Julian of Norwich
was considered a spiritually mature woman before her visions occurred, and it
was her prayers to God in request to serve him more fully in which she received
her visions. Julian prayed to God asking three things. First, to become “more
true mind in the passion of Christ”, meaning she wanted to suffer with those
who watched the cross and suffer with Christ himself (Norwich, 28). Secondly,
she prayed to be plagued with sickness to live more for God after the sickness
passed. Finally, she asked God to dwell with her forever. These prayers were
all answered on May 8th, 1373 when Julian was struck with an unspecified
illness that was thought to be killing her. After one week of being in deep
sickness, Julian’s parish priest gave her last rites, and set a cruxifix beside
her to comfort her in her passing. However, Julian did not pass and instead she
received 16 visions or revelations as Julian called them. The first 15
revelations were said to be given to Julian in a span of 5 hours, the morning
after her priest’s visit to her. The final and 16th revelation occurred
during the following night, and Julian recalls it being a conclusion and conformation
of the other revelations.
These revelations occurred
to Julian in a way that answered her third request in prayer. Julian writes in
her long text about her revelations that, “[…] my sight began to fail, and the
room became dark about me, as if it were night, except for the image of the
cross which somehow was lighted up,” (Norwich, 65). Then, she says her body
began to die and she could hardly feel a thing, but then suddenly, all her pain
was taken away, especially in the lower part of her body. In this moment, Julian
thought to ask God about her becoming experienced with God and Christ’s pain, to
understand and suffer alongside Christ. This is when her revelations occurred,
and after the revelations were over, Julian was well and went to live in the
cell at the Church of Norwich to ponder and write down her revelations. She stayed
in the cell for more than 20 years, the whole time giving herself to God to
understand and reconcile the events she underwent.
Lalleshwari learned
under Siddha Mol at Lord Shiva’s temple, then began her wondering in the
wilderness. In her wondering, she would dance, sing, and chant out. Legend says
that Lal Ded would wonder around the mountains naked and her belly began to
grow like a hanging lump of fleshy cloak down to her knees to cover her private
area. This is where the Lal part of “Lal Ded” comes from, for in the Kashmiri
language it means “an unnatural growth”.
Lal Ded did not have one certain mystical experience but through her
life ingulfed in nature, she was able to see God everywhere. I take this as her
mystical experience. Living life day to day, her whole life journey, and
everything she encountered impacted her on the path to find and understand God
and the meaning of life. Therefore, her mystical experience in my eyes occurred
over her whole lifetime.
Lalleshwari (aka
Lal Ded), did not write down her beliefs or chants herself, but they were said
to be her teachings. They were recorded and named “Vakhs”. There were 285
total, all from Lal Ded’s experiences while wondering in relation to her
contact with the many different cultures in the Indian subcontinent. These
cultures included Sanskritic, Islamic, Sufi, Sikh, and Hindu. Some of the
things Lal Ded spoke of in her vakhs included a unified Kashmiri community, which
could found in the following vakh:
“Siva abides in all that is,
everywhere;
Then do not discriminate between a
Hindu or Musalman.
If thou art wise, know thyself;
That is true knowledge of the Lord”
Some of her other
vakhs revolved around the social issues of the time in the Kashmir culture such
as the caste system, religious discrimination, and the rejection of
conventional society. One specific vakh taught of humans finding their inner
sacred sanctuary of their inner soul to experience inner union in themselves
with the world and God as seen below:
“ I, Lalla came through the gate of
my soul’s jasmine garden
And found Shiva and Shakti there,
locked in love!
Drunk with Joy, I threw myself into
the lake of nectar.
Who cares if I’m dead woman woman walking!”
Julian and Lal Ded both rejected conventional
society once they went out on into their mystical journey’s. Both of these two
women experienced a life in solitude, Julian’s in the cell attached to the
church, interacting with people who stopped to speak to her through her window and
Lal Ded in the wilderness, only interacting with others when crossing paths. However,
there was some differences in their mystical journey, for Julian actually had
mystical visions that gave her, while Lal Ded only experienced mystical power
through meditation and time spent out in the solitude of the wilderness.
Therefore, Lal Ded did not have any direct mystical experiences that would have
led her to be considered a mystic, but through her time pondering, she spoke and
chanted out things most likely shown to her through God.
Sources:
Holm, Filip, host. “Lal
Ded- The Mystic Poetess of Kashmir.” Let’s Talk Religion,
Spotify
app, 15 August 2023.
“Lal Ded: The
Mystic of Kashmir | Kashmirica.” Www.kashmirica.com, 16 Jan. 2021, www.kashmirica.com/blog/lal-ded/.
Norwich, Julian of. Revelations of Divine Love. edited by Baldick Robert, Middlesex, England, Penguin Books Ltd., 1966.
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