Part 16 (1/2)
etc.
On one occasion she had a vision of an angel whom she describes as follows: ”He was not tall but small, very beautiful, his face so radiant that he seemed to be one of the highest angels, who are, I believe, all fire ... in his hand he held a golden spear, at the point of which was a little flame; he appeared to thrust this spear into my heart again and again; it penetrated my entrails, and as he drew it out he seemed to draw them out also, and leave me on fire with a great love of G.o.d. The pain was so intense that I could not but sigh deeply; yet so surpa.s.sing was the sweetness of this pain that it made me wish never to be without it. It is not physical, but spiritual pain, although the body often suffers greatly from it. The caressing love between G.o.d and the soul is so sweet that I implore Him of His mercy to let all those experience it who believe that I am lying.”
The treatise _Thoughts of the Love of G.o.d on some Words of the Song of Songs_ is crowded with purely sensuous pa.s.sages. In accordance with the general custom, she interprets this navely sensual Semitic poem allegorically, becomes tremendously excited in meditating on the kiss of the beloved and discusses the question of what the soul should do to ”satisfy so sweet a bridegroom.”
In the pamphlet _The Fortress of the Soul and its Seven Dwellings_, St.
Teresa describes similar states of mind: ”The bridegroom commands the doors of the dwellings to be closed and also the gates of the fortress and its surrounding walls. In freeing the soul from the body, he stops the body's breathing so that, even if the other senses are not quite deadened, speech is impossible. At other times all sensuous perceptions disappear simultaneously; body and hands grow rigid and it seems as if the soul had left the body, which is scarcely breathing. This condition is of short duration. The rigidity pa.s.ses away to some extent, the body slowly regains life, the breath comes and goes, only to die away again and thus endow the soul with greater freedom. But this deep trance does not endure long.” She continues to describe her ecstasies and is careful to point out the complete fusion of supreme delight and bodily pain.
Perhaps no hysterical subject has ever described her states of mind so well. Her avowal (made in a letter to Father Rodrigue Alvarez) of her complete unconsciousness of her body is quite in harmony with those states of rapture. She wrote a number of spiritual love-songs which are said to be conspicuous for their ardour and beauty; probably they have never been translated from the original Spanish.
Finally there is the famous Madame Guyon (1648-1717), who--in addition to many other works--wrote a very detailed autobiography. She lived with her husband, whom she treated with coldness, finding her sole joy in her spiritual intercourse with G.o.d. ”I desire only the divine love which thrills the soul with inexpressible bliss, the love which seems to melt my whole being.” G.o.d burns her with His fire and still trembling with delight, she says to Him: ”Oh, Lord! The greatest libertine, if Thou didst make him experience Thy love as Thou didst make me experience it, would forswear carnal pleasure and strive only after Thy divine love.”
”I was like a person intoxicated with wine or love, unable to think of anything but my pa.s.sion,” etc. The fact that she sought in this love the pleasure of the senses is very apparent.
We are not concerned here with the problem of how far these women may be regarded as pathological cases; all of them were filled with a vague feminine desire for self-surrender, which they projected on a celestial being, either because they did not come into contact with a suitable terrestrial object, or because the impulse was abnormal from the beginning. But their spiritual love never rose above empty sentimentality and hysterical rapture. All of them, and some of them were highly gifted, were thrilled with the love of Jesus, they had visions of the ”sweet wounds of the Saviour,” and so on; but their emotion did not kindle the smallest spark of creative power. The Queen of Heaven, on the other hand, was a free creation of spiritually loving poets and monks.
The women imitated metaphysical love and distorted it; s.e.xual impulse, arrogantly attempting to reach beyond the earth, reigned in the place of spiritual, deifying love.
I have included these phenomena not for their own sakes, but to indicate my boundary-line, for very frequently these women are cited as genuine mystics. Even Schopenhauer mentions these ”saints” in one breath with German mystics and Indian philosophers; he calls Madame Guyon ”a great and beautiful soul whose memory I venerate.” And yet there can be no doubt that it is not the fict.i.tious object of love which is conclusive, but the emotion of the lover: the sensualist can approach G.o.d and the Virgin with inflamed senses, but to the lover every woman is divine.
The result of this chapter is as far as our investigation is concerned, negative. The deifying love of man has no parallel phenomenon in the emotional life of woman.
(_b_) s.e.xUAL MYSTICS.
s.e.xual mysticism is a contradiction in itself, because true mysticism has nothing whatever to do with s.e.xuality. But frequently suppressed s.e.xuality, secretly luxuriating, takes possession of the whole soul, and a religious construction is put on the results. The s.e.xually excited subject attributes religious motives to his ecstasy. I have no hesitation in a.s.serting that the majority of these ecstasies--especially in the case of women--are rooted in s.e.xuality, and that this so-called mysticism is nothing but a deviation or wrong interpretation of the s.e.xual impulse. The same thing applies to the flagellants of the declining Middle Ages, and some Protestant sects of modernity. The raptures of St. Teresa and Madame Guyon, also, belong to this category, however much the fact may be concealed by pseudo-religious conceptions.
I have no doubt that Eastern mysticism, too, grew up on a s.e.xual foundation, but (as I have done all along) I will limit my subject to the civilisation of Europe.
This counterfeit mysticism, fed from dubious sources and calling itself love of G.o.d, taints the pure intuitions of some of the genuine mystics and metaphysical erotics; they were not always able to steer clear of spurious outgrowths. (Here, too, the psychological navete of mediaeval times must to some extent be held responsible.) Conspicuous amongst these is St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who in his _Sermones in Cantic.u.m_ took the ”Song of Songs” as a base for mystically-s.e.xual imaginings.
There is nothing really new in this direction. But I will cite a few stanzas written by St. Bernard which might equally well have come from one of the amorous nuns:
TO THE SIDE-WOUND OF CHRIST.
Lord, with my mouth I touch and wors.h.i.+p Thee, With all the strength I have I cling to Thee, With all my love I plunge my heart in Thee, My very life blood would I draw from Thee, Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Draw me unto Thee!
How sweet Thy savour is! Who tastes of Thee, Oh, Jesus Christ, can relish naught but Thee!
Who tastes Thy living sweetness lives by Thee; All else is void; the soul must die for Thee, So faints my heart--so would I die for Thee!
(_Transl. by_ EMILY MARY SHAPCOTE.)
The greatest religious poet of all times after St. Bernard was Jacopone da Todi, who also, though rarely, revelled in fervid utterances. The Latin hymn, _Stabat Mater Speciosa_, ascribed to him, is spurious. I quote a translation taken from the Rosary of the B.V.M.
Other Virgins far transcending, Virgin, be not thou unbending, To thy humble suppliant's suit.
Grant me then, to thee united, By the love of Christ excited, Here to sing my jubilee.
But he is undoubtedly the author of the following stanzas:
Soaring upwards love-enkindled, Does the soul rejoice, afire In her glad triumphant flight.
Earthly cares to naught have dwindled, Love's sweet footfall's drawing nigh her To espouse his heart's delight.
All transformed and naked quite, Laughing low, with joy imbued, Pure, and like a snake renewed, Love divine will ever tend her.
But poems like the following undoubtedly originated in a truly religious and pure sentiment:
Enwrapt in love thine arms Him fast enfolding, So closely clasp Him that they loose Him never; And in thy heart His sacred image holding, Far from the path of sin thou'lt journey ever.
His death in twain shall blast thy callous heart As once the solid rock He rent apart.