Becoming a Practical Mystic: Creating Purpose for Our Spiritual Future

by Jacquelyn Small

Jacquelyn Small shares inspiring stories and specific daily practices for co-creating our personal spiritual destiny. Through such practical techniques as "The Magical Work of Focused Intention,"The Power of Invocation," and "The Process of Manifestation," Small teaches readers to use focused spiritual energy--what she calls "active prayer"---to remake their own lives and to evolve toward becoming visionary guides for others.

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mary K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first half of this book years ago and apparently, based on the notes I made, I liked it. Then again, based on the fact that I never finished it, maybe not so much. This time through: the writing was stilted and I read nothing I haven’t read in 100 other spiritual books. But then this book is 25 years old. If you’re really into this genre, I’d say leave this one out. There’s nothing new here. If, on the other hand, you’re not a big reader of spiritual books, this one is as good as any other.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When reading a book gives me a headache, when I get antsy and the furrows in my forehead start dancing with each other, I am at least awake and aware enough spiritually to know there are things I need to learn in the text. Higher self/ego, inner/outer, conscious/subconscious, human/soul, all of these opposites are dizzying. I think Small is a Jungian, and Jung is the psychotherapeutic representation of dynamic tension. I'll read this again one day when I have mastered at least the rudiments of the universal human law that energy follows thought. I did try the brief meditation to reveal my personal wholeness symbol, and it will take me a while to figure out what toothpaste squishing out of the tube has to do with spiritual growth. Meanwhile, I have a new word that is dazzling me: enantiodromia. Being overly attentive to what one wants to avoid will gather more of the same. Jung talked about it, Heraclitus before him. I'm going to find some entry level Heraclitus to read next. Just the thing to start a forehead furrow dance marathon.

[Andrea Henson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time. Fell into my lap at the right exact moment & has helped me enhance power and confidence in myself as a mystical creature. ✨♥️♥️

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides excellent guidance to spirituality. I was pleasantly surprised by the mix of things I have encountered in my own practice and new materials.

[Ram Batchelder · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Becoming a Practical Mystic” is a precious guide for self-transformation based on the divine law of call and response, using the sacred techniques of invocation and evocation. Jacquelyn Small’s teachings are primarily focused on the potent divinizing power inherent in our creative imagination and focused intention, and she provides numerous ways in which we can use those essential sacred tools to align ourselves with Spirit, and manifest our inherent divinity in this world. I love the story she shares in the introduction, about a time of personal crisis when in her desperation she vigorously invoked the power of God to come to her aid, and in response heard a booming inner voice which guided her to a certain page in a book she owned but had never read, and there found specific instructions for the next stage in her life! Wonderful!

“Becoming a Practical Mystic” is presented in three sections. In Part One we are taught how to use our free will to invoke the Supreme Power to flow through us, and thereby bring about divinization in our lives and positive changes in our world. For this we must practice “aligning with our highest intention daily,” and be willing to do our part whenever divine assistance comes. She says we should actively imagine and visualize the qualities we wish to develop in ourselves, and call them forth from the universe via invocation – literally “crying out” for them – and then do our best to enact them in our lives and truly embody them. For this we must be willing to remove or purify anything that stands in the way of Truth. (As a quote beneath one of the chapter headings puts it, “The fates lead him who will; those who won’t they drag.”) Numerous exercises are provided throughout the book, so that the techniques we are learning sink out of the intellect and into the heart as we begin applying them on our own inner material. In Part Two we are shown ways to connect with the greater truth of who we really are, the Divine Self. As the author says, “We are never born and we never die; for we are consciousness itself.” And yet this is not a teaching of escapism, where we deny our humanness and hide in ethereal consciousness; the author is guiding us to “dance our way through life’s experiences, both the joys and all the sorrows. And then, only then, can we disidentify and rise on ‘up and out.’” In Part Three we are given Daily Practices which help us to bring our inherent divinity more fully into manifestation in this world. I found all these practices to be practicable, powerful and highly beneficial. We’re also provided with “Rules of the Road,” guidelines for spiritual growth. (My favorite: “Live as an embodied soul in all your activities.”) Published by Quest Books, the publishing house of the Theosophical Society, “Becoming a Practical Mystic” is a great blessing for all those who seek a thorough, step-by-step guide to manifesting the light and love of the Divine in this world. Thank you, Jacquelyn Small!

~Ram Das Batchelder, author of “Rising in Love: My Wild and Crazy Ride to Here and Now, with Amma, the Hugging Saint”

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good content...nice insights ...

[Geraldine Amaral Hodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

**** - Good ideas for sermon, a bit general