Mysticism Flashcards
Mystical Tradition
The word ‘mystic’ comes from the Greek meaning to ‘hide’ or conceal’; also giving us the word ‘mystery’ – something hidden from our understanding. It was used (and still is) to describe any experience that enables a person to receive divine knowledge that is beyond human understanding or to have an illumination of the nature of truth or ultimate reality
- When we consider a mystical experience we are observing a direct experience of God in someone’s life, which is profound, moving and indeed life-changing.
William James
In a chapter on mysticism James identifies 4 key features of what he considers to be an authentic mystical experience:
- Passivity (you can’t make it happen). Taken over by a superior power, loose all control. e.g. The Buddha
- Ineffable (difficult to put into words). We are restricted by language and ultimate reality is so far beyond our expression that the event is totally indescribable. Many mystics try to describe their experiences using physical changes they felt, e.g. Hildergard of Bingen in ‘Scivias’ described her experiences as ‘heated me up very much like the sun warms an object.’
- Noetic (knowledge/insight of the divine is given.)
State of knowledge with truth unobtainable through intellect. The experiencer is shown these truths and has immense certainty about what they have received. e.g. Julian of Norwich, in ‘Revelations of divine love’ she tells of sixteen ‘shewings’ (visions) she received which have her a greater understanding of the passion of Christ. She says she was shown ‘a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and said ‘this is all that is made’. Through mystical experience she understood 3 truths: God creates us, God loves us, and God sustains us. - Transiency (the experience is temporary) i.e. under 2 hours.
Such experiences are short, but nonetheless have a profound effect.
Hildergard of Bingen
- She was committed to the care of a local noble women, Jutta of Sponheim, but her parents at the age of 8. Was 10th child, so observed Church tradition, to promise her as a tithe to the church from birth.
- Hildergard took religious vows herself, and when 37, had a dramatic experience, as descried in her Scivas (Knowing the Ways): ‘I saw a fiery light coming from the open heavens… It heated me up very much like the sun warms an object on which it is pouring out rays. And suddenly I had an insight into the meaning and interpretation of the palter and the gospel…’
- Throughout the remainder of her life, she had a number of visions and other religious experiences, which greatly inspired her, giving her a reputation for holiness and wisdom.
- She was a gifted composer also, she wished to express the praise given to God in the divine office.
Julian of Norwich
- Lived as an anchoress.
- Book: “Revelations of divine Love”
- In her book she describes how when she was young she greatly desired to understand the suffering of Christ more so prayed for an illness to help her in this quest. She did become seriously ill.
- Then one night she experienced 16 visions or ‘Shewings’ which are movingly described in her book.
- ‘And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, “What is this?” And the answer came, “it is all that is made.” “It exists, both now and forever, because God loves it. In short everything owes its existence to the love of God”. “In this ‘little thing’, I saw three truths. The first is that God made it, the second is the God loves it; and thirst is that God sustains it.
- profound theme of spiritual union
Margery Kemp
14th Century –In her 40s she persuaded her husband to join her in a mutual vow of chastity and embarked on a pilgrimage across Europe to Jerusalem, always seeking out holy men and women on the way.
• She experienced visions and other revelations, leading her to have a particular intensity of feeling about the Passion of Christ.
• She would regularly weep and wail loudly at the sight of a crucifix; during Mass she would suddenly burst into loud and uncontrollable sobbing at the elevation of the Host, or at prayers that brought to mind Christ’s death on the cross.
• She speaks of one encounter with Jesus “I have ordained you to be a mirror amongst men, to have great sorrow, so that they should take example from you to have some little sorrow in their hearts for their sins, so that they might through that be saved”.
• Also experienced profound warmth: ‘When she first felt the fire of love burning in her breast she was afraid of it, and then our Lord answered and said, “daughter, don’t be afraid, because this heat is the head of the holy Ghost, which will burn away all sins”
St Teresa of Avila
16th century. St. Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation at age of 21. As her life led on her awareness of God’s quiet presence led her to belief that she should radically change her approach to the religious life and avoid all distractions to give her time to prayer.
• She formed the order of Discaled Carmelites. During this time she had many visions, inner locutions or conversions with God which included mystical experiences.
• At times during community prayer she would be caugh up in a state of rapture and afterwards pray to Jesus to stop her having any signs visible to others of what she was experiencing.
• Teresa believed that there should be no division between earth and heaven, even at the very highest spiritual union between the soul and God.
• She had a mystical union with God – ‘Spiritual marriage’
St John Of the Cross
Expresses journey of the soul to God in his short poem, The Dark Night of the Soul (read poem in notes).
He describes the journey of the soul towards God. The ‘dark night’ is a process of purifying the soul of all that would hinder its journey to God, but this will not be an easy journey. However, the poem ends with the soul achieving a state of mystical union with God, having journeyed through the dark night, expressed simply in the final verse:
‘I remained, lost in oblivion; my face I reclined on the Beloved. All ceased and abandonded myself, leaving my cares forgotten amongst the lilies.’
Mother Teresa
When asked why she chose to live the life of charitable work, she would reply that as a member of the Loreto Nuns teachings in Calcutta, one day she felt a ‘call within a call’ during a train journey to Darjeeling in 1952.
In 2007, a collection of her letters were published and in them she describes having a series of visions in 1940s, which included people crying out to her to come to them to relive their suffering and intense feeling of God’s presence and leading to a profound joy. This happened on and off for 6 months.
Dramatic change: then wrote of the speaking of the darkness of God, she felt God had abandoned her. She struggled to pray and felt alone. Its as though Jesus is thirsting for love and Mother Teresa was in a mystical sense, called to feel his sense of abandonment.
1961: “I have come to love the darkness, for I believe now that it is a part, a very small part of Jesus’ darkness and pain on earth today.
The Cloud of Unknowing
One of the greatest Christian Classics. Its author remains unidentified, most likely a monk, writing a practical guide on prayer and contemplation to a novice, written at some stage between 1350 and 1370.
- What we learn from the cloud is a profound description of a person’s effort to move towards God. Early on the author says that anyone entering a life of prayer must be ready for a struggle, a time of perseverance and advices:
- ’ Do not give up then, but work away at it till you have this longing. When you first begin you only find darkness, and as it were a cloud of unknowing. This cloud and darkness remain between you and God, and stop you both form seeing him in the clear light of rational understanding, and from experiencing his loving sweetness in your affection. Reconcile yourself to wait in this darkness as long as is necessary, but still go on longing after him whom you love. For if you are to feel him or see him in this life, it must always be in this cloud, in this darkness.
F C Happold - ‘Mysticism: A study and Anthology’
Further characteristics of mystical experiences:
He defines mystical experiences as when religion determines emotions and intellect.
1) The sudden consciousness of the oneness of everything. The mystic becomes aware that they are part of a dimension that is much greater than themselves.
2) Sense of timelessness.
3) The ego is not the real ‘I’. (i.e. that there is an immortal, unchanging self e.g. for Christians this is the soul)
Ninian Smart in ‘The religious experience of man kind’:
Recognises that a mystical experience emphasise and increase the unity between the Deity and the experiencer, and that his is the aim of most mystical experience.
W Pahnke - ‘Psychedelic review’
5 points of identification.
1) The mystic will feel a deeply positive mood e.g. Richard Rolle who said ‘it set my heart aglow’.
2) Sense of sacredness. This is an intuitive awe e.g. in St. John of the Cross poem ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’, describes a feeling of leaving his cares ‘forgotten among the lilies’, following such an experience.
3) Paradoxicality. This is the understanding that the experience is contradictory, and yet seems to make perfectly logical sense.
4) Similar to James characteristic of ineffability. Pahnke felt that in order for an experience to be identified as ‘mystical’ the experiencer should make attempts to express themselves but ultimately fail as it is beyond words.
4) Following the experience, there will be a persistent positive change in attitude e.g. Nicky Cruz. He had a renewed understanding of the love of Christ and went on to preac what he had learnt.
Bauerschmidt:
Mystic = ‘someone who has experienced an altered state of consciousness that has brought them to a new awareness of ultimate reality’
Who describes mysticism as ‘the ability to see truth in a special way?
William James
Example of ineffable
Hildegard of Bingen in ‘Scivicas’ described her experience as having ‘heated me up very ,such like the sun warms an object’
St Julian of Norwich - had to describe using a hazelnut
She says she was shown “a little thing the size of a hazelnut” and said “this is all that is made”. Through this mystical experience she understood three truths: God creases us, God loves us and God sustains us.
