Transcript Mysticism I. Definition of Mysticism (Evelyn Underwood, Practical Mysticism: Mysticism is the art of union with Reality, The mystic is a person who.

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 selfconquest, 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 NeoPythagorean 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 neopythagorean 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. 250300 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 (11931280, 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-magicoscientific 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