The treatise _Thoughts of the Love of God on some Words of the Song of
Songs_ is crowded with purely sensuous passages. In accordance with the
general custom, she interprets this naively sensual Semitic poem
allegorically, becomes tremendously excited in meditating on the kiss of
the beloved and discusses the question of what the soul should do to
"satisfy so sweet a bridegroom."
In the pamphlet _The Fortress of the Soul and its Seven Dwellings_, St.
Teresa describes similar states of mind: "The bridegroom commands the
doors of the dwellings to be closed and also the gates of the fortress
and its surrounding walls. In freeing the soul from the body, he stops
the body's breathing so that, even if the other senses are not quite
deadened, speech is impossible. At other times all sensuous perceptions
disappear simultaneously; body and hands grow rigid and it seems as if
the soul had left the body, which is scarcely breathing. This condition
is of short duration. The rigidity passes away to some extent, the body
slowly regains life, the breath comes and goes, only to die away again
and thus endow the soul with greater freedom. But this deep trance does
not endure long." She continues to describe her ecstasies and is careful
to point out the complete fusion of supreme delight and bodily pain.
Perhaps no hysterical subject has ever described her states of mind so
well. Her avowal (made in a letter to Father Rodrigue Alvarez) of her
complete unconsciousness of her body is quite in harmony with those
states of rapture. She wrote a number of spiritual love-songs which are
said to be conspicuous for their ardour and beauty; probably they have
never been translated from the original Spanish.
Finally there is the famous Madame Guyon (1648-1717), who--in addition
to many other works--wrote a very detailed autobiography. She lived with
her husband, whom she treated with coldness, finding her sole joy in her
spiritual intercourse with God. "I desire only the divine love which
thrills the soul with inexpressible bliss, the love which seems to melt
my whole being." God burns her with His fire and still trembling with
delight, she says to Him: "Oh, Lord! The greatest libertine, if Thou
didst make him experience Thy love as Thou didst make me experience it,
would forswear carnal pleasure and strive only after Thy divine love."
"I was like a person intoxicated with wine or love, unable to think of
anything but my passion," etc. The fact that she sought in this love the
pleasure of the senses is very apparent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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