A Nursery for Mystics

“Almost any religious system which fosters unearthly love is potentially a nursery for mystics.” ----Evelyn Underhill

Love of God certainly qualifies as unearthly love. We know what Jesus meant when he said: “love your neighbor as your self.” But what did he mean when he said to “love God?” At the beginning of the 20th century, Evelyn Underhill, the great chronicler of mystical experience, declared that ‘unearthly love’ and mystics go together like hand and glove.

We know that mystics are apparently rare, and may even be radical and strange. We have heard that mystics have a hard time living like ‘normal’ people in the world. Why, then, did Jesus declare to all of us that to ‘love God’ was one of the two great commandments* for all people, if only mystics are able to participate in this ‘unearthly love?’

There are two possible answers: (1) love of God is not ‘unearthly,’ and may just mean being good and praying to and thanking God for supplying our needs, or (2) we are all potential mystics capable of loving an ‘unearthly’ God. We here define a mystic as one who is able to see beyond the earthly world of time and space and experience the unseen realm which interpenetrates and informs our own material universe.

If we examine the Great Religious Traditions of the world, I believe we can agree that the latter answer is indicated in the teachings of these faiths. And if that be true, we may then look to our own tradition to find the specific inspirational teachings or teachers that will act as a nursery to birth us to the deep spiritual life of the soul. This may be related to the rebirth or the ‘born again’ doctrine spoken of in various faiths.

Recently, Ana and I went to the new planetarium connected to the Observatory community on top of Mauna Kea. The lady facilitating the program pointed out among the stars and constellations the Orion Nebula, which she described as a ‘nursery for the birth of new stars.’

Looking up into the sky now and seeing the blue smudge in the sword of Orion near the constellation Taurus is a magical experience. There right in front of our eyes is a nursery where stars like our own sun are being carried in the stellar womb. It reminds us that within the deep womb of our own faith lies a spiritual nursery which may birth the mystic within us. That mystic is the true dweller within which is our very soul. That mystic is one who can reach the beatitude and fruits of following all of the commandments of all religions by ‘loving God and loving our neighbors as we love our selves.’


*Drawing on his ancient Jewish tradition, Rabbi Jesus boldly stated that these two commandments—to love God and to love our neighbors as our selves—included and transcended all of the 613 laws and commandments of the Jewish faith.