Mystery Over Mastery
The Modern Mystic's Reorientation
“In times of information overload, awe becomes a revolutionary act.”
Opening Note to the Reader
This piece is for those walking the spiral path.
For the teachers, healers, artists, and quiet edge-walkers who have tasted mastery—but are now being summoned deeper… into Mystery.
The Descent of the Mystic
We live in an age saturated with knowledge but starving for wisdom.
We have endless tools for optimization, but few sanctuaries for awe.
Mastery—defined by control, technique, and outcome—has become the dominant arc of our education, careers, and even spirituality.
But the Mystic does not climb this arc.
The Mystic descends.
Not into darkness—but into depth.
Mastery says: I have arrived.
Mystery whispers: You are being invited.
Where mastery seeks to possess truth,
Mystery offers to possess you—gently, incompletely,
and only moment by moment.
A Culture Addicted to Mastery
To seek mastery is to frame the unknown as a problem to solve.
To seek Mystery is to honor the unknown as a presence to revere.
The modern Mystic is not anti-mastery.
She may be a skillful practitioner, a luminous teacher, a well-read guide.
But her allegiance is not to knowing.
Her allegiance lies with the Mystery that humbles the mind and hallows the heart.
Her path is not paved by knowledge, but softened by surrender.
She enters the Sanctuary of Not-Knowing…and dares to wait.
“The path of the wise leads to greatness, but will have nothing of greatness itself.
It leads to mastery, but will not presume mastery before others.
It leads to certainty, but it is a path that cultivates uncertainty as a form of communion…
the path is the circular path up the mountain that even eagles take care to follow.”
— Evan T. Pritchard, The Temple Within
The Mystic’s Defiance
In a culture that rewards articulation,
she dares to speak in silence.
She dares to not know.
In a marketplace that exalts productivity,
she dares to rest in presence.
She observes—but does not “buy.”
In a world that confuses sensation for transformation,
she dares to go still—
to ride the wave of the Unknown as a sacred act of defiance
against the limited stories of the Known.
She does not close the door.
She opens it—and waits.
She knows:
Uncertainty is not exile.
It is invitation.
And she accepts it.
The Sacred Paradox
Mystery transforms you in ways mastery never can.
Not on your timeline.
Not on your terms.
But deeply.
Irrevocably.
It asks not for your skill—
but for your surrender.
What if?
Please take two minutes to receive this visual offering:
“We Have a Responsibility to AWE.”
🎥
For the Spiral Path-walkers
If this piece resonates with the path you’re on…
Consider sharing it with a fellow Mystic.
Our duty as Mystics is to lift as we climb. To remind the others: “You are not alone in the Unknowing. We walk this spiral together.”
May you find in the Unknown not emptiness—but invitation.
May Mystery meet you where mastery leaves off.
And may your roots be deeper than your doubts.
Cheryl A. Page
Awash with rapture. Miraculous. Thank you again.
Thanks to Jannecke Øinæs for having you on her podcast. The two of you were wondrous!