The Mystic Path: Voices and Visions

This is an interesting stage to consider as it is a stage where some might think the mystic has in fact gone mad. Evelyn Underhill suggests that visions and voices are to the mystic what pictures, poems and musical compositions are to the great painter, poet or musician, and that they are messengers which speak to all the senses, not only sight and hearing.

It seems to me that dreams are a form of vision, and the voice that Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love heard telling her to "Go back to bed, Liz" was real to Elizabeth.  But of course, this doesn't mean that anyone that dreams or feels guided is a mystic.  It is just interesting to note that voices and visions are not as unusual as one would imagine.

Eileen Caddy, one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, in the book Weavers of Wisdom: Women Mystics of the Twentieth Century by Anne Bancroft says this about voices:

"You know if you start hearing voices and you're having a difficult time, you begin to wonder if you're going to end up in a mental hospital.  I thought I was having a breakdown, quiet honestly.  But that's the way it started, over thirty years ago, and I've been living by that voice ever since.  And that's what my life has been all about.  Listening, and not only listening but following it through."

"Listen, listen, listen," the voice said to her.  "To become a good listener you have to listen often.  You have to spend time in absolute stillness and learn to be."

So what did my SoulCollage® card representing this stage of the mystic path say to me?

I am the one who exists between earth and spirit.
I am the one who is all around you and always available when you need guidance.
I am the one who can show you your magic if you just look up and look within.