When people talk of belief and faith often the enormity of what God is to their consciousness and higher concepts of divinity, they create a cloud of unknowing that can only be dispelled (or accepted) by the power of faith. It’s as if simply seeking after the robes hem unravels the whole fabric for some.
Many times I have witnessed contemplative souls paint themselves into a philosophical corner by suddenly remembering how impossible it is to encapsulate their creation belief.
A 14th century Christian Monk examined this and many other powerful obstacles to faith in a work entitled “The Cloud of Unknowing”. Luckily this work is preserved and was translated by Evelyn Underhill in 1922.
Our monk writes with authority and much of his work hammers at the issues of his time. There are buried within some solid cross cultural expositions however, and if you bear with the flowery language of the day there is wisdom for the seeker. For example, nearly 100 pages into the work we find this amazing passage:
The lower part of active life standeth in good and honest bodily works of mercy and of charity. The higher part of active life and the lower part of contemplative life lieth in goodly ghostly meditations, and busy beholding unto a man’s own wretchedness with sorrow and contrition, unto the Passion of Christ and of His servants with pity and compassion, and unto the wonderful gifts, kindness, and works of God in all His creatures bodily and ghostly with thanking and praising. But the higher part of contemplation, as it may be had here, hangeth all wholly in this darkness and in this cloud of unknowing; with a loving stirring and a blind beholding unto the naked being of God Himself only.
The immediate acceptance of the vastness of grace here should stir anyone to look deeper at this tome. Consider the wisdom of “hangeth all wholly in this darkness and in this cloud of unknowing”.
There behind the obvious allusion to the void and seas of plasma lies a greater nugget. There are references to the higher and lower part of the ‘Active Life’ as well as higher and lower aspects of the ‘Contemplative Life’.
Is it possible this 14th century monk alludes to the entrails of the fish and the higher and lower aspects of the Christ as infinite? In other words, do we read here that immortality is an aspect of higher and lower houses of infinite space? The vesica piscis is seen these days as multidimensional
- a cross sectioned representation of the tree of life
- the active life force as base existence
- the contemplative life force as thought (Thoth)
- the divisions of gravity and creative thrust (Love)
and these are only the most obvious and well worn investigations!
So here is just one more pointer to the magnificent power of symbolic will taken from a simple teaching often used to help people overcome trials of faith. Within the layers of simplest comfort lies a bold signpost to the scholar.
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Note: The complete translation of “The Cloud of Unknowing” can be found and read free of charge at JB Hare’s most excellent website Sacred Text Archives.
Hail Rev. Dwayne:
What sapient points you make here. I love Cloud of Unknowing, by the way. Had to read it in college long ago for a Medieval Philosophy class.
+Katia
Hi, I’ve been trying to email you regarding this post – could you please email me when you read this. Thank you
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