Mysticism

Mysticism

I. Definition of Mysticism (Evelyn

Underwood, Practical Mysticism: Mysticism

is the art of union with Reality, The

mystic is a person who has attained that

union in greater or less degree; or who

aims at and believes in such attainment





But

A. What is Reality? From this definition

only a mystic can answer and in terms

which only other mystics can understand

B. What is Union? From the mystic’s

perspective it is not an “operation” but an

activity which is being done, every

conscious moment of time with great

intensity and thoroughness—we can know

a thing by unity with it

“Marks” of Mysticism

(James, Varieties of Religious

Experience)

I. Ineffability—a negative

A. Mysticism defies expression—no

words are adequate its content

B. It must be directly “experienced”

C. It cannot be imparted or

transferred to others

II. Noetic Quality

A. Mysticism is a state of insight into

depths of truth unknown through

discursive intellect

B. The areas of knowledge are

“illuminations” or “revelations”

III. Transiency

A. Mystical states cannot be sustained

for any great amount of time

B. At times, when faded, their quality

can be imperfectly reproduced in

memory

IV. Passivity

A. The mystic will feel that his/her

own will were in abeyance, sometimes

as if grasped and controlled by a

superior power

B. The “control” factor will lead at

times to secondary phenemena

1. prophetic speech

2. automatic writing

3. mediumistic trance

Characteristics

(Underwood, Mysticism)

I. Mysticism is practical, not theoretical

II. Mysticism is an entirely spiritual

activity

III. The business and method of

mysticism is love—love is:

A. The active, connotative, expression

of one’s will and desire for the Absolute

B. One’s innate tendency to that

Absolute, one’s spiritual weight

IV. Mysticism entails a definite

psychological experience

V. As a corollary to the four rules,

emphasis should be made that true

mysticism is never self-seeking

Generic Experiences

(O’Brien, Varieties of Mystical

Experiences)

I. The object confronted in mystic

experience is thought by the mystic to be

somehow ultimate

A. A belief that a mystical experience

is the ultimate experience one can

have on earth

1. Richard Rolle--the object is

the “fire of divine consolation”

2. St. Bernard--comparable to the

“Beatific Vision in Heaven”

B. It is asserted that the object is the

ultimate experienced possible to

human awareness because it is the

ultimate reality--the deity

1. St. Catherine of Siena--the

“Sea Pacific” in which she felt

herself immersed in God

2. Origen-It is the Word; the

second person of the Trinity

II. The manner of confrontation is always

immediate and direct

A. It can an intuitive one-to-one

cognitive relation between subject and

object, as found in St. Augustine

B. It can an “insight”--the unmediated

perception of a higher coherence--St.

Ignatius Loyola or St. Teresa of Avila

III. The confrontation is always different

from the familiar exercises of either sense

perception or of reasoning

A. Differing backgrounds of mystics will

cause the mystical experience to be

explained in different terms

B. Yet, there are similarities which go

beyond religious beliefs, for example,

the self, itself, becomes awareness

Three Rules for

Determining the

“Truth” of an

Experience

I. The reputed experience does not follow

as a doctrinal conclusion from a person’s

basic philosophic or theological position,

but is counter to it.

A. In writings of Pseudo-Dionysius or

Meister Eckhart, the experience which

is so highly extolled is the last logical

step in a rigid speculative system

B. Either of them may have been

authentic mystics, but one cannot come to

that conclusion from their writings only

C. When the experience does not fit in at

all with the person’s speculative

suppositions, the chances are that it was a

genuine experience

II. The reputed experience is not an

instance of wish fulfillment, but is counter

to one’s wishes

III. The reputed experience alone gives

consistency to the speculation

A. In Gregory, the experiences will be

seen to be to the “luminous” center in

the light of which Bible and philosophy

and current theological controversies

are understood

B. In St. John of the Cross, everything

takes its coloring from the experience

Three Phrases of Life

Agreed On By

Mystics

I. Life as it concerns God

II. Life as it concerns the creature

III. An intermediate life, a mixture of the former

two

IV. Examples

A. Plotinus—3 descending phases or

principles of Divine Reality

1. The Godhead, the Absolute, and

Unconditioned One

2. God’s manifestation as the nous,

the Divine Mind or Spirit which inspires

the “intelligible” and eternal world

3. Psyche, the Life or Soul of the

physical universe

B. The Upanishads

1. Brahma is the “heart of reality”;

other then the known, and above the

unknown

2. Ananda, (being) that spiritual world

which is the true object of aesethetic

passion and religious contemplation

3. The world-process as we know it,

which represents Ananda taking form

C. Richard of St. Victor

1. “Dilation of mind”—enlarging

and deepening our vision of the

world

2. The “elevation of the mind”—

in which we behold the realities

which are above ourselves

3. “Ecstasy,” in which the mind is

carried up to contrast with truth in

its pure simplicity

D. Jacopone da Todi—uses symbolism of three

heavens

1. When the mind has achieved self-

conquest, the “starry heaven” of multiplicity

is revealed to it; its darkness is lit by

scattered lights (points of reality which

pierce the sky

2. The “crystalline heaven” of lucid

contemplation, where the soul is conformed

to the rhythm of the divine life—by its loving

intuition it apprehends God under veils

3. The “hidden heaven” or “ecstasy”—lifted

up that ineffable state where it enjoys a

vision of imageless reality and “enters into

possession of all that is God”

E. Ruysbroeck

1. The natural world, theatre of our moral

struggle

2. The essential world, where God and

Eternity are indeed known by intermediaries

3. The super-essential world, where without

immediary, and beyond all separation,

“above reason and without reason,” the soul

is united to “the glorious and absolute One”

F. Jacob Boehme

1. The “deepest Deity, without and

beyond Nature”

2. The Eternal Light-world, the

manifestation of Deity

3. The outer world in which we dwell

according to the body, which is

manifestation, image or similitude of

the Eternal

G. Dionysius the Areopagite

1. The way of purification, in which

the mind is inclined to learn true

wisdom

2. The way of illumination, in which

the mind by contemplation is kindled to

the burning of love

3. The way of union, in which the

mind by understanding, reason, and

spirit is led up by God alone

Forms of Mystical

Literature

I. Pastoral Homilies--the writings of the

mystic’s intimate communion with the

Divine, sometimes the writings are written

from sermons preached

II. Theological Treaties--directed to an

analysis of the mystical experience

III. Personal Advice--written to meet the

need for instruction in the mystical of

some definite person or persons

A. The advice is personal in two ways

at once

B. Author-mystic, in the light of

personal experience

C. Reader-mystic, counseling for

personal need

D. This category has many anonymous

works which are considered to be

“classical”

1. The Book of the Poor in Spirit

2. Theologia Germanica

3. The Cloud of Unknowing

IV. Confessions

A. Most famous practioner of this type

is Augustine of Hippo in his

Confessions

B. William of St. Thierry, in his On

Contemplating God

V. Spiritual Accounts--direct and to the

point; purpose is simply to tell what

occurred

A. St. Ignatius Loyola

B. Marie of the Incarnation

C. St. Paul of the Cross

Sampling of Mystics

I. Meister Eckhart (1260-1329 CE)

A. The process of reality is a series of

emanations

1. From the Godhead to the

Unspoken Word (the Father)

2. From the Unspoken Word to

the Spoken Word (the Son)

3. The Spoken Word to Love (the

Spirit)

4. From Love to ideal creation

B. Humans return to the Godhead in a reverse

order

C. The practical spirit of Eckhart

1. The first stage of the soul’s return is

regression from phenomenon, that is, from

creatures in their actual state because they

are not merely nothing, they are annihilating

2. The second stage is the beholding of the

uncreaturely in creatures; that is, of

creatures in the ideal state

3. The third stage is introspective; that is,

one meditates upon the purely spiritual

faculties of the soul, the trinity of memory,

understanding, and will

D. The soul’s ultimate destiny is not

the Trinity, but what is beyond the

Trinity—The Godhead itself

1. Thus, there is a fourth stage

2. It consists in passing beyond

memory-understanding-will to the

delicate simplicity of the soul’s

pure nature, to a oneness so

rarefied that it is almost as though

it were not in man at all

II. The Sufi Rabi’a of Basra (d. 185/801)

A. Unlike many other Sufis, she did

not pay heed to the beauty of nature

B. She was marked by an extremely

other-worldliness

C. An important aspect of her thought

is her concept of pure or disinterested

love—the Love of God for Himself—O

my Lord, if I worship thee from fear of

Hell, burn me in hell; and if I worship

thee from hope of Paradise, exclude

me from Paradise, but if I worship thee

for Thy own sake, then withhold not

from me Thy Eternal Breathe

D. Her doctrine of disinterested love

would influence not only later Sufis but

traditional Islamic teahing

III. The “Intoxicated” Sufi Abu Yazid (d.

261/875)

A. Regarded as the first of the “intoxicated”

Sufis who would find God within his own soul

B. He scandalized the orthodox Muslim by

ejaculating, Glory to Me

C. He was also the first to take the

Prophet’s Ascension as a theme for

expressing his own mystical experience

D. He developed the doctrine of Fana

(“absorption” or “annihilation” which would

play an important role in later Sufi teaching

Hermiticism and

Kabbalistic

Mysticism

Neo-platonic and Neo-

Pythagorean Influences

I. All of Plato’s works were preserved

during the Christian destruction of

Greek literature

II. Plato’s “Academy” continued from

the time of Plato until it was closed in

529 CE

. III. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE,

Platonism underwent a revival—this

revival is referred to as Neo-Platonism

IV. The nature of Plato’s philosophy is

positive toward syncretism; other systems

could be easily added—especially true of

Neo-platonism which included neo-

pythagorean and Hermetic concepts

Hermes Trismegistus

I. Tradition states that he lived around

2670 BCE

II. Hermes Trismegistus is the Greek

equivalent for Thoth and means “The

Thrice Great”

III. Legend claims he was an Egyptian

priest, legislator, and philosopher and was

to have written 36 books on theology and

philosophy and six books on medicine

IV. The 46 books are divided as follows:

A. Ten books of laws, deities, and the

education of priests

B. Ten books of sacrifices, offerings,

prayers, hymns, and festive

processions

C. Ten books of cosmographi and

geographical information

D. Four books devoted to astronomy and

astrology

E. Two books containing a collection of

songs in honor of the gods and a

description of royal life and its duties

F. Six books known collectively as the

“Pastophorous” and deals with medical

subjects

G. These writings were imparted,

according to tradition, to Greek

philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato,

Aristotle, and Herodotus

Other Legends



I. Thoth was thought to govern over

mystical wisdom, magic, writing, and

healing; Hermes was the personification of

universal wisdom and the patron of magic

II. Both are associated with writings

A. Thoth was credited with writing

the sacred books of Egypt

B. According to Iamblichus (c. 250-

300 BCE), Hermes wrote 20,000

books and Mantheo (c. 300 BCE)

thought he wrote over 36,000 books

III. According to legend both revealed to

humankind the healing arts, magic,

writing, astrology, science and philosophy

IV. Hermes Trismegistus provided the

wisdom of light to the ancient mysteries of

Egypt. “He carried an emerald, upon

which was recorded all philosophy, and

the caduces, the symbols mystical

illumination. Hermes Trismegistus

vanquished Typhon, the dragon of

ignorance, and mental, moral and physical

perversion

The Emerald Tablet

True, without falsehood, certain and most true, that which

is above is the same as that which is below, and that

which is below is the same as that which is above, for

the performance of miracles of the One Thing. And as

all things from the One, by the meditation of One, so all

things have their birth from this One Thing by

adaptation. The Sun is its Father, the Moon its Mother,

the Wind carries it in its belly, its nurse is the world.

This is the Father of all perfection, or consummation of

the world. Its power is itegrating, if it be turned into

earth

You shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from

the gross, suavely, and with great ingenuity and skill.

Your skilful work ascends from earth to heaven and

descends to earth again, and receives the power of the

superiors and of the inferiors. So thou has the glory of

the whole world—therefore let all obscurity flee from

thee. This is the strong force of all forces, overcoming

every subtle and penetrating every solid thing. So the

world was created. Hence all were wonderful

adaptations, of which this is the manner. Therefore I

am called Hermes Trismegistus having the three parts of

the philosophy of the whole world. What I have to tell is

completed during the Operation of the Sun

V. Several Fathers of the Church thought

that Hermes was pre-plato; Lactancius,

St. Augustine, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras,

Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian,

and Cyril of Alexandria

VI. Other Greek scholars included

Zosimus, Jamblichus, Fulgentius, and

Julian the Emperor

The Truth



I. Until 17th century CE, it was generally

accepted that Hermes lived before the

pre-Socratics and wrote a considerable

body of religious, philosophic, and

scientific literature.

II. The works attributed to Hermed are

referred to as “The Corpus Hermeticum”,

composed by a circle of Greek-speaking

Egyptians working in and around

Alexandria in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE

III. The Hermetic writings show influence

from Platonic, Stoic, and mystic Jewish

traditions

IV. No Christian influence, although there

are many phrases and ideas that seem as

if they might be from the Christian

tradition: For instance, in the Pimander

there is an account of the creation of the

world by the “luminous Word” who is the

“Son of God”

V. Some scholars believe the similarities

are due to the fact that Hermes and

Christianity have some of the same

sources

VI. The manuscripts of the Corpus

Hermiticum were discovered in

Constantinople by agents of Cosimo

Medici (a ruling prince of Tuscany)

VII. Cosimo was so eager to know the

contents of the material that he had

Marisilio Ficino interrupt his translation of

Plato and devote his energies to the

translation of Hermes

VIII. He finished the translation in 1464; being

a Platonic expert he was able to see the Platonic

elements in the corpus; but he believed Plato

got his ideas from Hermes.

A. This misdating led him to believe that he

had the oldest knowledge

B. Dating the corpus to the 2nd millennium

BCE made it the basis of all wisdom

C. Ficino also thought that Hermes and

Moses were contemporaries; he even

speculates that they might be the same

person

D. Thus, the corpus gave the 2 great

streams of knowledge—the philosophical

writings of Plato and the Old Testament

E. His translation and commentary helped

to establish a Christian Hermetic tradition

that flourished well into the 17th century

CE

Pico Della Mirandola

I. Contemporary of Ficino

A. Began his study of philosophy

under Ficino

B. Pico’s importance is that he added

to the magic of the Hermetic tradition

the magic of the Cabala

C. He went to Rome in 1486 with 900

theses or points drawn from all

philosophies which he wanted to

debate in public that points were

reconcilable with one another

D. No debate occurred, but it helped to

continue the Renaissance’s interest in

magic through his books such as the

Dignity of Man, Apology, and Oration.

E. He later had to appear before a

commission appointed by Pope Innocent

VIII; the commission was to investigate

the heretical character of some of Pico’s

theses

F. In 1487 Pico made a retraction of his

beliefs

G. In 1492 a new pope, Alexander IV,

came to the rescue of Pico

Pseudo-Dionysius the

Areopagite

I. Wrote Celestial Hierarchies

II. Claimed to be the Dionysius who met

St. Paul in Athens—accepted by many

scholars of the early church

III. Real author is unknown, but wrote

under neo-platonic influences

IV. The work would become important in

the synthesis neo-platonism and

Christianity

V. The link is done by identifying the

angelic world with what the philosophers

call the intelligible world

VI. The world is divided:

A. Angelic (intelligible)

B. Celestial

C. Sublunar, which we inhabit

Henry Cornelius

Agrippa von Netesheim

(Cornelius Agrippa)

I. Born in 1486 in Cologne, Germany

II. He confided in a latter at an early age

that he possessed a curiosity concerning

the mysteries (Albertus Magnus (1193-

1280, famous occult scholar lived in

Cologne)

III. Went to the University of Paris where

he gathered a band of fellow students

interested in the same subject

IV. In 1510 he wrote the first draft of his

Three Books of Occult Philosophy—first

published in 1531,33

V. His work is divided into 3 books:

A. Natural Magic, or magic in the

elemental world

B. Celestial Magic

C. Ceremonial Magic

D. These divisions correspond to the

divisions of philosophy into physics,

mathematics, and theology

VI. In Book I he divides the universe into

three worlds

A. The elemental world

B. The celestial world

C. The intellectual world

VII. The final chapter of Book I discusses

the relation of letters of the Hebrew

alphabet to the signs of the zodiac,

planets, and elements which give that

language a strong magical power

VIII. In Book II emphasizes mathematics

and images

A. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet

have numerical value and they are

potent for number magic

B. He discusses the general principles

of the making of talismans imprinted

with celestial images

IX. Book III turns to higher matters; to

know that part of magic which helps one

to come to the divine religion

X. The information contained in the

chapter should be kept secret; for the

mysteries of God are always hidden

Giordano Bruno

I. Born in 1548 in Nola, Italy; entered the

Dominican order at age 15

A. At an early age he came under

influence of Hermetic tradition

B. He would committed to both his

Catholicism and the Hermtic corpus

C. He would later be charged with

heresy; he would later renounce his

Dominican orders and became an

“apostate”

D. He traveled to many of the capitals of

Europe

E. He would be burned at the state in

1600 for his heretical views

II. His program of “religio-magico-

scientific reform”

A. He believed that he was reviving

the magical religion of the ancient

Egyptians which he believed was older

than Judaism or Christianity

B. He thought that even though the

magic tradition had been suppressed

that it would be revived

C. Bruno believed that the religion of

Hermeticism was the “only true religion

D. He believed that Copernicus’ heliocentric

theory was a portent of the revival of

Hermeticism

1. In De Revolutionibus, Copernicus

would refer to Hermes and stated that the

sun is the visible god and ought to be

the center of the world

2. Bruno thought that Copernicus failed to

understand the deeper meaning of his

discovery

3. He linked animism, heliocentricism,

the notion of an infinite universe, and

political reform to the reemergence of

the Hermetic revolution

4. He also believed that the existing

Roman Catholic church would be

incorporate the Hermetic tradition as

part of its belief

5. The Catholic church would condemn

certain forms of magic in 1600,

immediately after his execution

D. This would mark beginning of a

decline for the Hermetic tradition

1. Progress in Greek philology in the

16th and early 17th CE enable Isaac

Casubon to date the composition of the

Hermetic corpus in the 2nd century CE

2. But many believed that the 2nd

century CE documents could have been

copied from older ones

3. Humanist scholarship recovered

other ancient documents opposed to

the animism of Hermeticism

4. There also occurred an intellectual

reaction known as the “skeptical crisis”;

a consequence of Descartes’ teaching

of a mechanistic philosophy opposed to

Hermeticism

Rosicrucianism

I. Name is derived from Christian

Rosencreutz or “Rose Cross”

II. The Rosicrucian “Manifestos” are two

short pamphlets—the Fama and the

Confessio and the Chemical Wedding of

Christian Rosencreutz (1616)

A Historical Interlude

I. The reigning Duke of Wurtemberg,

Frederick I, was an alchemist, occultist,

and Anglorphil

II. He wanted an alliance with Queen

Elizabeth of England and to obtain the

Order of the Garter

III. The Garter was conferred upon him

by James I

IV. Thus, it would seem that James was

making alliances with the protestants in

Germany

V. There seems to have been a secret

treaty in 1604 between James, the King of

France, and the Duke of Wurtemberg

VI.The Naometria

A. An unpublished apocalyptic-prophetic

work which used numerology based on

the Temple of Solomon which the writer

believed led to events in European history

B. Writer predicts that in 1620 Antichrist

will be defeated (papacy). In 1623 a new

age would begin

VII. The European Union

IV. Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalism

A. The term Kabbalah is literally

“tradition” and implies that the mystical

teaching represents the true

interpretation of Scripture

B. Abraham Abulafia (13th century CE)

1. His works remained

unpublished until the 19th century

2. His essential aim was to open the

way for the perception of Divine Reality

a. He found the means through

the Hebrew alphabet

b. The contemplation of God’s

name, he was taught, would lead

to mystical ecstasy

3. Influenced by the Sefer Yetsira (Book

of Creation, 3-6 century CE)

4. Divine language was the substance of

reality; the pure thought of God is

expressed by a spiritual language, the

letters of which are the elements of

spiritual being

5. Every language, not only Hebrew,

may be a medium whereby the

language of God is apprehended by

human consciousness

6. As one contemplates God’s name,

one is led to seed the name of God and

angles in the heart

7. The soul will then leave the body in

ecstatic joy and will receive an influx of

spiritual life

8. He also brings forth rules of bodily

posture—a kind of “Judaized Yoga”

C.The Zohar (“brightness” or “splendor”)

1. Supposedly the work of Rabbi

Simeon ben Yohai (2nd century CE);

probably written in 13th century CE

2. It is in most ways a commentary on

the Pentateuch, which interprets it

through mystical symbolism

3. The Zohar expresses outlook of a

school of Kabbalists whose earlier work

was the Bahir (“Brightness”), 12th

century CE

4. The Zohar represents a development of

Bahir’s ideas concerning God, human destiny,

and the significance of the Torah

5. It takes as a starting point the assumption

that underlying all reality is the creative power

of speech—embodied in the written words of

Scripture

6. Essential meaning of the Torah is its symbolic

meaning

7. The central figure is the Sefiroth—living

numbers, conceived as divine emanations; they

are regarded as “grades” (degrees of creative or

divine manifestation)

8. They are the qualities, attributes,

and agencies of God

9. The Sefiroth are divided into three

triads, with a tenth representing the

harmony of them all

The First Triad

1. Highest is Kether, the “Crown of God”—it is

the mystical “Nothing”, a primordial point

2. From Kether proceeds Hokhmah (Divine

Wisdom); here is enshrined the ideal

existence of all things in an undifferentiated

unity

3. From Hokhmah comes Binah (Divine

Intelligence); in which all forms of pre-exist

in the Mind of God which sees them itself

4. It was said that the Divine Wisdom is the

“Father”, the active principle producing all

things; The Divine Intelligence is the

“Mother”, the passive or receptive principle

The Second Triard

1 Hesed (“Love”, “Mercy” of God

2 Din (“Power” of God),

manifested mainly as the

power of judgment or

punishment

3 Tifereth (“Beauty”) or

Rachamin (“Compassion”)

4 Hesed is a male principle; din,

a female

The Third Triard

1. Netsah (“Victory”—lasting

endurance of God); seen as

masculine

2. Hod (“Glory” “Majesty” of

God); seen as feminine

3. Yesod (“Foundation”)—the

ground of stability in the

universe

The Tenth Principle





1. Malkuth (“Kingdom” of God or Shekhinah

(Presence of God in the Universe

2. It is the principle which harmonizes the rest

10. One tradition says that the

Sefiroth was first revealed to Adam in

the Tree of Life and the Tree of

Knowledge taken together, Adam

would separate the two—and so

introduced the principles of division

and isolation in the world

11. Evil is traced to the introduction of

disharmony among the Sefiroth