Mirabai Starr

Mirabai Starr, MA, is an author, translator of the mystics, and a leading voice in the emerging interspiritual movement, using fresh, lyrical language to help make timeless wisdom accessible to a contemporary circle of seekers.

She has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of Dark Night of the Soul, by 16th-century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross; The Interior Castle and The Book of My Life, by St. Teresa of Avila; and The Showings of Julian of Norwich.

She is author of the six-volume Sounds True series, Contemplations, Prayers, and Living Wisdom; a poetry collection, Mother of God Similar to Fire, a collaboration with iconographer, William Hart McNichols; God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which was named the winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Religion and one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2012 by the website Spirituality & Practice, and won the 2014 Nautilus Gold Award for Religion and Spirituality in the Western Traditions, and her newest book is Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation.

Daughter of the counter-culture, Starr was born in New York in 1961 to secular Jewish parents who challenged institutionalized religion and were active in the anti-war protest movement of the Vietnam era. In 1972, the family embarked on an extended road trip that led them to settle in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico. There, they embraced an alternative, "back-to-the-land" lifestyle, in a communal effort to live simply and sustainably, values that remain important to Starr to this day.

As a teenager, Starr lived at the Lama Foundation, an intentional spiritual community in New Mexico that has honored the world's spiritual traditions since its inception in 1968. The foundation's focus has always rested on the mystical heart of each path, and Starr was trained from an early age to recognize and celebrate the interconnections between and among all faiths.

Formerly an adjunct professor of philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico for 20 years, Starr is a certified grief counselor and speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics, contemplative practice, and grief as a spiritual practice. Her talks and retreats incorporate silent meditation, interspiritual chanting, sacred poetry, and deep dialog. She blogs for the Huffington Post.