The Interior Castle: Saint Teresa of Ávila (week 2)

The Interior Castle (1577) was written by Teresa of Ávila as a guide for spiritual development. According to contemporary accounts, she was graced with a revelation from God of a crystal globe in the shape of a castle. She explains in her preface, "I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions." She wished that everyone could behold this vision, for she thought that no one having seen the beauty and splendor of grace would ever deign to offend and turn from God. Her writing is her interpretation of that vision, describing the soul's quest and mystical journey of faith through seven mansions or stages to establish communion with God.

Teresa lived in a culture dominated by Catholic orthodoxy rigidly enforced by the Inquisition. She carefully crafted her writings to ensure that she did not provoke the authorities, by extending the humility derived from her vision, such as admitting her own lack of intelligence, referencing herself as an anonymous third person, and enlightening the reader using metaphors and similes.

Notwithstanding its mystic nature, The Interior Castle is also a treasury of unforgettable maxims on such ascetic themes as self-knowledge, humility, detachment, and suffering. It is one of the most celebrated books on theology and mysticism.

Week 1: First through Fifth Mansions

Week 2: Sixth and Seventh Mansions

The Interior Castle:

• Google books

• Sacred Texts

• Librivox 7h10m

Supplemental:

• Hermitix podcast

Extracts:

• "Do seraphim shed balm / At last on all of earnest mind, / Unworldly yearners, nor the palm / Awarded St. Teresa, ban / To Leopardi, Obermann?" (Clarel, 3.1)

• "My face begetteth superstition: / In dungeons of Spain's Inquisition / Thrice languished I for sorcery, / An Elymas." (Clarel, 3.19)

• "Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella’s Inquisition wanes in Lima." (Moby-Dick, 54)

• "...and just so I'd smile were I now hung up in the deepest dungeon of the Spanish Inquisition, Pierre; though suspended in outer darkness, still would I smile with this smile, though then not a soul should be near." (Pierre, 4.5)

• "In Piranesi’s rarer prints, / Interiors measurelessly strange, / Where the distrustful thought may range / Misgiving still—what mean the hints? / Stairs upon stairs which dim ascend / In series from plunged Bastiles drear— / Pit under pit; long tier on tier / Of shadowed galleries which impend / Over cloisters, cloisters without end; / The hight, the depth—the far, the near; / Ring-bolts to pillars in vaulted lanes, / And dragging Rhadamanthine chains; / These less of wizard influence lend / Than some allusive chambers closed." (Clarel, 2.35)

• "And thus, three times three, you worm round and round, the twilight lessening as you proceed; until at last, you enter the citadel itself: the innermost arbor of a nest; whereof, each has its roof, distinct from the rest." (Mardi, 1.79)

• "By the incomprehensible stranger in me, I say, this body of mine has been rented out scores of times, though always one dark chamber in me is retained by the old mystery." (Mardi, 2.39)

• "Yes, these eyes are windows, and this body of mine is the house. What a pity they didn't stop up the chinks and the crannies though, and thrust in a little lint here and there. But it's too late to make any improvements now." (Moby-Dick, 2)

• "For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life." (Moby-Dick, 58)

• "...the secret inner chamber and sanctum sanctorum of the whale.... How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato's honey head, and sweetly perished there?" (Moby-Dick, 78)

This meetup is part of a series on The Crescent and the Cross.