Beate asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

A short question, but I would be happy with a long answer. May you tell something about what kind of spirituality Paladin of souls is inspired by? I ask because it resonates very much with the real life mystics I have read before, from various traditions. I guess I am wondering if these are works you have also read, or it is just some truths in there that are truly universal.

Lois McMaster Bujold The first two Chalion books were written over a decade ago, now, so my recall of their composition is getting vague. I had a life accumulation of occasional church attendance, but more important was probably reading. Some C. S. Lewis, a book by Thomas Merton, something by an Islamic mystic, some readings on Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto, The Confessions of St. Augustine, biographies of St. Ignatius Loyola and that fellow who went off to found the leper colony in Hawaii, Teresa of Avila, and so on. And reading, yes, about real-life mystics, mostly from the Middle Ages in the course of my general historical filter feeding of the era.

The serious mystics across religions do seem to be zeroing in on something similar, and recognize it in each other, though whether it is some subtle universal equivalent to the hiss from the Big Bang, or just the 60-cycle hum of their own biology, I am not sure. (Though I suppose it could be both.)

Ta, l.

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