Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years, and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialogue. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She writes with joyful energy about all facets of spirituality, and about the stillness at the center of all things, through a passionate feminine lens. Her latest book is WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics.

In Wild Mercy, Mirabai turns her encyclopedic knowledge of all wisdom traditions and rituals to the women mystics she so loves and lives by – to Mother Earth, to the mothers of all ages and all genders who have nourished and comforted – giving life, joy, healing, and light by which to see anew.

Mirabai is on the 2020 Watkins List of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of the World.” She is often among the guest faculty at Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, and she is frequently quoted in the Center’s publications. She is also a legacy teacher in Ram Dass’ lineage.

Mirabai lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.