Mystics in Mud: A Beginning

Welcome to Tending Eden: Mystics in Mud.

This is not a place of escape. It’s not a spiritual bypass or a dreamy retreat from the grit of the world. It’s a place of integration—a small clearing for those who sense that consciousness and the world are not two things, but one living reality. Eden is not elsewhere. It’s here, in the mess and mystery of things.

This project is a continuation of the work I began in In the Becoming: Finding Meaning in an Unfinished World. That book asked how we find meaning while everything—ourselves, the world, our understanding of it—is still forming. This one follows a quieter thread from that work, but it might be the most important:
What if consciousness is not a possession or a process, but a place?
Not metaphorically, but mystically—real, inhabitable, shared.

Here, I’ll be writing toward that place. These posts will grow into a new book, but I’ll share them as they come: reflections, sketches, hesitations, sudden insights. I’m not writing from a mountain cave or a perfectly still room. I’m writing with muddy boots and half-washed hands. Because to be a mystic in this time is not to float above the world in states of bliss, but to be fully present within it—to feel the sacred in the ordinary, and to stay with the difficulty.

If this resonates with you, subscribe. Comment. Share your thoughts. Let’s make this a space where the mystical is not an escape from life—but a deeper way into it.

Stephen
tendingeden.com