Libro Segundo — Capítulo 1
The Threshold of the Spirit
The soul transitions from the night of the senses into a period of intermittent spiritual purgation as it prepares for the deeper night of the spirit.
Here we begin to discuss the dark night of the spirit. Regarding the time when it begins.1 1. When God intends to lead a soul further, His Majesty does not place her into this night of the spirit immediately after she emerges from the dry spells and trials of the first purgation and night of the senses. Instead, a significant amount of time—often years—usually passes. Once the soul has left the state of a beginner, she is trained in the state of the proficient. In that state, like someone who has been released from a cramped prison, she walks in the things of God with much more freedom and satisfaction of soul, and with a more abundant and interior delight than she experienced at the beginning, before she entered that night. Her imagination and faculties are no longer bound to discursive meditation and spiritual striving as they once were. She soon finds, with great ease, a very serene and loving contemplation and spiritual savor in her spirit, without the labor of discursive thought.2 Even so, because the soul's purgation is not yet well finished—since the principal part is still lacking, namely that of the spirit (without which, because of the communication between one part and the other, given that they are a single subject, the sensory purgation is not finished and perfect either, however strong it may have been)—there still come times of certain needs, dry spells, darknesses, and distresses, sometimes much more intense than those that went before, which are like omens and messengers of the coming night of the spirit; though these are not lasting, as the night that awaits her will be.3 For once a spell—or spells, or days—of this night and storm has passed, she soon returns to her usual serenity; and in this way God goes on purging some souls who are not to rise to as high a degree of love as the others, putting them at intervals into this night of contemplation and spiritual purgation, making night fall and day break often, so that what David says may be fulfilled (Ps. 147:17)—that He sends His ice, that is, His contemplation, in morsels.4 Even so, these morsels of dark contemplation are never as intense as that dreadful night of contemplation we have yet to describe, in which God deliberately places the soul in order to lead her into divine union.
The Fragility of the Proficient
The soul's sensory nature remains too weak to fully contain the intense spiritual communications of God, leading to physical distress and raptures.
2. This savor and interior relish we speak of—which souls making progress find and taste in their spirit with such abundance and ease—is given to them far more generously than before. It overflows from the spirit into the senses more than it did prior to this sensory purgation; because the senses are now purer, they can more easily feel the delights of the spirit in their own way. And since the sensory part of the soul is weak and unable to bear the strong things of the spirit, it follows that these souls, because of this spiritual communication occurring in their sensory part, suffer many weaknesses, injuries, and stomach ailments, and consequently experience weariness in the spirit; for, as the Wise Man says (Wis. 9:15): 9:15): The body that is corrupted weighs down the soul. From this it follows that the communications these souls receive cannot be very strong, or very intense, or very spiritual—such as are required for divine union with God—because of the weakness and corruption of the sensuality that shares in them. From this come the raptures, transports, and dislocations of the bones that always occur when the communications are not purely spiritual—that is, given to the spirit alone, as they are in those who are perfect, already purified by the second night of the spirit. In those communications these raptures and bodily torments already cease, and they enjoy the freedom of the spirit without the senses being clouded or carried out of themselves.
The Necessity of Further Purgation
The soul must enter the final night of the spirit to be cleansed of remaining imperfections and dangers.
3. And so that people may understand how much these souls need to enter this night of the spirit, we will note here some of the imperfections and dangers that these more advanced ones have.
Read the original Latin
Comiénzase a tratar de la noche oscura del espíritu. Dícese a qué tiempo comienza
1. Un alma que Dios ha de llevar adelante, no luego que sale de las sequedades y trabajos de la primera purgación y noche del sentido, la pone Su Majestad en esta noche de espíritu, antes suele pasar harto tiempo y años en que, salida el alma del estado de principiantes, se ejercita en el de aprovechados, en el cual, así como el que ha salido de una estrecha cárcel, anda en las cosas de Dios con mucha más anchura y satisfacción del alma y con más abundante e interior deleite que hacía a los principios, antes que entrase en la dicha noche, no trayendo atada ya la imaginación y potencias al discurso y cuidado espiritual, como solía; porque con gran facilidad halla luego en su espíritu muy serena y amorosa contemplación y sabor espiritual sin trabajo del discurso. Aunque, como no está bien hecha la purgación del alma, porque falta la principal parte, que es la del espíritu (sin la cual, por la comunicación que hay de la una parte a la otra, por razón de ser un solo supuesto, tampoco la purgación sensitiva, aunque más fuerte haya sido, queda acabada y perfecta), nunca le faltan a veces algunas necesidades, sequedades, tinieblas y aprietos, a veces mucho más intensos que los pasados, que son como presagios y mensajeros de la noche venidera del espíritu; aunque no son éstos durables, como será la noche que espera. Porque, habiendo pasado un rato, o ratos, o días de esta noche y tempestad, luego vuelve a su acostumbrada serenidad; y de esta manera va purgando Dios a algunas almas que no han de subir a tan alto grado de amor como las otras, metiéndolas a ratos interpoladamente en esta noche de contemplación y purgación espiritual, haciendo anochecer y amanecer a menudo, porque se cumpla lo que dice David (Sal. 147, 17), que envía su cristal, esto es, su contemplación, como a bocados. Aunque estos bocados de oscura contemplación nunca son tan intensos como lo es aquella horrenda noche de la contemplación que habemos de decir, en que de propósito pone Dios al alma para llevarla a la divina unión.
2. Este sabor, pues, y gusto interior que decimos, que con abundancia y facilidad hallan y gustan estos aprovechantes en su espíritu, con mucha más abundancia que antes se les comunica, redundando de ahí en el sentido más que solía antes de esta sensible purgación; que, por cuanto él está ya más puro, con más facilidad puede sentir los gustos del espíritu a su modo. Y como, en fin, esta parte sensitiva del alma es flaca e incapaz para las cosas fuertes del espíritu, de aquí es que estos aprovechados, a causa de esta comunicación espiritual que se hace en la parte sensitiva, padecen en ella muchas debilitaciones y detrimentos y flaquezas de estómago, y en el espíritu, consiguientemente, fatigas; porque, como dice el Sabio (Sab. 9, 15): El cuerpo que se corrompe, agrava el alma. De aquí es que las comunicaciones de éstos no pueden ser muy fuertes, ni muy intensas, ni muy espirituales, cuales se requieren para la divina unión con Dios, por la flaqueza y corrupción de la sensualidad que participa en ellas.
De aquí vienen los arrobamientos y traspasos y descoyuntamientos de huesos, que siempre acaecen cuando las comunicaciones no son puramente espirituales, esto es, al espíritu sólo, como son las de los perfectos, purificados ya por la noche segunda del espíritu, en las cuales cesan ya estos arrobamientos y tormentos del cuerpo, gozando ellos de la libertad del espíritu, sin que se anuble ni trasponga el sentido.
3. Y, porque se entienda la necesidad que éstos tienen de entrar en esta noche de espíritu, notaremos aquí algunas imperfecciones y peligros que tienen estos aprovechados.
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish 'Dícese a qué tiempo comienza' is a chapter-style heading fragment (impersonal 'it is said/told'). Rendered as a concise heading rather than a full declarative sentence, matching the source's incomplete, title-like form.
- 2 ↩aprovechados rendered as "proficients," the standard Sanjuanist term for those advancing beyond beginners; discurso as "discursive meditation/thought," not mere conversation.
- 3 ↩un solo supuesto rendered as "a single subject" (Scholastic suppositum: one hypostatic subject uniting sensory and spiritual powers).
- 4 ↩cristal follows the biblical image of ice/hail (Ps 147:17); rendered "ice" rather than glass-crystal, with John's gloss "his contemplation" kept.
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