When one of my HPs was at the point of burnout and spiritual crisis, she began proclaiming that were no mysteries. It was one of the most tragic things I have witnessed. She certainly had walked the path of Divnity and had been a vital part of our community for much longer than I had. It was heart breaking. I've also thought a lot about the "mysteries" every since.There's a moment of transcendence when, as initiate, you stand before the Lord and Lady, channelled by your HP, that defies words. That moment, for me, defines our "mysteries". That moment has become my yardstick that I use to measure everything that comes afterward. Certainly I needed the group, the preparation, the study, and the desire to become something more than I was. And when that moment comes, reality takes on a numinous quality and is never quite the same afterward. Which makes my currently solitary status (despite being part of a woman's spiritual group) all the more poignant. And what led me to the company of this group.
In The Protector's War, S.M. Stirling describes the numenous moment thus:
A wild torrent that was joy and terror and neither, a communication with something uttler Other and yet as familiar as a parent's touch in the night: vast beyond knowing and woven into every atom of your being. (363)
