Underhill.Part II. Chapter 4

In her chapter "The Illumination of the Self" Underhill presents this phase of mystic experience as "a form of mental life, a kind of perception, radically different from that of 'normal' men, which is peculiar to mystics" and, she claims, some artists. For the Christain mystic, illumination is an exalted state of consciousness in which the individual enjoys a period of loving and joyous relation with God. In the chapters that follow she discusses the various ways in which illumination occurs: receiving visions, hearing voices, and so forth.

Mystic experiences seem to be cyclic. From the initial awakening discussed in Chapter Two the individual passes through successive periods of purgation and illumination, spiraling upward, as it were, to ever more complete states of union with God.

When the soul is normally "absorbed in the illusions of sense" the "eye which looks on Eternity is idle." But, quoting Plotinus: "when we do behold Him, we attain the end of our existence and our rest. Then we no longer sing out of tune, but form a truly divine chorus about Him; in which chorus dance the soul beholds the Fountain of life the Fountain of intellect, the Principle of Being, the cause of good the root of soul." Underhill remarks, "Such a beholding, such a lifting of consciousness from a self-centred to a God-centred world, is of the essence of illumination (160).

Achieving a more vivid consciousness of God than is enjoyed by the average Christian is a matter of perception, of seeing what is normally hidden but is truly there. One is reminded to Christ's remarks in the Sermon on the Mount, "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness" (Matt. 6:22,23). The context in which Christ said this suggests that a person's darkness is occasioned by concerns with wealth and daily cares.

Underhill includes in the chapter several quotations taken from the writings of those mystics who have recorded some of their experiences, and I will not try to copy many here. The quotation from William Blake on p. 161 gives his commitment to communicating something of his visions in his engravings and his exceedingly demanding poetry. Blake insists that "the doors of perception" must be cleansed in order to see all things as they are, infinite. For the mystic this cleansing involves the purgation which was treated in Chapter Three.

Underhill remarks: "It is in these descriptions of the joy of illumination--in the outpourings of love and rapture belonging to this state--that we find the most lyrical passages of mystical literature. Here poet, mystic, and musician are on common ground: for it is only by the oblique methods of the artist, by the use of aesthetic suggestion and mystical rhythm, that the wonder of that vision can be expressed. When essential goodness, truth, and beauty--Light, Life, and Love--are aprehended by the heart, whether the heart be that of poet, painter, lover, or saint, that apprehension can only be communicated in a living, that is to say, artistic form" (163). That musical utterance is essential to any attempt at communication suggests why, in the Book of Revelation, for instance, the redeemed are so often represented as singing.

On p. 167, St. Bernard, in the lengthy testimony of his experiences, insists upon their ineffable quality. One is reminded of St. Paul saying that, on the occasion of his mystical experience, he "heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat" (II Cor. 12:4).

For some, illuminations take the form of having an altered view of the natural world; that is, one's eyes are opened to see that the goodness and glory of God permeates the natural world and everyday life. "The world is charged with the grandeur of God / It will flame out, like shining from shook foil . . . ." Gerard Hopkins exults in his fine sonnet, "God's Grandeur." Thomas Traherne in the 17th Century wrote: "Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you awake in heaven; see ourself in our Father's palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as celestial joys. . . ." (from Centuries of Meditations).

Such perception is motivated by love for God and in turn increases one's love for him. Underhill remarks: "By that synthesis of love and will which is the secret of the heart, the mystic achieves a level of perception in which the whole world is seen and known in God, and God is seen and known in the whole world. It is a state of exalted emotion: being produced by love, of necessity it produces love in its turn" (180).