Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In 1310, the Beguine mystic Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake in Paris for refusing to withdraw a book. That book — The Mirror of Simple Souls, written around 1296 — is one of the most radical works of the Western mystical tradition. This short film brings its central vision to the screen.
Porete describes a soul so emptied of self-will that it becomes transparent to divine love: the "annihilated soul" that needs neither Church nor sacrament nor even virtue, because the self that would grasp at them has fallen away. "She is a mirror," Love says in the text. "She holds nothing, she reflects everything, and what she reflects is not her own."
The Mirror circulated anonymously for centuries — readers assumed a man had written it — until Porete was identified as its author in 1946. Her words still carry the charge that the Inquisition feared.
The text is excerpted from Secret Histories and Spiritual Revolutions, an anthology of the Western esoteric tradition.
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—
A short film by Daniel Pinchbeck
Made with Higgsfield, Kling, ElevenLabs, and Claude
—
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🔖 Hashtags:
#Hermeticism #WesternEsotericism #OccultHistory #Mysticism #Alchemy #CarlJung #HermesTrismegistus #EsotericTradition #SpiritualHistory #HiddenKnowledge #MargueritePorete #MedievalHistory #SecretHistories
In 1310, the Beguine mystic Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake in Paris for refusing to withdraw a book. That book — The Mirror of Simple Souls, written around 1296 — is one of the most radical works of the Western mystical tradition. This short film brings its central vision to the screen.
Porete describes a soul so emptied of self-will that it becomes transparent to divine love: the "annihilated soul" that needs neither Church nor sacrament nor even virtue, because the self that would grasp at them has fallen away. "She is a mirror," Love says in the text. "She holds nothing, she reflects everything, and what she reflects is not her own."
The Mirror circulated anonymously for centuries — readers assumed a man had written it — until Porete was identified as its author in 1946. Her words still carry the charge that the Inquisition feared.
The text is excerpted from Secret Histories and Spiritual Revolutions, an anthology of the Western esoteric tradition.
BUY THE BOOK:
PAPERBACK & KINDLE: https://a.co/d/0fyiZPBC
EPUB: https://www.liminal.news/secret-histories-and-spiritual-revolutions-anthology
—
A short film by Daniel Pinchbeck
Made with Higgsfield, Kling, ElevenLabs, and Claude
—
📩 Subscribe to Liminal News on Substack
substack.com/@danielpinchbeck
🔗 FOLLOW DANIEL PINCHBECK
📸 Instagram → /danielpinchbeck
🧵 Threads → threads.net/@danielpinchbeck
📘 Facebook → /danielpinchbeck.author
🐦 Twitter / X → /pinchbeck
🔵 Bluesky → https://bsky.app/profile/danielpinchbeck
💼 LinkedIn → /danielpinchbeck
📚 Goodreads → /26172.daniel_pinchbeck
📚 Explore My Books
tinyurl.com/mrsmtpwv
🌐 Join Our Online Community, e-Courses, Seminars & more! – The Liminal Institute
https://www.liminal.news
🖥️ Official Website
pinchbeck.io
🎧 Also available on:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4dk2HIa
—
🔖 Hashtags:
#Hermeticism #WesternEsotericism #OccultHistory #Mysticism #Alchemy #CarlJung #HermesTrismegistus #EsotericTradition #SpiritualHistory #HiddenKnowledge #MargueritePorete #MedievalHistory #SecretHistories
