The Dark Night of the SoulChapter VIII. Of other sufferings which distress the soul in this state

1. Sixth pain: inability to fix the attention on God or divine things

2. Loss of mental power. 3. Annihilation. 4. Faculties of the soul absorbed in God. 5. The light of reason dim in the light of God.

G. An analogy: natural light perceptible only when reflected by objects.

7. Marks of a purified mind. ANOTHER source of much affliction and distress to the soul in this state is that, as the dark night hinders the exercise of the faculties and affections, it cannot lift up the heart and mind to God as before, nor pray to Him. It thinks itself to be in that state described by Jeremias when he said, ‘Thou hast set a cloud before Thee, that prayer may not pass’! This is the meaning of the words quoted before *—‘He hath shut up my ways with square stones.’ * If at any time it prays, it prays with so much aridity, and without sweetness, so as to think that God neither hears nor regards it; as the prophet tells us in the same place, saying, ‘Yea, and when I shall cry, and ask, He excludeth my prayer.’ ‘And, in truth, this is not the time for the soul to speak to God, but, in the words of Jeremias, to put its ‘mouth in the the dust,’ ° suffering in patience this purgation.

2. It is God Himself Who is now working in the soul, and the soul is therefore powerless.!. Hence it comes that it cannot pray or give much attention to divine things. Neither can it attend to temporal matters, for it falls into frequent distractions, and the memory is so profoundly weakened, that many hours pass by without its knowing what it has done or thought, what it is doing or is about to do; nor can it give much heed to what it is occupied with, notwithstanding all its efforts.

3. Inasmuch, then, as not only the understanding is purified from its imperfect perceptions, and the will from its affections, but the memory, also, from all its knowledge and reflections, it is necessary that the soul should be annihilated herein, that the words of the Psalmist, when he was in this purgation, may be fulfilled: ‘I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.’? This ‘knowing not’ extends to these follies and failures of the memory. These wanderings and failures of the memory are the result of interior recollection, by which the soul is absorbed in contemplation. For in order to prepare the soul, and temper it divinely in all its powers for the divine union of love, it must, first of all, be absorbed with all its powers in the divine and dim spiritual light of contemplation, and be thus detached from all affection for, and apprehension of, created things. This continues ordinarily in proportion to the intensity of its contemplation,

4. Thus, then, the more pure and simple the divine light when it beats on the soul,' the more does it darken it, empty it, and annihilate it, as to all its apprehensions and affections, whether they regard heavenly or earthly things. And also, the less pure and simple the light, the less is the soul darkened and annihilated. It seems strange to say, that the purer and clearer the supernatural and divine light the more is it in the soul, and that it is less so when less pure.

5. But this may be easily explained; if we keep in mind the saying of the philosopher that supernatural things are more dark to the understanding the more clear and evident they are in themselves. A _ likeness taken from ordinary natural light will make this quite clear, A sunbeam coming in by the window is perceived the less distinctly the more pure and free from atoms and motes the air is, but the more of these there are, the more distinct is the beam to the eye. The reason is that we do not see light itself, but by means of it we see the objects on which it falls, and these reflecting it, the light itself becomes a visible object; had it not struck them it would itself remain invisible. Thus, if the beam entered by one window, passed through the middle of the room without encountering any object that could reflect it, no atoms nor even air, and went out by a window opposite, the room would not be lit up, neither would the

Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. ii.ch, xiv. 10, where, however, the sense has been changed by the omission of the negation: ‘.. . strikes the soul with such force,’ whereas the manuscripts have ‘. . . does not strike the soul with such force.’ beam be visible. On the contrary, if we think well of it, the line of the beam would be plunged in deeper darkness, for not only would it not be visible but it would absorb what faint light there might be, for as we suppose there are no objects whatever to reflect it.!. Thus this ray of divine contemplation, transcending as it does the natural powers, striking the soul with its divine light, makes it dark, and deprives it of all the natural affections and apprehensions which it previously entertained in its own natural light. Under these circumstances, the soul is left not only in darkness but in emptiness also, as to its powers and desires, both natural and spiritual, and in this emptiness and darkness is purified and enlightened by the divine spiritual light, but it does not

' This excellent likeness was omitted in the original edition because it had already been used in the Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. ii. ch. xiv. 8.

Y para que mas claro se entienda, pondremos aqui una semejanza de la luz natural y como. Vemos que en el rayo del sol, que entra por la ventana, cuanto mas pure y limpio es de atoms, tanto menos claramente se ve, y cuanto mas de atoms y motas tiene el aire, tanto mas claro parece al ojo. La causa es, porque la luz no es la que se ve por si misma, si no el medio con que se ven las demas cosas que embiste. Y entonces ella, por la reverberacion que hace en ellas, también se ve, y si no diese en ellas, ni ella se veria. De tal manera que si el rayo del sol entrase por la ventana de un aposento, y pasase por otra de la otra parte, por medio del aposento, come no topase en alguna cosa, ni hubiese en él aire, ni atoms en que reverberase, no tendria cl aposento mas luz que antes, ni el rayo se echaria de ver; antes, si bien se mirase, entonces hay mas obscuridad, por donde esta el rayo, porque priva y obscurece a la de la otra luz, y él no se ve, porque come habemos dicho, no hay objetos visibles en que pueda reverberar, Pues ni mas in menos hace este divine rayo de contemplación en el alma, que embistiendo en ella con su lumbre divine excede el natural del alma. imagine that it has it; yea, rather, it thinks itself to be in darkness, as we have said of the sunbeam which, though passing through the middle of a room, cannot be seen if the air is quite pure and there are no objects on which it may fall.

6. However, the spiritual light falling on the soul if there is anything to reflect it,! that is, upon any matter, however small, of perfection, which presents itself to. the understanding or a decision to be made as to the truth or falsehood of anything, the soul sees it at once, and understands the matter more clearly than it ever did before it entered into this darkness. In the same way the soul discerns the spiritual light which is given it that it may easily recognise its own imperfection; thus, the ray of light in a room, which we said was of itself not so visible,? but when the hand or any other object is held before it, the hand is seen forthwith, and the light of the sun is known to be there.

7. Then, because this spiritual light is so clear, pure, and diffused, neither confined to, nor specially related to, any particular matter of the understanding, natural or divine,⁸ seeing that with respect to all such matters

1... come habemos dicho del rayo, que, aunque esta en medio del aposento, si esta pure y no tiene en qué topar, no se ve. Pero con esta luz spiritual de que esta embestida el alma, cuando tiene en qué reverberar, esto to es cuando se ofrece alguna cosa que en tender spiritual de perfección, por minimo atoms que sea, etc. exist—the soul in great ease and freedom discerns and searches into everything high or low, that is presented to it; and for that reason the Apostle said, ‘The Spirit searcheth all things, even the profundities of God;’! for it is of this pure and diffused wisdom that we are to understand that which the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of the wise man, ‘Wisdom reacheth everywhere by reason of her clearness ;’° that is, because not connected with any particular object of the understanding or affection. The characteristic of a mind purified and annihilated as to all particular objects of affection and of the understanding, is to have no pleasure in, or knowledge of, anything in particular; to abide in emptiness and darkness; to embrace all things in its grand comprehensiveness, that it may fulfil mystically the words of the Apostle, ‘having nothing and possessing all things,’ * for such poverty of spirit merits such a blessing,

1 7 Cor. ii. to. 2 Wisd, vil. 24. 3 2 Cor, vi. 10,