The Castle of the Interior Man
The mystical name given to the seven stages of the souls ascent
toward divinity, according to such Christian mystics as St.
Teresa of Avila (15151582). These seven processes of psychic
evolution are as follows (1) the state of prayer in which one
concentrates on God; (2) the state of mental prayer, in which
one seeks to discover the mystic significance of all things; (3)
the obscure night, believed to be the most difficult, in which self
must be utterly renounced; (4) the prayer of quietism, complete
surrender to the will of God; (5) the state of union, in which the
will of man and the will of God become identified; (6) the state
of ecstatic prayer, in which the soul is transported with joy, and
love enters into it; (7) the state of ravishment, which is the mystic
marriage, the perfect union, and the entrance of God and
heaven into the interior man.
Sources
Ramge, Sebastian. An Introduction to the Writings of St. Teresa.
Chicago Henry Regnery, 1963.
Teresa of Avila, St. The Interior Castle. Translated by Kieran
Kavanaugh and Oyilio Rodriguez. New York Paulist Press,
1979.
