The Castle of the Interior Man
The Castle of the Interior Man
The mystical name given to the seven stages of the soul's ascent toward divinity, according to such Christian mystics as St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). 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.