Itinerarium mentis in Deum

With these six considerations, then, traversed as the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceable rests in the peaceful mind as in the inner Jerusalem; as also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, full of the illustration of supernal wisdom, may be driven on high; as also the six first days, in which the mind has to be exercised, to arrive at last at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has beheld God outside itself through the footprints and in the footprints, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the likeness of the divine light shining above us and in that light itself, according as is possible according to the state of the way and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this: to speculate in the first and highest beginning and in the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose like can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all perspicacity of the human intellect: it remains that in speculating these it transcend and pass over not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passage Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as the propitiatory placed above the ark of God and the sacrament hidden from ages.

But whoever looks to this propitiatory with full conversion of face, beholding him hung on the cross through faith, hope, and charity, devotion, wonder, exultation, esteem, praise, and jubilation, makes the passover — that is, the passage — with him, to pass through the rod of the cross the Red Sea, going from Egypt into the desert, where he may taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the tomb as outwardly dead, feeling yet, as far as is possible according to the state of the way, what was said on the cross to the thief cleaving to Christ: Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

Which was also shown to blessed Francis, when in the transport of contemplation on the high mountain — where I pondered in mind the things here written — there appeared a Seraph of six wings fixed in the cross, as I and several others heard there from his companion, who was then with him; where he passed over into God through the transport of contemplation, and was set as the example of perfect contemplation, as before he had been of action, as another Jacob and Israel, that God through him might invite all truly spiritual men to this passage and transport of mind more by example than by word.

But in this passage, if it be perfect, all intellectual operations must be left behind, and the apex of the affect be wholly transferred and transformed into God. But this is the mystical and most secret, which no one knows except he who receives, nor receives except he who desires, nor desires except he whom the fire of the Holy Spirit inflames to the marrow, which Christ sent upon the earth. And therefore the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit.

Since, then, to this nature can do nothing, industry can do little, little is to be given to inquiry and much to unction; little is to be given to the tongue and most to inner joy; little is to be given to word and writing and all to the gift of God, namely the Holy Spirit; little or nothing is to be given to the creature and all to the creative essence, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity: Superessential Trinity and supergod and superbly good inspector of the Christians' theosophy, direct us to the super-unknown and super-lucent and most sublime summit of the mystical discourses, where the new and absolute and inconvertible mysteries of theology are hidden according to the super-lucent darkness of silently teaching silence in the most obscure, which is supermost manifest, supersplendent, and in which all shines, and super-filling invisible intellects with the splendors of the invisible superb goods. This to God. But to the friend to whom this is written, let it be said with the same: But thou, O friend, concerning the mystical visions, with thy journey strengthened, leave both the senses and the intellectual operations, and sensible and invisible things, and all non-being and being, and be restored unknowing, as far as possible, to the unity of him who is above all essence and knowledge. For, thyself and all things, by the immeasurable and absolute transport of the pure mind, leaving all and absolved from all, thou shalt ascend to the superessential ray of the divine darkness.

But if thou askest how these things come to be, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the spouse, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and transfers into God with excessive unctions and most ardent affections. Which fire is God, and the furnace of this is in Jerusalem, and Christ kindled it in the fervor of his most ardent passion, which he alone truly perceives who says: My soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death. Whoever loves this death can see God, for it is undoubtedly true: No man shall see me and live. — Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness; let us impose silence on cares, concupiscences, and phantasms; let us pass with Christ crucified from this world to the Father, that, the Father shown to us, we may say with Philip: It suffices us; may hear with Paul: My grace suffices thee; may exult with David, saying: My flesh and my heart have failed, the God of my heart and my portion is God forever. Blessed be the Lord forever, and all the people shall say: So be it, so be it. Amen. Here ends the Journey of the Mind into God.