{"id":262,"date":"2016-01-21T11:31:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/?page_id=262"},"modified":"2026-10-13T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:47:12","slug":"spiritual-writing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/?page_id=262","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Allen has won several spiritual writing awards, and all of her writing can be considered \u2018spiritual\u2019 in that it \u2018deals with the bedrock of human existence\u2014why we\u2019re here, where we\u2019re going, and how we can comport ourselves with dignity along the way,\u2019 as the writer Philip Zaleski defined spiritual writing in an interview published in the New York Times.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like Zaleski\u2019s definition, <\/span><\/em>Mary Allen writes<\/span>, because it acknowledges what I\u2019ve always believed\u2014that spiritual writing is simply writing that looks at whatever comes into the writer\u2019s scope of awareness, closely and deeply, from all angles, bringing to bear every gift the writer has at her disposal to find the truth, beauty, and meaning in it. It\u2019s writing that exposes the essential mystery that lies at the heart of everything\u2014whether it\u2019s a ladybug or the cancer diagnosis of a friend\u2014through faithful attention to specific, humble, concrete details. It\u2019s writing that makes the unbearable bearable and the mundane luminous. Life itself is a spiritual endeavor whether we know it or not, and to me any writing that honestly grapples with life is ipso facto spiritual writing.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In The Rooms of Heaven, Mary Allen writes about love, death, grief, and the afterlife. The spiritual writing in her collection of personal essays, The Deep Limitless Air, has been described “so light-handed and matter-of-fact as to be barely distinguishable from the apprehension and appreciation of ordinary life,” according to the memoir writer Peter Trachtenberg. \u00a0Mary Allen has also written about the innate spirituality of children, about exploring and healing the \u201chouse of the mind\u201d through the vehicles of hypnosis and EMDR, and about the meaning and symbols found in the tarot cards. <\/span>She and her friend Tania Pryputniewicz<\/a> have co-hosted a website called Tarot for Two.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been playing with the tarot cards with my friend Tania Pryputniewicz<\/a> for more than twenty years, <\/em>Mary writes.<\/span> Sometimes we write about what the cards have to do with what’s been happening in our lives. Doing that writing forces me to think about the cards and what they have to say about everyday life, to try to bridge the gap between the symbolic and the concrete\u2014which in turn has deepened my understanding of the cards and increased their usefulness to me as guides. \u00a0Symbolism talks to us in an intimate language as complex, concrete, and multi-faceted as the tapestry of life itself, which also talks to us through metaphors and symbols if we can only figure out how to listen. When I play with the cards I try to listen to them and to life and to hear what they have to say about each other.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for\u00a0Tarot for Two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to listen to a podcast by Mary Allen about how writing itself is a path to mindfulness and other spiritual practices.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read an award-winning essay, At the Monastery, by Mary Allen. \u00a0The essay won first prize in Tiferet Magazine\u2019s spiritual writing contest in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Allen has won several spiritual writing awards, and all of her writing can be considered \u2018spiritual\u2019 in that it \u2018deals with the bedrock of human existence\u2014why we\u2019re here, where we\u2019re going, and how we can comport ourselves with dignity along the way,\u2019 as the writer Philip Zaleski defined spiritual writing in an interview published … Continue reading Spiritual Writing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-262","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262\/revisions\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryallenwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}