I treasure the translations by Mirabai Starr of my favourite spiritual classics ‘’Dark Night of the Soul by John of the Cross’’ and ‘’The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila’’, and dip regularly into her ‘’God of Love’’, an interspirtual classic. So it was with great excitement that I opened her soon to be released new book ‘’Caravan of No Despair; A Memoir of Loss and Transformation’’. In this raw, moving memoir Starr weaves the strands of her life into a compelling narrative. Her younger daughter’s death on the day her author’s copy of her book Dark Night of the Soul was delivered to her home. Her own unusual and difficult hippy childhood in spiritual communities in New Mexico which included a relationship with an inauthentic spiritual teacher began at fifteen, who she marries at twenty-three and divorces eight years later, having adopted two daughters during the marriage. The later chapters describe how her grief, her eclectic spiritual practices from the Judaic, Hindu and Sufi traditions and her closeness to the spiritual classics she translates have deepened and matured her understanding of spiritual life. I was grabbed by this book from the opening pages, its honest narrative tone made me feel that Mirabai was in the room with me sharing her tumultuous journey of being brought to spiritual maturity through the painful, terrible but sacred journey of grief.
Pub Date Nov 1. 2016
Sounds True Publishing
