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Mirabai Starr
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Discover the feminine path of awakening to embrace the sacred mystery, and experience a profound alchemy of your body, mind and soul.
Have you ever felt that the religious traditions we’ve inherited are deeply imbalanced, relegating feminine mystics and their perspectives to marginal, undervalued and even submissive roles — much to our great loss?
The truth is that some of history’s most sublime mystics and societal change agents have been women, and they often walk a very different pathway to their realization — using their longing for union as a portal into the infinite, and their profound compassion as a vehicle to repair the world.
The “way” of the feminine mystic is simultaneously more tender — allowing our heartbreak to guide us into our service, while also more untamed — embracing the juicy wildness of our bodies and nature.
A feminine mystic is full-spectrum, moving from pools of stillness into the whirling dance, embracing the sweetness of caring for others and the fierce truth-telling that sets us free. More than anything, the feminine mystic is grounded in love — love for one’s self, love for the other, love for the world and love for the Divine. The feminine mystic envelops the world in her arms, kissing the tears away with the limitless love of the Mother.
This love force changes everything — inviting you into a powerful new relationship with life in which you see everything with the eyes of reverence — and engage in a truly sacred dance with all that is.
As so many mystics have said, “God IS love,” and when you enter into full communion with God, you experience yourself AS love — without limits or conditions.
When you join The Way of the Feminine Mystic, you will be initiated into a profound, multidimensional field of love that is at the foundation of a sacred relationship with life.
You’ll reclaim long-buried aspects of the feminine soul by hearing the stories of the great female mystics, reveling in their poetry and rejoicing in their wisdom. You’ll heal from millennia of religious programming that denies the body and sexuality.
You’ll enter a holy communion with your Self — remembering that the feminine Divine is equally important and complementary to the masculine Divine — both in the world and in your body.
You will be immersed in practices, prayers, readings and dialogues that help resurrect long dormant parts of your being.
And you will remember who you truly are by seeing yourself through the eyes of these mystics, and learn mystical rituals that help you incarnate the Divine in ever-more-beautiful ways each day.
Perhaps best of all, you be part of a global community of spiritual practitioners committed to deep levels of ecstatic surrender into the arms of the Beloved.
Your teacher, guide and heart-friend for this “feminine mystical love immersion” is Mirabai Starr, one of the most beloved teachers of interspirituality. Mirabai has written many acclaimed books on women like St. Teresa of Avila, and she has walked a path that includes Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist practices — all woven together in a deeply honoring way.
She’s a profound scholar with a mystic’s heart, and lover of God who also delights in people. A committed pioneer, Mirabai illuminates the deeper truth in every lineage and thus a path to a truly unified and sacred world.
This Immersion is her offering to your heart. Its promise is a shift at the very core of your being where your feminine mystic qualities are seen, celebrated and empowered, while you are also called into your most sacred forms of service and action in the world.
During this powerful journey, you’ll:
- Gain a new understanding of what mysticism really is
- Expand your ability to befriend your heartache, pain and longing as allies on the path
- Open to a vision of God that is masculine-feminine balanced, and a path that includes ecstatic surrender
- Practice yielding to heartbreak as an opening to the Infinite
- Learn how to dissolve the separate self and reunite with the Beloved
- Expand your creativity, and link it with your spiritual practices
- Create a relationship with the Divine Mother as a resource for mercy, forgiveness and reckless adoration
It’s time to evolve a new wholeness at the heart of the lineages we’ve inherited — by learning from the inspired women mystics who have pioneered a more earthy, loving, holistic and even wild vision of spiritual life.
This feminine mystical pathway supports the great healing of our times by repairing the wounds in our hearts, minds and bodies, and addressing the suffering in the world.
It’s time to live as truly empowered, radically alive and deeply reverential feminine mystics who are here to change the world!
What You’ll Discover in This 9-Month
Advanced Immersion
Course sessions are on Tuesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
Throughout the 9-month journey, you will experience a profound deepening into your own nature as a Feminine Mystic. You’ll discover insights and practices that allow you to open your heart to your Divine essence. You’ll remember who you truly are, and begin to step into your most sacred form of service to the world.
Each LIVE training session will build harmoniously upon the next, so that you’ll develop a complete, holistic understanding of the practices and principles you’ll need to live as a feminine mystic.
This advanced training is a rare opportunity to work with a renowned mystic and scholar at a much deeper level, as she lovingly guides you in remembering and reclaiming your feminine mysticism.
One of Mirabai’s gifts is her own authentic embodiment of her feminine mystic qualities. She lives a life grounded in love and you will feel truly held in a safe and compassionate container as you experience this profound inner journey with her by your side.
If you are truly ready to dive into reclaiming the long-buried aspects of your feminine soul and remembering who you truly are, this 9-month advanced intensive with Mirabai Starr is the perfect training for you.
Each module will last one month, with Mirabai leading each week’s 90-minute session. The main teaching sessions will air live on Tuesdays from 5:00 – 6:30pm Pacific. If you cannot make the live calls, you’ll still have access the recordings.
Module 1: Answering the Prophetic Call Becoming a Voice for the Divine in the World (July)
The time of the singular prophet is giving way to a collective call to rise up in response to suffering. The word “prophet” means “mouthpiece of God.” We are all worthy of receiving and transmitting the divine voice. And we can no longer justify turning away.
The world is in dire need of our wisdom, our love, our willingness to set aside our opinions and our desires to be comfortable and acceptable. What is the voice of Truth speaking through you?
In this module, you’ll:
- Identify the burning issues in your heart, with regard to the needs of the planet and all who dwell here
- Develop the ability to access and contain the suffering in the world
- Cultivate the mindfulness skills to help you sit with what is and not be overwhelmed
- Build your courage to speak truth
- Learn techniques to energize your body and soften your heart, so that you can be of service joyfully — without burning out
- Recognize that you have enough and are enough, exactly as you are
Module 2: Surrendering to Heartbreak Longing as a Portal to the Infinite (August)
At the heart of the spiritual journey is a yearning for union with the Divine. This is often (but not always) experienced as a burning longing for the Beloved. When we access that soul-desire, it can feel like heartbreak.
Life’s losses — both small and profound — strip us of extraneous concerns and bring us into a sacred field that resembles grief. What is the connection between your losses and your urge to merge with the Divine?
In this module, you’ll:
- Read the poetry of the mystics of multiple traditions who express the soul’s yearning for God
- Explore the connection between missing your loved ones who have died and spiritual longing
- Affirm the validity of an entire spectrum of losses you carry — from loss of innocence to the death of a loved one
- Study the classic spiritual teaching of The Dark Night of the Soul, for guidance on navigating spiritual emptiness and resting in not knowing
- Become familiar and comfortable with desert spirituality by drawing on the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
Module 3: Reuniting with the Beloved Dissolving the Separate Self (September)
Every spiritual tradition borrows the language of romantic love to evoke the experience of spiritual awakening. These wisdom teachings usually involve the mystical paradox of annihilation. That is, lover dissolves into Beloved, and only love remains. Separation from our divine source turns out to be an illusion, and we discover that not only were we connected to the Beloved all along, but we are that which we have been desiring.
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore classic mystical texts on the lover/Beloved story from Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Sufi wisdom literature
- Practice meditation techniques for loosening self-identification
- Express your soul’s passion for union with the Beloved, through writing, chanting, art and deep dialogue
- Learn to integrate your spiritual passion with your life, allowing that sublime love to permeate every aspect of what you do and who you are
- Understand the difference between “becoming nothing” and “being unworthy”
- Embrace the fire and allow it to transfigure you
Module 4: Revitalizing Your Creativity Unleashing Your Voice (October)
Creative self-expression is an overflowing of the sacred into the world. What are the ways in which you may have suppressed the divine voice that wants to be shared through you?
Rumi says there are, “a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Become a conduit for spirit by creating space in your life for visual arts, music, writing, dance — or simply recognizing and creating beauty wherever you go. Saying “YES” to beauty is saying “YES” to the indwelling presence of the Divine.
In this module, you’ll:
- Identify the ways that your soul craves beauty
- Commit to at least one form of creative self-expression
- Discover the power of mystical poetry for evoking spiritual realities
- Become comfortable with the wild, untamed, unplanned and not-always-practical experience of creativity
- Generate a work of art to share with others
Module 5: Standing Up for Mother Earth Renewing Your Stewardship Vow (November)
The Abrahamic teaching of humanity being given power over the rest of creation is a fundamental misunderstanding of the sacred trust. Instead of dominion, we are called to stewardship of the earth and all her creatures — plant, animal, water, air. Both Buddhism and indigenous wisdom teachings affirm that everything is connected, and that our highest task is to recognize our interdependence with all of creation and do our best to support the web of life.
In this module, you’ll:
- Make connections between the world’s spiritual texts on the wisdom of the natural world: Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Hopi
- Identify a particular issue of personal concern regarding the plight of the planet, and make a commitment to action on behalf of the earth
- Develop a personal relationship with Earth as Mother, and address her as a cherished relative
- Recommit to spending regular time connecting with nature as part of your regular spiritual practice
- Practice voluntary simplicity and lightening your footprint, and be an example to others for walking lightly on this earth
Module 6: Embracing the Path of Peacemaker Ministering to Those on
the Margins (December)
The mystics are the beings of every spiritual tradition who have experienced a direct encounter with the Divine. This often takes the form of lover merging into Beloved. Most mystics proclaim that the true value of such a divine gift lies in offering the fruits of that love to the world.
How do we balance our commitment to cultivating a personal inner life with the desire to alleviate suffering in the world? Our love for God (says every single religion on the planet) is most truly expressed by the way we treat one another. We encounter the face of the Holy One in the faces of those in greatest need.
In this module, you’ll:
- Expand our conception of what it means to be of service
- Discern between charity dispensed to those we perceive as having (or being) less, and compassion based on the realization of our essential unity with those who suffer
- Find a healthy balance between personal spiritual practice and loving service
- Explore classic wisdom teachings, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Bhagavad Gita, as resources for engaging service as an act of prayer
- Develop the courage necessary to speak for the voiceless, even when it is neither convenient nor socially acceptable
Module 7: Unveiling the Mystery Through Sacred Study Knowing by Unknowing (January)
Certain spiritual teachings suggest that the mind is an impediment on the journey home to Truth. This can be misleading. We may be throwing out the baby of wisdom with the bathwater of concepts.
How do we engage the paradox of harnessing the power of the mind to transcend the mind? The sacred texts of every tradition are repositories of transformational wisdom that are designed to knock on the doors of the heart and activate radical opening.
In this module, you’ll:
- Practice Lectio Divina (sacred reading) and discover the heart-truths within sacred writings
- Explore the path of Jnana Yoga in Hinduism as a means for attaining divine union
- Learn to understand a particular wisdom text and be able to express it with clarity and power in your own words
- Discover the relevance of ancient spiritual teachings to your own life, and to the lives of those you touch
- Notice where you may be imbalanced between heart and mind, and find a healthy integration of intellectual rigor and dwelling in the mystery of love
Module 8: Reconciling with Your Life Story Forgiveness & Healing (February)
We carry the wounds of our lives in the cells of our bodies, and this can be a heavy burden. We may become paralyzed by our self-identification as victim. Anger about what has happened to us in the past can become an impediment to finding joy in the present. We can also feel overwhelmed by shame for the harm we have caused (or mistakenly believe we have inflicted on others).
How do we take an honest look at the events of our lives that cause us pain and allow these stories to find their rightful place in the vast tapestry of the human condition? Can we enable our particular version of suffering to reconnect us with the human family and serve as fuel for our journey to wholeness?
In this module, you’ll:
- Disengage from the syndrome of shame and blame
- Cultivate mindfulness practice as a means for being present with what is, rather than regretting the past and feeling anxious about the future
- Explore the teachings of unconditional love found at the heart of all traditions
- Create a relationship with the Divine Mother as a resource for mercy, forgiveness and reckless adoration
- Develop a healing ritual that enables you to release a particular burden of pain, and invite at least one trusted person to bear witness
Module 9: Savoring the Silence Cultivating Contemplative Practice (March)
“God spoke one primordial word and he spoke it in silence,” says Fr. Thomas Keating (quoting St. John of the Cross), “and it is only in the silence that we can hear it.” It’s easy to get swept up in the demands of daily life that we cannot even imagine taking time for meditation. We convince ourselves that if we can just check off the next three items on our to-do list we will be able to abide in stillness for a few minutes.
But doing almost always seems to take precedence over being. What if we reframe this equation: Instead of thinking we can’t afford to cultivate a contemplative practice, we realize that we cannot afford not to. There is too much at stake. Our ability to make peace in this world is predicated on our placing priority on creating peace within.
In this module, you’ll:
- Recognize that meditation is not about not thinking — it’s about being present to what is, allowing a spaciousness to open around our thoughts and feelings, an ability to bear witness to our own experience, and “not believe everything we think”
- Make a commitment to sit in silence and stillness on a regular basis, whether half an hour every morning or ten minutes three times a week
- Consider joining a meditation group to support your practice and investigate the possibilities for attending a meditation retreat
- Learn what it means to be a contemplative, and apply those values to your daily life, not limited to formal meditation practice
- Experience the infusion of the sacred into the ordinary when you commit to a contemplative path
The Way of the Feminine Mystic
Bonus Collection
In addition to Mirabai Starr’s transformative 9-month Advanced Immersion, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions with leading teachers and mystics. These bonus sessions complement your journey and deepen your understanding and transformation.
Whatever Seems to Be in the Way, IS the Way
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Miranda Macpherson
Miranda and Mirabai, two feminine mystics with interfaith backgrounds, will dialogue together into how to embrace everything, including the most difficult things such as loss, heartbreak, sickness and the unexpected as gateways into direct mystical experience. How opening our heart to both the beauty and the horror of the mystery can birth in us a deeper humanity and more embodied wisdom, from which our whole world can thrive.
Miranda Macpherson is a contemporary spiritual teacher, counselor and author of the spiritual guidebook Boundless Love. Miranda has been teaching internationally since 1995 and is known for her depth of presence, clarity, and refined capacity to guide people into direct experience of the sacred.
Miranda is founder of the ground-breaking OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, and today, leads the Awakening Love and Wisdom sangha in Marin and Sonoma counties. She teaches retreats in the United States and in Europe, and is working on a new book, Tasting Grace. She lives in the San Francisco/Bay Area, and is married to Bob Duchmann, a teacher of the Diamond Approach (A.H. Almass’ Ridwhan School).
Fatima’s Touch: In Her Life & Our Life
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Tamam Kahn
Mirabai and her friend, Tamam Kahn — Sufi scholar, poet and fellow bereaved mother — engage in a heart conversation about Fatima, the extraordinary daughter of Muhammad, who many believe to be the Prophet’s true lineage holder. Fatima’s life is shrouded in mystery, yet Tamam has journeyed far to uncover and reveal her. Tamam will share some of her poetry about Fatima, and speak about how this great mystic has touched and transformed her own life.
Tamam Kahn is a senior teacher in the Sufi Ruhaniat International. She has conducted poetry workshops, and has presented her own poetry and stories of the early women of Islam at conferences and Sufi gatherings in the USA and abroad for over two decades. Tamam is the author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, She has just completed her second book on the women in Prophet Muhammad’s family: Fatima’s Touch, Poems and Stories of the Prophet’s Daughter.
Entering the Castle
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Caroline Myss
In her iconic book about St. Teresa of Avila, Entering the Castle, Caroline used Mirabai’s translation of The Interior Castle. This launched a profound spiritual companionship that unfolds to this day. Join these two lovers of La Madre for a teaching about navigating the path of contemplative prayer, that leads us home to the center of our soul.
Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned speaker in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine and the science of medical intuition.
What Graduates of Mirabai’s Courses
Are Saying...
“Mirabai is a highly inspirational, skilled teacher of this course. She has opened my heart to heartbreak and compassion, my mind to the teachings of great mystics, my body to aliveness as I felt the spectrum of emotion and my spirit to a greater bow to all paths devoted to the Divine.”
— Cyntha, Dubai, UAE
“I loved this course and didn’t even realize how much I needed it until after we started. Mirabai Starr has the unique ability to create and hold sacred space for others no matter what aspect of the journey they were on. I leave it feeling blessed to have had such a rich experience of myself and and grateful for having Mirabai as a guide.”
— Laura, Toronto, Canada
“I felt such a deeper trust and acceptance of my own divinity through really opening my heart to the glory of me! This has allowed me to go deeper with my own personal connection to the feminine... feel this beautiful accepting mother in my blood pulsing, flowing, receiving and I lay my head into her and weep.”
— Wendy Langille , New Brunswick, Canada
“Breathtaking! What I learned is to trust what I know experientially to the core of my being where the divine animates me. I am here to be, love and belong in service and heal our world... I feel grounded and incredibly grateful to be part of an inclusive, worldwide interspiritual community.”
— Kathleen Gibbons Schuck, Blue Bell, PA
“The course inspired and nurtured us in daring to express and live our divine feminine qualities — including awareness, caring, sensitivity, common sense and creative intelligence — more fully. Especially important in times of increasing challenges and consequences...”
— S.L., California
“This course draws on a variety of cultural and spiritual traditions. Mirabai is a rich resource on the feminine stories that underpin our understanding about ourselves as women. It deepened my conscious connection to the power of the feminine source.”
— Laura, Australia
“Mirabai is an exquisite teacher and I wholeheartedly recommend this course to anyone who is ready for an authentic experience of feminine spirituality.”
— Rhonda N., Roanoke, VA
“Mirabai has the soul of a poet, the mind of an intellectual and a voice that opens one’s heart.”
— Lisa, New Jersey
Join the Global Community
The Way of the Feminine Mystic is not only the most advanced form of online training currently available, it’s also a thriving global community of learning and practice.
Join your fellow students and practitioners from across the world in the live interactive conference calls and in our custom online community — to support and learn from each other while you transform your life into one grounded in love.
This international community is also at the leading edge of a global movement of people who are committed to manifesting a better world for all beings. This emerging planetary movement is rooted in an open heart and stands for the principles of mutual support, cooperation, harmony and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
90-Minute LIVE Teaching Sessions with Mirabai Starr (Every Week)
Experience a rare opportunity to be mentored by and learn with one of the world’s most renowned mystic scholars from the comfort of your own home. Each live class session helps you create the specific practices and abilities to remember and reclaim your feminine mystic qualities. Live sessions are on Tuesdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions (Every Week)
With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class where you will be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share and do additional practices to help further integrate the weekly lessons. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Online Community group allows you to connect with each other to find alternative times to interact.
Audio Recordings of All Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to download in high quality MP3 format. This way, you’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere — on your iPod, in your car and at your convenience.
PDF Transcripts of All Class Sessions
In addition to the high quality MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. This way you can review, print and highlight the most important insights and practices that you’ll learn.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
After each lesson, you will then have the option to do related exercises, practice new tools and answer questions in order to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can ask additional questions, interact with your fellow students and get access to additional resources to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
The Way of the Feminine Mystic Bonus Collection
- Whatever Seems to Be in the Way, IS the Way
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Miranda Macpherson
- Fatima’s Touch: In Her Life & Our Life
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Tamam Kahn
- Entering the Castle
Audio Dialogue with Mirabai and Caroline Myss
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Embrace the Feminine Mystic Within
We feel honored that Mirabai has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive, LIVE online 9-month program. This is a rare opportunity to interact directly from a renowned mystic-scholar and connect with a global community of like minds and hearts who are doing this important and transformative inner work.
Through this powerful LIVE online format, you’ll not only save time and money on retreat costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals — which would cost thousands of dollars). But you’ll also benefit from Mirabai’s incredible teachings and transmission from the comfort of your home – at your own pace!
If you are serious about living a life grounded in love and that celebrates who you truly are — you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training with Mirabai Starr.
More Praise for Mirabai Starr...
Mirabai Starr is an extraordinary teacher not because she is so well versed in spiritual teaching — though she is. What makes her teaching so powerful is that her vast spiritual knowledge is rooted in the real experience of being human. Her genius lies in the profoundly humble way she opens her life as a guide to ours. In making this connection she shows us the deep and mysterious spiritual truths that hold all our lives together. A truly gifted teacher, she points us at once to and beyond ourselves. She does all of this with a spirit so light that all who share her presence are also lifted. Oh, did I say that she is also a lot of fun?
— Rev. Bob Thompson, Senior Pastor, Lake Street Church, Evanston, IL
It is with great pleasure and delight that I endorse the work of Mirabai Starr, who I find to be a soul companion as well as a professional colleague. In addition to being a gifted author, Mirabai is blessed with the capacity to inspire others with her wisdom and understanding of mystical theology. I referred to her translations of Teresa of Avila’s great masterpiece, The Interior Castle, while writing my own book, Entering the Castle, because of the excellence of her work. Mirabai is a rare jewel.
— Caroline Myss, Author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Entering the Castle
Mirabai is an authentic mystic, a true teacher and a wonderful soul. Anyone who comes to her will find their cup will be filled. I recommend her as a person and as a teacher with great confidence and joy.
— Andrew Harvey, Spiritual Teacher and Director
Mirabai Starr possesses passionate eloquence when speaking about mysticism, making the ineffable tangible and real as eating delicious food that’s good for you.
— Jenny Bird, Singer-songwriter
I have been present during Mirabai Starr’s classes at the University of New Mexico in Taos, on both Philosophy and the theologies of the major world religions. . .One would expect from such a background that she has gathered and synthesized a dazzling amount of knowledge, but she also brings understanding, and especially compassionate wisdom. These are God-sent gifts that are simply given to her. Her life experiences of suffering and love pour into the cup of different levels of understanding which she offers so generously as a teacher, lecturer, writer and guest speaker. I am enriched and honored by her friendship.
— Fr. William Hart McNichols, Iconographer and Roman Catholic Priest
I think the most powerful aspect of being with Mirabai is this: She is keenly respectful of the deep internal beauty that each person brings into a circle or a room or a workshop. She has a way of gently bringing it out into the open so that it is clearly visible to its owner, as well as to the rest of the group.
— Judy Langford, Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington DC
The Ark Bookstore always enjoys Mirabai Starr’s book signing appearances and talks, not only because of her professionalism and gifted speaking ability, but also, (and primarily), because Mirabai’s presence is a manifestation and transmission of her very deep understanding of the spiritual teachings she translates.
— Karin Arielle, The Ark Bookstore, Santa Fe, NM
...Mirabai has a profound respect for our deepest, most ordinary humanity as seekers of Truth. Her presence leaves a residual of joy in the hearts of those she works with, no matter how difficult their lives might be.
— Anne Scott, Author and Spiritual Guide
Mirabai’s words point toward the Ineffable. She has an outstanding gift for language, plus penetrating insight, married to a heart of authentic compassion. Combined, the result is a gentle dynamite for opening and awakening.
— Sara Morgan, Psychotherapist and Spiritual Guide
About Mirabai Starr...
Author, translator of the mystics, and leading voice in the emerging Interspiritual Movement, Mirabai Starr uses fresh, lyrical language to help make timeless wisdom accessible to a contemporary circle of seekers. She has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of Dark Night of the Soul by 16th-Century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, The Interior Castle, The Book of My Life, by St. Teresa of Avila and The Showings of Julian of Norwich. She is author of the six-volume Sounds True series, Contemplations, Prayers and Living Wisdom. Her poetry collection, Mother of God Similar to Fire, is a collaboration with iconographer William Hart McNichols. God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam — winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Religion and named one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2012 by Spirituality & Practice — positions Mirabai at the forefront of the emerging Interspiritual Movement.
Mirabai taught philosophy and religious studies for 20 years at the University of New Mexico-Taos, and now speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics, contemplative practice and grief as a spiritual path. Her talks and retreats incorporate silent meditation, interspiritual chanting, sacred poetry and deep dialogue. She blogs for The Huffington Post.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a virtual course?
A: It’s a great way to engage live teachings and each other from the comfort of your home! All you need is a phone line (or an equivalent voice service). If there is more than one person in your household taking the course, you will each need your own line. We use MaestroConference to make it just like an in-person event, where you can ask questions, participate in groups, and deepen your exploration of the course themes.
Please note that dialing MaestroConference from your phone is a regular toll call to California; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. Other options include calling cards and discount long-distance carriers. You can also use Skype to connect to MaestroConference at no charge, and we offer a webcast which is free to use from anywhere in the world.
I have never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon to participate. I haven’t seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
– Claudia F., Medford, MA
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can download the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private community website.
Q: Can you tell me about the Private Course Group?
A: We will have a private community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, completing homework assignments and exchanging information about events and other activities that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects and growth throughout the Course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this Training?
A: Yes, we always make a certain percentage of spaces available for partial scholarships, giving preference to those in developing countries or doing important but underpaid work to which they can apply the training material immediately. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is July 26, 2016. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we'll send you an email confirming your refund. However, we'd love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there is something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com and we'll be happy to help! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to a problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
