Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood is a really annoying song.
Really, I hate it right now.
But I thought I might write my notes in my livejournal, so that not only do I not have to juggle books-screen-pen-writing, etc etc etc, but also you all have access to this interesting stuff on Mysticism! Yay!
(all word-for-word copying. Some sentence order changed)
English nuns well placed to practise mysticism, because women were apparantly the more devout sex, plus some understandings of female physiology.
Enclosed nuns, withdrawn from distractions of world, meaning they could concentrate upon matters of spirit, meant that they were excelent candidates for divine union.
Women renowned for intense spiritual relationships often had their biographies and spiritual writings published, thus becoming exemplars. Many mystics achieved secular pwr in the form of election to high conventual office.
Intense piety did not necessitate rejection of the world, medieval women's mysticism was 'historical and incarnational' reflecting their experience as women.80
Protestants and Catholics both thought that women were more devout than men. Elizabethan divine Richard Hooker observed L as the weaker sex women were naturally 'propense and inclinable to holiness"
Augustine Baker
"Women in their verie nature are more religious than men. This is verified not onlie... in the Catholick church where you ee farre more women than men to frequent the sacraments but allso in false religions... And though we cannot enter into all the reasons of nature, yet we maie conjecture... that women being of a colder complexion are more fearefull and have lesse confidence in themselves which urgeth them uppon occasions of feare... to recurre unto God for help as by the verie instinct of nature... And thus in the verie course of nature have they some advantage over men; for the divine grace finding a better disposition in nature commonlie worketh her effect the more effecaciously82
The visionary, mystic or prophet was likened to an empty vessel into which God poured his message... thus women's innate passivity and inferiority were understood as qualifications for mystical experience.
Margaret Gascoigne expressed it in comparable terms, declaring that to give herself entirely to God's "will and worshipp": "I would see nothing,
Heare nothing,
Feele nothing,
Know nothing,
Understand noting,
Be moved at nothing,
Have nothing,
But thee and thy will"
Gertrude More : 'Mortification' = a total surrender of the self to God's will
- mystical success was attributed to divine favour rather than to any human ability
Hm. Everything after this point would seem to be too recent to be useful, damn. Ah well. It's still all really interesting. I need to find a book called Holy Anorexia, it's apparantly a good secondary source about St Catherine of Sienna. Joy!
Doubtless, there will be more of this to come!
But I thought I might write my notes in my livejournal, so that not only do I not have to juggle books-screen-pen-writing, etc etc etc, but also you all have access to this interesting stuff on Mysticism! Yay!
(all word-for-word copying. Some sentence order changed)
English nuns well placed to practise mysticism, because women were apparantly the more devout sex, plus some understandings of female physiology.
Enclosed nuns, withdrawn from distractions of world, meaning they could concentrate upon matters of spirit, meant that they were excelent candidates for divine union.
Women renowned for intense spiritual relationships often had their biographies and spiritual writings published, thus becoming exemplars. Many mystics achieved secular pwr in the form of election to high conventual office.
Intense piety did not necessitate rejection of the world, medieval women's mysticism was 'historical and incarnational' reflecting their experience as women.80
Protestants and Catholics both thought that women were more devout than men. Elizabethan divine Richard Hooker observed L as the weaker sex women were naturally 'propense and inclinable to holiness"
Augustine Baker
"Women in their verie nature are more religious than men. This is verified not onlie... in the Catholick church where you ee farre more women than men to frequent the sacraments but allso in false religions... And though we cannot enter into all the reasons of nature, yet we maie conjecture... that women being of a colder complexion are more fearefull and have lesse confidence in themselves which urgeth them uppon occasions of feare... to recurre unto God for help as by the verie instinct of nature... And thus in the verie course of nature have they some advantage over men; for the divine grace finding a better disposition in nature commonlie worketh her effect the more effecaciously82
The visionary, mystic or prophet was likened to an empty vessel into which God poured his message... thus women's innate passivity and inferiority were understood as qualifications for mystical experience.
Margaret Gascoigne expressed it in comparable terms, declaring that to give herself entirely to God's "will and worshipp": "I would see nothing,
Heare nothing,
Feele nothing,
Know nothing,
Understand noting,
Be moved at nothing,
Have nothing,
But thee and thy will"
Gertrude More : 'Mortification' = a total surrender of the self to God's will
- mystical success was attributed to divine favour rather than to any human ability
Hm. Everything after this point would seem to be too recent to be useful, damn. Ah well. It's still all really interesting. I need to find a book called Holy Anorexia, it's apparantly a good secondary source about St Catherine of Sienna. Joy!
Doubtless, there will be more of this to come!