It’s a joy to introduce you to Mirabai Starr on MLK Day. Although petite, you can’t miss Mirabai. She’s an embodiment of interspirituality earned through a life of devotion at the heart of the great religions. From across the room where I first met her, she radiated love. I’m sure you’ll feel the warmth of her words from any distance.  Zinntroducing —MIRABAI STARR…

She calls herself a bee. A bee in the garden of spirituality, buzzing from flower to flower, drinking the nectar of wisdom from different traditions, intuitively avoiding the poison. “A bee,” says Mirabai, “engages us to be present to what is and not what we want it to be. Rigorous engagement lets us see the beauty of [religion’s] teachings and separates that beauty from the otherness of racism, sexism, etc. that is also in our religious traditions.”

“A bee engages us to be present to what is and not what we want it to be. Rigorous engagement lets us see the beauty of [religion’s] teachings, and separates that beauty from the otherness of racism, sexism, etc. that is also in our religious traditions.”

For Mirabai, that rigorous engagement, the buzz of her bee-ness, developed from translating the Christian mystics, teaching the world’s great traditions, learning from the world’s great teachers, and guiding others in this rigorous engagement. “I hope what I’m doing is a model,” she says, “…lifting up the jewels of all the religions in the hope that we don’t lose those treasures.”

Mirabai mines the world’s religions for their relevance. Sharing it with others, she gives people the tools to be of service so they can share their mined wisdom in turn. For Mirabai, following this interspiritual path ultimately empowers us to heal the world. 

The interspiritual approach, she says, does not replace traditional religion, but evolves it. She has done so by transmuting the nectar, not the poison, of what they offer. While she’s a bee in the garden,  “the clergy,” she says, “are the wisdom keepers and we need them so we don’t water down our spiritual lives for the sake of inclusivity. Religions contain spiritual medicine for the times to come, and they remain relevant,” she adds.

I asked Mirabai how she personally transmutes the nectar of religion in her life. When writing God of Love and Caravan of No Despair, Mirabai described how speaking her own truth galvanized her ability to be transformed by way of total immersion into what is, by bearing witness with the whole body. Writing changes everything, she says. It transmutes the lead weight of human experience “into gold…into an offering to the world of something of beauty and value, and hence service, revealing the spiritual or divine within.”

Since the publication of her autobiography (reviewed here), Mirabai offers her intimate knowledge of this alchemical process to guide others. She leads transformative retreats  to encourage us “…to tell our own stories truthfully, by writing practices that get down to what that is, by being present with [our] own story, with a group that bears loving witness, and lets magic happen. It is that powerful.”

We can BEE inspired by Mirabai. We can re-collect the wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. on this day and pollinate our lives with his vision to produce more beauty, more truth, more goodness for all. This is the interspiritual way.

Feel free to explore the Resources on this website for interspiritual programs for your home, community, or classroom.