Monday, February 11, 2013

Mystical

Adventures in Logophilia, Day 153:

mystical (adj)

Mystical refers to mystics or religious mysticism - in other words, spiritually allegorical or symbolic, transcendent of human understanding.  More generally, something mystical inspires a sense of spiritual mystery, awe and fascination as concerned with the soul or the spirit, as opposed to material things.  This word is also used to refer to ancient religious mysteries or other rites that have occult or esoteric (hidden) origins.

I remember early on in my writing (probably in the early high school phase) using this word repeatedly without really knowing what it meant.  One thing that is clear to me now is that mystical comes from mystery, and sounds like "mist-ical." Although it's an inaccurate way of looking at the word, "mist" audibly points me to the idea that complete understanding of the universe is misted over, and as writers, we have the gift to walk into that mist and write of what lies on the other side. 

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