Readings from the Interior Castle

In the order they appear in the course

Welcome and Introduction

From Mirabai Starr’s Video

‘I am not sure I have explained this well. Self-knowledge is so important that I do not care how
high you are raised up to the heavens, I never want you to cease cultivating it. As long as we
are on this earth, there is nothing more essential than humility. Enter the room of self-knowledge
first, instead of floating off to the other places. This is the path. Traveling along a safe and level
road, who needs wings to fly? Let’s make the best possible use of our feet first and learn to
know ourselves.’

 Pg 46, The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr (Riverhead: 2003)

Context and Essence of Teresa of Ávila

St. Teresa of Ávila’s Bookmark Prayer from Mirabai Starr’s video (Not from Interior Castle, but
enjoyable to have)

Nada te turbe,
nada te espante,
Todo se pasa,
Dios no se muda.
La paciencia todo alcanza;
Quien a Dios tiene
nada le falta:
Sólo Dios basta.

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing upset you.
Everything changes.
God alone is unchanging.
With patience all things are possible.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough.

-- St. Teresa of Avila

Mansions 1 – 4
Quotes James Finley uses in this week’s teaching.

“While I was beseeching Our Lord to-day that He would speak through me, since I could find
nothing to say and had no idea how to begin to carry out the obligation laid upon me by
obedience, a thought occurred to me which I will now set down, in order to have some
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foundation on which to build. I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single
diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are
many mansions. Now if we think carefully over this, sisters, the soul of the righteous man is
nothing but a paradise, in which, as God tells us, He takes His delight. For what do you think a
room will be like which is the delight of a King so mighty, so wise, so pure and so full of all that
is good? I can find nothing with which to compare the great beauty of a soul and its great
capacity. In fact, however acute our intellects may be, they will no more be able to attain to a
comprehension of this than to an understanding of God; for, as He Himself says, He created us
in His image and likeness. Now if this is so--and it is--there is no point in our fatiguing ourselves
by attempting to comprehend the beauty of this castle; for, though it is His creature, and there is
therefore as much difference between it and God as between creature and Creator, the very
fact that His Majesty says it is made in His image means that we can hardly form any
conception of the soul’s great dignity and beauty.”

 Pg. 15 - 16, Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image
Books:1961)

“Now let us return to our beautiful and delightful castle and see how we can enter it. I seem
rather to be talking nonsense; for, if this castle is the soul, there can clearly be no question of
our entering it. For we ourselves are the castle: and it would be absurd to tell someone to enter
a room when he was in it already! But you must understand that there are many ways of “being”
in a place.”

 Pg. 17, Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image Books:1961)
-
“This chapter has to do with those who have already begun to practise prayer and who realize
the importance of not remaining in the first Mansions, but who often are not yet resolute enough
to leave those Mansions, and will not avoid occasions of sin, which is a very perilous condition.
But it is a very great mercy that they should contrive to escape from the snakes and other
poisonous creatures, if only for short period, and should realize that it is good to flee from them.
IN some ways, these souls have a much harder time than those in the first Mansions; but they
are in less peril, for they seem now to understand their position and there is great hope that they
will get farther into the castle still. I say that they have a harder time because the souls in the
first Mansions are, as it were, not only [unable to speak], but can hear nothing, and so it is not
such a trial to them to be unable to speak; the others, who can hear and not speak, would find
the trial much harder to bear.”

 Pg. 28-29, Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image Books:1961)

Mansions 3 – 4
Quote James Finley uses in this week’s teaching.

“The great King, Who dwells in the Mansion within this castle, perceives their good will, and in
His great mercy desires to bring them back to Him. So, like a good Shepherd, with a call so
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gentle that even they can hardly recognize it, He teaches them to know His voice and not to go
away and get lost but to return to their Mansion; and so powerful is this Shepherd’s call that they
give up the things outside the castle which has led them astray, and once again enter it.”

 Pg. 57, Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image Books:1961)

Mansions 4 – 5
Quotes James Finley uses in this week’s teaching.

“You will have heard the wonderful way in which silk is made---a way which no one could invent
but God---and how it comes from a kind of seed which looks like tiny peppercorns (I have never
seen this, but only heard of it, so if it is incorrect in any way the fault is not mine). When the
warm weather comes, and the mulberry-trees begin to show leaf, this seed starts to take life;
until it has this sustenance, on which it feeds, it is as dead. The silkworms feed on the mulberry-
leaves until they are full-grown, when people put down twigs, upon which, with their tiny mouths,
they start spinning silk, making themselves very tight little cocoons, in which they bury
themselves. Then, finally, the worm, which was large and ugly, comes right out of the cocoon a
beautiful white butterfly.
Now if no one had ever seen this, and we were only told about it as a story of past ages,
who would believe it? And what arguments could we find to support the belief that a thing as
devoid of reason as a worm or a bee could be diligent enough to work so industriously for our
advantage, and that in such an enterprise the poor little worm would lose its life? This alone,
sisters, even if I tell you no more, is sufficient for a brief meditation, for it will enable you to
reflect upon the wonder and the wisdom of our God.”

“And now let us see what becomes of this silkworm, for all that I have been saying about it is
leading up to this. When it is in this state of prayer, and quite dead to the world, it comes out a
little white butterfly. Oh, greatness of God, that a soul should come out like this after being
hidden in the greatness of God, and closely united with Him, for so short a time---never, I think,
for as long as half an hour! I tell you truly, the very soul does not know itself. For think of the
difference between an ugly worm and a white butterfly; it is just the same here. The soul cannot
think how it can have merited such a blessing---whence such a blessing could have to come to
it,”

 Pg. 70, 72 Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image Books:1961)

Mansions 7 – 6
Quotes James Finley uses in this week’s teaching.

‘But in total union no separation is possible. The soul remains perpetually in the center with her
God. We could say that that other union is like pressing two softened candles together so that
their twin flames yield a single light. Or we could say that the wick, the wax, and the flame are
all the same. But afterwards one candle can be easily separated from the other; now there are
two candles again. Likewise, the wick can be withdrawn from the wax.
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 The spiritual marriage, on the other hand, is like rain falling from the sky into a river or
pool. There is nothing but water. It’s impossible to divide the sky-water from the land-water.
When a little stream enters the sea, who could separate its waters back out again? Think of a
bright light pouring into a room from two large windows: it enters from different places but
becomes one light.’
 Pg 269 - 270, The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr (Riverhead: 2003)

‘This is what I would like us to strive for, friends. We should engage in prayer--thirst for it, even--
not because it feels good, but because it gives us the strength we need to be of service.’

 Pg 292, The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr (Riverhead: 2003)

Mansions 6 – 7
Quotes James Finley uses in this week’s teaching.

“The Spiritual Betrothal is different: here the two persons are frequently separated, as is the
case with union, for, although by union is meant the joining of two things into one, each of the
two, as is a matter of common observation, can be separated and remain a thing by itself. This
favour of the Lord passes quickly and afterwards the soul is deprived of that companionship---I
mean so far as it can understand. In this other favour of the Lord it is not so: the soul remains all
the time in that centre with its God. We might say that union is as if the ends of two wax candles
were joined so that the light they give is one: the wicks and the wax and the light are all one; yet
afterwards the one candle can be perfectly well separated from the other and the candles
become two again, or the wick may be withdrawn from the wax. But here it is like rain falling
from the heavens into a river or a spring: there is nothing but water there and it is impossible to
divide or separate the water belonging to the river from that which fell from the heavens.”

 Pg. 152-153 Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image
Books:1961)

“Few tasks which I have been commanded to undertake by obedience have been so difficult as
this present one of writing about matters relating to prayer: for one reason, because I do not feel
that the Lord has given me either the spirituality or the desire for it; for another, because for the
last three months I have been suffering from such noises and weakness in the head that I find it
troublesome to write even about necessary business. But, as I know that strength arising from
obedience has a way of simplifying things which seem impossible, my will very gladly resolves
to attempt this task although the prospect seems to cause my physical nature great distress; for
the Lord has not given me strength enough to enable me to wrestle continually both with
sickness and with occupations of many kinds without feeling a great physical strain. May He
Who has helped me by doing other and more difficult things for me help also in this: in His
mercy I put my trust.”

 Pg. 13, Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle, trans. Allison Peers (Image Books:1961)
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©2018 by The Center for Action and Contemplation. All Rights Reserved.