other · religious

Teresa of Avila — Interior Castle

1577 CE · Counter-Reformation Spain (16th century CE) · Toledo and Avila, Spain

First Mansions — The Beginning

1Whilst I was beseeching our Lord to-day that He would speak through me,

2since I could think of nothing to say and had no idea how to commence to carry out the obedience laid upon me,

3a thought occurred to me which I will explain, and which will serve as a foundation for the treatise I am about to write.

4I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond

5or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms,

6just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

7There is nothing to which we can compare the great beauty and capabilities of a soul.

8However keen our intellects may be, they are as unable to comprehend them

9as to comprehend God.

10In the centre of the castle is the chief mansion of all,

11which is where the most secret things pass between God and the soul.

Second Mansions — Prayer

12These souls, then, understand the Lord when He calls them.

13Although the voice does not enter by the ears (for it is not heard) it is easy to know when it comes.

14The Lord calls them by means of the words of good people, or by sermons,

15or by what they read in good books, or in many other such ways.

16Or, again, He may call them by means of sickness or troubles,

17or by some truth which He teaches them during those brief moments when they are engaged in prayer.

18However tepid such prayer may be, God greatly values it.

Third Mansions — On Perseverance

19To those who by God's mercy have overcome these first conflicts and have entered

20the third mansions, what shall I say?

21We may certainly call them blessed, since, if they persevere, salvation is assured them.

22And yet, my daughters, if the Lord is not with them, all their efforts are in vain.

23I know a person who had for many years believed that she loved God with a great love,

24but when a trial came she found herself so weak that she could not endure it.

Fourth Mansions — On Divine Consolation

25Beginning to speak of the fourth mansions, I greatly require to commend myself

26to the Holy Ghost.

27For here we begin to touch on the supernatural,

28and this is a very difficult thing to explain.

29There are two kinds of consolation.

30The first are gained by our own efforts and by our own meditations,

31with the help of God.

32The second are like a great abundance of water welling up from the earth,

33flowing in over the whole soul without any effort of our own.

34The first are called consolations (contentos);

35the second, spiritual delights (gustos), and they come from God.

Fifth Mansions — The Silkworm

36The soul, then, is now like a silkworm that has crept into a cocoon.

37The silkworm feeds on the mulberry leaves until it has grown to its full size.

38Then it begins to spin the silk.

39The silk is spun from within the worm itself, and forms into a house in which the worm dies.

40Out of this cocoon comes a beautiful little white butterfly.

41It is Christ who is our life; and so this soul dies to itself,

42and rises into a new life, transformed.

43What a difference there is between the ugly worm and the beautiful butterfly!

Sixth Mansions — The Flight of the Spirit

44The bride would say: "Kiss me with the kiss of thy mouth."

45The soul is now so completely wounded by love that she is longing to leave the body.

46She cries out to the Beloved: "Show thyself to me, that I may die."

47This is not a wound of the flesh, but of the spirit.

48The soul is transported out of herself, so that she scarcely knows what she is doing.

49I have known a soul so absorbed and drowned in the divine love that she seemed to have no life of her own.

Seventh Mansions — Spiritual Marriage

50In this Seventh Mansion the union of the soul with God is so intimate

51that they are one and the same spirit.

52Just as one cannot separate the water from the sea into which it flows,

53nor the light of two windows joined into one,

54nor the burning of two candles pressed together into one flame —

55so the soul in this mansion is united with God in a manner past understanding.

56"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit."

The Fruits of Union

57This is the fruit that shall be born of this state:

58not that the soul thinks little of the world, but that she loves it more —

59for now she sees all things in God, and God in all things.

60Her one desire is to please Him.

61Even in her sleep her heart is with Him.

62The soul that is truly united to God can, at any moment, retire into that inmost chamber

63and be with Him there — regardless of what tasks or troubles occupy her outer life.

64For God is in the centre of the soul —

65and once we know it, we cannot lose our way to Him.

notes

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), Spanish Discalced Carmelite nun, mystic, and reformer, was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970 — the first woman to be granted that title. Born to a family of conversos (Jewish converts) in Ávila, she entered a Carmelite convent in her early twenties and lived through a period of illness and spiritual dryness before undertaking a radical reform of her order, founding the Discalced ("barefoot") Carmelites, whose spirituality emphasised contemplative prayer, poverty, and enclosure. The Interior Castle (Castillo Interior, or Las Moradas — "The Mansions"), written in 1577 in only a few months at her superior's command, is Teresa's mature systematic treatment of the life of prayer. She figures the soul as a castle made of diamond containing seven concentric mansions, with God dwelling in the innermost chamber. The seeker progresses inward through prayer, contemplation, purification, and, ultimately, spiritual marriage with God. The distinction Teresa draws between contentos (consolations gained by our own effort with God's help, in the Fourth Mansion) and gustos (spiritual delights that flow into the soul unbidden, from God alone) is a foundational contribution to Christian spiritual psychology. Her image of the soul as a silkworm spinning its cocoon and emerging as a butterfly (Fifth Mansion) is one of the most beloved images in Western mystical literature. Translation: David Lewis, "The Interior Castle, or The Mansions, By Saint Teresa of Jesus," London: Thomas Baker, 1904. Public domain.

ContemplationChristianMeditationMystical

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