Etiketter: andligt liv, English, mysticism, mystik, ortodox, Seraphim of Sarov, Symeon the New Theologian, theosis

The subject of mysticism is so vast that I will be very selective in the areas covered.

What is mysticism?

The word 'mystic' has its origin in the Greek mysteries. A mystic was one who had been initiated into these mysteries, through which he had gained an esoteric knowledge of divine things and been 'reborn into eternity'. His object was to break through the world of history and time into that of eternity and timelessness. The method was through initiation ceremonies as described in The Golden Ass by Apuleius. Through the mysteries the initiated entered into something holy and numinous, a secret wisdom about which it was unlawful for him to speak. The word 'mystery' (mysterion) comes from the Greek word muo, to shut the lips or eyes. This is how F.C.Happold writes about the meaning of the word mysticism in his excellent introduction to the subject in his "Mysticism: a study and an anthology". His anthology covers mysticism from all world religions, many Christian mystics as well as the nature-mysticism (represented by poets, writers and other artists such as William Blake).

The meaning of the word mysticism came to be altered when Greek and Oriental philosophy were blended in the centuries before the birth of Jesus, as Neoplatonism. It came to mean a very specific approach in which human intellectual, and especially intuitive, faculties played a major part. The fusion of Christian and Neoplatonist ideas in the early centuries of the Christian era led to a system of mysticism called mystical theology.

Mysticism in general has its source from which springs the raw material of religion, the inspiration of philosophy, poetry, art, music, and all creativity, namely a consciousness of a beyond, of something beyond, although interwoven with, the external world of material phenomena; of something beyond that what is seen. In the developed mystic this consciousness is present in an intense and highly specialized form. It occurs in religion when religious feeling surpasses rational content, when the hidden, non-rational, unconscious elements become dominant and determine the emotional life and intellectual attitude.

Mystics can be found in all ages, in all cultures and all religious systems. The word mysticism has many different meanings. To some it means simply confused, irrational thinking; to others it means something like spiritualism and clairvoyance, hypnotism, and even occultism and magic, strange psychological states and pathological conditions; to others it is associated with visions and revelations; or other-worldliness; or an attitude that does not care about the externals of religious observance and dogma.

The use of the word in Christianity was due to the influence of Dionysius the Aeropagite, Pseudo-Dionysius. The term used by medieval Christian theologians was theologia mystica, by which they meant a particular type of insight and knowledge about God. In those days the word contemplation was used to refer to a rare and advanced form of spiritual experience, not found among ordinary, religious folk. To attain to a state of contemplation men and women withdrew from the world and followed a way of life different from that led by those who remained in the world.

Mysticism could be studied from at least three angles: as a certain type of experience, as a way of knowledge, and as a state of consciousness. Mystical states have certain characteristics: they are ineffable, difficult to express in words, because its is difficult to express the infinite and eternal in human spatio-temporally restricted concepts; they are more like states of feeling than knowledge; they cannot be sustained for long; it is possible to prepare oneself for mystical experience; they give the feeling of a state of presence of an awareness of the Oneness of everything; they give the sense of timelessness; associated with them is the feeling that my familiar ego is limited and not my real I or real Self.

The Mystic Way is always divided into different steps or stages. Catholic theologians and western thinkers usually divide these three stages as: the way of purgation or purification; of illumination, or proficiency or contemplation; and the way of union or the unitive life.

The mystical way is more like a slope than a staircase and in her Seventh Revelation Dame Julian of Norwich tells how she passed from one stage to another time after time. Compare these three stages to that of the Sufi farid al-din 'Attar in his book The Conference of the Birds. It is a journey of the mystic through seven valleys.

The Valley of the Quest, stripping away all encumbrances so that the heavenly light may enter (like Purgation).

The Valley of Love (like the first stage of Illumination).

The Valley of Enlightenment and Knowledge, entering into the state of contemplation when the soul partakes of the divine with glimpses of the mystery of Being, God is now seen in all things.

The Valley of Detachment, the soul becomes absorbed in the Divine Love.

The Valley of Unity, contemplating the naked Godhead directly stripped of and without the intermediary of images or concepts is realized.

The vision is transient and seems to disappear in the Valley of Bewilderment.

The light is too bright, the weak soul is dazzled until it enters the Valley of Annihilation where the self is completely merged in God (the theosis or deification of the Eastern Orthodox Church).

Etiketter: andligt liv, English, mysticism, mystik