The silent cry
Peter Hancock finds much to appreciate in a book on mysticism
The mystic, I believe, is not a special kind of person; but every person is a special kind of mystic. Some people often suspect that mysticism is for weirdoes. On the whole the conventional churches of every faith do not like it, for it takes its authority not from church theology or hireling priests but from the individual’s deepest inner experience.
As far back as I can remember I have sought to understand mysticism. I explored Zen Buddhism, the Tao, Sufism and Christian mysticism, all in considerable depth. I read book after book about mysticism. Always I nearly got it. I know from personal experience that moments of mystical experience come unbidden out of the blue. They tilt the axes of one’s world and life views.
Now, in Dorothee Soelle’s profound and amazing book, The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance, I find all the threads of types and aspects of mysticism drawn together. Yet all the cognitive understanding in the world does not result in experiencing mystical ecstasy. Somewhere in my childhood I remember having a feeling of ecstasy, and at that moment gathering all the synonyms I could: exuberance, excitement, elation, euphoria and exhilaration. Since then I have several times fallen into a state that I now clearly identify as mystical ecstasy.
Previously I was not quite sure of it. Dorothee Soelle reassures me. She moves easily from one manifestation or type of mystical experience to another and disentangles that experience from the local faith dialect in which it is expressed. For example, she sees beyond and behind the Old and New Testament language of the Quakers to the vividness of their inner experience.
She implies that we should not let a local religious traditional language disguise the unity of mystical experience in all faiths (and even non-faiths, such as science: for some hard-headed scientists report their own mystical experience, expressed especially in the language of physics). The Silent Cry has taken my breath away. It reveals more about mysticism than all I have read on the subject. It is quite a long book but it repays slow and ruminative reading and time-out to digest the intricate ideas.
Dorothee Soelle informs us that mysticism does not ask why or wherefore. It exists as a pure process, devoid of desires and goals. It is, in part, a process of escaping from the language of power, control and possession; especially from the control exerted by the patriarchal structures of society, not excluding the male-dominated religions and churches.
Historically, the churches have tortured and executed some of the mystics in their midst. Mysticism is antithetical to power structures. Mysticism exists in varied forms, including solitary adoration of the (non-paternalistic) divine in nature. It also resists the ruthless exploitation of nature and its resources by the worlds of consumerism and the military-industrial complex. The author considers that in this third millenium we must find ways to harness mystical experience in the service of what others call Gaia – the entire natural world of which we are all an intrinsic part.
Mysticism is more relevant than ever as an antidote to a political, social and economic world that has gone mad. It cannot be grasped by the intellect. It is ineffable. Conventional theology sees God-out-there. Mysticism sees no distinction or separation between nature, God and us. It is all a unity. Yet mysticism is the wellspring from which all great religions germinate. But as soon as such organisations grow they become corrupted by power and antagonistic to the mystical seed from which they took life.
For Dorothee Soelle mysticism becomes whole and complete when it incorporates all forms of justice, reverence for nature, the dismantling of patriarchal structures and attitudes, and the abandoning of our destructive materialistic consumer ways. The mystic is not a special kind of person – but every person is potentially a special kind of mystic. It is a matter of choice.
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance by Dorothee Soelle is published by Fortress Press at £19.99. ISBN: 9780800632663.
