Mysticism Archives - Jay Forrest's Blog

The Occult Versus the Mystical

The occult deals with the keeping and passing down of secret information. These secrets are reserved for the few, the chosen.

The mystical deals with thea experience of the Divine. It is not information, it is the consciousness of God. And it is reserved for the few as well, for those who follow the mystic way.

Gnosticism had both strands in it. Unfortunately, the occult eventually overpowered the mystical and the Church ended up rejecting it. However, they stifled the mystical in the process.

But the mystical survived in the Eastern Orthodox church and was eventually revived in the Roman Catholic Church. The Pentecostal movement was mystical in its origin. But Evangelicals tend to have a relationship with the Bible rather than an actual relationship with God.

As a progressive Christian, I am sympathetic to Christian Gnosticism, but I reject the occult elements. I believe mysticism is the lifeblood of vital Christianity. Once we lose conscious connection with God, Christianity becomes merely a system of morality.

The Map and the Territory

Only in religion does it seem that people mistake the map for the territory. They have a deep relationship with the Book but know nothing about an experiential relationship with the God of the Book.

The Bible is the Map

Think of the Bible as a map. A map is not the territory. A map is a symbolic representation of an actual reality.

Now if I go to a map, I point to a city, and I say that’s New York. You know that it’s the symbol of New York City, not the actual City itself. That’s a metaphor.

Likewise, the Bible is a map, a symbolic representation of an actual reality. That reality is God and our relationship with Him.

Knowing God Personally

And we should never mistake the map for the territory. People have ended up having a relationship with the map, but never have had the experience of the territory. They know about God, but they don’t know God personally. What a shame.

It’s like looking at a menu and not realizing that it’s not food. People are eating the menu, rather than procuring the food. The Bible is the menu, personal experience is the food. “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8).

The Mystic Way

The mystic way refers to the stages in our journey into God. These are levels of oneness with God. They are rooted in the Bible, but explained by later Christian mystics.

For some people the traditional terminology (purgation, illumination, and union) is a stumbling block. Alternative language would be the beginner, the proficient, the advanced. Think of the child, the teen (young man), and the adult (father) (1 John 2:12-14).

1. Conversion

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The first step on the Mystic path is conversion. This is the turning from a self-centered life to a God-centered life.

There are even stages in conversion. One begins as indifferent. The second phase is conviction. The final stage is repentance and belief, resulting in conversion.

2. Purgation

Most books on mysticism begin with this stage. This is the first part of sanctification, the separation from evil thoughts, words, and habits.

Most people struggle with this stage. For the tendencies of selfishness run deep. And it takes a lot of work to let go, surrender to God, and develop new habits of thoughts, words, and deeds.

3. Illumination

In this stage of the mystic way, one has to unlearn everything they learned before. They have to strip off the errors, the wrong ways of looking at things, the distorted perceptions.

Illumination is the process of trying to see things from God’s perspective. It is to think God’s thoughts after Him. It is a radical unknowing so that we may see things as they really are.

4. Union

Purgation is a oneness of our will with God’s will, illumination is a oneness of our mind with God’s mind, and union is a oneness of our being with God’s Being. In union, we become “participants of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).

Even in this stage there are levels. The first being the struggle to completely die to self. Here is the hardest part of union with God.

Before entering into full union with God most experience the dark night of the soul. Here everything is stripped away until there is nothing and nobody left. Only an empty vessel can receive the fullness of God.

The Mysticism of the Apostle Paul

Hekhalot and Merkavah are from an early form of Jewish mysticism. Hekhalot is the Hebrew word for Palaces and Merkavah Hebrew word for Chariot. Both refer to mystical experiences and visions of the Divine.

This was the mystical tradition that the Apostle Paul would have known and followed. I believe it formed the background for his own mystical experiences as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 . Let’s read it from an early Jewish mystical perspective.

¹It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ²I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. ³And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— ⁴was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. ⁵On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. ⁶But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, ⁷even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. ⁸Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, ⁹but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

This is ascent into heaven, as recorded by the Apostle Paul, matches perfectly with early Jewish mysticism. And this may have happened during the trance recorded in Acts 22:17-21. Again, let’s quote the relevant part.

¹⁷“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ ¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. ²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’ ²¹Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the gentiles.’ ”

This was the single most important event in the history of Christianity. For until Paul took the gospel to the Gentiles, the early Jesus movement would have been nothing more than a sect of Judaism. It would never have become a worldwide religion.

Therefore, the very essence of Christianity, it’s very hard, is mystical. Mysticism forms the foundation upon which Christianity stands, and must continue to stand. Which means that we have to call the church back to a spiritual reality, rather than an outward form.

Define Christian Mysticism

Since I will be referring to Mysticism and quoting from Christian mystics, it might be best to define my terms.

Definition of Mysticism

I can think of no better authority on mysticism than the Anglican writer Evelyn Underhill. In one of her shorter books, she gives the following definitions:

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.

Christian Mysticism

For a Christian mystic, that “Reality” is God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. My own definition would be that:

Christian mysticism is the study of, pursuit of, and the experience of oneness with God in and through Christ.

What Christian Mysticism is Not

The Christian mysticism I will be referencing has nothing to do with magic, astrology, crystals, alchemy, or the bizarre. Even dreams and visions are seen as suspicious. They are not essential to Christian mysticism, and can even be hindrances.

All are Called

Every Christian is called to this experience of oneness with God. Everyone is called to the mystic way. In fact, I think Karl Rainer might be right, “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.”