Loss & Longing: Grief as a Spiritual Path

Drawing on the teachings of the mystics across the spiritual traditions, with a special emphasis on the wisdom of the feminine, Mirabai invites participants into the sacred space of the broken-open heart.

Many of us have suffered profound loss and experience a palpable sense of the sacred filling the atmosphere and flooding our hearts. Sometimes we are afraid to speak of this numinous gift, fearing 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, visionaries like Julian of Norwich and devotional poets like Mirabai, Lalla and Rabia, 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 may cultivate an environment of emotional safety and deep peace.

This gathering is an opportunity to soften and awaken the heart, draw sustenance from the poetry of the mystics, and embrace our personal losses as an opportunity to participate in the transformational power of the dark night of the world's soul.