Mystical Quest Research Articles

Категория «проникновения» у Вяч. Иванова и Данте: опыт духовного восхождения

The themes of spiritual ascension and mystical ecstasy in V. Ivanov, which occupy a pivotal place in his literary production, have been recently examined by M. Tsimborska-Leboda in the context of Augustine's theology and by V. Mahlin in the context of Bakhtin's analysis of Dostoevsky's works. The theme of ecstasy has also been considered by Pamela Davidson in her 1989 monograph. The present paper proposes to analyse this very theme, but this time in the context of the theological poetics of Dante's Paradiso. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that, despite a number of immediately discernible parallels, the differences between Dante's and Ivanov's conceptions of ecstasy have not been fully identified yet, notwithstanding the significant influence exerted by Dante’s texts on the conception of ecstasy in Ivanov’s writings on Symbolism. Comparing Ivanov's and Dante's models of ascent, P. Davidson sees a fundamental difference between Ivanov's and Dante's conceptions of ecstasy in Ivanov's rejection of the moral-ethical dimension as a sine qua non of the mystical quest. This article reveals another important difference between Dante's and Ivanov's descriptions of ecstasy, one that concerns the category of “penetration”. Focusing on Ivanov’s articles and Dante’s Paradiso, the article analyses them in relation to the category of “penetration”, to be understood as the ultimate realization of transcendence in Ivanov as well as in Dante’s poem. It highlights the similarity between Ivanov’s and Dante’s thinking as far as the category of “sobornost” is concerned, whereby a vertical relationship with the Supreme Being implies a horizontal relationship with the Other, to the extent of spiritual penetration into the Other. However, it is argued that, while in Ivanov's description of ecstasy the ascent of man and artist begins with erotic rapture and, at its highest stage, implies detachment from all earthly things and separation from them, for Dante the ascent, as described in the Paradiso, is accompanied by spiritual interpenetration which occurs in interpersonal communion even at the height of the mystical vision. The conclusion is that, although Ivanov's other works treat the theme of transcendence in a similar way to how it is treated in Dante, Ivanov’s treatment of ecstasy in his articles on Symbolism differs significantly from its description in the Commedia.

I Cannot Find the Hanged Man: Tarot Cards in Fantastic Fiction

In 1909, the occult publishing firm Rider and Son issued a pack of Tarot cards created by the artist Pamela Coleman Smith and the writer Arthur Edward Waite, both members of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This new Tarot linked a divination device that originated in the eighteenth century with current esoteric ideas. T. S. Eliot’s use of the cards in The Waste Land fixed the image of Tarot as the embodiment of a mystical quest, and, as the most available Tarot in the twentieth century, the Rider Pack provided an enduring set of images and meanings for Tarot mythology, which continues to influence speculative fiction and to create new interactive storytelling memes through Tarot readings.

Istanbul as Palimpsest: The Black Book as a Postmodernist Representation of Turkish History and Culture

Orhan Pamuk’s novel, The Black Book is a postmodern chronicle of Turkey in which the author uses the structure of a detective novel to delineate the themes of identity, culture and hybridity. The paper aims to depict how Pamuk foregrounds that identities are never determinate but are forever eluding by presenting a love triangle which disappears underneath a mystical quest for one’s true self. Galip’s assuming the persona of his alter-ego, Celal; Prince Osman’s pursuit of true knowledge through reading diverse books and ultimately rejecting them; and Bedii Usta’s disillusion with the State for disapproving the mannequins, all represent the interlacing of cultures and interdependence of identities in contemporary Turkey. Moreover, in the novel, the rich Ottoman tradition and Islamic literature are also revisited in a postmodern light so as to present the allegorical and political connotations inherent in them. The paper also examines how the novel portrays the forced westernization and erasure of history and memories through the use of film ekphrasis to highlight how the Turkish citizens were lured by the Western cinema and indoctrinated about the superiority of the West so as to generate in them a sense of anxiety about their identities.

Editor's Column: “I set this matter down … to inform myself”: Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in Search of America as Private Discourse

Editor's Column: “I set this matter down … to inform myself”: Steinbeck's <i>Travels with Charley in Search of America</i> as Private Discourse

The Human Intellect: Liberation or Limitation?

Abstract The article discusses various attitudes towards the human intellect (ʿaql) in classical Islamic mysticism, as reflected in key mystical writings composed from the third/ninth century to the rise of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the sixth/twelfth. It begins by presenting the basic challenge that the concept of ʿaql posed for the mystics of Islam and then proceeds to analyze diverse approaches to the intellect in works that were written in both the east (mashriq) and the west (al-Andalus). Special attention is given to the impact of Neoplatonism on mystical attitudes towards the intellect. The conclusion to the article offers general observations on the problem of ʿaql in classical Islamic mysticism, and attempts to explain the tendency of certain sixth/twelfth-century mystics who were exposed to Neoplatonic thought to reduce the role of the intellect in the mystical quest for God.

A Stylistic Study of Robert Frost’s “For Once, Then, Something” (1923) and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (1923)

This research paper discusses how the grammatical and semantic roles can cohesively be related to the poetic connotations and the thematic analysis in two of Frost’s poems. In “For Once, then, Something,” stylistic devices are meant to resolve the religious significance of man’s journey to death and to foreground man’s quest to gain life wisdom. For instance, Short’s discussion of the grammatical roles and stylistic devices shows that the style of the first lyric, that is written as an enjambment, echoes the literary technique of stream of consciousness. Similarly, in the second lyric the bond between the grammatical and literary aspects expounds the theme of death wish. Hence, the researcher’s stylistic study highlights poetic cohesion between the two lyrics, thus foregrounding Frost’s mystical quest in search of the reality behind death. Consequently, the views of many scholars help the researcher to develop her stylistic interpretations.

History and Myth: Mahāmudrā Lineage Accounts in the 12th-Century Xixia Buddhist Literature

Mahāmudrā—an Indo-Tibetan phenomenon of Buddhist spirituality—constitutes in its systematic presentation a path that maps out the mystical quest for direct experience of ultimate reality. Despite the post-15th century bKa’-brgyud attempts at a codified Mahāmudrā genealogy, the early Tibetan sources speak little with regards to how the different Indian Mahāmudrā threads made their way over the Himalayas. To fill this gap, the article investigates, via philological and historical approaches, the lineage accounts in the 12th-century Xixia Mahāmudrā materials against the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist landscape. Three transmission lines are detected. Among them, two lines are attested by later Tibetan historiographical accounts about Mahāmudrā, and thus belong to an Indo-Tibetan continuum of the constructed Buddhist yogic past based upon historical realities—at least as understood by Tibetans of the time. The third one is more of a collage patching together different claims to spiritual legacy and religious authority—be they historically based or introspectively projected. Not only does the Mahāmudrā topography, jointly fueled by these three transmissions, reveal the Xixia recognition and imagination of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist legacies, it also captures the complexities of the multi-faceted picture of Mahāmudrā on its way over the Himalayas during the 11th/12th century.

Du mysticisme au nationalisme religieux : les ambiguïtés de Sâmiha Ayverdi (1905-1993)

The present article questions the apparent contradictions in the work of Samiha Ayverdi (1905-1993), the novelist and disciple of Kenan Rifai (1867-1950). Her novels and poetic prose chant a universalist mystical love, giving women a special place as actresses of the mystical quest, often outside the norms of the conservative bourgeoisie, as in the novel Son Menzil [The Final Stage, 1943], studied here. However, it is possible to speak of a break in Ayverdi’s intellectual journey from the moment she succeeded Rifai as head of the Istanbul branch of the Rifaiyye, which had been reformed into a cultural circle. Her literary writings gave way to autobiographical texts and columns that promoted religious nationalism with strong xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-communist tones. These can be read as an attempt at counter-history celebrating Ottoman history and culture in response to its detractors in the Kemalist camp and the West.

Мистика поэзии Геннадия Айги

The article reconstructs the development of mysticism in Aigi's works – both as a theme and a poetic form – from the perspective of structural hermeneutics and “poetics of knowledge”. The course of his mystical path shows the lyrical subject as a wise man whose path leads from mystical quest through recognition of the conditio humana and the limited nature of mystical experiences to Christian mysticism of silent prayer.

PROUST EN DERVICHE SOUFI : métamorphoses de l’intertexte proustien dans Le Livre noir d’Orhan Pamuk

The study of proustian intertextuality in The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk calls for the consideration of the whole of intertextual references of the novel, of a teeming multiplicity, and for the study of the place of the proustian intertext in what we must consider as a rhizomatic intertextual system. This investigation leads us to link the different oriental and occidental intertexts which embody the narrative and transform the proustian text in a spiritual journey or in a mystical quest : The Conference by the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar, the Mesnevi by Rumi and Beauty and Love by Cheik Galip.

Transcender Deus

Our aim is to reflect upon the theme of “Transcending God”, as the core of the spiritual and mystical quest and journey, in Meister Eckhart and Angelus Silesius. We comment positions like “So therefore we pray to God that we may be free of “God”” (Eckhart) and “I must go even beyond God, to a desert” (Silesius), situating them in the context of neoplatonic experience and tradition. Finally, we wonder if we couldn’t find here a previous and more radical “death of God”, where religion is simultaneously accomplished and overpassed by mystical spirituality. This could be the other side of the “death of God” proclaimed by Nietzsche.

CHILDE ROLAND AND THE MYSTIC'S QUEST: ANALYTIC FAITH IN A WORLD OF LOST MEANINGS

abstract Psychoanalysis did not emerge in a vacuum. With hindsight, we can see that it was – at least in part – a response to a dual crisis in the Northern European world at the end of the nineteenth century: a crisis of religious faith, and a crisis about knowledge and the possibility of meaning. With help from Henry Scott Holland and Robert Browning, this paper seeks to evoke these crises, and then to explore the way in which Freud's psychoanalysis, based on the practice of ‘evenly hovering attention’, introduced a secularized world to the practice of ‘unknowing’ which had previously been the preserve of the mystics. Similarities between the work of analysis and the mystical quest are explored, and it is suggested that both are forms of knowing, in which meaning is able to emerge through a process of mutual participation in being.

The Baha'i Faith and the Perennial Mystical Quest: A Western Perspective

The author analyses a definition of mysticism formulated by William Ralph Inge and western ideas on mystical experience. Then he proceeds to discuss mysticism as an intrinsic aspect of the Baha'i Faith and mystical experience as expounded in the Baha'i writings. The latter pay greater attention to the practical and logical aspects of mysticism than to the visionary and illogical ones. The author examines some of the reasons for Baha'i and non-Baha'i criticism of mysticism and suggests a Baha'i definition of mysticism. He then attempts to describe the Baha'i mystical path, as expounded by the Universal House of Justice.

Le «rite de passage» chez Amin Maalouf

This study attempts to analyze the inner development of Tanios, protagonist of Amin Maalouf's novel, The Rock of Tanios, by interpreting the important symbols which punctuate the spiritual metamorphosis of the main character and associates it to an initiatory experience. What is noteworthy is that the author describes his character's “entire life”as “nothing but a succession of passages”and divides the narrative structure of the novel into nine “passages”each of which corresponds to a crucial stage in Tanios' existential initiation and physical transformation. Even the symbolic significance of the number “nine”will shed an interesting light on the protagonist's mystical quest which modifies profoundly his interiority. This quest resembles an initiation marked by trials, suffering and deprivations which purify the soul and predispose it to a renaissance, final stage of the initiation.This study will proceed by a sustained observation of Tanios' physical and mental changes in order to highlight and decipher...

“Their small-toothed interlock”: Biomorphism and Mystical Quest in the Visual Art of P.K. Page and John Vanderpant

Even though Canadian artists John Vanderpant and P.K. Page were working more than three decades apart and in different media, biomorphic modernism is observable in their visual art. (Biomorphic art is visual abstraction based on organic forms.) Vanderpant, an early twentieth-century photographer, and P.K. Page, a mid-century poet and painter, both exhibit in their visual art the intricacies of lineation that signify a belief in the transcendent powers of forms in nature. The works of both artists attest to their belief in the transforming power of art in society. Page’s poetry echoes the modernist undercurrents of her visual art. The ecological themes of her late-century poems resonate with the vitalist impulses of early twentieth-century modernism.

L'approche acroamatique de la poésie de Simone Weil

In her essay Ms Gutbrod presents the poetry of Simone Weil from the point of view of its soundind and tries to rehabilitate the role of acoustic sensitivity on different levels of the interpretation. Simon Weil is rather neglected as a poet, although both her poetic practice and theory are highly remarkable. The turning point of her artistic development is a mystical experience after which she turns definitely to poetry and abandonsall themes expect for the representation of the mystical quest. To highlight the poetic aspect of this change Ms Gutbrod attempts to unfold the themes of cry and silence in Simone Weil's poerty: first she examines the acoustic universe of the poems (that is, the physical level of hearing), then she describes the role of listening in the process of reception. Finally she reflects on the notion of listening ment in an ontological sense.

A Fine Romance: Keith Whittington's Originalism and the Drama of U.S. Constitutional Theory

Keith Whittington, Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and Constitutional Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. ix + 303 pages. Keith Whittington, Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning, Original Intent, and Judicial Review. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. xi + 299 pages. Introduction Political Scientist Keith Whittington offers his theory of the U.S. Constitution in two volumes, Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning, Original Intent, and Judicial Review, and Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and Constitutional Meaning. In Constitutional Interpretation (CI) Whittington presents an originalist constitutional theory with a focus on the power of judicial review, including an energetic and often biting critique of selected cases, such as Griswold v. Connecticut. In Constitutional Construction (CC) Whittington offers four detailed. case studies of constitutional readings originating from congressional, executive, and state sources, supported by a briefer theoretical grounding for nonjudicial constitutional readings. Taking a cue from scholars who have argued that various (meta) narratives shape the literatures of their disciplines, I suggest that Whittington's constitutional theory is best understood as a romantic narrative-complete with all the possibilities and problems that romance entails (see, e.g., White 1973, 1987; Schafer 1970). Romantic narratives are typically characterized by a grand and often mystical quest that harkens back to an original and idealized Golden Age. The hero of this story often feels alienated from his true self and must battle several formidable adversaries who would prevent him from attaining the ultimate goal, a return to the Edenic natural state, which allows for ample self-expression. Several tensions characterize romantic work. Although the hero seeks ultimately to defeat his adversaries, he also needs them to maintain the narrative and his centrality in it. The objective status of the Edenic period is in tension with the desire for subjective self-expression in a contemporary context, as reason competes with imagination. In this sense, the grand quest can be understood as a desire for true but imaginative selfexpression, perhaps as a kind of emancipation from the particularity of history and the conflict of politics. I argue that Whittington's theory follows the romantic form in several ways. His work is strongly nostalgic regarding the founding. He identifies his central adversary as the overreaching judiciary, arguing that the judiciary preempts popular constitutional expression in contemporary politics by failing to follow the founders. Whittington's goal is to offer a constitutional theory that reins in judicial power, thus clearing the way for the people (through their agents in the popular branches) to follow the founders' example of regular constitutional expression. This leads to a tension in Whittington's work between the objective status he accords to the founding and the subjective expression that characterizes popular constitutional construction. I conclude the essay by discussing the promises and pitfalls of the romantic narrative, suggesting that it may be enriched by the addition of tragic, ironic, and comic voices, which can be found in critical race theory and queer theory. A Summary of Whittington's Work: Objective and Subjective Constitutional Expression Whittington's constitutional theory is structured around a tension between a desire to remain true to the founders' objective constitutional expression and a desire to foster subjective expression in popular constitutional construction. In Whittington's view, judicial interpretation should be strictly limited by framers' intent, which takes on an objective status in his work, while constitutional construction in the popular branches is the appropriate venue for subjective constitutional expression unlimited by framers' intent. …

Listening and Responding: Benedictine Spirituality in Non-monastic Contexts

194 WiL Derkse Listening and Responding: Benedictine Spirituality in Non-monastic Contexts A Simple Way ofLife One of the blessings of Catholic life is its wealth of spiritualities: Ignatian, Franciscan, Salesian, Augustinian, Dominican, the Carmelite spirituality of St. John ofthe Cross and Theresa ofAvila, Benedictine, and many others. These spiritualities are quite different both from a theological and from a practical point ofview.Yet there are important similarities. All are connected with a founding father or mother—so with persons, not with theories and concepts—someone who was especially attentive and responsive to the Spirit. All try to incarnate this spirit in a way oflife. All are centered around Christ. In the midst of this wealth of spiritualities, Benedictine spirituality is one ofthe oldest. St. Benedict wrote his little Rulefor Monks in the first halfofthe sixth century. And still his simple and balanced "Manual for Total Quality Management" (as I am fond ofcharacterizing the Rule) appears to be perfectly suitable to direct the daily life ofthousands ofnuns and monks, and many tiiousands oflay people. This paper was first given at a seminar at the Jesuit Institute ofBoston College on December 12, 1998. LOGOS 3:3 SUMMER 2O00 BENEDICTINE SPIRITUALITY IN NON-MONASTIC CONTEXTS By the way, Benedict was a layman himself and his monastic communities around Monte Cassino consisted mainly of laypeople. The Rule has two careful and rather cautious chapters about priests who wish to live in the monastry, and on the ordination to deacon or priest of one of the members ofthe community. Among the many Catholic spiritualities, Benedictine spirituality probably is the least dramatic. It is very down-to-earth, very unspectacular , with only a very limited degree of spiritual direction, not directed at"interesting" enlightenment experiences or dramatic conversions . Whatever enlightenment might occur is of the type expressed in a well-known Zen proverb: "Before enlightenment: hewing wood and drawing water; after enlightenment: hewing wood and drawing water." Benedictine spirituality is as far away from the supposedly spiritual adventures in James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy as you can get. Here is a spirituality that is firmly rooted, without haste, not eclectic, not esoteric, not oriented in a subjective manner to the individual's mystical quest, but instead to the individual 's personal growth embedded in a community and its everyday, often very mundane activities. It is telling that the central maxim of Benedictine spirituality (which is not the often mentioned ora et labora, a combination that cannot be found in the Rule and is even somewhat misleading as it suggests a dualism, whereas Benedictine life should be a "seamless garment") can be found in one ofthe most mundane chapters ofthe Rule, chapter 57 on the craftworkers of the monastry: ut in omnibus Deus glorificetur—"that in all things God may be glorified." This remark has to do with the price level ofthe craft products. Even the context ofbuying and selling can give possibilities ofglorifying God. This is Benedictine spirituality in a nutshell: that in all things God may be glorified, that in every activity God's praise may be sung. This is indeed a holistic spirituality. I9Í 196 LOGOS A Visit to St. Hildegard'sAbbey To bring this before your eyes, I will describe some episodes taken from the beautiful Dutch-Flemish television production, called "Abbeys of Western Europe and their inhabitants," and readers should use their imaginations to provide the pictures to the following description. We will consider first some episodes from the daily life of the nuns living in the Abtei St. Hildegard near the little German town of Eibingen, which is quite near the remains of the abbey built by Hildegard of Bingen, that remarkable medieval "woman for all seasons ." People unaquainted with the monastic world would at first sight find this portrait strange. What motivates a group of about sixty women from three generations to live under an abbess and a fifteen-hundred-year-old Rule for monks? "What are you doing there in the MiddleAges?"could be an understandable question. Little details will soon show, however, that these women are living at the close ofthe twentieth century: a portable telephone clipped on to a scapular, modern kitchen utensils, the computerized...

The Romanesque: towns, cathedrals and monasteries

Originated by art theorists in the Nineteenth Century, the term refers to a school of religious architecture and design from the early medieval period. As with all terms that attempt to summarise an epoch, artificially constructs the notion of one unified style, but as this book makes clear, the Romanesque tendency consisted of many different, eclectic characteristics. The investigation back through time leads us across the ancient pilgrim routes of the Pyrenees, and then into a vast range of devotional structures -churches, tombs, monuments, cathedrals and basilicas. Each one carries its own regional imprint and spiritual iconography. Containing rigorously detailed and comprehensive insights into all aspects of Romanesque symbolism and ritual, this book includes analysis of liturgical equipment, and explores the significance of many features of the buildings. A fascinating, mystical quest that forms the second volume in this acclaimed series on Medieval architecture.

Road to Rapture: Thomas Merton's Itinerarium Mentis in Deum

ROAD TO RAPTURE: THOMAS MERTON'S ITINERARIUM MENTIS IN DEUM INTRODUCTION The presence and patronage of St. Bonaventure in the life of Thomas Merton may be as profound as it seems subtle. Yet the Seraphic Doctor holds a key to locating Merton in the rich panorama of Franciscan spirituality, and the Itinerarium mirrors the route of Merton's soul's journey into God. Of the several ways Merton's soul was influenced by the Franciscan tradition, this one in particular invites closer attention, namely the impression made by Bonaventure and his guide to the contemplative ascent, and the dramatic affect it would have on Merton's own mystical path. The encounter between one of the most celebrated spiritual seekers of our time and one of the great spiritual directors of all time is an interesting perspective from which to consider Merton's "Franciscanism", for as we shall see, the engagement would orient the itinerant profoundly and perduringly. Although Merton was selective and experimental with Bonaventure's map, it nevertheless inspired and encouraged him to set out on the mystical quest and find his own road to rapture. The Itinerarium mentis in Deum is a comprehensive scheme which sets before the spiritual seeker a vast terrain of variegated landscapes for traversal into God, and a design of the journey itself in various stages and phases. Bonaventure's masterplan is elegantly proposed, a veritable summa of Christian spirituality and the work of a highly developed and well rehearsed systamatician. The infrastructure upon which his spiritual roadways are constructed include a vivid and pervasive understanding of the Trinity buttressed by a coherent neo-Platonic metaphysics. Upon this theological foundation, Bonaventure delineates multiple and successive routes which lead toward the junction of communion with God at the summit of the metaphorical mountain of ecstasy. A six-winged seraph, emblem of Franciscan transformation, is the pilgrim's guide in the labor of ascent and discloser of the six dimensions of the journey which Bonaventure envisions and articulates in the theo281 Franciscan Studies, 55 (1998) 282KATHLEEN DEIGNAN, CND poetics of his rich medieval sensibility. In a highly defined and deliberate order of stages of ascent evocative of Platonic patterns and Dionysian designs for spiritual progress, Bonaventure executes a comprehensive typology of essentially Christian routes into God. Indeed, the Itinerarium mentis in Deum proposes not one journey, but several, depending on the temperament, qualifications, locations, and intentions of the journeymakers as they seek a road to rapture. "FIND YOUR OWN ROAD" Thomas Merton was one such journeyman who set out in his early years of conversion to find his own road to rapture with Bonaventure's itinerary in hand. At times he rambles randomly through landscapes Bonaventure painstakingly delineates, at others he is sure-footed as he explores aspects of the way with remarkable traction. How does this twentieth-century itinerant, lacking the cogent metaphysical, systematizing impulse, and qualifications of Bonaventure, find his way into the sacred geography to which the Itinerarium points? These curiosities inspire this reflection on the Bonaventuran features of Merton's Franciscanism and focus it on those elements of Bonaventure's Itinerarium which Merton pursues in his own forays into the realm of God. Though he did not traverse the whole scope of Bonaventure's mystical terrain, still Merton seemed to travel far toward certain frontiers described in the Itinerarium, and found his own way to speak of them. The search for a road, a pathway to God, was ever Merton's quest, as sensed in the prayer that would eventually whisper itself in his Thoughls in Solitude: My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end...But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you...I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road.1 Merton's desire for that right road into God was the passport qualifying him for the sacred expedition, for as the great orienteer Bonaventure charged: "In order to embark on this journey, make 'Thomas...