Learn all about the Mystic Personality Type including a definition, characteristics, examples and how it relates to archetype personality types.
Quick Navigation
What is the Mystic Personality? (Short Answer)
Mystics are introspective and deep.
They are often philosophical and spiritual, and may have an interest in the occult or supernatural.
They often have a calm and serene disposition, and can be very patient.
They usually prefer to be alone or with a few close friends, and can be quite private.
Mystics are often sensitive to their environment and the feelings of others.
Mystic Personality Explained (Long Answer)
The Mystic might be the most misunderstood personality.
There are many people who wish to think they are spiritual but misjudge how difficult the journey to enlightenment might be.
When they learn the truth, they are frequently delighted to delegate this responsibility to someone else.
Extensive ecstatic trances and paranormal precognition or bilocation were common in the lives of renowned mystics across the globe.
However, they also featured significant bodily and mental hardship at times, as well as arduous labor and boring routines that took up a large portion of their days.
You must ask yourself whether you are willing to pay the price in blood, sweat, and tears if you genuinely want to include this archetype as a member of your sacred consortium.
It is possible that you are a spiritual seeker, but not a Mystic, if you engage in mystical consciousness once a day during meditation, or once a week during a weekend retreat or a yoga workshop.
The egocentric concern for one’s own spiritual progress to the exclusion of others, as well as an associated sense of self-importance at having achieved “higher” states of consciousness, characterizes the shadow Mystic.
It may also manifest itself in conduct that takes advantage of admirers or students in a malicious economic, emotional, or sexual manner.
Due to the fact that real enlightenment expresses itself as a desire to be of service, this is a very clear sign that you haven’t quite arrived just yet.
Different Types of Mystic Personalities
There are many different types of Mystic personalities. Here are a few of the most common types:
Renunciate
This personality is characterized by a strong aversion to worldly possessions and a desire for spiritual enlightenment.
People with this personality type often have a very simple lifestyle, living in harmony with nature and rejecting materialism in favor of more spiritual pursuits.
They often have a deep sense of compassion and are often driven by a strong sense of ethics and morality.
Anchorite
Anchorites tend to be introspective and thoughtful, often withdrawing from social situations in order to have time to themselves.
They may be seen as enigmatic or mysterious by others, as they often keep their thoughts and feelings very close to the vest.
This desire for privacy can sometimes be misinterpreted as aloofness or arrogance, but it simply comes from a place of needing lots of personal space and time to process their complex inner worlds.
Anchorites are usually highly intelligent and intuitive, seeing the world in ways that many others do not.
Hermit
The Hermit personality is characterized by a strong preference for solitude and isolation.
Hermits generally have very strong introverted tendencies and often prefer to spend their time alone or in small, intimate groups rather than in large social settings.
They are often deep thinkers and can be quite introspective, sometimes even to the point of being overly self-analytical.
Hermits are independent and self-reliant, and usually prefer to live in remote or rural areas where they can have more peace and quiet.
They often find the hustle and bustle of big cities to be overwhelming and stimulating, preferring instead to stick to more tranquil surroundings.
Even when living in close proximity to others, hermits often choose to spend most of their time alone.
Mystic Personality Characteristics & Traits
Read on to learn more about the key Mystic personality characteristics:
1. Mystics are humble
It is rare for true Mystics to take the title “mystic” upon themselves; instead, they humbly allow others to determine whether or not they are worthy of it.
Mysticism is neither a badge of honor or a mark of distinction.
An authentic sense of God’s presence in their life will likely leave them feeling somewhat unworthy.
It’s not self-deprecating, but rather a matter-of-fact acknowledgment of their own limitations and shortcomings.
Honesty and authenticity are the keys to humility.
Mysticism is a similar concept.
2. Mystics are kind and compassionate
If the real Mystic’s traits begin with humility, the Mystical life’s ultimate blooming is love in its greatest manifestation.
It’s not just love as a strong feeling or an erotic desire.
It’s love as a function of the will: a vow to do good things like kindness, compassion, caring as well as a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood with everyone and everything.
Because of this, the mystic’s relationships with others, including those with whom they are at odds, as well as the world at large, are evidence of their immersion in Divine love.
3. Mystics recognize spiritual depth regardless of one’s religious label
Self-actualized people have all of the first three criteria listed above.
Mystics, on the other hand, transcend the limits of human capability.
Mystics are those who have drank deeply from the fountain of time and have soaked in the radiance of God’s presence within.
God has infused him or her, so he or she lives from a deep place inside.
One of the characteristics of such a “deeper” life is the ability to see comparable depth in others.
In the presence of God, there is no such thing as a religion, and real mystics are aware of this.
4. Mystics take their spiritual practice seriously; they don’t take it for granted
Mysticism is universal, but it also seems to be a universal trait of mysticism that it benefits from a healthy habitat in which to survive and prosper.
When someone says, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” they’re likely implying that they don’t want to be constrained by religious institutions’ strict rules and regulations.
Mystics who have illuminated the route to spirituality inside a religion have prudently kept at least some links to their religious tradition’s disciplines and rituals.
This makes sense.
When it comes to accessing the living water, most mystics focus on one deep well rather than a slew of little ones.
Examples of the Mystic Personality
Here are some examples of the Mystic Personality in popular culture and literature:
Films
- Catherine Mouchet in Thérèse
- Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
Drama
- Agnes of God by John Pielmeyer
Fiction
- Lying Awake by Marc Salzman
Religion/Myth
All the great traditions have produced mystics, of which the following are a small representative sample:
- Teresa of vila, Meister Eckhart, William Law, Hildegarde of Bingen (Christianity)
- Ba’al Shem Tov, Moses ben Nahman, Abraham Abulafia (Judaism)
- Rabi’a, Ibn al-‘Arabi, Mansur al-Hallaj (Islam)
- Sri Ramakrishna, Anandamayi Ma, Ramana Maharshi (Hinduism)
- Bodhidharma, Milarepa, Bankei, Pema Chödron (Buddhism)
- Chuang-tzu, Wang-pi (Taoism)
- Padrinho Sebastio, Credo Mutwa (shamanism)
