Ascent of Mount Carmel

Ascent of Mount Carmel (Spanish: Subida del Monte Carmelo) is a 16th-century spiritual treatise by Spanish Catholic mystic and poet Saint John of the Cross. The book is a systematic treatment of the ascetical life in pursuit of mystical union with Christ, giving advice and reporting on his own experience. Alongside another connected work by John, entitled The Dark Night, it details the so-called Dark Night of the Soul, when the individual Soul undergoes earthly and spiritual privations in search of union with God. Along with John's other two works, The Living Flame of Love and the Spiritual Canticle, these two works are regarded as some 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 Mount 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 poem. The rest of the text begins as a detailed explanation and interpretation of the poem, but after explaining the first five lines, John thereafter ignores the poem, and writes a straightforward treatise on the two 'active nights' of the soul.

. 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 dormido

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 when he came to write the Four Quartets. 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 0-8091-2839-X)

References

• John of the Cross: Selected Writings - translated & introduced by Kieran Kavanaugh OCD. Preface by Ernest Larkin, O. Carm. Paulist Press ISBN 0-8091-2839-X
• St John of the Cross (2006). Zimmerman, Benedict (ed.). The Ascent of Mount Carmel. tr. by David Lewis. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-428-61400-1; ISBN 978-14-2861-400-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• The Ascent Of Mount Carmel at Christian Classics Ethereal Library