Ascent of Mount Carmel
Ascent of Mount Carmel is a 16th-century spiritual treatise by Spanish Catholic mystic and poet Saint John of the Cross. The book is a systematic treatment of the ascetical life in pursuit of mystical union with Christ, giving advice and reporting on his own experience. Alongside another connected work by John, entitled The Dark Night, it details the so-called Dark Night of the Soul, when the individual Soul undergoes earthly and spiritual privations in search of union with God. These two works, together with John's The Living Flame of Love and the Spiritual Canticle, are regarded as some of the greatest works both in Christian mysticism and in the Spanish language.
Written between 1578 and 1579 in Granada, Spain, after his escape from prison, the Ascent is illustrated by a diagram of the process outlined in the text of the Soul's progress to the summit of the metaphorical Mount Carmel where God is encountered. The work is divided into three sections and is set out as a commentary on four poetic stanzas by John on the subject of the Dark Night. John shows how the Soul sets out to leave all worldly ties and appetites behind to achieve "nothing less than transformation in God".
Text of ''Dark Night of the Soul''
Considered to be his introductory work on mystical theology, this work begins with an allegorical poem, Dark Night of the Soul.The rest of the text begins as a detailed explanation and interpretation of the poem, but after explaining the first five lines, John thereafter ignores the poem, and writes a straightforward treatise on the two 'active nights' of the soul.The poem is as follows:
| Translated text | Original Spanish text |
In a dark night With longings kindled in love oh blessed chance I went forth without being observed My house already being at rest Through darkness and secure By the secret ladder disguised oh blessed chance Through darkness and in concealment My house already being at rest In the blessed night In secret that none saw me Nor I beheld aught Without any other light or guide Save that which was burning in the heart That which guided me More sure than the light of noonday Where he was awaiting me Him whom I knew well In a place where no one appeared Oh thou night that guided Oh lovely night moreso than the dawn Oh thou night that joined Lover with beloved Beloved in the lover transformed Upon my flowery breast Which I kept whole for himself alone There he stayed sleeping and I was caressing him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze The breeze from the turret While I was parting his locks With his gentle hand He was wounding my neck And causing all my senses to be suspended I remained myself and forgot myself My face reclined on the lover All ceased and I abandoned myself Leaving my concern forgotten among the lilies. | En una noche oscura con ansias en amores inflamada, ¡oh dichosa ventura!, salí sin ser notada estando ya mi casa sosegada A oscuras y segura por la secreta escala, disfrazada, ¡oh dichosa ventura!, a oscuras y en celada, estando ya mi casa sosegada. En la noche dichosa, en secreto que nadie me veía ni yo miraba cosa sin otra luz y guía sino la que en el corazón ardía. Aquesta me guiaba más cierto que la luz de mediodía adonde me esperaba quien yo bien me sabía en parte donde nadie parecía. ¡Oh noche, que guiaste! ¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada! ¡Oh noche que juntaste amado con amada, amada en el amado transformada! En mi pecho florido, que entero para él solo se guardaba allí quedó dormido y yo le regalaba y el ventalle de cedros aire daba. El aire de la almena cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía con su mano serena en mi cuello hería y todos mis sentidos suspendía. Quedéme y olvidéme; el rostro recliné sobre el amado; cesó todo, y dejéme dejando mi cuidado entre las azucenas olvidado. |
Influence
John's spiritual method of inner purgation along the 'negative way' was an enormous influence on T. S. Eliot when he came to write the Four Quartets. John's poem contains these famous lines of self-abnegation leading to spiritual rebirth:To reach satisfaction in all
desire its possession in nothing.
To come to possession in all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to the pleasure you have not
you must go by the way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not
you must go by the way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
you must go by the way in which you possess not.
To come by the what you are not
you must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something
you cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For to go from all to the all
you must deny yourself of all in all.
And when you come to the possession of the all
you must possess it without wanting anything.
Because if you desire to have something in all
your treasure in God is not purely your all.