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CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM by Arthur Swan

The choice of title for this lecture was certainly not intended to imply that Christianity has had any monopoly of Mysticism. Indeed, Mysticism has occurred world-wide since before Christianity even officially began, sometimes without the apparent help of a religious organisation, or even or a place of public worship.             Before embarking on a detailed discussion of Mysticism, it is necessary to explain what Mysticism is not. In many minds, the word Mystic is considered to be synonymous with Occult, but we must make a sharp distinction. There is a small irony here, as the word Occult comes from the Latin, and Mystic comes from the Greek, and in those original languages, those original words did each have the same meaning as one another, but, with the complexity of modern life, these two words have, as it were, drifted to opposite ends of the spectrum. Today, the word Occult covers many activities outside our usual everyday duties. Such activities often need some training or study, and the motives which attract people to them range through attributes like curiosity, greed for money or notoriety, and other more obscure aims, all of which aims are more or less selfish and have therefore to be labelled worldly or material.           

With Mysticism, on the other hand, the aspirant needs no study or training and need not even have any education, while his motives, if any, are certainly not selfish in any worldly sense – his desire is only that of the Prodigal Son yearning to return to the house of his Father. Therefore, we may summarise the difference between Occult and Mystic that Occultism is an Outward path, while Mysticism is the Inward path.            Having declared what Mysticism is not, we now come to the challenging task of describing what Mysticism is. One is here reminded of what scholars have said of attempts to define God – that whatever statement is made, that statement will be so far short of the complete truth as to deserve the label ‘untrue’.            Therefore, being fully conscious of the hazards of our undertaking and of our own limitations, an attempt can still be made to formulate certain conclusions which may be helpful.

For a start, Theosophy teaches that the human person comprises seven principles – three material ones in varying degrees of density and three non-material in varying degrees of spirituality. Between these two sets of three is the human link, which bestrides the dividing line, so that each of us has three and one-half principles earth-bound and three and one-half principles which came from the house of the Father and are destined ultimately to return there. There is full Biblical sanction for this, as the three and one-half is referred to enigmatically in both the Old and New Testaments.           

However, the human being is not yet able to function on all seven principles, and this is especially so under the pressures of the modern world, so there come times when we are, in the words of Jesus ‘weak and heavy laden’. Where does one turn? Jesus did say that if we came to him, he would give us rest, but he is not among us now, as a person, and there is no holy shrine to which we can journey to obtain the help we need. This brings us to a salutary lesson which every seeker must take to heart. We all recognise that, on the material plane, pain is a blessing, in that one is made aware that some part of our body needs attention or protection, so it is with the other trials of life – they teach us that it is our birthright to seek help and that the only path is inward. On this inward path, the Mystic Path, the seeker attempts to tap the resources of our three spiritual principles. Just as we are all different from one another in material endowment, so we are all at different stages on the Mystic Path, but, as a general statement, it is probably fair to say that most of us have not graduated very far up through the lowest of the spiritual principles – what in Sanskrit is called ‘Manas’ or ‘Mind’. There is a veil, apparently of our own making, caused by our too-close preoccupation with material interests, which screens us from contact with our two highest principles, and it is drawing aside this veil which is the ultimate purpose of true yoga.           

Individuals who have achieved this have difficulty in finding words adequate to describe the experience, so our own attempt at description is likely to be even less adequate, but if there is one theme which emerges from such testimonies, it is that of a great peace – no doubt ‘the peace that passeth all understanding’ mentioned in the Bible. Gone are the tensions which previously beset them, as they no longer feel alone and vulnerable in this turbulent material world. For us ordinary mortals, even the simple knowledge that certain people have been blessed in this way will lift our spirits. There is no need for one to travel to some distant holy city, nor even to a local place of public worship, each of us has at the very core of his own being that spark of divinity which will abundantly bless us.           

Actually, mystics have indeed left certain guidelines for the sincere seeker. There are, it seems three stages, the first of which is Purgation. As the word denotes, this means the cleansing of the channels needed for progress on the Mystic Path. The veil mentioned earlier is not a material thing, it comprises the many unworthy thoughts and selfish desires which usually inhabit the mortal mind. One is reminded here of the Noble Path of Buddhism. This may cause one a period of considerable doubt, if any long-cherished ideas need to be discarded, and we find an enactment of this in the story of Jesus wandering in the wilderness.           

The next step on the Mystic Path is Enlightenment, when the seeker is brought face to face with his real Self (with a capital ‘S’) his Reincarnating Ego, which has had many, many incarnations and will have many more, and is, in the words of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a persistent traveller on the highways of heaven. It is nearly impossible to describe the seeker’s feelings at this stage, but a poor example from the material world might be those of a dispirited foundling youth who has suddenly discovered that he is of royal lineage. An interesting point here is that this sixth, or second highest principle of our constitution is called in Sanskrit ‘Buddhi’, which itself means Enlightenment.            

The final step is Union, when the seeker really enters the house of the Father and finds that which his material life had caused him to forget, namely, that he is no mere cipher on a treadmill of fate, but is literally at one with the Father. This seventh principle is the highest one in our constitution, being the seventh ‘day’ of creation, when the Father was able to rest from creation because no creation was needed, as our highest principle is pure spirit. Those who have blessed with this ineffable experience testify that everything around them seemed to bathed in a wondrous golden light, and sometimes that that light seemed to come from within themselves. For such people, the need for faith has been banished, as faith calls for belief in something which one cannot fully understand, whereas these people have had the full revelation, for which in ancient times they would have received the noble title of ‘seer’.           

To make an adequate survey of Christian mysticism down the ages would be a stupendous task, but it came both to men and to women, and to all classes, whether educated, lay or clergy, though the actual numbers at any one time were few. Naturally, the persons so called were products of their own times, and their visions were frequently peopled by Jesus, Satan, devils, angels, etc., of which they had learned in the religious teachings of their time. Occasionally, visions began to be experienced without any obvious initiative by the subject, and such seekers were usually lay people.

Some examples are:-Jakob Boehme: 1575-1624, a farmer’s son, first a shepherd, then a shoe-maker. He left a number of writings, which some found abstruse, but which had a big influence on later men like Isaac Newton and William Blake. Emanuel Swedenborg: 1688-1772 did not begin to see visions until aged 55, after which he was author of a number of books, some allegedly dictated by automatic writing. He also founded a church [represented in Melbourne], which taught that judgement takes place in this world, not the next. His teachings were later the basis of the Balzac novel Seraphita. William Blake: 1757-1827 had visions even in childhood and later learned much from Boehme and Swedenborg. He insisted that the Ultimate was revealed in everything – ‘To see a world in a grain of sand. And a heaven in a wild flower’Many poets show by their writings that they were keen seekers on the Mystic Path, even if they did not reach the final ecstasy. Examples are: Shelly died 1822, Browning 1889, and Tennyson, 1892. In Church circles, there were a great many mystics, and we find that, despite the many shortcomings of the clergy, which eventually sparked the Reformation, the mystic was invariably held in great honour. Many later founded religious orders. A short list of Christian mystics, in order of the dates of their deaths, is:            Clement of Alexandria  A.D. 215           

Augustine 430           

Scotus of Erigena 877 an Irishman           

Bernard of Clairvaux  1153           

Francis of Assisi 1226 first to experience stigmata           

Thomas a Kempis   1471           

John of the Cross  1591           

Teresa of

The two last named, John and Teresa, were Spanish and represented a sincere desire among some of the clergy to reform the Church of Rome from within – the Counter Reformation.                

After the Reformation in Northern Europe, there was an increased interest in science, and hence in material things, so that interest in spiritual matters was not so evident, but we have noted earlier some examples from the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries.           

Coming to the 20^th/21st centuries, it is more difficult to judge living people, but one example which did surprise and please me was the late Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who perished in an air crash in 1961. From his diary, published posthumously, it was clear that he had read widely about the mystics of the past, and he even had The Imitation of Christ with him at his death. It seems obvious that he had had some great mystical experience, for he wrote:           

‘ I don’t know who or what put the question.I don’t even remember answering, but at some moment I did answer YES to Someone or Something, and from that hour I was certain that existence if meaningful and thattherefore my life in self-surrender had a goal.’

On what finer thought could this lecture end? 

This is the text of a lecture given by the author at a public meeting of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena) in Melbourne, Australia. The ideas expressed in all our public meetings are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the TS (Pasadena).