The Way of Divine Union

Arthur Edward Waite

Description

First published in 1915, “The Way of Divine Union” is a fascinating book on the subject of mysticism by A. E. Waite. Arthur Edward Waite (1857 – 1942), more commonly referred to as A. E. Waite, was an American-born British mystic and poet. He wrote profusely on the subject of the occult and esoteric matters, and is famous for being the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. His work arguably constitutes the first attempt to systematically studying the history of western occultism, which he viewed more of a spiritual tradition than proto-science or pseudo-religion, as was the more common conception. Contents include: “Characteristics of the Present Age in Respect of the Church and the World”, “In Respect of Relations between God, Man, and the Universe”, “The True Life of These Subjects”, “Experience of the Mystical Life”, “Immediate Answers Which It Offers”, etc. Other works by this author include: “The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly” (1893), “Turba Philsophorum” (1894), and “Devil-Worship in France” (1896). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Sujets

• Love of God
• Faith school
• Resurrection
• Résurrection (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528768863
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Way of Divine Union
BEING A DOCTRINE OF EXPERIENCE IN THE
LIFE OF SANCTITY, CONSIDERED ON
THE FAITH OF ITS TESTIMONIES
AND INTERPRETED AFTER
A NEW MANNER
BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
Arthur Edward Waite was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA in 1857. His father died when he was very young, and his widowed mother returned to her home country of England, where he was then raised. Waite was educated at a small private school in North London, and St. Charles College. After school, he became a clerk, and wrote verse in his spare time.
In 1874, the death of Waite s sister saw him become deeply interested in psychical research. He began to read regularly in the Library of the British Museum, studying many branches of esotericism. Not long later, Waite became editor of an occultist magazine called The Unknown World , and in 1891 joined Aleister Crowley s Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A decade later, he became a Freemason, and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Waite had a lifelong rivalry with Aleister Crowley, who presented him as a villainous wizard in his novel Moonchild .
Waite was a prolific author, and many of his works were well received in academic circles. He wrote occult texts on subjects such as divination, esotericism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Kabbalism and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several important mystical and occultist works. His works on the Holy Grail rank amongst his finest publications.
However, Waite is best-remembered not for his scholarly work, but for his co-creation of the popular and widely used Rider-Waite Tarot deck, and his authoring of its companion volume, The Key to the Tarot . First published in 1909, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot was notable for being one of the first tarot decks to illustrate all 78 cards fully, in addition to the 22 major arcana cards. The work made him famous, and Waite spent much of the rest of his life lecturing and speaking on the topic of the Tarot. He died in 1942, aged 88.
THE WAY OF DIVINE UNION
PREFACE
O UTSIDE certain serious and a few excellent books on mystical religion belonging to the present day, and outside certain authoritative studies connected with it actually or artificially, there has grown up a disposition to address the man of ordinary thought, even that symbolical scapegoat called the man in the street, as if either could take up the subject and progress by easy stages to a given term therein. Whether this is the fashion of a moment or otherwise, there is not less than a call for intervention on the part of those who know the mystical work and that it is the most difficult enterprise which can be undertaken by the human mind. It is altogether necessary that it should be disencumbered of adventitious elements owing to the presence of which it is often relegated to a sphere of archaic research; but those who pretend that there is an easy path to the state of consciousness in God only deceive themselves, while in both directions they may do incalculable harm unwittingly.
The true nature of the mystical experiment does not appear fully in any of the authoritative texts, and it has not entered into the heart of modern compilers and commentators, who are speaking therefore on the most momentous of all subjects with a very partial knowledge of its import. I am referring more especially to lay writers who are not in the Catholic Tradition, but though it should be otherwise in the Roman Church, as the fountain of mystical knowledge in the western world, the statement appears to obtain in all quarters, while in Latin Christianity there are further limitations attaching to traditional methods handed down from the past and assumed to be the only way.
I might have confined my inquiry in this volume to a delineation of the mystical work and left it to speak for itself as to those who are fitted for such a pursuit of sanctity. But on all sides of the science-in its history, classification and criticism-I have found that most modern writers miss things that are important, even if some of these are concerned only with the point of view and the approaches.
I do not wish to be understood as setting out on my own part with any hostile intentions towards others who are my immediate precursors on the path. Except in these prefatory lines, I am not seriously concerned with modern mystical writings, and they can be a subject of bare reference in a very few cases only. If it be worth while to say so, I believe that all have been written from a heart of sincerity; that many are likely to be profitable when a certain needful equipment is brought to their reading; and that even the thing called new thought in America and England, whatever its aberrations and follies, is by intention on the side of God.
Of all ways of experience Mysticism is, however, the most secret, and its technology is, above all, most liable to misconception.
CONTENTS
P REFACE
I NTRODUCTION
Characteristics of the present age in respect of the Church and the World-In respect of relations between God, Man and the Universe-The true life of these subjects-Experience of the Mystical Life-Immediate answers which it offers, by the hypothesis, to the problem of man s association with the Universe and God-Existing zeal for the study of mystical literature-Critical consideration of its significance-Definition of its true nature-Desire of the House of the Lord-Whether the concern is of the theoretical and intellectual order only-Whether the old methods of mystical life are practicable in our own time-Whether there is another way-The purpose of this work-Beginnings of a new mystical literature-Divisions into which it falls-The Way of Divine Union and its possibility in the modern world-Warrants of the past in respect of the mystical experiment-Independent criticism of experience therein-Proposed re-expression of mystical doctrine-A question of personal vindication.
CHAPTER I
T HE T ITLE OF THE Q UEST
Modern origin of the terms Mystic and Mysticism-Their undesirable connotations-Why they are used in this work-The notion of secrecy-Secrecy and Divine Union-False and fantastic Definitions of Mysticism-Etymology of the word-Mystical Theology-Antecedents of Christian Mysticism-The Mystical Theology of Dionysius-Different classes of Theology-Mystical Theology according to St. Maximus-Negative Theology of John the Scot-A definition by Corderius-St. Augustine and Mystical Theology-St. Bernard-The Angel of the Schools-A Definition by St. Bonaventura-Gerson and Dionysius the Carthusian-Some later Definitions-St. John of the Cross-Cardinal Bona-The Carmelite School of Mysticism-Mystical Theology as a body of Spiritual Experience-Official Theology as a body of doctrine based on Faith-Possibility of a Secret Christian Doctrine-Of Mystical Theology and non-Catholic Mysticism-Roach and Dr. John Pordage-Jacob B hme-Saint-Martin and Dutoit-Mambrini -La Mystique and Mysticism-Modern understanding of the word Mysticism-Father Devine-Miss Evelyn Underhill-A Rabbinical understanding-Professor Rufus Jones-A review of the whole subject-Mysticism and pseudo-Occult Science-Ideas of Magic-The so-called Higher Magia-Psychism and Mysticism-Phenomena of Sanctity-A clearance of issues.
CHAPTER II
C ONCERNING I NEFFABLE E XPERIENCE
The criticism of Mystical Experience-What is assumed concerning it-Modern reveries-Two classes of mystical memorials-The initial difficulty-Ineffable character of mystical experience-The true sense which attaches to this statement-That the experience is placed thereby in a general category-Representative value of the records-The question of rarity-Difficulties of delineation-The matter of fact separable from discourses thereupon-Of our guidance as to its nature-Modern adventures in spiritual realms-The Mystic and the Poet-The capacity of quickening-Of union and rapture-The Term of Mystical Union and the Doctrine of the Blessed Vision-The official Term of Redemption-The Vision is not the Union, but the one may pass into the other.
CHAPTER III
E XTENT AND L IMITS OF A TTAINMENT IN C HRISTIAN M YSTICISM OF THE L ATIN S CHOOLS
A distinction concerning the testimony to be sought in the records-The pseudo-Dionysian School-Thesis on Divine Union-Proposed nature of the union-The negative path-Dionysian influence on the schools of Christian Mysticism-Dionysian successors-The Greek Scholia of St. Maximus-The Expositions of John the Scot-The Greek paraphrase of Georgius Pachymeres-The Jesuit Mystic Corderius-Vestiges of Mystical Doctrine in early writers of the Church-St. Clement of Alexandria-Tertullian-Origen-St. Basil-St. Ambrose-St. John Chrysostom-St. Augustine-St. Vincent of Lerins-St. Leo the Great-St. Gregory the Great-Hugh of St. Victor-Richard of St. Victor-St. Thomas Aquinus-St. Bonaventura-Albertus Magnus-Eckehart-Tauler-Suso-Jan van Ruysbroeck-The author of The Cloud of Unknowing -St. Ignatius of Loyola- The Book of the Man from Frankfurt -St. John of the Cross-St. Teresa-St. Francis de Sales-Cardinal Bellarmine-The Venerable Augustin Baker-Alvarez de Paz-Summary of testimony in the Latin Schools.
CHAPTER IV
D ERIVATIONS AND R EFLECTIONS OF THE M YSTICAL T ERM IN P OST -R EFORMATION S CHOOLS
Distinctions between Catholic and non-Catholic Mysticism-The end and way-Nicholas of Basle-Development of a cosmic philosophy-The epoch of Luther s Bible-The mystical interpretation of Scripture-Jacob B hme-Some of his successors-The idea of