what would the mystics say about this election?

they'd like a word

Admittedly, with the release of my latest book, female mystics of the Christian tradition have been on my mind this fall. Encountering the six of these women has forever changed the way I see religion, spirituality, womanhood, personal growth, and society at large. So when I sat down to write at the end of this tumultuous week in America, I found myself wondering: What would the mystics say about this election?

Here’s my best guess.

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Teresa of Avila would say that Christian America is unwilling to descend to the inner chambers of the Interior Castle in our souls. In choosing to stay in the early rooms, individuals and institutions are choosing to allow their sincerely held beliefs to separate them from others. In the beginning stages of faith awakening, this is developmentally healthy. But when we insist on staying there, great harm is done. Teresa would call for spiritual leaders who could lead Christians further in, to the inner chambers of their souls, where a love encounter with the Beloved awakens love and empathy for all others as well.

Margery Kempe would bemoan that American women — especially White women — have not yet found the courage to reclaim a spiritual virginity, a self-belonging that enshrines the formation of convictions and conscience as one’s own, apart from the influence or ownership of another individual or group. Margery would exhort the women of this country to examine the ways they have become enmeshed with others at the expense of fidelity to self. She would remind us that it is never too late; and that women are most powerful in the second half of life, after reclaiming who they are.

Hildegard of Bingen would lament the lack of concern shown by the American people for the land we inhabit. She would be aghast at the number of her fellow Christians who cast their vote with no thought of the earth whatsoever; at the politicians who would forsake creation justice in hopes of staying in favor with their constituents. Hildegard would say this is exactly why our faith is impotent, for she told us centuries ago that we could never fully commune with God if we tried to separate the divine from the natural world.

l-r Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux (art by Dani)

Julian of Norwich would insist that the gravitational pull towards a hypermasculine leader, and the assignment of a Christ-like identity to that leader by a large percentage of Christians, proves how desperately the divine feminine is needed. Until we encounter God as Mother, Julian would say, we will continue to fear the power of women and marginalize them as a means of control. She would call for a mass teaching and preaching of this Divine Motherhood in churches, knowing that uplifting the feminine will bring healing to all genders — yes, including men.

Therese of Lisieux would say this country’s obsession with power and posturing is a tragedy, one that prevents us from seeing ourselves rightly. The individual and collective epidemic of narcissism in the United States keeps us prisoners to our own interests and makes us gods in our own imagination. Therese would beg us to face our smallness; to not run in fear from our own insignificance but, in the wisdom of an elder, greet it as a friend and let it show us our small role in the greater story of humankind.

Catherine of Siena would be disgusted by the lack of feet on the ground. All talk, she would say, and no action. Where are the Christians? she would want to know. Surely they are not the ones seated in the pews, comfortably buffered from the dire needs of the world. Surely they are not the ones tying up heavy burdens and laying them on people's shoulders with no willingness to lift a finger to move them (Mt. 23:4). Catherine would scoff and say faith without works is dead.

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With you in the reckoning (and asking these women to help us),

Shannon