The Sutras Of Unspeakable Joy

by Meggan Watterson, Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman (Illustrator)

Here’s why I wrote this little book of love poems. What I have wanted most in this life is a love that will never leave. And I realized that maybe I hadn’t met with a love like that outside of me, in someone else, because I hadn’t met an unfaltering love from within me. So I decided I would retreat for 40 days with my red pen to try to tether together the small-ego-everyday-me to the me that’s a lighthouse-type-of-soul, the me that’s just undiluted love. I wanted to anchor once and for all into the love that’s within me, to a love that could never leave because it’s the truth of who I am. Whether I’m with a partner or alone, I wanted to feel free- entirely my own- an Ouroboros whose love circles back into herself. This book is one-part sutras, one-part love poems, and one-part psychic twine. They tell my whole truth. They reveal my ardor for the divine. They unite the masculine, manly aspects of me with the womanly, feminine aspects of me that I have sought to balance. They reconcile body and soul, human and divine, animal and angel, light and the dark, or basically- all that we can be conscious of containing. What I didn’t realize until after I wrote this book is that there’s an ancient Tantric text called the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, which is translated as something like “the terror and joy of realizing oneness with the soul.” It contains a poetic dialogue between the divine feminine and the divine masculine, between Shiva and Shakti, but in the case of this book it’s more like a sacred back and forth between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Ultimately, this book is a collection of love letters to and from my own soul. The Sutras of Unspeakable Joy are the 40 days I devoted to ending a pattern of thinking that love, true and unwavering, was something I would meet outside of me. It’s a poetic conversation between the side of me that keeps forgetting that the deepest source of love comes from the divine and can only be met from within. And that side of me that is that love, completely, utterly, fully. And what I did by devoting these 40 days to trying with words to realize oneness with the soul- is that I embodied the truth I have always taught. That love is what we are, not what we find- that true love is here- within us. And, that no cathedral can ever compare to the massive spirit in the messy sinews of this human heart.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2016

About the author

MEGGAN WATTERSON is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling Mary Magdalene Revealed, and The Mary Magdalene Oracle, among others. She is a feminist theologian with a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. She created The House of Mary Magdalene– a spiritual community that studies sacred texts left out of the traditional canon and practices the soul-voice meditation. Her work has appeared in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Huffington Post, TEDxWomen, and Marie Claire.

Reviews

[Lyndi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous book. These sutras have brought me to tears from your beauty and deep truth.

[Jennie Fiechtl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one sutra a day for 40 days and absolutely loved it. Highly recommend if you're looking to explore the type of love - soul love, divine love - that lives within.

[Tiffany LaPointe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book of poetry/sutras that explore deep self love. The word choices are exquisite and the passages are deep and fulfilling. I recommend you Read one a day and sit for a few moments letting the words wrap their way around your heart!

[Jaime Fleres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous sutras.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reminds me a bit of Rumi’s work - here, a beautiful, lyrical, contemplative piece about love and divinity.