Around 17 years ago, I was living in Varanasi, India, studying yoga philosophy, when I had a dream that I was flying up a mountain. It was such a realistic dream, and it was the right time to visit the mountains as the summer months were approaching. But, which mountain was I called to? The Himalayas had endless holy peaks. I scanned a list of mountains in India, thinking one would reveal itself to me, and I came upon a familiar name. It was Mount Kailash—the abode of Lord Shiva. I knew...

Last week, at Rosh Hashanah, I gave the kavanah, the intention, for the torah passage about Hagar finding herself in the desert. She is with her new baby, having been sent away from her home, and she has run out of water. She has been told already that her child will make a great nation, but suddenly, the idea of having a future is pretty hard to believe. In my kavanah, I said, maybe some of us can relate right now to how Hagar felt in that moment, this feeling of—how can this possibly turn...

The Mystic's Manual A devotional Memoir Book One: Love 1 A few days before I met Peadar, I met an archetypal false prophet. I had just arrived in Rishikesh, India, having survived the night bus, and I was exhausted. I was twenty-four and this was my first moment of solo travel. I had been the only foreigner, and the only woman, onboard a dilapidated vehicle rolling through the dark Indian countryside in the dead of night, and I felt conspicuous even with my hood pulled completely over my...