The Julian Mystique: Her Life and Teachings, by Frodo Okulam, 1998.
Julian of Norwich (1342 – 1416), was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages. Her writings are the earliest surviving English language works by a woman and the only surviving English language works by an anchoress. The modern idea of anchorites in the medieval period is that they were recluses. Their cells were usually attached to a parish church, overlooking the graveyard, a social place in medieval times where people met to chat and attend markets and fairs.
Typically, the anchoress had a small window, covered with a curtain, and anyone in need of prayer or spiritual advice would approach her to ask her to intercede with God on their behalf. On the inside wall she had a window into the church where daily services were held, and a maid or two would either live with her or come every day to see to her needs such as cooking, bringing food and cleaning. Some of them had an enclosed garden where they could sit and sew, or read the Bible or read about the saints. The food was plain and there was fasting.
Women from all strata of society were permitted to apply to be an anchoress, in contrast to entering a nunnery which had a high financial cost to it. The would-be anchoress needed to find a sponsor who was required to pay for her upkeep; they provided the money to keep her in clothes, food, and accommodation. The sponsor would expect, in return, that they would be foremost in her prayers.
Their fasting and praying led them to spiritual experiences where many saw visions. England’s best-known anchoress, Julian of Norwich, was located in St Julian’s Church for around twenty years; she wrote "A Revelation of Divine Love", a text describing 16 visions, beginning on May 8, 1373, of Christ and His love for humanity. This was in sharp contrast to most of religious works of the time which emphasized sin and death.
The traditional Christian meta-narrative is four words: creation, sin, judgment and redemption. That narrative has deceased in usage with the rise of modern thinking and the emergence of our digital world. People are leaving the Christian church because people no longer believe that traditional meta-narrative. It is no longer seen as a realistic explanation of how the world works and how we can progress further as a human race.
Julian saw salvation not as being redeemed from our human nature, but as being fulfilled in it. She says, “For in nature we have our life and our being, and in mercy and grace we have our increase and our fulfillment. Being made in God’s image, we seek our fulfillment as one with the Love that created us.”
“It is a characteristic of God to create goodness. Jesus Christ, therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true Mother. We received our ‘Being’ from Him and this is where His Maternity starts. And with it comes the gentle Protection of Love which will never cease to surround us. Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother.”
Julian said then, as we in Unity declare now, “All Shall Be Well.”
02/09/25