Mysticism comes before Religion

We Are All Called to Mysticism

From Light on Fire, chapter 13, Children of The Light

“Jesus was the supreme exemplar of the mystic life. He was the mystic of mystics and the archetypal mystic. Christians believe he was the Son of God, one with God in every way. The essence of his incarnation, life, death and resurrection were mystical events of the highest order. His life was the mystic event upon which Christianity was founded, yet somehow this burning heart of the Christ Way was lost by the very people who assumed responsibility for protecting it.

The mystic experience comes first; organized religion second. Jesus, mystic-extraordinaire, is the foundation for Christianity. Just as the mystic experience of Abraham is the foundation for Judaism, and the mystic experience of Muhammad is the foundation for Islam. Mysticism comes first, religion second. If each of these religions had been true to its raison d’être, it would have made mysticism central to all that it does, but instead each of these doctrines replaced the exquisite, ineffable, majestic, sacred, transcendent mystic way with the cold, and often lacerating, way of the law.

The institutional Christian Church as good as stripped the religion of its mystical fire. Yet, what else was Jesus but a mystic? What else was his mother Mary but a mystic? What else was Mary Magdalene but a mystic? What else was John the Beloved, who wrote the only recorded mystic gospel, but a mystic? The New Testament, and other gospels excluded from it, such as the gospel of Mary Magdalene, are brimming with accounts of the mystical events and experiences of Jesus’ life and community. What else were Jesus’ disciples, female and male, and his followers far and wide, but mystics-in-training? And what else are we called to, as humans and as lovers of Christ, but mysticism?

In suppressing the centrality of mysticism in the early Christ community, the depth and the wealth of what a true Christianity had to offer was lost. Every wisdom-system and religion of the world has a mystical dimension that could contribute a unique dimension to our understanding and experience of God. For the Christian mystic, that dimension is love. The failure to bring mysticism into mainstream religious practice in the West constitutes a radical failure by our religions.

My deep belief now is that we are all called to this mystical level of being, and that there is an urgency to realizing it. It is this mystical awareness of the oneness of all in love that will help us to save ourselves, our species and our planet. Anyone embodying the mystical mind will necessarily be living from love, peace, harmony, compassion, justice, and equality: the mystic cannot tolerate violations of the higher ideals and will be driven to speak out against them, each in our own best way, true to our natural talents and gifts, as part of our life’s work.

In return for my mystic gift, I gave to God the gifts of my career and of my writing. I abandoned my efforts to get my precious novel published and I placed my writing fully in the service of bringing in all that I now know of God as nothing but love. And, by the remarkable blessing of life, the first effort I made to get this book published was successful.”