On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Apparently our souls are crystallizations, as it were, out of an undifferentiated psychic ocean. So our personalities are formed, which we must keep inviolate. To melt back, though but for a time, into that ocean would be to surrender our heritage and to incur great loss. This is the objection to mere psychic trances. But some have been called on to advance by the intensification of their spiritual powers until they have for a moment reached a very different Ocean, which, with its fervent heat, has burst the hard outer case of their finite selfhood, and so they have been merged in that Vast Sea of Uncreated Light which has brought them no loss but only gain.
Just as in early days some had special gifts of prophecy through the power of the Holy Ghost, but some through the power of Satan, and the test lay in the manifested results,1 so in the present instance. We cannot doubt that the experience is true and valid when we see its glory shining forth in the humble Saints of God.
To illustrate this experience fully from the writings of the Saints would need a volume to itself. Let us take a very few examples from one or two writers of unquestioned orthodoxy.
And first, for the theory of personality implied in it we may turn to Pascal, whose teaching amounts to very much the same thing as that of Dionysius. “Le moi,” he says, “est hatssable.... En un mot, le Moi a deux qualités: il est injuste en sot, en ce qu'il se fait centre du tout, il est incommode aux autres, en ce qu'il les veut asservir: car chaque Mot est Pennemt et voudrait étre le tyran de tous les autres.” Thus a self-centred Moi, or Personality, is wrong inherently and not only in its results. And it is inherently wrong because a personality has no right to be the centre of things. From this we may conclude (1) that God, as being the rightful Centre of all things, is not a Moi, or Personality ; and (2) that the transcendence of our Moi, or Personality, is our highest duty. What, then, is the goal to which this transcendence will lead us? Pascal has a clear-cut answer: “Il n'y a que l'Etre universel qui soit tel... .
Tr Cor: xi. 1-3; John iv. 123.
Our souls, it seems, are crystallizations, as it were, out of an undifferentiated psychic ocean. So our personalities are formed, and we must keep them inviolate. To melt back into that ocean, even for a time, would be to surrender our heritage and to incur great loss. This is the objection to mere psychic trances. But some have been called to advance by intensifying their spiritual powers until for a moment they have reached a very different Ocean, which with its fervent heat has burst the hard outer case of their finite selfhood; and so they have been merged in that Vast Sea of Uncreated Light, which has brought them no loss but only gain.
Just as in early days some had special gifts of prophecy through the power of the Holy Ghost, but some through the power of Satan, and the test lay in the manifested results,1 so it is in the present case. We cannot doubt that the experience is true and valid when we see its glory shining forth in the humble Saints of God.
To illustrate this experience fully from the writings of the Saints would need a volume of its own. Let us take just a few examples from one or two writers of unquestioned orthodoxy.
First, for the theory of personality implied in it we may turn to Pascal, whose teaching amounts to very much the same thing as that of Dionysius. “The Ego,” he says, “is hateful.... In a word, the Ego has two qualities: it is unjust in itself, in that it makes itself the centre of everything; it is troublesome to others, in that it wishes to enslave them: for each Ego is the enemy of all the others and would like to be their tyrant.”
Thus a self-centred Ego (Moi), or Personality, is wrong inherently, and not only in its results. And it is inherently wrong because a personality has no right to be the centre of things. From this we may conclude (1) that God, as the rightful Centre of all things, is not an Ego, or Personality; and (2) that the transcendence of our Ego, or Personality, is our highest duty. What, then, is the goal to which this transcendence will lead us? Pascal has a clear-cut answer: “Only the universal Being is such... .
1 1 Cor. xi. 1-3; John iv. 123.