PART I

NEW FORMS OF MYSTICISM

"Quench not the Spirit."

What if the o'erturned altar
Lays bare the ancient lie?
What if the dreams and legends
Of the world's childhood die?

The world will have its idols,
And flesh and sense their sign;
But the blinded eyes shall open
And the gross ear be fine.

What if the vision tarry?

God's time is always best;

The true Light shall be witnessed,

The Christ within confessed.

-John G. Whittier: "The Vision of Echard."

CHAPTER I

THE MYSTIC WAY AND ITS MODERN EQUIVALENTS

In order to understand the relation of mysticism to modern life we should first seek to gain its attitude toward life itself. This can hardly be better done than through one of its most characteristic conceptions, the Mystic Way. The mystical life, according to the established conception, has definite stages or periods of development. They cannot always be detached from each other, nor do they always come in the same order; yet they are, on the whole, readily distinguished.

I

There are four more or less distinct stages of progress in the Mystic Way: Awakening, Purification (Purgation), Illumination, Unification. The first and second of these stages are sometimes treated as one. Thus the author of the Theologia Germanica writes: "Now be assured that no one can be enlightened unless he

be first cleansed or purified, and stripped. So also no one can be united with God unless he be first enlightened. Thus there are three stages: First, the purification; secondly, the enlightening; thirdly, the union.”

The mystic awakening of the soul is, as the term indicates, a sometimes sudden, sometimes gradual opening of the inner eye of the soul to a transcendent reality. The manner of this awakening, the exact form in which this new experience presents itself, is as varied as are the individuals who experience it. To Paul it was a blinding revelation of Jesus. To Augustine it was a complete break with a pagan and sensual life, and a self-dedication to the new life in Christ. To Dante it was a revelation of heavenly beauty, the dawn of love. To Saint Francis it was a call of Christ and an espousal of Lady Poverty for his sake. To Catherine of Siena and to Madame Guyon it was a "wound of love." To Henry Suso it was a call of the Eternal Wisdom.

The new life brings with it a certain summons to action, to self-discipline, a process of bringing the self into harmony with this newly learned Reality. This is what is known as Purgation, or the Purgative Way. It is the principle of Detachment found in the Bhagavad Gita. The self must be purged of its selfish