Scope
Mystical literature records, or tries to prepare the reader for, direct experience of ultimate reality: union with God, the vision of the One, awakening. The word comes from the Greek for a person initiated into the mysteries, and "mystical theology" in the Christian tradition first meant a hidden knowledge of God that lies beyond concepts.
"Mysticism" as a general category for comparing religions is modern, and scholars still argue about whether mystics everywhere are describing the same thing. We shelve the sources by tradition and the arguments beside them.
| Class | What is shelved there |
|---|---|
| E 1 | Platonist and late antique: Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, the Chaldean Oracles, theurgy |
| E 2 | Christian: the Greek fathers and Dionysius, the medieval contemplatives, the Rhineland and English mystics, the Spanish mystics, and later devotional writers |
| E 3 | Jewish: Merkavah and Hekhalot literature, Hasidic teaching and tales (Kabbalah itself is shelved at D 3) |
| E 4 | Islamic: Sufi poetry, manuals, and lives of the saints |
| E 5 | South and East Asian: the Upanishads, yoga, devotional poetry, Buddhist and Daoist contemplative texts |
| E 6 | Comparative and modern: the psychology and philosophy of mysticism, anthologies, nature mysticism, modern visionaries |
Strengths
- Multiple translations of the English mystics of the fourteenth century, from modernized devotional editions to scholarly texts in Middle English.
- A strong shelf of Sufi poetry in facing-page translation.
- Two hundred volumes of Christian contemplative writing given by our treasurer, Odalys Brennan-Wu.
- The early comparative studies of mysticism, from 1900 to 1960, complete.
Where to begin
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The Enneads Plotinus. Greek, written about 253 to 270 CE and arranged by his pupil Porphyry. E 1
Fifty-four treatises on the One, the Intellect, the Soul, and the return of the soul to its source. The fountainhead of philosophical mysticism in the West. Begin with the treatise On Beauty (I.6).
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The Cloud of Unknowing Anonymous. Middle English, later fourteenth century. E 2
A short, practical, and often funny guide to contemplative prayer, written by an unknown priest for a young beginner. God, it says, can be reached by love but not by thought.
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Revelations of Divine Love Julian of Norwich. Middle English, after 1373. E 2
An anchoress's account of sixteen visions received during an illness and of twenty years' reflection upon them. The earliest surviving book in English known to have been written by a woman.
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The Conference of the Birds Farid al-Din Attar. Persian, about 1177. E 4
A narrative poem in which the birds of the world set out to find their king, the Simurgh, across seven valleys. An allegory of the Sufi path, and one of the great poems of any tradition.
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The Varieties of Religious Experience William James. 1902. E 6
A psychologist's study of conversion, saintliness, and mystical states, drawn from firsthand accounts. Its four marks of mystical experience are still the usual starting point for discussion.
A note on reading
Mystical texts were usually written inside a tradition, for readers already formed by its prayers and disciplines. Read the introduction, mind the translator, and expect technical vocabulary where the words look plain.
Related research guides
- Mystical Classics
- Gnostic and Neoplatonic Texts (class E 1)
- Kabbalah (class D 3 at the North Gate)