Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
For Lent I am so excited to finally share the wisdom of seven medieval women mystics who lived through their own challenging times.
These visionaries received their insight and images from waking dreams, voices, and bodily sensations that often overcome them in the moment. Toni Wolff, who was Carl Jung’s colleague, first called this way of knowing “medial.” She described the medial woman as one who stands in the liminal realm, receiving visions for personal and collective healing.
While Wolff calls this archetype the “medial woman,” I prefer to change it slightly to the “Medial One” to honor and acknowledge that persons of all genders have this experience available to them. Jesus himself was a Medial One who stood on the edges of life, choosing to be with those who were rejected by society. His crucifixion, something many of these women mystics prayed with, was the doorway between life and death.
Roberta Bassett Corson, a depth psychologist and clergywoman, writes in Stepping Out of the Shadows: Naming and Claiming the Medial Woman Today about two different ways of seeing the world:
“There is a great difference between looking-at and seeing-through. The ability to see-through is what primarily distinguishes medial women from others, and all her other qualities follow from this. In the process of seeing-through, the medial woman learns what to look for and how to behold what she sees with imaginative eyes. Through this practice the medial woman brings forth visions that cannot be seen when merely looking at something.”
The Medial One is a mediatrix, one who mediates their visions to the world. They stand with one foot in the earthly, tangible realm and one in the transcendent, holding the tension between the two. They are called to be a steward of these messages from the divine presence which turn upside down our assumptions about what makes life meaningful and what is of value. These messages are just tiny glimpses into the magnificent expanse that is the otherworld. They must trust deeply in the mysterious nature of the liminal and be able to stand there through the discomfort. They speak the language of the holy mysteries and help connect us to the ground of Love in a world that often feels cruel and deeply unjust.
Jungian analyst Linda Schierse Leonard writes about the visionary in Meeting the Madwoman: Empowering the Feminine Spirit:
“We cannot honor the Visionary adequately if we do not respect her vulnerable, receptive mode—looking inward and listening in the dark temple of the earth to the deep silence. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us in Sonnets to Orpheus that there is a temple in the ear, just as there is a temple in each of the senses as well as in the ‘third eye’ of the Visionary. The meter of music and poetry, and of our feet as we walk along Nature’s trails, can put us in a receptive trance to see, to smell and touch, to hear and record the voices of the angels as we travel between the visible and invisible worlds.”
Day and night dreams, creative art expression, pilgrimage, connection to the natural world, all seem to be the primary language of the Medial One. Doorways and other portals are the openings, access points in the landscape and in our hearts.
These women visionaries were committed to moving from the depths of prayer into prayerful action in the world. They stood with the dying at their own thresholds, they were with the lepers, those who stood on the edges of their society. Their visions were not an exemption from the demands of a suffering world, but an invitation to see their action in partnership with the beloved.
Because the visionary offers images that are not directly understood through rational thought, they threaten the patriarchy and hierarchical model of church. Many of the medieval visionaries were persecuted for their teachings and some even murdered.
Corson writes that the Western world: “must discover a deep transformative voice amid social crisis and change. It is also essential to claim new language and guidance in the secret, profound longing for a relationship with the divine.”
The Medial One can offer this voice. These medieval visionaries point the way.
Please join us for our upcoming Lenten retreat Seven Gates of Mystical Wisdom: A Pilgrimage to the Heart’s Deep Core. In addition to weekly teaching and meditations from me, I will be joined by Polly Paton-Brown offering creative invitations and Betsey Beckman with invitations to prayerful movement.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
