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St John of the Cross and the Mystical ‘Unknowing’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Deirdre Green
Deirdre Green
Affiliation:
St. David's University College, Lampeter
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Extract

This paper is concerned with the nature of mystical knowledge in the higher stages of mystical realization, with particular reference to the teachings of St John of the Cross. Correspondences and parallels with the writings of other mystics may be noticed, but it is not the purpose of this discussion to elucidate these in detail.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 29 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

page 29 note 1 Werblowsky, R. J. Zwi, ‘On the mystical rejection of mystical illuminations’, Religious Studies, I (1965–1966).Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 Ibid p. 179.

page 30 note 1 John's, St own commentary on ‘The spiritual canticle’, The Mystical Doctrine of St John of the Cross, ed. Steuart, R. H. J. (London, Sheed & Ward, 1947), p. 149Google Scholar, hereinafter referred to as Mystical Doctrine. Here and elsewhere I have consulted the Spanish version of John's, St writings: Vida y Obras de San Juan de la Cruz, eds. Jesus, Crisogono de, Jesus, Macias del Niño and Ruano, Lucio (Madrid, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1973).Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Mystical Doctrine, pp. 21–2.

page 31 note 2 Dionysius the Areopagite, now known as Pseudo-Dionysius. The writings of this anonymous mystic (The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchies, The Divine Names) have had a great influence on Christian mysticism, especially on Eckhart and others of the German school.

page 31 note 3 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II. XV. 2, The Collected Works of St John of the Cross, trans. Kavanaugh, Kieran and Rodriguez, Otilio (London, Nelson, 1966).Google Scholar

page 31 note 4 The lower faculties of the soul, for St John, are sense-perception, imagination and reason. The higher faculties are memory, intellect or understanding, and will, and these three make up the higher part of the soul (la parte superior) which St John also sometimes calls the spirit (el espíritu). The substance of the soul (la sustancla del alma) is similar to Eckhart's Ground of the Soul.

page 31 note 5 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Mystical Doctrine, p. 16.

page 32 note 1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, ibid. p. 52.

page 32 note 2 Wisdom, 7: 24.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 From a reproduction of a sketch of the symbolic Mount Carmel by St John, with spiritual aphorisms. Reproduced as plate VII in Dicken, E. W. Trueman, The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St Theresa of Jesus and St John of the Cross (London, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1963).Google Scholar

page 33 note 1 John's, St commentary on ‘The spiritual canticle’, Mystical Doctrine, p. 171.Google Scholar

page 34 note 1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, ibid. p. 52.

page 34 note 2 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I. 3. 4, Collected Works.

page 34 note 3 Sayings of Light and Love, 46, Collected Works.

page 35 note 1 To be more precise, union for St John is a permanent union of the substance of the soul, while the union of the faculties is intermittent. Thompson perceptively comments: ‘Today we might say that union is permanent unconsciously but not always consciously experienced. In this he (St John) no doubt reflects his own experience of a tension between the glory of union and the fact that everyday life has to go on and sometimes other activities intervene to engage the “faculties” of the soul.’ Thompson, Colin P., The Poet and the Mystic: A Study of the Cántico Espiritual of San Juan de la Cruz (Oxford, University Press, 1977), p. 136.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 Cf. Galatians 2: 20: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.’

page 35 note 3 The Dark “Night, II. vi. 6, Collected Works.

page 35 note 4 The Living Flame of Love, Mystical Doctrine, p. 117.

page 35 note 5 St John's commentary on ‘The spiritual canticle’, ibid. p. 157.

page 36 note 1 John's, St commentary on ‘The spiritual canticle’, XIV. 23, Collected Works.Google Scholar

page 36 note 2 I Cor. 13: 10.

page 36 note 3 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, I. V. 7, Collected Works.

page 36 note 4 ‘Song of the soul that rejoices in knowing God through faith'’ ibid.

page 36 note 5 ‘Stanzas concerning an ecstasy experienced in high contemplation’, ibid.

page 37 note 1 Epistemological questions concerning the type of ‘formIm awareness’ of which St John speaks, and the question of ineffability and mystical expression, are discussed in my doctoral thesis, ‘A Study of Mysticism and its Forms of Expression’, University of Stirling (1983).Google Scholar

page 37 note 2 From John's, St sketch of Mount Carmel; see above p. 32 n. 3.Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 Zohar 2: 85 b, quoted from Scholem, Gershom G., Kabbalah (New York, Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1974), p. 144.Google Scholar On pp. 144 ff. of this study, Scholem discusses the relationship between Kabbalah and pantheism. See also Unterman, Alan, ‘Theism versus pantheism in Jewish mystical experience’, Religious Experience in World Religions (Sydney: Australian Association for the Study of Religions, 1980).Google Scholar

page 38 note 2 Scholem, ibid. p. 147.

page 38 note 3 The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is a kind of metaphysical diagram of the universe, relating to many levels, from the emanations of God to their correspondences within the human microcosm. On the Tree of Life are ten Sefirot, emanations of the Absolute which represent the unfolding of the universe at different levels of being and the interactions between the levels and, correspondingly, the unfolding and interaction of the various levels of consciousness within the self. Daat, considered as a quasi-Sefirah and as a synthesis or conjunction of the two Sejirot Hokhmah and Binah (‘Wisdom’ and ‘Understanding’), appears in Kabbalistic writings from the late thirteenth century onwards.

page 38 note 4 Quoted from Gershom Scholem, G., Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, Schocken, 1961), p. 5.Google Scholar The idea expressed here is really very similar to St John's belief that through reception of the contemplative ‘ray of darkness’, the mystic, having first transcended the intellect, later finds God's glory expressed in all things (the intellect included).

page 39 note 1 There are a number of close correspondences between St John and Eckhart, and it is possible that the former may have been indirectly influenced by the latter. Eckhart's thought could well have found its way anonymously into the writings of the Spanish mystics through the intermediary of Flemish mystics such as Ruysbroeck (who was himself strongly influenced by Eckhart), since the Spanish domination of the Netherlands made such contacts possible.

page 39 note 2 It is certain that some Spanish mystics absorbed Kabbalistic influences, as Spain had of course been a major centre of Kabbalistic thought for some centuries prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1485. I have argued elsewhere that the influence of Jewish mysticism can be detected in The Interior Castle of St Teresa of Avila, who was a contemporary of St John and, like him, a Carmelite, and who was of Jewish descent. See my article ‘St Teresa of Avila and Hekhalot mysticism’, Studies in Religion/Sciences Rtligieuscs, XIII, 3, (1984).