In our explorations thus far, we’ve covered everything from the mythicists to the magicians. Now, I want to take a look at another “m” word - mystics. The Oxford Dictionary definition for “mystic” yields the following results:
A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.
From the earliest days of Christianity, there have always been mystics. Perhaps their lives looked different - some living amongst their peers, others in complete isolation - but their purpose was the same. These individuals sought intimate and conscious union with God through spiritual (and often supernatural) experiences. Sure, we can write off their writings and miracles as products of mental illness or mania, but before we do that let’s take a look at what these individuals were really saying and what they were really after. Below are handful of quotes and excerpts from the writings of several mystics, many of whom I’m sure you will (at least somewhat) recognize:
St. Thomas Aquinas
It is impossible for any created good to constitute man’s happiness. For happiness is that perfect good which entirely satisfies one’s desire; otherwise it would not be the ultimate end, if something yet remained to be desired. Now the object of the will, i.e., of man’s desire, is what is universally good; just as the object of the intellect is what is universally true. Hence it is evident that nothing can satisfy man’s will, except what is universally good. This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God alone, because every creature has only participated goodness. Therefore, God alone can satisfy the will of man, according to the words of the Psalms (102:5): “Who alone satisfies your desire with good things.” Therefore, God alone constitutes man’s happiness.
St. Augustine
“… the highest good is that which is discerned by the most purified minds, and … for this reason it cannot be discerned or understood by themselves, because the eye of the human mind, being weak, is dazzled in that so transcendent light, unless it be invigorated by the nourishment of the righteousness of faith. “
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
“Unknowing, or agnosia, is not ignorance or absence of knowledge as ordinarily understood, but rather the realization that no finite knowledge can fully know the Infinite One, and that therefore He is only truly to be approached by agnosia, or by that which is beyond and above knowledge.”
Meister Eckhart
“All that is to be understood or desired is still not God, but where mind and desire end, in that darkness, God shines.”
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
As a drop of water poured into wine loses itself, and takes the color and savor of wine; or as a bar of iron, heated red-hot, becomes like fire itself, forgetting its own nature; or as the air, radiant with sun-beams, seems not so much to be illuminated as to be light itself; so in the saints all human affections melt away by some unspeakable transmutation into the will of God. For how could God be all in all, if anything merely human remained in man? The substance will endure, but in another beauty, a higher power, a greater glory.
Anonymous (The Book of Privy Counseling)
I pray you: seek more to embody God than to merely have knowledge of God. For knowledge can deceive us with pride, but a meek, loving awareness will not deceive. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (I Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge leads to travail, whereas awareness leads to rest.
Thomas à Kempis
“Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts.
There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
For it teacheth them to despise the things of the earth and to love heavenly things; to disregard the world, and all the day and night to aspire after heaven.”Anonymous (The Cloud of Unknowing)
“The universes which are amenable to the intellect can never satisfy the instincts of the heart.”
“Love, not knowledge, can help us reach God.”
I chose these excerpts for a reason, as they hint at something very interesting. I began this inquiry into Christianity from a purely rational lens, and already I’m beginning to see that I’m not going to find the answers I’m looking for with that approach. The questions I’m asking are just too big, too complex and convoluted to come to any concrete findings. The mystics knew this, and operated completely from the belief that “spiritual apprehension the truths…are far beyond intellect.”
Before going any further, we must make a determination. It’s a simple question, really:
“Can truth be found beyond our intellect?”
Let’s assume intellect includes rational understanding, scientific knowledge and simple brain capacity. In this reality that we exist in, are there things that we don’t know? Are there truths we’ve yet to discover? Are there complexities we can’t yet comprehend? I think we’d all agree the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Science itself is the greatest proof of this. When Galileo first championed Copernican heliocentrism in 1615, he was met with scorn and condemnation. After all, he was completely rewriting the way people viewed the world. A similar thing is happening this very day with the advent of quantum mechanics. We’re proving to ourselves on a daily basis how little we actually know, to the point of rewriting “truths” we once believed in. I liken our understanding of reality to the ocean - we have explored so much of it, but that pales in comparison to how much remains unexplored. The truth is, we remain quite limited in our human capacities on all fronts.
So, we can agree that truth can be found beyond our intellect. Now what? How else are we to find that truth other than intellect itself? Well, our humanity has an answer for that as well. Sure, our intellectual capacities are limited, but we have been given so many more. We have the ability to feel, the ability to love and the ability to sense truth (gut-feelings). We also have the ability to sit with our consciousness and uncover truths about ourselves in silence and in darkness (meditation). These may not be as flashy as scientific theories and peer-read reviews, but who are we to say that are not as effective as reason and intellect?
For the remainder of this project, I am going to need to employ all of these faculties if I wish to uncover any real truth. The mystics knew this perhaps better than anyone, and I am going to dedicate a large portion of this project to focus on them and their works. Here I wanted to at least give you an introduction to them, but this is only a tiny sliver of a much larger subject - one that includes miracles, extreme ascetic practices, visions and prophesies. Like I said earlier, it will be easy to dismiss these things based on intellect alone, but perhaps there is more to be found using the gamut of human faculties.
I’m quite interested to see what we’ll find.
For now, let’s end with two short mystical prayers by St. Hildegard of Bingen:
O Ruby Blood
O ruby blood which flowed from on high where divinity touched, You are a flower that the winter of the serpent’s breath can never injure.
O Leafy Branch
O leafy branch, standing in your nobility as the dawn breaks forth: now rejoice and be glad and deign to set us frail ones free from evil habits and stretch forth your hand and lift us up.