St. Teresa of Avila was a 16th Century Carmelite nun and contemporary of St. John of the Cross. Her most famous works are her Autobiography, The Way of Perfection, and Interior Castle. In this series, I’d like to look at some quotations from Interior Castle.
This first excerpt is from the Introduction to the DoverThrift edition, written by Allison Peers. In the Introduction, Peers gives on overview of the Seven Mansions of Teresa’s Interior Castle:
“In its language and style, the Interior Castle is more correct, and yet at the same time more natural and flexible, than the Way of Perfection. Its conception, like that of so many works of genius, is extremely simple. After a brief preface, the author comes at once to her subject:
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.
These mansions are not “arranged in a row one behind another” but variously – “some above, others below, others at each side; and in the centre and midst of them all is the chiefest mansion, where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.”
The figure is used to describe the whole course of the mystical life – the soul’s progress from the First Mansions to the Seventh and its transformation from an imperfect and sinful creature into the Bride of the Spiritual Marriage. The door by which it first enters the castle is prayer and meditation. Once inside, “it must be allowed to roam through these mansions” and “not be compelled to remain for a long time in one single room.” But it must also cultivate self-knowledge and “begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms. For that is the way to progress.”
How St. Teresa applies the figure of the castle to the life of prayer (which is also the life of virtue – with her these two things go together) may best be shown by describing each of the seven stages in turn.
First Mansions: This chapter begins with a meditation on the excellence and dignity of the human soul, made as it is in the image and likeness of God: the author laments that more pains are not taken to perfect it. The souls in the First Mansions are in a state of grace, but are still very much in love with the venomous creatures outside the castle – that is, with occasions of sin – and need a long and searching discipline before they can make any progress. So they stay for a long time in the Mansions of Humility, in which, since the heat and light from within reach them only in a faint and diffused form, all is cold a dim.
Second Mansions: But all the time the soul is anxious to penetrate farther into the castle, so it seeks every opportunity of advancement – sermons, edifying conversations, good company and so on. It is doing its utmost to put its desires into practice: these are the Mansions of the Practice of Prayer. It is not yet completely secure from the attacks of the poisonous reptiles which infest the courtyard of the castle, but its powers of resistance are increasing. There is more warmth and light here than in the First Mansions.
Third Mansions: The description of these Mansions of Exemplary Life begins with stern exhortations on the dangers of trusting to one’s own strength and to the virtues one has already acquired, which must still of necessity be very weak. Yet, although the soul which reaches the Third Mansions may still fall back, it has attained a high standard of virtue. Controlled by discipline and penance and disposed to performing acts of charity toward others, it has acquired prudence and discretion and orders its life well. Its limitations are those of vision: it has not yet experienced to the full the inspiring force of love. It has not made a full self-oblation, a total self-surrender. Its love is still governed by reason, and so its progress is slow. It suffers from aridity, and is given only occasional glimpses into the Mansions beyond.
Fourth Mansions: Here the supernatural element of the mystical life first enters: that is to say, it is no longer by its own efforts that the soul is acquiring what it gains. Henceforward the soul’s part will become increasingly less and God’s part increasingly greater. The graces of the Fourth Mansions, referred to as “spiritual consolations,” are identified with the Prayer of Quiet or the Second Water, in the Life. The soul is like a fountain built near its source and the water of life flows into it, not through an aqueduct, but directly from the spring. Its love is now free from servile fear: it has broken all the bonds which previously hindered its progress; it shrinks from no trials and attaches no importance to anything to do with the world. It can pass rapidly from ordinary to infused prayer and back again. It has not yet, however, received the highest gifts of the Spirit and relapses are still possible.
Fifth Mansions: This is the state described elsewhere as the Third Water, the Spiritual Betrothal, and the Prayer of Union – that is, incipient Union. It marks a new degree of infused contemplation and a very high one. By means of the most celebrated of all her metaphors, that of the silkworm, St. Teresa explains how far the soul can prepare itself to receive what is essentially a gift from God. She also describes the psychological conditions of this state, in which, for the first time, the faculties of the soul are “asleep.” It is of short duration, but, while it lasts, the soul is completely possessed by God.
Sixth Mansions: In the Fifth Mansions the soul is, as it were, betrothed to its future Spouse; in the Sixth, Lover and Beloved see each other for long periods at a time, and as they grow in intimacy the soul receives increasing favours, together with increasing afflictions. The afflictions which give the description of these Mansions its characteristic colour are dealt with in some detail. They may be purely exterior – bodily sickness; misrepresentation, backbiting and persecution; undeserved praise; inexperienced, timid or overscrupulus spiritual direction. Or they may come partly or wholly from within – and the depression which can afflict the soul in the Sixth Mansion, says St. Teresa, is comparable only with the tortures of hell. Yet it has no desire to be freed from them except by entering the innermost Mansions of all.
Seventh Mansions: Here at last the soul reaches the Spiritual Marriage. Here dwells the King – “it may be called another Heaven”: the two lighted candles join and become one; the falling rain becomes merged in the river. There is complete transformation, ineffable and perfect peace; no higher state is conceivable, save that of the Beatific Vision in the life to come.
While each of these seven Mansions is described with the greatest possible clarity, St. Teresa makes it quite plain that she does not regard her description as excluding others. Each of the series of moradas may contain as many as a million rooms; all matters connected with spiritual progress are susceptible of numerous interpretations, for the grace of God knows no limit or measure. Her description is based largely on her own experience; and, though this has been found to correspond very nearly with that of most other great mystics, there are various divergences on points of detail. She never for a moment intended her path to be followed undeviatingly and step by step, and of this she is careful frequently to remind us.”