Summary: On this new moon in Cancer, my Soul Crush is spiritual teacher and author Mirabai Starr. We explore shame, the voice, being "too much" and "not enough", the marriage of contemplative work and social activism as well as how to keep showing up, even amidst our own pain and suffering. It was an honor and a joy to connect with Mirabai and I have a feeling you will LOVE her deep wisdom and years of devotion to the path of transformation through loss, writing and honoring the Divine Feminine. Find her on her website and Facebook and join her for a retreat or online course, you will receive so much Grace, I'm sure. Mirabai Starr is the author of the long-anticipated memoir, CARAVAN OF NO DESPAIR: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation. In her critically acclaimed new translations of the mystics and reflections on the unifying teachings at the heart of all spiritual paths, Mirabai uses fresh, lyrical language to help make timeless wisdom accessible to a contemporary circle of seekers. In 1972, Mirabai’s mother, father, and her younger brother and sister uprooted from their suburban life and embarked on an extended road trip that led them through the jungles of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where they lived for many months on an isolated Caribbean beach, and ended in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico. There, the family embraced an alternative, “back-to-the-land” lifestyle, in a communal effort to live simply and sustainably, values that remain important to Mirabai to this day. As a teenager, Mirabai lived at the Lama Foundation, an intentional spiritual community that has honored all the world’s faith traditions since its inception in 1967. This ecumenical experience became formative in the universal quality that has infused Mirabai’s work ever since. Mirabai was an adjunct professor of Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years. Her emphasis has always been on making connections between the perennial teachings found at the heart of all the world’s spiritual paths, in an effort to promote peace and justice. Mirabai speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She is available for interviews, speaking engagements, workshops and contemplative retreats. She lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with her husband, Jeff Little (Ganga Das). Between them, Mirabai and Jeff have four grown daughters and six grandchildren. Mirabai’s youngest daughter, Jenny, was killed in a car accident in 2001 at the age of fourteen. On that same day, Mirabai’s first book, a translation of Dark Night of the Soul, was released. She considers this experience, and the connection between profound loss and longing for God, the ground of her own spiritual life.
