Full disclosure: I am friends with (and proudly so) two of the women featured in the New York Times Style feature, “Seeing Yourself In Their Light,” about today’s new young women spiritual gurus, and how “there is a new role model for New York’s former Carrie Bradshaws — young women who are vegetarian, well versed in self-help and New Age spirituality, and who are finding a way to make a living preaching to eager audiences, mostly female.”
Style reporter Allen Salkin explores the ways in which the next generation of spiritual seekers are re-imagining the divine, re-envisioning a spiritual life and practices, and, in some cases, like with Sera Beak, finding a way to sex up their spirituality, too–not too mention how they are all making a living doing so:
“Sera Beak, 33, the author of “The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark,” is working on a documentary about women like herself. “We like to have a relationship and a career, but we know this internal search is a priority, too,” she said. “It’s one of the most important things you can do as young woman. You don’t have to wait until you are middle aged.” Her pitch line for the film — ” ‘The Secret’ meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a dark alley, naked” — has attracted notable figures to be interviewed, including Tom Robbins, the author of “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.”

To give a nod to my other friend featured in the article, Meggan Watterson is behind the new website REVEAL dedicated to young women and spirituality from all backgrounds and persuasions–from the traditional to the most esoteric–and who is behind an international conference dedicated to these women that is in the planning stages. “We want to hear the stories of how young women experience and name the divine,” says Meggan.
To check out more about their stories, their lives as gurus, and how other young women are making their mark on America’s spiritual landscape, not only check out this article, but be sure to look at the phenomenal slideshow that accompanies it.