The Interior Castle

REATS OF SEVERAL WAYS WHEREBY OUR LORD QUICKENS THE SOUL; THERE
APPEARS NO CAUSE FOR ALARM IN THEM ALTHOUGH THEY ARE SIGNAL FAVOURS OF
A VERY EXALTED NATURE.

1. Our Lord excites the love of His spouse. 2. The wound of love. 3.
The pain it causes. 4. The call of the Bridegroom. 5. Effect on the
soul. 6. A spark of the fire of love. 7. The spark dies out. 8. This
grace evidently divine. 9. One such wound repays many trials. 10. First
reason of immunity from deception. 11. Second and third reasons. 12.
The imagination not concerned in it. 13. St. Teresa never alarmed at
this prayer. 14. The odour of Thine ointment.' 15. No reason to fear
deception here.

1. IT seems as if we had deserted the little dove for a long time, but
this is not the case, for these past trials cause her to take a far
higher flight. I will now describe the way in which the Spouse treats
her before uniting her entirely to Himself. He increases her longing
for Him by devices so delicate that the soul itself cannot discern
them; nor do I think I could explain them except to people who have
personally experienced them. These desires are delicate and subtle
impulses springing from the inmost depths of the soul; I know of
nothing to which they can be compared.

2. These graces differ entirely from anything we ourselves can gain,
and even from the spiritual consolation before described. [228] In
the present case, even when the mind is not recollected or even
thinking of God, although no sound is heard, His Majesty arouses it
suddenly as if by a swiftly flashing comet or by a clap of thunder.
[229] Yet the soul thus called by God hears Him well enough--so well,
indeed, that sometimes, especially at first, it trembles and even cries
out, although it feels no pain. It is conscious of having received a
delicious wound but cannot discover how, nor who gave it, yet
recognizes it as a most precious grace and hopes the hurt will never
heal.

3. The soul makes amorous complaints to its Bridegroom, even uttering
them aloud; nor can it control itself, knowing that though He is
present He will not manifest Himself so that it may enjoy Him. This
causes a pain, keen although sweet and delicious from which the soul
could not escape even if it wished; but this it never desires. [230]
This favour is more delightful than the pleasing absorption of the
faculties in the prayer of quiet which is unaccompanied by suffering.
[231]

4. I am at my wits' end, sisters, as to how to make you understand this
operation of love: I know not how to do so. It seems contradictory to
say that the Beloved clearly shows He dwells in the soul and calls by
so unmistakable a sign and a summons so penetrating, that the spirit
cannot choose but hear it, while He appears to reside in the seventh
mansion. He speaks in this manner, which is not a set form of speech,
and the inhabitants of the other mansions, the senses, the imagination
and the faculties, dare not stir. [232]

5. O Almighty God! how profound are Thy secrets and how different are
spiritual matters from anything that can be seen or heard in this
world! I can find nothing to which to liken these graces, insignificant
as they are compared with many others Thou dost bestow on souls. This
favour acts so strongly upon the spirit that it is consumed by desires
yet knows not what to ask, for it realizes clearly that its God is with
it. You may inquire, if it realizes this so clearly, what more does it
desire and why is it pained? What greater good can it seek? I cannot
tell: I know that this suffering seems to pierce the very heart, and
when He Who wounded it draws out the dart He seems to draw the heart
out too, so deep is the love it feels. [233]

6. I have been thinking that God might be likened to a burning furnace
[234] from which a small spark flies into the soul that feels the
heat of this great fire, which, however, is insufficient to consume it.
The sensation is so delightful that the spirit lingers in the pain
produced by its contact. This seems to me the best comparison I can
find, for the pain is delicious and is not really pain at all, nor does
it always continue in the same degree; sometimes it lasts for a long
time; on other occasions it passes quickly. This is as God chooses, for
no human means can obtain it; and though felt at times for a long
while, yet it is intermittent.

7. In fact it is never permanent and therefore does not wholly inflame
the spirit; but when the soul is ready to take fire, the little spark
suddenly dies out, leaving the heart longing to suffer anew its loving
pangs. No grounds exist for thinking this comes from any natural cause
or from melancholy, or that it is an illusion of the devil or the
imagination. Undoubtedly this movement of the heart comes from God Who
is unchangeable; nor do its effects is resemble those of other
devotions in which the strong absorption of delight makes us doubt
their reality.

8. There is no suspension here of the senses or other faculties: they
wonder at what is happening, without impeding it. Nor do I think that
they can either increase or dispel this delightful pain. Any one who
has received this favour from our Lord will understand my meaning on
reading this: let her thank Him fervently: there is no need to fear
deception but far more fear of not being sufficiently grateful for so
signal a grace. Let her endeavour to serve Him and to amend her life in
every respect; then she will see what will follow and how she will
obtain still higher and higher gifts.

9. A person on whom this grace was bestowed passed several years
without receiving any other favour, yet was perfectly satisfied, for
even had she served God for very many years in the midst of severe
trials, she would have felt abundantly repaid. May He be for ever
blessed! Amen.

10. Perhaps you wonder why we may feel more secure against deception
concerning this favour than in other cases. I think it is for these
reasons. Firstly, because the devil cannot give such delicious pain: he
may cause pleasure or delight which appears spiritual but is unable to
add suffering, especially suffering of so keen a sort, united to peace
and joy of soul. His power is limited to what is external; suffering
produced by him is never accompanied with peace, but with anxieties and
struggles.

11. Secondly, because this welcome storm comes from no region over
which Satan has control. Thirdly, because of the great benefits left in
the soul which, as a rule, is resolute to suffer for God and longs to
bear many crosses. It is also far more determined than before to
withdraw from worldly pleasures and intercourse and other things of the
same sort.

12. It is very clear that this is no fiction: the imagination may
counterfeit some favours but not this, which is too manifest to leave
room for doubt. Should any one still remain uncertain, let her know
that hers were not genuine impulses; [235] that is, if she is dubious
as to whether or no she experienced them, for they are as certainly
perceived by the soul as is a loud voice by the ears. It is impossible
for these experiences to proceed from melancholy whose whims arise and
exist only in the imagination, whereas this emotion comes from the
interior of the soul.

13. I may be mistaken, but I shall not change my opinion until I hear
reasons to the contrary from those who understand these matters. I know
some one who has always greatly dreaded such deceptions, yet could
never bring herself to feel any alarm about this state of prayer. [236]

14. Our Lord also uses other means of rousing the soul; for
instance--when reciting vocal prayer without seeking to penetrate the
sense, a person may be seized with a delightful fervour [237] as if
suddenly encompassed with a fragrance powerful enough to diffuse itself
through all the senses. I do not assert that there really is any
perfume but use this comparison because it somewhat resembles the
manner by which the Spouse makes His presence understood, moving the
soul to a delicious desire of enjoying Him and thus disposing it to
heroic acts, and causing it to render Him fervent praise.

15. This favour springs from the same source as the former, but causes
no suffering here, nor are the soul's longings to enjoy God painful:
this is what is more usually experienced by the soul. For the reasons
already given there appears no cause here for fear, but rather for
receiving it with thanksgiving.
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[228] Mansion iv. ch. i. Life, ch. xxix. 10-15. Rel. ch. viii. 15.

[229] The saint first wrote relampago,' flash of lightning, but
afterwards altered it to 'trueno,' clap of thunder.

[230] Rel. viii. 16. St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Cant. st. i. 22
sqq. Poems 7, 8.

[231] Life, ch. xxix. 18.

[232] Life, ch. xv. 1.

[233] Ibid. ch. xxix. 17, 18.

[234] Ibid. ch. xv, 6; xviii. 4.; xxi. 9.

[235] Life, ch. xv. 15, 16.

[236] Life, ch. xxix. 6-10.

[237] Ibid. ch. xv. 12. On the matter treated by St. Teresa in this
chapter, compare St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza i.
(circa finem), stanza ix.; The Living Flame of Love, stanza ii.
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

BY THE EDITOR

THE readers, especially those not well acquainted with Scholastic
philosophy, will, perhaps, be glad to find here a short explanation of
the various kinds. of Vision and Locution, Corporal, Imaginary, and
Intellectual. The senses of Taste, Touch, and Smell are not so often
affected by mystical phenomena, but what we are about to say in respect
of Sight and Hearing applies, mutatis mutandis, to these also.

1. A CORPORAL VISION is when one sees a bodily object. A Corporal
Locution is when one hears words uttered by a human tongue. In both
cases the respective senses are exercising their normal function, and
the phenomenon differs from ordinary seeing or hearing merely by the
fact that in the latter the object seen is a real body, the words
perceived come from a real tongue, whereas in the Vision or Locution
the object is either only apparent or at any rate is not such as it
seems to be. Thus, when young Tobias set out on a journey, his
companion, Azarias, was not a real human being, but an archangel in
human form. Tobias did really see and hear him, and felt the grip of
his hand; Sara and her parents, as well as Tobias's parents, saw and
heard him too, but all the time the archangel made himself visible and
audible by means of an assumed body, or perhaps of an apparent body. It
would be more correct to describe such a phenomenon as an APPARITION
than as a Vision, and in fact the apparitions of our Risen Lord to the
holy women and the apostles belong to this category. For, though His
was a real body, it was glorified and therefore no longer subject to
the same laws which govern purely human things. (St. Thomas, Summa
theol. III., qu. 54, art. I-3).

St. Teresa tells us more than once that she never beheld a Corporal
Vision, nor heard a Corporal Locution.

II. AN IMAGINARY VISION OR LOCUTION is one where nothing is seen or
heard by the senses of seeing or hearing, but where the same impression
is received that would be produced upon the imagination by the senses
if some real object were perceived by them. For, according to the
Scholastics, the Imagination stands half-way between the senses and the
intellect, receiving impressions from the former and transmitting them
to the latter. This is the reason why imaginary Visions and Locutions
are so dangerous that, according to St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross,
and other spiritual writers, they should not only never be sought for,
but as much as possible shunned and under all circumstances
discountenanced. For the Imagination is closely connected with the
Memory, so that it is frequently impossible to ascertain whether a
Vision, etc., is not perhaps a semi-conscious or unconscious
reproduction of scenes witnessed. It is here also that deception,
wilful or unwilful, self-deception or deception by a higher agency, is
to be feared. Hence the general rule that such Visions or Locutions
should only be trusted upon the strongest grounds. According to St.
Thomas Aquinas, (Summa theol. IIa IIæ, gu. 175, art. 3 ad q.) the
visions of Isaias, St. John in the Apocalypse etc., were Imaginary.

As an example of Imaginary Visions we may mention St. Stephen, who saw
the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of
God'; or St. Peter, who saw the heaven opened, and a certain vessel
descending, as it were a great linen sheet, let down by the four
corners from heaven to the earth . . . and there came a voice to him:
Arise, Peter, kill and eat.' (Acts, vii. 55; X. 11-13).

These Visions, Locutions, etc., are not hallucinations. The latter are
due to physical disorder which affects the memory and causes it to
represent impressions formerly received by it, in a disorderly and
often grotesque manner. The Imaginary Vision takes place independently
of a morbid state, is caused by an extraneous power, good or evil, and
has for its object things of which the memory neither has nor ever has
had cognizance.

III. AN INTELLECTUAL VISION OR LOCUTION is one where nothing is seen or
heard by the eyes and ears, and where no sensation is received by the
imagination. But the impression which would be delivered by the
imagination to the intellect, had it come through the senses and been
handed on to the imagination, is directly imprinted upon the intellect.
To understand this it is necessary to bear in mind that the impressions
we receive through the senses must undergo a transformation--must be
spiritualized--before they reach the intellect. This is one of the most
difficult problems of psychology; none of the solutions offered by
various schools of philosophy seem to render it entirely free from
obscurity. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the impression received by
the eye (Species sensibilis) is spiritualized by a faculty called
Intellectus agens by means of abstraction (Species impressa), and is
treasured up in the memory, like lantern slides, available at demand.
The mind, identifying itself with the Species impressa, produces the
Word of the mind' (Verbum mentis), wherein consists the act of
Understanding or Mental Conception. In the Intellectual Vision or
Locution, God, without co-operation on the part of the senses, the
imagination, or the memory, produces directly on the mind the Species
impressa. As this is supernatural with regard to its origin, and often
also with respect to its object, it stands to reason that it is too
exalted for the memory to receive it, so that such Visions and
Locutions are frequently only imperfectly remembered and sometimes
altogether forgotten, as St. Teresa tells us. On the other hand they
are far less dangerous than Corporal or Imaginary Visions and
Locutions, because the senses and imagination have nothing to do with
them, whilst evil spirits are unable to act directly upon the mind, and
self-deception is altogether excluded for the reasons stated by St.
Teresa. An instance of such a vision is mentioned by St. Paul: I know a
man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not,
or out of the body I know not: God knoweth), such an one rapt even to
the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of
the body, I know not: God knoweth): that he was caught up into
paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to
utter' (2 Cor. xii. 2-4).
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