Mystical Theology

Triad supernal, both super-God and super-good, Guardian of the Theosophy of Christian men, direct us aright to the super-unknown and super-brilliant and highest summit of the mystic Oracles, where the simple and absolute and changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and invisible, fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing beauty.

This then be my prayer; but thou, dear Timothy, by thy persistent commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind both sensible perceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence, and all things which are not, and which are, and be raised aloft unknowingly to the union, as far as attainable, with Him Who is above every essence and knowledge. For by the resistless and absolute ecstasy in all purity, from thyself and all, thou wilt be carried on high, to the superessential ray of the Divine darkness, when thou hast cast away all, and become free from all.

But see that none of the uninitiated shall hear these things — those, I mean, who are entangled in things being, and imagine there is nothing superessentially above things being, but fancy that they know, by their own knowledge, Him Who has placed darkness as His hiding-place. But, if the divine initiations are above such men, what would one say respecting those still more uninitiated, who both characterize the Cause exalted above all, from things amongst things being, and affirm that It in nowise excels the godless and manifold-shaped impieties invented by them?

We pray to enter within the super-bright gloom, and through not seeing and not knowing, to see and to know that the not to see nor to know is itself the above sight and knowledge. For this is veritably to see and to know — to celebrate super-essentially the super-essential, through the abstraction of all existing things, just as those who make a lifelike statue, by extracting all the encumbrances which have been placed upon the clear view of the concealed, and by mere cutting away, reveal the hidden beauty.

It is necessary, as I think, to celebrate the abstractions in an opposite way to the definitions. For, we used to place the definitions, by beginning from the foremost and descending through the middle to the lowest; but, in this case, by making the ascents from the lowest to the highest, we abstract everything, in order that, without veil, we may know that Agnosia, which is enshrouded under all the known, in all things being, and may see that super-essential gloom, which is hidden by all the light in things being.

Now in the Theological Outlines we have celebrated the principal affirmative expressions respecting God — in what sense the Divine and good Nature is spoken of as One; in what sense as Three; what is meant by the Fatherhood and Sonship attributed to It; what the Theology of the Holy Spirit aims to demonstrate; how from the immaterial and indivisible Good the Lights dwelling in the heart of Goodness sprang forth, and remained, in their shooting forth, without departing from their co-eternal abiding in Itself, and in themselves, and in each other.

But now, in the present treatise, by ascending from the lowest, we deny first that the Cause of all is any of the things known to us; then we deny it of the higher things, and finally we deny that the Cause of all is any of the things which are. And, as we ascend, our language is stripped, and at the very ascent into that which is beyond all definition we shall be entirely without words.

We say, then, that the Cause of all, being above all, is neither without being, nor without life, nor without reason, nor without intelligence; nor is It a body, nor is It figure, nor form; It has not quality or quantity or bulk; nor is It in any place, nor is It seen; nor has It sensible contact; nor does It perceive, nor is It perceived by, the objects of sense; nor has It disorder and confusion, as troubled by earthly passions, nor is It powerless, as subject to the calamities of sense; nor is It in need of light; nor is It, nor has It, change, or decay, or division, or privation, or flow, or any other thing sensibly perceived.

Once more, ascending, we say that It is neither soul nor mind; nor has It imagination, opinion, reason, or understanding; nor is It reason or understanding; nor is It spoken nor thought; nor is It number, nor order, nor magnitude, nor smallness; nor equality, nor inequality; nor similarity, nor dissimilarity; nor does It stand, nor move, nor rest; neither has It power, nor is power, nor is light; nor does It live, nor is life; nor is It essence, nor age, nor time; nor is there any intelligible touching of It; nor is It science, nor truth, nor kingdom, nor wisdom; nor one, nor unity, nor Deity, nor Goodness; nor is It Spirit according to our understanding; nor Sonship; nor Paternity; nor any other thing of those known to us, or to any other existing being; neither is It any of non-existing nor of existing things, nor do things existing know It as It is, nor does It know existing things as they are; neither is there expression of It, nor name, nor knowledge; neither is It darkness nor light, nor error, nor truth; neither is there any definition at all of It, nor any abstraction.

When we make affirmations and negations of things which are after It, we neither affirm nor deny It; for the all-perfect and unique Cause of all is above every affirmation, and the pre-eminence of Him, Who is absolutely freed from all, and beyond the whole, is above every negation.