Spiritual figure beginning to dither and shiver uncontrollably (7)
I believe the answer is:
dervish
'spiritual figure' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'beginning to dither and shiver uncontrollably' is the wordplay.
'beginning to' indicates taking the first letters.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'uncontrollably' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
The initial letter of 'dither' is 'd'.
'shiver' is an anagram of 'ervish'.
'd'+'ervish'='DERVISH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dervish that I've seen before include "dancer, perhaps" , "Religious adherent" , "Muslim ascetic, maybe dancing" , "Muslim ascetic (given to whirling movements?)" , "Member of Muslim order noted for wild dancing and whirling" .)