Interior Castle Paperback – February 19, 2008

This is an excellent book.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your own spiritual experience were genuine or not reading this book. The description Saint Teresa provides will show you that others have experienced for what you’ve experienced. You’re not astray or diluted.

Mirabai Starr has captured the soul and spirit of St. Teresa of Avila. Reading every word brings joy to my heart. Her poetic translation is soul-stirring. A must read for anyone seeking intimacy with God.

I was interested in reading what other women had to tell me about prayer and Teresa of Avila sounded particularly inspiring. I selected Mirabai Starr's translation of Interior Castle precisely because she "took the liberty... to soften some of [Teresa's] more loaded religious vocabulary."They say that all translations are interpretations. This translator is aware of her motives and tells us what those motives are. Since I am not a medieval Catholic (or a modern one), I am comfortable with those motives. Mirabai Starr writes that she did strive to "convey the message truly."Teresa's main analogy, of the soul as a crystal castle with God dwelling at the center, is very powerful. Teresa frequently advises her nuns to know themselves. That is her most important practical advice. She insists that without self-knowledge and the resulting humility, it is not possible to make progress in prayer.This translation has given me access to a perspective on the soul's journey to God that I would probably not have been to appreciate in another translation. I am very grateful to Mirabai Starr for making the words of this mystic available to me.

St. Teresa compares the soul to a castle with many mansions. As we move spiritually into the more interior mansions, we come closer and closer to God. The book describes our progress toward true self-awareness, which is really the awareness that God is within us. As we draw closer to God we begin to understand the things that pull us away from Him (sin), and become better able to put our thoughts and actions in the right perspective, that is thinking and acting according to God's will and not our own. St. Teresa makes an extraordinary effort to describe the indescribable--what it feels like and looks like to commune with the Lord--using vivid examples from her own experiences of where she went right...and where she went wrong. Her words are full of sound practical advice, and yet at times her ideas are so beyond my experience I wasn't able to grasp them. Subtle and profound, "Interior Castle" requires great patience to read, but is well worth the time.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

Purchased for an online course with the Center for Action and Contemplation. This book was translated by Mirabai Star and authored by St Teresa of Avila. St Teresa is a MUST read for any who wish to enlighten their spiritual sojourn and have progressed as pilgrim for a little while. St John of the Cross was her companion as she reformed Carmelite convents. She was a deeply devout Christian mystic, with a strong mind, and excellent administration skills.Her hilarious sense of humor shines through as she penned the book “In obedience” — as she keeps reminding the reader to her director/confessor. Teresa cleared away any suspicion about her Jewish ancestry and her solidness as a Christian during the Spanish Inquisition. She’s so tender and generous and pragmatic to the sisters she said verses. Christian Mysticim at its highest. 💟 Sit with her, soak it up, and journey to your own Interior Castle. It’s exquisite.

I want to start with a distinction: translators often must choose between words, but Mirabai Starr states explicitly that, when writing this book, she altogether refused to translate words and added in her own terms (see introduction pg. 18). She openly states that she, the translator, is a Hindu/ Buddhist/ Jewish feminist and that it's possible Teresa of Avila was deceiving other Catholics during the Inquisition due to the converso crisis (for anyone curious, there's no evidence for this claim, and mountains of evidence to the contrary).Again, on page 18, first full paragraph, you'll see that she explicitly didn't like Teresa of Avila's use of such terms such as "trinity," "devil," "Lord," "sin," "evil," "hell," or "mortal sin," and so instead of translating them she replaced them with terms that fit her worldview.What results is a work that is neither Catholic nor spiritual. I don't even know what to make of this translation. And I'll be perfectly honest, I've never seen a translator intentionally abuse a text like this-- much less be proud of it.I'm genuinely considering asking Amazon for a refund, because this isn't a translation. There's not "translation" happening here, but rather someone imposing some empty 21st century worldview on a text that's survived 500 years.I'm majorly disappointed for the time I spent reading this. If you buy this book, read the introduction first. That was my biggest mistake.