Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm,
For love is as strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
—Song of Songs 8:6
Mirabai Starr describes how the language of romance and erotic love is the universal experience of mystics across religious traditions:
Every spiritual tradition on the planet seems to have some version of the Song of Songs. The language of romantic love describes and evokes the soul’s relationship with the divine more accurately than any descriptive theological language ever could. I guess that’s why the Song of Songs, which is quite revolutionary and hard to explain, made it into the canonical texts….
All of the love language with which the mystics speak is arising from that same wellspring from which the Song of Songs unfolded. There is this place in the heart that is the truth of spiritual communion, of spiritual longing. The longing becomes the portal to union and communion, and that union becomes the reference point for the longing. Any time any of the mystics touch upon the themes of yearning, anguish, separation, and the sweetness of taking refuge in the arms of the beloved, they’re singing this essential song, this Canticle of Canticles, whether or not they actually are familiar with this particular text…. The Song of Songs is an essential blueprint that’s instilled in all our souls, the fuel that propels us on a spiritual path, even if some of us never get around to it. I think it’s in all of us. [1]
In the Song of Songs, the lover sings of her search for her beloved:
At night on my bed I longed only for my love.
I sought him, but did not find him.
I must rise and go about the city,
the narrow streets and squares until I find my only love.
I sought him everywhere but I could not find him. (Song of Songs 3:1–2)
Starr describes longing as an essential aspect of nuptial mysticism:
Something in our souls recognizes this dynamic of exile and return. We remember that our source is Love. We suffer from the illusion of having been pulled up from our soul roots. We long to go home. We engage every practice we can get our hands on to restore our birthright of belonging. And when we attain those fleeting moments of union, we realize we were never two to begin with. We were always one and always will be one.
The language of love is like a spaceship that blasts us through the layers of illusion and delivers us to the truth of our essential connectedness with the Divine and our interconnectedness with all of creation. There’s nothing like a passage of mystical poetry, incandescent with the fire of longing and besotted by the wine of union, to evoke our own burning yearning and reveal our capacity for melding. [2]
References:
[1] Mirabai Starr with James Finley and Michael Petrow, “The Song of Love Lost and Found,” The Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, Center for Action and Contemplation, 2025.
[2] Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics (Sounds True, 2019), 57.
Image credit and inspiration: Kim MacKinnon, untitled (detail), 2018, photo, Canada, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Gazing lovingly upon the moon reminds us of the loving gaze of the soul toward God and God’s loving gaze in return.
Story from Our Community:
I’m so happy that the CAC values the wisdom of all faith traditions. Without Eastern spirituality I might never have discovered my own Catholic mystical tradition and the beautiful practice of contemplation. After starting an Eastern-style meditation practice years ago, I was finally led to Richard Rohr’s books and James Finley’s “Turning to the Mystics” podcast. There is so much of value in yoga and other meditation practices, and they have brought a depth and richness to my Catholic faith that I might not have experienced without their wisdom.
—Suzanne L.
