) was one of 2017’s top protest songs and is considered one of the top feminist anthems of all time. Born in Flint, Michigan, Mona lived in Damascus where she studied Arabic and Islamic spirituality. She’s lived in the mountains of northern New Mexico at Lama Foundation, the redwood forest of northern California, and now lives in Harlem, New York, where she’s pursuing her MA in Christian Ethics.

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:

• 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

Guest Teacher, Pat McCabe “Woman Stands Shining,” Navajo mother, grandmother, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international activist

Pat McCabe is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, Earth, and global healing. Pat believes what the elders have been speaking to: “what we are suffering from at this time on the planet is a crisis of relationship.” She points to the “Ways of Knowing” in Indigenous culture as the key to sustainability and restoration of the planet. Her teachings are deeply rooted in the feminine.

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

Guest teacher: Father Bill McNichols, icon painter, philosopher, and former Jesuit priest

Father Bill has spent his life navigating the intersection between beauty and spirit. A former Jesuit priest, his passionate about philosophy, theology, and art. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in landscape painting from Pratt Institute.

During the time of his AIDS ministry, he illustrated more than 25 books for Paulist Press. He’s published various collections of icons with Orbis Books, in collaboration with the writings of prophetic figures of our times, Daniel Berrigan, John Dear, Megan McKenna, and Mirabai Starr. Father Bill resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he studies icon painting with Russian American master, Robert Lentz.