What does it mean to grow up as a mystic in the twenty-first century? Mother-and-son writing team Julie & Seth Rogers navigate how visionaries see the world in today’s technological and social settings. Letters views garden-variety experiences under the lens of otherworldly wonder and explores some less-common questions about life’s mysteries and possibilities.

My first and only son came into a world that couldn’t be form-fitted to who he was. From an early age, he saw and knew things that weren’t readily apparent. I quickly realized with such ability comes huge responsibility; I needed to teach him. In today’s diorama, a mystic is all about mental processes and states. Psychological prowess is key to understanding souls who thrive on independent thinking with visionary overtones.

When Seth was 9, I began writing a collection of short letters to him. At 10, he ripped through these at the usual lightning pace he reserved for assignments that didn’t hold his interest. When he turned 20, he offered to reread them more thoughtfully and to answer each one, or co-write, Letters: Sidereal Insight for a 21st Century Mystic, his own take on the experience of growing up differently.