Women Mystics

With Wild Mercy, Mirabai Starr shares the subversive wisdom and fierce compassion of the feminine mystic across cultural boundaries and throughout history. From saints and sages, to goddesses and archetypal energies, to contemporary teachers and seekers - you'll meet women who blazed a path that will illuminate your own.

On the day her daughter leaves for college, Anne Colwater's husband of 20 years announces he wants a divorce. Her roles of wife and mother suddenly gone, Annie retreats to her childhood home of Mystic, Washington, to heal. There she finds her old friend Nick, suddenly widowed and unable to cope with his emotionally scarred young daughter, Izzie.

Journey into the lives of extraordinary women who redefined spirituality, reshaped philosophical thought, and left an indelible mark on the world of mysticism. Mystic Women offers an inspiring exploration of female visionaries whose insights and legacies continue to influence philosophy, faith, and mystical traditions around the globe.

A community of quirky, mismatched, and endearing women struggle to find meaning and purpose on a ramshackle monastery in upstate New York. Having spent their lives in service to a church that seems to no longer serve them, they are confused about their own futures and the future of the entire monastery.

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife charts the lives and times of four medieval women writers—Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a no-good wife—who all bucked convention and forged their own paths. Largely forgotten by modern readers, these women have an astonishing amount to teach us about love, marriage, motherhood, friendship, and earning a living.

The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was forty-four years old when she broke with the academic tradition in which she had been trained to produce a body of radical, abstract works the likes of which had never been seen before. Today, it is widely accepted that af Klint was one of the earliest abstract academic painters in Europe. But this is only part of her story. Not only was she a working female artist, she was also an avowed clairvoyant and mystic.

She’s confronting hot flashes and hecklers. But can this sharp-witted professor solve a high-stakes homicide? Dr. Laurie Olson craves a break. So when her thirtieth high school reunion offers a brief escape back to her hometown of Seattle, the amicably divorced woman jumps at the chance to revisit her free-spirited self. But she’s shocked when a trio of disasters suddenly leaves her able to talk to animals… and under arrest for murdering the wife of the guy who stole her heart.

Is there a Christian spirituality that embraces the entire reality of womanhood? The answer, Shannon K. Evans suggests, is an emphatic yes. There is a spirituality that meets us in every part of our lives, developed by the women who came before us. Six mystics—Teresa of Ávila, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse of Lisieux—revealed a faith big enough to hold the female experiences of sex and desire, the yearning for bodily autonomy, the challenges of motherhood and identity, as well as life with male authority and—sometimes—violence.

From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, stories of flying women - some carried by wings, others by clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, and flying horses - reveal the perennial fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions.

While in Bath preparing for her upcoming marriage to Lord Darkefell, Lady Anne learns of a profoundly accurate mystic working in town whose uncanny predictions have stunned the gullible and the skeptical alike. Certain there's a harmless rational explanation for the medium's supposed otherworldly abilities, Anne's tolerance turns to defiance when the seer's dark pronouncements begin having a decidedly harmful affect on her friends - and a troubled local vicar takes his own life.

When retired postmaster Albert Schumer is found dead on the steps of the post office, the whole town of Mystic Notch is disappointed he won’t be able to play in the annual checkers tournament. But when his ghost informs middle-aged bookstore owner Willa Chance that he died trying to deliver an old letter, which has mysteriously gone missing, Willa realizes Albert didn’t just slip and fall. Someone killed him. Even worse, it turns out the letter contains a list of ingredients for a spell that could wreak havoc on Mystic Notch if it falls into the wrong hands.

Bethany Parker is falling apart. Stunned on her fiftieth birthday to discover her stepchildren hate her and her husband wants a divorce, the devastated homemaker is suddenly and unexpectedly on her own. Taking a job as caretaker for a mysterious estate, Bethany fears she's lost her mind when she learns the house is cursed . . . and she holds the power to break it. Teaming with a pushy medium, a hard-drinking housekeeper, and a sarcastic talking cat, the discombobulated divorcée struggles to master the magic she never knew she had.

People’s timeless captivation with those supposedly endowed with supernatural powers - these gifted individuals oftentimes regarded as gods walking among everyone else - is a fascinating phenomenon in itself. Soothsayers and clairvoyants were particularly revered in past centuries, even by royals, nobles, and other influential figures, who placed oracles, mediums, and mystics in their retinues and sought counsel from them on a regular basis.

Middle-aged bookstore owner Willa Chance is looking forward to the opportunity of appraising a valuable private library that hasn't seen the light of day for 50 years...until she finds a dead body in the backyard and the ghost of the home's previous owner anxiously waiting for her inside.

Middle-aged bookstore owner Willa Chance is often haunted by ghosts who want her to do their bidding. Usually it involves the nasty business of bringing their killers to justice, so when the ghost of Adelaide Hamilton asks her to find an old recipe book and give it to Elspeth Whipple, it seems like an easy job. Except Willa's search for the book has her crossing the path of Sheriff Eddie Striker one too many times for comfort. He's acting almost as if he's investigating a murder, but Adelaide died of natural causes. Didn't she?

Aly’s got enough on her plate, with finishing her degree and taking care of her nephew and starting her new job at the antique store while drooling over the owner's gorgeous son. No time for visions. Alas, the universe doesn't care what Aly believes. When she turns 21, she starts to feel psychic impressions left on objects. A disorienting power for someone surrounded by antiques.

Three hundred years ago, accused witch Hester Warren buried a magical box in Mystic Notch. The secret contents within have the power to bring disaster to the town, and when the box is dug up at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Mystic Notch Historical Museum, Hester's ghost and that of her cat make an appearance to warn the humans and enlist their help to ensure the box doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Too bad the only one listening is Pandora, the cat.

Wyatt Fitzgerald doesn't consider his deafness a disability, and he doesn't want special consideration from anyone - least of all a spoiled city girl like Erin. He prides himself on his ability to read lips, and when she confronts him, Wyatt sees no reason to volunteer to her that he's deaf. But there's no escaping each other in the small Oregon town, especially once Erin seeks him out to make amends. Wyatt gave up on dating long ago, but the written correspondence he and Erin begin to share speak to him like nothing else ever has.

Bethany Parker finally feels at home. With a found family of fellow supernatural outcasts, the fifty-year-old divorcée starts to believe she can make peace with her past. But when the vampire she freed receives a visit from his former partner-in-crime, she discovers she's not the only one running from trouble. Threatened with death by the new arrival unless she retrieves a magical artifact, Bethany plots to thwart the bloodsucker's trap. But even with the help of her level-headed medium friend and loyal talking cat, the recently awakened mystic fears she won't master her powers in time.

Celebrate the impact women have made in our culture: This feminist book is a beacon of brilliance. It is the perfect gift for artists, intellectuals, and anyone who seeks to be inspired by words and profound lives. Most of all, it is a celebration of the journeys and accomplishments of women who have worked to have their voices heard in black and white letters across the world.