Libro Segundo — Capítulo 16
The Security of the Dark Night
The soul finds true security in the dark night because its natural faculties and appetites are stilled, preventing it from wandering into error.
The first verse is presented, and it explains how the soul, traveling in darkness, moves securely. 1. The darkness the soul speaks of here, as we've already said, concerns the appetites and the sensory, interior, and spiritual powers, because all of them are darkened of their natural light in this night so that, by being purged concerning them, they may be enlightened concerning the supernatural. For the sensory and spiritual appetites are asleep and deadened, unable to take delight in anything divine or human; the soul's affections are oppressed and constricted, unable to move toward anything or find support in anything; the imagination is bound, unable to form any good train of thought; the memory is spent; the understanding is darkened, unable to grasp anything—and from this the will too is dry and constricted; and all the powers are empty and useless; and over all this, a thick, heavy cloud hangs over the soul, keeping it anguished and estranged from God.12 In this way, the soul says here, it was walking in darkness. 2. The reason for this is well set out; because, ordinarily, the soul never goes astray except through its appetites or its tastes, or its reasonings, or its understandings, or its affections; because as a rule, in these it overshoots or falls short, or wavers or blunders, or yields and leans toward what is not fitting. From this it follows that, once all these operations and movements are blocked, it is clear the soul is kept safe from going astray in them, because it is freed not only from itself, but also from the other enemies—the world and the devil—who, once the soul's affections and operations are put out, cannot wage war on it from any other side or in any other way. 3. From this it follows that the more the soul goes in darkness and empty of its natural operations, the safer it goes; because, as the prophet says (Hos. 13:9), ruin comes to the soul only from itself—that is, from its interior and sensory operations and appetites—and the good, says God, only from me.3 Therefore, once she is blocked like this from her evils, what remains is that the goods of union with God should then come to her in her appetites and powers, in which he will make them divine and heavenly.4 Hence, in the time of darkness, if the soul looks carefully into this, it will see very clearly how little its appetite and powers are diverted toward useless and harmful things, and how safe it is from vainglory, pride, empty presumption, and false joy, and from many other things.5 So it well follows that by going in darkness the soul not only is not lost, but is even greatly gained, since here it is gaining the virtues.
Purging the Natural Mode
God darkens the soul's faculties even regarding spiritual things to purge them of their low, natural mode of reception, preparing them for divine union.
4. But regarding the doubt that arises here, it’s worth knowing: since the things of God inherently benefit, gain, and secure the soul, why does God darken its appetites and faculties regarding these good things during this night, to the point that it can neither taste them nor engage with them as it does with other things—and in some ways, even less so? The answer is that at that point it is fitting that neither activity nor taste remain to it concerning spiritual things either, because its faculties and appetites are impure, low, and very natural; and so, even if these faculties were given the savor and handling of supernatural and divine things, they could only receive them in a very low and natural way, very much after their own manner. For, as the Philosopher says, whatever is received is in the receiver according to the mode in which it receives it.6 Since these natural faculties lack the purity, strength, and capacity to receive and taste supernatural things in their proper, divine mode—rather than their own low, human mode—it is fitting that they be darkened regarding these divine things. By being weaned, purged, and brought to nothing in their old way, they lose that low, human method of receiving and acting. In this way, all the faculties and appetites of the soul can be disposed and tempered to receive, feel, and taste what is divine and supernatural in a high and elevated way, which is impossible unless the old self first dies. 5. From this it follows that everything spiritual, if it is not communicated from above by the Father of lights (Jas. No matter how much a person exercises their taste and powers with God, and no matter how much they think they are tasting those things, they aren't tasting them divinely or spiritually, but only humanly and naturally, just as they taste everything else—because goods don't go from man to God; they come from God to man.✦7 If this were the place for it, we could explain how many people experience various delights, affections, and operations of their powers regarding God or spiritual things, and they may well think this is supernatural and spiritual—when it may actually be nothing more than natural and human appetites, which they direct toward these good things with the same disposition they have toward everything else, due to a certain natural ease they have in moving their appetite and powers toward anything at all.8 6. If we happen to find occasion in what remains, we'll take it up, giving some signs of when the soul's interior movements and actions are only natural, when they are only spiritual, and when they are both spiritual and natural in dealing with God. For now, it's enough to know that for the soul's interior acts and movements to be moved divinely by God, they must first be darkened and put to sleep, naturally quieted in all their capacity and operation until they cease.9
The Divine Guide in Obscurity
The soul is encouraged not to fear the loss of its former ways, for God is leading it as a blind person along a new, safer path of progress.
7. Oh, spiritual soul! when you see your appetite darkened, your affections dry and constricted, and your faculties disabled for any interior exercise, don't distress yourself over it; rather take it as a blessing. For God is freeing you from yourself, taking the goods out of your hands—and with those hands, however well they might have served you, you would never have worked so completely, perfectly, and securely, because of their impurity and clumsiness, as you do now when God takes your hand and guides you in the dark like a blind person, to where and by ways you do not know, and that you would never, with your own eyes and feet, however well they might go, have found the way to walk.1011 8. There's also this reason why the soul not only goes safely when she walks this way in darkness, but even keeps gaining and making more progress: commonly, when the soul is receiving fresh improvement and advancing, it's by a path she least understands—rather, she very ordinarily thinks she's losing ground. Because she has never experienced that newness that makes her leave her former way of going and dazzles her and throws her off course from it, she thinks she is being lost more than finding her way and gaining, since she sees herself losing hold of what she used to know and take pleasure in, and finds herself going where she neither knows nor finds any pleasure. Just as the traveler who, to reach new unknown lands, goes by new roads neither known nor tried, walks not guided by what he knew before, but in doubt and by what others say. And clearly, this traveler could not reach new lands or learn more than he already knew unless he took new, unknown paths and left his old ones behind. In the same way, anyone who learns more about the details of a craft or art always moves in the dark, not relying on their initial knowledge; if they didn't leave that behind, they would never move beyond it or make further progress. So, when the soul makes more progress, it moves in the dark and without knowing.12 Therefore, since God is the teacher and guide of this blind soul, as we have said, she can truly rejoice—now that she understands it as we have described—and say: in the dark and safe.13
Suffering as a Tabernacle of Protection
The path of suffering and dark contemplation acts as a divine tabernacle, sheltering the soul from the turmoil of the world and the contradictions of men.
9. Another reason, too, why the soul has gone safely through this darkness is that it was suffering—because the path of suffering is safer, and even more profitable, than the path of enjoyment and activity: first, because in suffering God's strength is added to the soul, while in activity and enjoyment the soul exercises its weaknesses and imperfections; and second, because in suffering the virtues are exercised and gained, and the soul is purified and made wiser and more careful. 10. But there is another, even more important reason why the soul travels safely in the dark, which comes from that dark light or wisdom we mentioned: this dark night of contemplation absorbs the soul so completely, drawing it into itself and bringing it so close to God, that it protects and frees the soul from everything that isn't God. Because, since this soul is here put under treatment so that it may obtain its health—which is God himself—His Majesty keeps it on a diet and in abstinence from all things, with its appetite spoiled for every one of them; just as, so that a sick person who is valued in the household may recover, they keep him so carefully shut away indoors that they don't let him touch the open air or even enjoy the light, or feel the footsteps, or even the murmur of those in the house, and the food is very delicate and carefully measured, more for substance than for taste.14 11. All these properties—every one of them belonging to the soul's safety and protection—this dark contemplation causes in her, because she is set closer to God; for the nearer the soul draws to him, the darker the darkness she feels, and the deeper the obscurity, because of her weakness—just as the one who came nearest the sun would find its great brilliance causing him more darkness and pain, because of the weakness and impurity of his eye. That is why God's spiritual light is so immense, and so far exceeds the natural understanding, that when it draws nearer, it blinds and darkens it. And this is why, in Psalm 17 (v. that God made darkness his hiding place and his covering, setting his tabernacle around him—dark waters in the clouds of the sky. This dark water in the clouds of the air is the dark contemplation and divine wisdom in souls, as we have been saying; and they keep sensing it as something near him—like a tabernacle where he dwells—when God is drawing it more closely to himself.15 Therefore, what is light and supreme brightness in God is, for the human person, the darkest darkness, as Saint Paul says (1 Cor. 2:14). 2:14)—as David then declares in the same psalm (17:13), saying: Because of the radiance that is in his presence, clouds and cataracts came forth—that is, for the natural understanding, whose light, as Isaiah says in chapter 5 (v.16 30): is darkened in his thick darkness.17 12. Oh miserable lot of life, where we live in such danger and know the truth with such difficulty—since what is clearest and truest is for us darkest and most doubtful, and so we flee from it, though it is what most benefits us, and what most shines and fills our eye we embrace and chase after, though it is what is worst for us and what makes us stumble at every step! In how much danger and fear does a person live, since the very natural light of his eyes, by which he is meant to be guided, is the first thing that dazzles and deceives him on the way to God—and that if he is to manage to see which way he is going, he needs to keep his eyes shut and go in darkness so as to go safely past the domestic enemies of his own household, which are his senses and faculties!18 13. So the soul is well off here, hidden and sheltered in this dark water that is near God. For just as it serves God himself as a tabernacle and dwelling, it will serve the soul no more and no less as the same: as perfect shelter and safety—though for the soul in darkness, where she is hidden and protected from herself and from every harm that creatures can do, as we have said.19 It is of such souls that David speaks in another psalm (30:21): "You will hide them in the shelter of your face from the turmoil of men; you will protect them in your tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues." This encompasses every kind of protection.20 For to be hidden in God's face from the turmoil of men is to be strengthened in this dark contemplation against every trial that can come upon them from other people. And to be "sheltered in his tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues" means for the soul to be plunged deep into this dark water, which is the tabernacle of David we have spoken of.21 There, because the soul has weaned all its appetites and affections and its faculties are darkened, it's free from every imperfection that opposes the spirit—both from its own flesh and from other creatures.22 So this soul can truly say that it walks in darkness and is safe.
The Vigilance of Dark Love
The dark night strengthens the soul with a vigilant love, gathering all its powers into a singular focus on serving God in secret union.
14. There is another reason, just as effective as the one I just mentioned, for understanding why such a soul walks safely in the dark: the strength that this dark, painful, and shadowy water of God immediately imparts to the soul. After all, even though it is dark and shadowy, it is still water; therefore, it cannot help but refresh and strengthen the soul in what is best for it, even if that happens only in darkness and through pain.23 Because at once the soul finds in itself a true determination and power not to do anything it understands to be an offense against God, and not to leave undone anything that seems to belong to his service—for that dark love clings to it with a very vigilant care and interior concern about what it will do or leave undone for him in order to please him, turning the matter over a thousand times to see whether it has given him cause for offense; and all of this with far more care and concern than before, as was said above about the yearnings of love. Because here all the soul's appetites, forces, and faculties are gathered in from every other thing, putting their effort and strength only into the service of their God.24 In this way the soul goes out from itself and from all created things into the sweet and delightful union of God's love, in darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, in disguise.25
Read the original Latin
Pónese el primer verso y explícase cómo, yendo el alma a oscuras, va segura.
1. La oscuridad que aquí dice el alma, ya habemos dicho que es acerca de los apetitos y potencias sensitivas, interiores y espirituales, porque todas se oscurecen de su natural lumbre en esta noche porque, purgándose acerca de ellas, puedan ser ilustradas acerca de lo sobrenatural. Porque los apetitos sensitivos y espirituales están adormecidos y amortiguados sin poder gustar de cosa ni divina ni humana; las afecciones del alma, oprimidas y apretadas, sin poderse mover a ella ni hallar arrimo en nada; la imaginación, atada, sin poder hacer algún discurso de bien; la memoria, acabada; el entendimiento, entenebrecido, sin poder entender cosa, y de aquí también la voluntad seca y apretada, y todas las potencias vacías e inútiles, y, sobre todo esto, una espesa y pesada nube sobre el alma, que la tiene angustiada y ajenada de Dios. De esta manera a oscuras, dice aquí el alma que iba
2. La causa de esto está bien declarada; porque, ordinariamente, el alma nunca yerra sino por sus apetitos o sus gustos, o sus discursos, o sus inteligencias, o sus afecciones; porque de ordinario en éstas excede o falta, o varía o desatina, o da y se inclina en lo que no conviene. De donde, impedidas todas estas operaciones y movimientos, claro está que queda el alma segura de errar en ellos, porque, no sólo se libra de sí, sino también de los otros enemigos, que son mundo y demonio, los cuales, apagadas las afecciones y operaciones del alma, no le pueden hacer guerra por otra parte ni de otra manera.
3. De aquí se sigue que, cuanto el alma va más a oscuras y vacía de sus operaciones naturales, va más segura; porque, como dice el profeta (Os. 13, 9), la perdición al alma solamente le viene de sí misma, esto es, de sus operaciones y apetitos interiores y sensitivos, y el bien, dice Dios, solamente de mí. Por tanto, impedida ella así de sus males, resta que le vengan luego los bienes de la unión de Dios en sus apetitos y potencias, en que las hará divinas y celestiales. De donde en el tiempo de las tinieblas, si el alma mira en ello, muy bien echará de ver cuán poco se le divierte el apetito y las potencias a cosas inútiles y dañosas, y cuán segura está de vanagloria, soberbia y presunción vana y falso gozo, y de otras muchas cosas. Luego, bien se sigue que, por ir a oscuras, no sólo no va perdida, sino aun muy ganada, pues aquí va ganando las virtudes.
4. Pero a la duda que de aquí nace luego, conviene a saber: que, pues las cosas de Dios de suyo hacen bien al alma y la ganan y aseguran, ¿por qué en esta noche le oscurece Dios los apetitos y potencias también acerca de estas cosas buenas, de manera que tampoco pueda gustar de ellas, ni tratarlas como las demás, y aun en alguna manera menos? Respóndese que entonces conviene que tampoco le quede operación ni gusto acerca de las cosas espirituales, porque tiene las potencias y apetitos impuros y bajos y muy naturales; y así, aunque les den el sabor y trato a estas potencias de las cosas sobrenaturales y divinas, no le podrían recibir sino muy baja y naturalmente, muy a su modo. Porque, como dice el Filósofo, cualquier cosa que se recibe está en el recipiente al modo que lo recibe.
De donde, porque estas naturales potencias no tienen pureza ni fuerza ni caudal para poder recibir y gustar las cosas sobrenaturales al modo de ellas, que es divino, sino sólo al suyo, que es humano y bajo, como habemos dicho, conviene que sean oscurecidas también acerca de esto divino, porque, destetadas y purgadas y aniquiladas en aquello primero, pierdan aquel bajo y humano modo de recibir y obrar, y así vengan a quedar dispuestas y templadas todas estas potencias y apetitos del alma para poder recibir, sentir y gustar lo divino y sobrenatural alta y subidamente, lo cual no puede ser si primero no muere el hombre viejo.
5. De aquí es que todo lo espiritual, si de arriba no viene comunicado del Padre de las lumbres (Sant. 1, 17) sobre el albedrío y apetito humano, aunque más se ejercite el gusto y potencias del hombre con Dios y por mucho que les parezca los gustan, no los gustarán divina y espiritualmente, sino humana y naturalmente, como gustan las demás cosas, porque los bienes no van del hombre a Dios, sino vienen de Dios al hombre. Acerca de lo cual, si éste fuera lugar de ello, pudiéramos aquí declarar cómo hay muchas personas que tienen muchos gustos y aficiones y operaciones de sus potencias acerca de Dios o de cosas espirituales, y por ventura pensarán ellos que aquello es sobrenatural y espiritual, y por ventura no son más que actos y apetitos más naturales y humanos, que, como los tienen de las demás cosas, los tienen en el mismo temple de aquellas cosas buenas, por cierta facilidad natural que tienen en mover el apetito y potencias a cualquier cosa.
6. Si por ventura encontráremos ocasión en lo restante, lo trataremos, diciendo algunas señales de cuándo los movimientos y acciones interiores del alma sean sólo naturales, y cuándo sólo espirituales, y cuándo espirituales y naturales acerca del trato con Dios. Basta aquí saber que, para que los actos y movimientos interiores del alma puedan venir a ser movidos por Dios divinamente, primero han de ser oscurecidos y adormidos, asosegados naturalmente acerca de toda su habilidad y operación hasta que desfallezcan.
7. ¡Oh, pues, alma espiritual! , cuando vieres oscurecido tu apetito, tus aficiones secas y apretadas, e inhabilitadas tus potencias para cualquier ejercicio interior, no te penes por eso, antes lo ten a buena dicha; pues que te va Dios librando de ti misma, quitándote de las manos la hacienda; con las cuales, por bien que ellas te anduviesen, no obraras tan cabal, perfecta y seguramente, a causa de la impureza y torpeza de ellas, como ahora que, tomando Dios la mano tuya, te guía a oscuras como a ciego, a donde y por donde tú no sabes, ni jamás con tus ojos y pies, por bien que anduvieran, atinaras a caminar.
8. La causa también por que el alma no sólo va segura, cuando va así a oscuras, sino aun se va más ganando y aprovechando, es porque, comúnmente, cuando el alma va recibiendo mejoría de nuevo y aprovechando, es por donde ella menos entiende, antes muy de ordinario piensa que se va perdiendo, porque, como ella nunca ha experimentado aquella novedad que le hace salir y deslumbrar y desatinar de su primer modo de proceder, antes piensa que se va perdiendo que acertando y ganando, como ve que se pierde acerca de lo que sabía y gustaba, y se ve ir por donde no sabe ni gusta.
Así como el caminante que, para ir a nuevas tierras no sabidas, va por nuevos caminos no sabidos ni experimentados, que camina no guiado por lo que sabía antes, sino en duda y por el dicho de otros. Y claro está que éste no podría venir a nuevas tierras, ni saber más de lo que antes sabía, si no fuera por caminos nuevos nunca sabidos, y dejados los que sabía; ni más ni menos, el que va sabiendo más particularidades en un oficio o arte siempre va a oscuras, no por su saber primero, porque, si aquél no dejase atrás, nunca saldría de él ni aprovecharía en más; así, de la misma manera, cuando el alma va aprovechando más, va a oscuras y no sabiendo. Por tanto, siendo, como habemos dicho, Dios el maestro y guía de este ciego del alma bien puede ella, ya que le ha venido a entender como aquí decimos, con verdad alegrarse y decir: a oscuras y segura.
9. Otra causa también por que en estas tinieblas ha ido el alma segura es porque iba padeciendo; porque el camino de padecer es más seguro y aun más provechoso que el de gozar y hacer: lo uno, porque en el padecer se le añaden fuerzas de Dios, y en el hacer y gozar ejercita el alma sus flaquezas e imperfecciones; y lo otro, porque en el padecer se van ejercitando y ganando las virtudes y purificando el alma y haciendo más sabia y cauta.
10. Pero aquí hay otra más principal causa por que aquí el alma a oscuras va segura, y es de parte de la dicha luz o sabiduría oscura; porque de tal manera la absorbe y embebe en sí esta oscura noche de contemplación y la pone tan cerca de Dios, que la ampara y libra de todo lo que no es Dios. Porque, como está puesta aquí en cura esta alma para que consiga su salud, que es el mismo Dios, tiénela Su Majestad en dieta y abstinencia de todas las cosas, estragado el apetito para todas ellas; bien así como para que sane el enfermo, que en su casa es estimado, le tienen tan adentro guardado, que no le dejan tocar del aire ni aun gozar de la luz, ni que sienta las pisadas, ni aun el rumor de los de casa, y la comida muy delicada y muy por tasa, de sustancia más que de sabor.
11. Todas estas propiedades, que todas son de seguridad y guarda del alma, causa en ella esta oscura contemplación, porque ella está puesta más cerca de Dios; porque, cuanto el alma más a él se acerca, más oscuras tinieblas siente y más profunda oscuridad por su flaqueza; así como el que más cerca del sol llegase, más tinieblas y pena le causaría su grande resplandor por la flaqueza e impureza de su ojo. De donde tan inmensa es la luz espiritual de Dios, y tanto excede al entendimiento natural, que, cuando llega más cerca, le ciega y oscurece.
Y ésta es la causa por que en el salmo 17 (v. 12) dice David que puso Dios por su escondrijo y cubierta las tinieblas, y su tabernáculo en rededor de sí, tenebrosa agua en las nubes del aire. La cual agua tenebrosa en las nubes del aire es la oscura contemplación y sabiduría divina en las almas, como vamos diciendo; la cual ellas van sintiendo como cosa que está cerca de él, como tabernáculo donde él mora, cuando Dios a sí la va más juntando. Y así, lo que en Dios es luz y claridad más alta, es para el hombre tiniebla más oscura, como dice san Pablo (1 Cor. 2, 14) según lo declara luego David en el mismo salmo (17, 13), diciendo: Por causa del resplandor que está en su presencia, salieron nubes y cataratas, conviene a saber, para el entendimiento natural, cuya luz, como dice Isaías en el capítulo 5 (v. 30), obtenebrata est in caligine eius.
12. ¡Oh mísera suerte de vida, donde con tanto peligro se vive y con tanta dificultad la verdad se conoce, pues lo más claro y verdadero nos es más oscuro y dudoso, y por eso huimos de ello siendo lo que más nos conviene, y lo que más luce y llena nuestro ojo lo abrazamos y vamos tras de ello, siendo lo que peor nos está y lo que a cada paso nos hace dar de ojos! ¡En cuánto peligro y temor vive el hombre, pues la misma lumbre de sus ojos natural, con que se ha de guiar, es la primera que le encandila y engaña para ir a Dios, y, que si ha de acertar a ver por dónde va, tenga necesidad de llevar cerrados los ojos y de ir a oscuras para ir seguro de los enemigos domésticos de su casa, que son sus sentidos y potencias!
13. Bien está, pues, el alma aquí escondida y amparada en esta agua tenebrosa, que está cerca de Dios. Porque, así como al mismo Dios sirve de tabernáculo y morada, le servirá, ni más ni menos, al alma de otro tanto y de amparo perfecto y seguridad, aunque a ella en tinieblas, en que está escondida y amparada de sí misma y de todos los daños de criaturas, como habemos dicho. Porque de los tales se entiende lo que también David dice en otro salmo (30, 21), diciendo: Esconderlos has en el escondrijo de tu rostro de la turbación de los hombres; ampararlos has en tu tabernáculo de la contradicción de las lenguas, en lo cual se entiende toda manera de amparo. Porque estar escondidos en el rostro de Dios de la turbación de los hombres es estar fortalecidos en esta oscura contemplación contra todas las ocasiones que de parte de los hombres les pueden sobrevenir. Y “estar amparados en su tabernáculo de la contradicción de las lenguas” es estar el alma engolfada en esta agua tenebrosa, que es el tabernáculo que habemos dicho de David. Donde, por tener el alma todos los apetitos y afecciones destetados y las potencias oscurecidas, está libre de todas las imperfecciones que contradicen al espíritu, así de su misma carne como de las demás criaturas. De donde esta alma bien puede decir que va a oscuras y segura.
14. Hay también otra causa no menos eficaz que la pasada para acabar bien de entender que esta tal alma va segura a oscuras, y es por la fortaleza que esta oscura, penosa y tenebrosa agua de Dios desde luego pone en el alma. Que, en fin, aunque es tenebrosa, es agua, y por eso no ha de dejar de reficionar y fortalecer al alma en lo que más le conviene, aunque a oscuras y penosamente. Porque, desde luego, ve el alma en sí una verdadera determinación y eficacia de no hacer cosa que entienda ser ofensa de Dios, ni dejar de hacer lo que parece cosa de su servicio; porque aquel amor oscuro se le pega con un muy vigilante cuidado y solicitud interior de qué hará o dejará por él para contentarle, mirando y dando mil vueltas si ha sido causa de enojarle; y todo esto con mucho más cuidado y solicitud que antes, como arriba queda dicho en lo de las ansias de amor. Porque aquí todos los apetitos y fuerzas y potencias del alma están recogidas de todas las demás cosas, empleando su conato y fuerza sólo en obsequio de su Dios.
De esta manera sale el alma de sí misma y de todas las cosas criadas a la dulce y deleitosa unión de amor de Dios, a oscuras y segura,
por la secreta escala disfrazada.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jas.1.17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Notes
- 1 ↩"discurso de bien" is rendered as a useful/discursive train of thought, not mere speech; in San Juan's usage it names the imagination's power to run discursive meditation.
- 2 ↩"sin poderse mover a ella": "ella" is taken as the implied object of desire (anything to which the affections would move), not the soul herself.
- 3 ↩Spanish 'perdición' kept as 'ruin' (self-destruction/loss) rather than generic 'damnation,' matching Hosea's sense that the soul's undoing is from itself.
- 4 ↩'las hará' is feminine plural and most naturally targets the soul's potencies/faculties (and by context the appetites with them); rendered as 'them' for the appetites and powers under that union.
- 5 ↩Older Spanish 'se le divierte' = is turned/diverted aside (not modern 'amuses'); rendered 'diverted toward'.
- 6 ↩"el Filósofo" is the scholastic designation of Aristotle; the maxim is the classic axiom that what is received is received according to the mode of the receiver (quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur).
- 7 ↩albedrío is free will/choice; apetito is the appetite or desire-faculty, not mere physical hunger.
- 8 ↩temple here means temperament or cast of soul (the same natural disposition), not a building.
- 9 ↩Source 'asosegados' is older Spanish for 'sosegados' (quieted/settled); rendered 'quieted' to keep the calming sense without modernizing away the spiritual sense of natural powers being stilled.
- 10 ↩Spanish hacienda here is the soul's natural spiritual "estate" or goods—what she still holds and works with by her own faculties. Rendered as "goods" to keep the property metaphor without sounding like a farm or business.
- 11 ↩con las cuales is feminine plural and most naturally resumes las manos ("hands"), not singular hacienda: God removes the goods from her hands, and those self-directed hands could never work as purely as when God holds her hand.
- 12 ↩va a oscuras keeps the work's technical sense of going in darkness/unknowing, not mere physical night; paired with no sabiendo as progressive spiritual advance beyond prior knowing.
- 13 ↩a oscuras y segura renders the poem's refrain; segura = safe/secure under God's guidance, not merely confident feeling.
- 14 ↩«puesta en cura» / «salud» carry the medical-cure metaphor: God treats the soul as a patient whose true health is God himself. «estragado el apetito» is an absolute construction: the appetite is spoiled/ruined for created things, not merely restrained.
- 15 ↩Spanish la in «Dios a sí la va más juntando» is feminine singular; rendered as the dark contemplation/wisdom (and the soul under it) being drawn to God, not as a free paraphrase of union jargon.
- 16 ↩cataratas kept as cataracts (floodgates/torrents of water from the sky), matching the psalm image rather than medical cataracts.
- 17 ↩Source embeds the Latin Vulgate phrasing obtenebrata est in caligine eius; rendered in English to complete Isaiah 5:30 for the modern-readable surface while preserving the sense of light darkened in God’s/its gloom.
- 18 ↩potencias rendered as faculties (the scholastic powers of the soul: understanding, memory, and will), not as political or physical powers.
- 19 ↩The subject is the dark water (agua tenebrosa): what is God's tabernacle and dwelling for him is, for the soul, the same perfect protection, experienced as darkness.
- 20 ↩Citation is Vulgate Psalm 30:21 (modern Psalm 31:20). Quoted from the Spanish source's psalm wording, not from a later English Bible version.
- 21 ↩engolfada: literally engulfed/plunged as into a gulf of water; rendered as "plunged deep" to keep the water image without sounding archaic.
- 22 ↩potencias: the soul's faculties (intellect, memory, will) in San Juan's anthropology; rendered as "faculties." destetados: his technical image of desires "weaned" from creatures.
- 23 ↩Spanish 'reficionar' (older form related to 'refocilar') means to restore/refresh/nourish; rendered as 'refresh' to keep the water metaphor concrete.
- 24 ↩'Potencias' rendered as 'faculties' (intellect, memory, will in the scholastic anthropology San Juan assumes). 'Obsequio' rendered as 'service' rather than the modern sense of 'obsequious'.
- 25 ↩Spanish disfrazada (feminine) may modify either the soul (the one going out disguised) or the ladder itself; classical readings of the poem take the soul as disguised. Rendered here as modifying the soul's manner of going out.
Dark Night of the Soul companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent