“Mystics are…people called to know the divine through its mysteries,” Caroline Myss tells us in her book, Entering the Castle: Finding the Inner Path to God and Your Soul’s Purpose
She also introduces us to Saint Teresa of Avila, the 16th Century Spanish nun, whose wild and episodic life was ultimately defined by a quest to know and serve God.
The depth of her quest struck when she was 39-years-old. Passing the painting of the Assumption of Christ, she fell into a violent fit of seizures culminating in bouts of weeping.
Teresa claimed she experienced the physical pain of Jesus on the cross. Ancient mystics, such as St. Francis, were often plagued by terrible ills, which included stigmata.
For Teresa, unbearable pain brought the gift of visions, direct access to the divine. She saw our souls in the form of a castle. At the center of that castle was God. A vibrant presence accessible to each and every one of us.
Her book, The Interior Castle, describes her vision and the steps, such as meditation and prayer, which she believed opened the castle doors.
How Does that Apply to You?
You’re a modern mystic. You’re not hiding in a cave, and most likely, not on your knees in a monastery.
You might chafe at God-talk or have issues with religion. Still, you have a sense or a belief in something deeper. Call it force, call it the Universe, call it whatever you choose. But try the concept on just for a moment. You’re free to cast it aside if it doesn’t empower you.
You’re coming to understand the nature of your own being, your gifts as a soul, and how to use them. Your gifts may be intertwined with your greatest pain.
Doctor, It Hurts When I Go Like This
“Medieval mystics saw their suffering as a sign from God that they were loved…constant pain served them as a…reminder not to be distracted (from God).
Enduring extreme illness and relentless pain brought a strength and stamina to their souls. They became able to endure direct contact with the divine.” (Caroline Myss, Entering the Castle)
Here Myss is talking about the tremendous inner reserve you need in order to face the raw power of the universe, as exemplified in stories such as Moses when confronted with the burning bush.
You live in modern times. You want to avoid unnecessary pain. But you also want to follow life’s mysteries to its deeper core. You’re a seeker of truth. Truth and love are words some people call the divine.
Can you stand the heat of that fire, the uncertainty, the strange blessing of being chosen or having the desire to see?
“Many people today want the mysteries and challenges in their lives solved and resolved quickly, but mystics know that we all have a deeper task: to accept that some challenges come into our lives in defiance of human reason, logic, order, justice, fairness, and even common sense. They know that underlying these challenges is a divine order and sense that may be revealed in time.” (Myss, Entering the Castle)
What allows us to find that underlying trust? If you’ve suffered great pain and been brought through it, then the steel of your own fortitude has been promisingly forged, if you don’t become or stay bitter, or entitled, or the one who demands the journey to happen in a certain premeditated way.
“As a contemporary mystic, you are measured by the quality of attitude you bring to all your tasks, by your capacity to be a model of generosity, and by challenging the fear that there is not enough to go around in this world…mindful that every second offers a choice either to channel grace or to withhold it.”
Myss assures us that this attitude adjustment is a work in progress for anyone and not a fait acommpli.
Imagine St. Francis, patron saint of birds and animals, bleeding from stigmata while still showing kindness and reverence.
“No one escapes this life without some crises of faith or questions about where life is going, no matter how many times his [or her] prayers are answered,” says Myss.
That’s good news for you. You don’t need to shun your pain when it comes. You can open all the doors of your soul to your experience.
This is not seeking crisis but meeting it when necessary. What if in the face of it you cower and beg? Then it is the journey of your soul to find your way through that, to find the divine in that. What is the message of that pain? What is your journey of strength in the face of it?
Myss says, “You want to become so comfortable in the skin of your soul that you do not feel separate from this eternal part of you.”
As a modern mystic, one who follows the mysteries of life into the deepest part of her own being, you are willing to see through the illusions of mass media and the claims of the ego.
While you don’t seek pain or see it as proof of divine love, you also understand that “A spiritual life is not about finding ways to feel good. It’s not about how to get guidance on how to stay safe in this world.
“A spiritual life means that you excavate your false gods, fears, and illusions that hold you prisoner in this world. You face these false powers [ex, addictions, manipulative habits] and free yourself from them in order to know the true power of God.” (Myss, ibid)
This idea is central to spiritual life. Buddhists speak of detachment. Most of us want to be smart, important, respected, and revered. The ego seeks this but we are more than our egos and so we seek integration that comes from a connection with divine Source.
For Teresa of Avila, your soul was like a multi-faceted diamond castle. In the center was love/God, the very truth of your own being. And it was there that your hunger would be truly sated.
Unlike Teresa, you’re unlikely to relinquish your worldly possessions. Your task is to learn to balance living in the world without being consumed by it.
It requires patience and presence. Being kind when you don’t feel like it. Being fair when you want to be selfish.
We’re living in an era that great psychics, like Edgar Cayce, claimed would be redeemed and transformed through love. He said showing love to the stranger, the other, seeing the divine in all beings would save us even from the climate catastrophes he predicted.
What if you looked at your pain as a call to something deeper? As a way of connecting with the depth of suffering in the world? (Yikes!) And going on to bring joy in spite of it?
Not shutting out any particle of this existence but allowing this existence to bring you to the heart of your own being?
You can definitely have psychic readings to increase your understanding, but know that when you ask a psychic who travels the infinite to give you information, that information will likely come back layered and not as simple fortune-telling.
Picture your soul as a radiant castle, one designed especially for you. Find it’s center. There, will be your treasure. The world needs you. Or so the prophets say.
©Lorrie Kazan
