Ascent of Mount Carmel is a 16th-century spiritual treatise by Spanish Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 mystic

Mysticism

Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...

 and poet St John of the Cross. The book is a systematic treatment of the ascetical life

Asceticism

Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...

 in pursuit of mystical union with Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

, giving advice and reporting on his own experience. It is part of four works by John dealing with the so-called Dark Night of the Soul

Dark Night of the Soul

Dark Night of the Soul is a treatise by Saint John of the Cross containing a commentary explaining his poem of the same name.-Poem and treatise by Saint John of the Cross:...

, when the individual Soul undergoes earthly and spiritual privations in search of union with God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. Along with the other three, The Dark Night Of the Soul, The Living Flame of God and the Spiritual Canticle, it is regarded as one of the greatest works of mysticism in Christianity and in the Spanish language.

Written between 1578 and 1579 in Granada, Spain, after his escape from prison, the Ascent is illustrated by a diagram of the process outlined in the text of the Soul's progress to the summit of the metaphorical Mt Carmel where God is encountered. The work is divided into three sections and is set out as a commentary on four poetic stanzas by John on the subject of the Dark Night. John shows how the Soul sets out to leave all worldly ties and appetites behind to achieve "nothing less than transformation in God".

Text of the Poem

Considered to be his introductory work on mystical theology, this work begins with an allegorical

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

 poem. The rest of the text is a detailed explanation and interpretation of the poem. The poem is as follows:

On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings

-- oh, happy chance! --

I went forth without being observed,

My house being now at rest.

In darkness and secure,

By the secret ladder, disguised

-- oh, happy chance! --

In darkness and in concealment,

My house being now at rest.

In the happy night,

In secret, when none saw me,

Nor I beheld aught,

Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.

This light guided me

More surely than the light of noonday,

To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me

-- A place where none appeared.

Oh, night that guided me,

Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,

Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,

Lover transformed in the Beloved!

Upon my flowery breast,

Kept wholly for himself alone,

There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,

And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

The breeze blew from the turret

As I parted his locks;

With his gentle hand he wounded my neck

And caused all my senses to be suspended.

I remained, lost in oblivion;

My face I reclined on the Beloved.

All ceased and I abandoned myself,

Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

Original Spanish

En una noche oscura

con ansias en amores inflamada,

¡oh dichosa ventura!,

salí sin ser notada

estando ya mi casa sosegada

A oscuras y segura

por la secreta escala, disfrazada,

¡oh dichosa ventura!,

a oscuras y en celada,

estando ya mi casa sosegada.

En la noche dichosa,

en secreto que nadie me veía

ni yo miraba cosa

sin otra luz y guía

sino la que en el corazón ardía.

Aquesta me guiaba

más cierto que la luz de mediodía

adonde me esperaba

quien yo bien me sabía

en parte donde nadie parecía.

¡Oh noche, que guiaste!

¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada!

¡Oh noche que juntaste

amado con amada,

amada en el amado transformada!

En mi pecho florido,

que entero para él solo se guardaba

allí quedó dromido

y yo le regalaba

y el ventalle de cedros aire daba.

El aire de la almena

cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía

con su mano serena

en mi cuello hería

y todos mis sentidos suspendía.

Quedéme y olvidéme;

el rostro recliné sobre el amado;

cesó todo, y dejéme

dejando mi cuidado

entre las azucenas olvidado.

Influence

John's spiritual method of inner purgation along the 'negative way' was an enormous influence on T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

 when he came to write the Four Quartets

Four Quartets

Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral...

. John's poem contains these famous lines of self-abnegation leading to spiritual rebirth:

To reach satisfaction in all

desire its possession in nothing.

To come to possession in all

desire the possession of nothing.

To arrive at being all

desire to be nothing.

To come to the knowledge of all

desire the knowledge of nothing.

To come to the pleasure you have not

you must go by the way in which you enjoy not.

To come to the knowledge you have not

you must go by the way in which you know not.

To come to the possession you have not

you must go by the way in which you possess not.

To come by the what you are not

you must go by a way in which you are not.

When you turn toward something

you cease to cast yourself upon the all.

For to go from all to the all

you must deny yourself of all in all.

And when you come to the possession of the all

you must possess it without wanting anything.

Because if you desire to have something in all

your treasure in God is not purely your all."

(trans Kieran Kavanaugh OCD - Paulist Press ISBN 080912839X)

External links

• The Ascent Of Mount Carmel at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
  Christian Classics Ethereal Library
  The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a digital library that provides free electronic copies of Christian scripture and literature texts....