Journey of the Soul: A Mystical Ascent Towards an Annihilating Divine Love

With Beguine Mystic Marguerite Porete

For medieval mystics such as Marguerite Porete, eros represents a powerful spiritual force that ultimately leads one towards union with God; the pinnacle of divine love.

In the following essay, written for a course titled “Eros & Spirituality” taken at Emmanuel College in Toronto, Winter 2024 - we will explore the patterns of love’s growth, primarily through the lens of Marguerite Porete, a 13th-century Christian beguine clergeresse.

Exploring an original song crafted to lyrically and musically map Porete’s ‘seven stages of the pious soul’, we will explore the mystical ascent of eros towards annihilating divine love. 

The Evolution of Eros: From Platonic Philosophy to Mystical Theology

Centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ and the advent of Christianity, eros was mythologized in Ancient Greece as one of many great gods, associated with passionate love and sexual desire. Plato, 76.) With the emergence of platonic schools of philosophy, the concept of eros shifted to represent a ladder of divine ascent, where the philosopher moves from experiencing eros in its base form of lust, through various stages, until they merge with “pure, unadulterated beauty, which shines forth from all creation.” (Athanasiadis, 1).

This platonic view of eros had a profound influence on subsequent philosophical traditions and Christian theological thought. Popularized by the Neoplatonic philosopher and Christian theologian Pseudo-Dionysius in the sixth century, eros became a cosmic force guiding the mystic towards union with God. This idea of a mystical union gained strength into the Middle Ages, influencing the 13th-century Beguine movement - religious communities made up of lay women who voluntarily took vows of chastity, poverty and service without taking monastic vows. This was a fruitful time for Christian mystical spirituality, with Beguine teachers such as Mechthild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete writing influential works instructing their fellow Beguines on how to walk the mystical path towards divine union.

Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls

A key distinction between Porete’s work and that of other Beguine mystics is Porete’s use of apophatic theology, which emphasizes God’s unknowability, thereby referencing God through negation (what God is not). This is in juxtaposition to kataphatic or affirmative theology, which emphasizes what God is (ie. God is love).

Another distinction of Porete’s work is that it contains a complete seven-stage path that takes the soul beyond the state of union described by her contemporaries, leading the soul to “return to their primordial oneness with God” through the complete relinquishment of the personal will. (Holmes, 132). The end goal isn’t to become a ‘bride of Christ’ (the common terminology used by other beguine women and later mystics such as Teresa of Avila), but complete annihilation and dissolution of the self, thereby removing any separation from God.

Still yet another, and more tragic distinction between Marguerite Porete and her contemporaries can be found in the story of her life.

Born in Hainault, a French-speaking province between France and Belgium, Porete was a master of contemplative practice and theological reflection, dedicated to her teaching vocation. Porete wrote The Mirror of Simple Souls out of love for her fellow Beguines, guided by Lady Love (the name she gives God), alongside the two other characters in her book: Reason and The Soul, all of whom have female personifications. Such notions drew the unwelcome attention of the church.

While Marguerite was not the first woman to teach an advanced mystical theology that emphasized union with God, she was an unsupervised woman without the backing of any male religious figures. (This is unlike Mechthild of Magdeburg, another beguine woman who had the permission and support of her male Dominican Confessor to write about her experiences.)

Ultimately, after several tumultuous years that resulted in Porete’s book being burned and her being thrown into prison, Porete was deemed a heretic and burned at the stake in Paris in 1310.

Despite the medieval church’s attempt at silencing Porete, copies of her book The Mirror of Simple Souls continued to circulate after her death, influencing mystical theologians such as Meister Eckhart.

“Only Love Remains”: Creative Exploration of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

In solidarity with feminist theologians who aim to elevate the voices of those whom church history has attempted to erase, I chose to craft a song titled “Only Love Remains” that musically and lyrically maps Porete’s “seven stages of the pious Soul”. (Listen to me play the song here).

The song is melodically contemplative in feel, with a simple three-chord progression throughout both verses and chorus. The chord progression was an intuitive choice, but also metaphorical, representing Porete’s three main characters: The Soul, Reason, and Lady Love.

Overall Journey of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Chorus Lyrics: “I long for you, I dream of you, I will climb this mountain until there’s nothing left of me, only love remains.”

The chorus lyrics reflect the longing for union with the divine portrayed by ‘The Soul’ in Porete’s dialogue. The mountain represents the mystical seven-stage ‘ascent’, whereby the soul “ascends from the valley to the height of the mountain, which is so isolated that one sees nothing save God,” while a simultaneous stripping away of the personal will occurs. (Porete, 189). Love guides the soul to relinquish the individual self, leading to complete annihilation into the totality of the loving divine presence. Thus, at the end of the journey, there is no personal ‘I’ left to witness anything, only love (God) remains.

Stage One of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “First love commanded me to love God and my neighbour. Embraced by ecstasy, fear and desire.”

According to Porete, in stage one; “the Soul regards and considers, through great fear, that God has commanded her to love Him with all her heart, and also her neighbor as herself.” According to Emily Holmes, this is the life of the virtuous Christian, which is “sufficient for salvation”, but only the beginning of the soul’s path towards divine annihilation.

Stage Two of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “There’s a voice inside telling me to go beyond even higher. Where the self is free, from sinly creeds, and worldy honours.”

The latter half of verse one describes the second stage. The lyrics reflect Porete’s encouragement of her fellow Beguines whom “God counsels [as] his special lovers [to] go beyond what he commands.” (Porete, 189). There, the soul renounces ordinary pleasures and egoic delights, including both fear and desire.

Stage Three of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “Shedding another layer, to reunite with my lover. I let go of all I will, to expand love’s fire.”

Verse two picks up where verse one left off, at stage three of Porete’s ‘seven stages of the pious soul’. According to Wendy Farley, “When fear and pleasure are sufficiently pacified, the soul is able to genuinely enjoy good works.” (Farley, 109). However, the soul realizes that the desire to do good works strengthens the will, and since the will must be dissolved, the desire to do good works must be relinquished.

Stage Four of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “Entering into a state, where all is pure and beautiful, this love is so sweet, so noble, I’m enraptured.”

The fourth stage focuses on meditation and contemplation, leading towards bedazzlement by the divine light and love. It is overwhelming in its beauty and joy, and the soul is completely “inebriated by love”. This is the stage that ‘shocks reason to death’ and union with the divine is achieved. For this reason, many mystics believe this is the end of the journey. But to be in union with God still alludes to a dualistic understanding whereby the individual soul maintains a personal will. According to Porete, to continue the ascent, this too must be relinquished.

Stage Five of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “All of life is a gift, given by God. It’s time for my will to dissolve, now there’s no more “I”. The soul descends into nothingness, a bottomless abyss. She’s at rest now.”

From the height of spiritual ecstasy into the descent of nothingness, stage five represents a deep contrast to stage four. In this stage, the soul recognizes that all things, herself included only have existence because of God, who has gifted the soul free will. Porete describes God’s gift of free will as “pure divine goodness”. Yet, the will is also the source of sin and separation from God. Thus in this stage, the soul’s will must be returned to God. Once the will is returned, “Now such a soul is nothing… she finds there neither beginning nor middle nor end, only a bottomless abyss… now this soul is at rest in the bottomless depths.” (Porete, 192).

Stage Six of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “Now it’s all God, it’s all God, who is goodness, who clarifies and purifies, until eternal glory.”

No longer from the perspective of the individual soul, Lady Love takes over the dialogue, speaking from God’s perspective. Here, the soul is completely free of personal will and purified and clarified until it becomes a mirror of God. God now gazes at God’s self. The soul, however, is “not at all glorified. For the glorification is at the seventh stage.”

Stage Seven of Porete’s “Seven Stages of the Pious Soul”

Lyrics; “Only love remains.”

Of the seventh stage, Porete says “we will have no understanding until our soul has left our body.” Thus one can only assume that Porete herself is not yet at stage seven, as she remains in the world, acting as a conduit for the divine will to teach others.

Common Misinterpretations and Practical Applications

Marguerite Porete taught a mystical theology that was contrary to mainstream church doctrine and from outside of the confines of the church, challenging 13th-century notions of the religious Christian role of lay women. She was a rebel of her time!

One of the common criticisms of Porete’s work is that her end goal of total annihilation appears worrisome to both feminist theologians and postmodern readers who have little understanding of non-dualism, and thus see Porete’s encouragement of a total relinquishment of the self to be a return to ascetic practices that diminish the female self (inclusive of the body) at the expense of a male God.

Firstly God is beyond gender. ‘He’ is a product of cultural and historic context and a limitation of language. This is why we often use ‘thy’ and ‘thine’ in liturgy when speaking of God. This is also where non-dualistic philosophies as taught in Buddhism and Hindu-Yogic Philosophy are extremely helpful. The ‘annihilation of self’ - akin to Buddhist ‘no-self’ or ‘ego transcendence’ is an extremely advanced ‘non-dualistic’ spiritual state that few ever experience. So why is it important to understand and study these states?

For a few reasons.

One: humility. While the exact path to spiritual union with God, (or beyond union, to complete relinquishment of the personal will) is unknown and beyond the intellect’s capacity to understand, one thing is certain: the love of God surpasses all human understanding, yet speaks to us all the same, drawing our souls towards an ever deeper understanding of and connection with all that is.

Two: the path is long and vast. Christians often mistake ‘salvation’ as the end goal… when in fact, according to Porete and many other Christian mystics, and arguably Jesus himself depending how you interpret scripture; salvation was the starting point. The Eastern Christian church teaches that Theosis (union with God) is actually the ‘end game’. Even in certain evangelical denominations there is the recognition of ‘sanctification’, a state of consciousness that can be activated after one is ‘saved’. This is what the soul longs and desires in its deepest depths, and is more or less the ‘end game’ of most religious traditions; a return to source, a transcendance of the ‘ego self’ that keeps one in the illusion of separation, a realization of the unity and interconnectedness of all that exists…

Three: the mystical and enlightened states of consciousness CAN happen at anytime, they can be momentary or last for longer periods… thus, understanding these states through the ‘mind’ is helpful guidance in the eventuality that these states are experienced…

Ultimately, however, it is beyond the rational mind to comprehend the mystical, which is totally experiential…

So while reason can prompt this journey with its theological questioning, ultimately, only love’s passionate commitment to prayer, contemplation, surrender, and service to others, fed through divine grace, can lead one along the mystical path towards love’s heights and depths.

By walking this path, one opens themselves up to the incredible gifts of the spirit, beyond comprehension…

Happy walking, fellow mystic.

Bibliography:

Athanasiadis, Hannah. “Reading Reflection One: What is the Role of Eros in the Philosophical or Contemplative Life?” Reflection paper, Emmanuel College, 2024.

Corrigan, Kevin and Michael L. Harrington, "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite", in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman, June 2023. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/

Farley, Wendy. The Thirst of God: Contemplating God’s Love with Three Women Mystics. First Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.

Holmes, Emily A. Flesh Made Word: Medieval Woman Mystics, Writing, and the Incarnation. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013.

Plato, “The Symposium.” In Great Dialogues of Plato. Translated by W.H.D Rouse, edited by Eric H. Warmington and Philip G. Rouse, 69-117. New York, NY: New American Library, 1956.

Porete, Marguerite. The Mirror of Simple Souls. Translated by Ellen L. Babinksy. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1993.

Voss, Michelle. “3 - Sources II with focus on Revelation.” PowerPoint slides, Class 3 lecture, Toronto, ON, Jan 23, 2024.

Voss, Michelle. “The Rise of the Beguine Movement.” Youtube video, Toronto, ON, Dec 22 2023.