The Story

 

We began as a group of friends who met once a week to talk about how our faith was changing. Faith that was largely moving away from the culture in which we were brought up. What these gatherings became was a collective exploration of our experience that led us to ask some difficult questions about God, faith, and life.   

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We still have these gatherings, and they have brought us so much peace, joy, and sense of belonging at a time when it is natural to feel estrangement. Because of  that, we've decided to include as many others as we can.

So, we want you to join us. Subscribe to the podcast, comment on the blog, reach out to us with questions or just to start a conversation. You can also join the Patreon community or follow us on Twitter. What we've discovered is that there is so much out there, and each one of us only sees in part. So the more we come together to share our perspectives and experiences, the richer our collective experience will be. 

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The Name

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Why the Lonely Mountain?

Near where we live in New Hampshire there is a mountain. The mountain and surrounding area are beautiful and rich in history, art, and spirituality. It's a place a few of us once lived and we all love to visit. The mountain is called Monadnock and in the original Abenaki is believed to have meant "where the mountain stands alone".

Tying the podcast to a place that feels both full of mystery and still like home felt like the right thing to do. 

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Why Mystics?

Mysticism focuses largely on experience of the Divine and our inability to explain our experience with words. So, our use of this word is at minimum three-fold.

 

     First, we want to affirm everyones unique experience of God, the Divine, the Ground of Being, the Singularity, or which ever term you prefer to describe what some people have called "ultimate reality". We understand this experience to be foundational to all our beliefs. 

     Second, we want to affirm not only our experiences of the Divine, but also our experiences of each other. If my experience has value, then so does yours. Our own perspectives are limited at best and we have so much to learn from each other. You might even say we are affirming our experience of the Divine within each other.  

     Third, we want to acknowledge the limitations that language places on our ability to unpack or explain what we understand. This is why experience is so important. By very nature of being "the Great Other",  we believe that all language used to describe the Divine is metaphor. 

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