The Annihilated Self: Consumed by the Fire of Love

Over 700 years ago in Paris, on June 1, 1310, the Beguine mystic Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake for having written a popular book, “The Mirror of Simple Souls.” Its primary message was that divine grace alone—not the religious precepts of the Church—inspires and activates a direct communion with God. That was her experience, and her refusal to retract it led to this terrible moment.

Marguerite’s book consists of a conversation between Love and the Soul. Her powerful dialogue inspired James F. Twyman to go deeply within. What came through Twyman is another transforming dialogue—The Annihilated Self—in which what is “annihilated,” or dissolved, is the separated sense of self (the ego), which reveals the path to Love and Truth, and releases the soul into final spiritual freedom.