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 mystics
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. Ineffabilitya negative
A. Mysticism defies expressionno
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 lovelove is:
A. The active, connotative,
expression of ones will and desire
for the Absolute
B. Ones innate tendency to that
Absolute, ones 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
(OBrien, 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
persons 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 persons 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 ones 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. Plotinus3 descending phases or
principles of Divine Reality
1. The Godhead, the Absolute, and
Unconditioned One
2. Gods 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 Todiuses 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 lifeby its loving
intuition it apprehends God under veils
3. The hidden heaven or ecstasylifted
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 mystics 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 souls 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 souls ultimate destiny is not
the Trinity, but what is beyond the
TrinityThe Godhead itself
1. Thus, there is a fourth stage
2. It consists in passing beyond
memory-understanding-will to the
delicate simplicity of the souls
pure nature, to a oneness so rarefied
that it is almost as though it were
not in man at all
II. The Sufi Rabia 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
lovethe Love of God for HimselfO
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
Prophets 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 Platos works were
preserved during the Christian
destruction of Greek literature
II. Platos 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 revivalthis
revival is referred to as Neo-Platonism
IV. The nature of Platos philosophy is
positive toward syncretism; other systems
could be easily addedespecially 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
worldtherefore 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 knowledgethe
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. Picos 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 Renaissances
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 Picos 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 Athensaccepted 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 2 nd
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 pamphletsthe 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 Gods
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
6. As one contemplates Gods 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
posturea 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
4. The Zohar represents a development of
Bahirs 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 speechembodied
in the written words of Scripture
6. Essential meaning of the Torah is its
symbolic meaning
7. The central figure is the Sefirothliving
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
Godit 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 (Victorylasting
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 twoand so introduced the
principles of division and
isolation in the world
11. Evil is traced to the
introduction of disharmony among
the Sefiroth