St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, and Mansions of the Heart
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
Though all things pass,
God does not change.
Patience wins all things.
But he lacks nothing who possesses God;
For God alone suffices.
—St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
In seminary, my primary interest was leadership and spiritual formation. I was particularly focused on the integration of the formational journey with the leadership journey of spiritual leaders. This is how I first learned of Teresa of Avila. Teresa of Avila’s leadership model and her seminal work, Interior Castle, shaped and continues to shape and mold my leadership style and understanding of the formational journey.
Teresa modeled for me the living balance between action and contemplation. Alongside John of the Cross, she reformed the Carmelite Order, taking back its origins of simplicity, poverty, and contemplative prayer. During this time, the Church was facing deep schism and heresy, vigorously calling for unity and control. Teresa challenged the values and conditions of the Church and covenant life which both made a life of prayer more difficult. She practiced mental and contemplative prayer unmediated by the official priesthood, which almost got her burned at the stake. She served others by writing hundreds of letters of guidance and encouragement, was a gifted Spiritual Director, and functioned as a spiritual teacher even though as a woman she was forbidden to preach or comment on Scripture.
Teresa lived during the Reformation, which posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church, shifting power away from the clergy and relocating spiritual and theological authority to Scripture. I am a product of the Reformation, as well as the over-rationalization of the Enlightenment, and the obsession with our own individual salvation project coupled with the rational form of thinking that has overtaken Christianity. I am left with little capacity to process the great questions of love, suffering, and death, to be unafraid of diversity, and to welcome union.
Diversity and union are great fears in Western society that shape the how, of what we as a people of God do. In the life of Teresa, as well as in ancient spirituality, mysticism, and monastic life, there is a natural flow between the how (simplicity, poverty, contemplative prayer) and the what (resistance and renewal). If we do not have intentionality with the how, the what can get lost in fear and anger, losing the way and missing the destination. Teresa’s leadership modeled a different way bereft of fear and anger.
“The soul of the just person is nothing else but a paradise where the Lord says he finds his delight. So then, what do you think that abode will be like where a King so powerful, so wise, so pure, so full of all good things takes his delight? I don’t find anything comparable to the magnificent beauty of a soul and its marvelous capacity.” —Teresa of Avila
As I grew up in the ranks of Evangelicalism, there was an emphasis upon the depravity and bankruptcy of the human being, which submerged my awareness of my beauty and worth to God. Yet, Teresa’s impact went beyond a leadership model and style, and, in The Interior Castle, she communicated what a living relationship with God was meant to be, thus reorienting my faith and relationship with God. Teresa believed that the path to transformation starts by “considering our soul to be like a castle made entirely out of a diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms.” Teresa helped me realize the dignity, worth, and value—indeed, the vast reality—of being human, placing the reality of my sinful nature and need to repent in the context of a loving, forgiving relationship with God. She showed me the way into an intimacy with the Divine that I longed for.
“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.”
Inspired by Teresa’s vision of the soul as a diamond in the shape of a castle containing seven mansions, also called “dwelling places,” she used the metaphor to describe the process from being a creature of sin to becoming the Bride of Christ. A kind of mapmaker, Teresa’s vision portrayed the progress from the first mansion to the seventh as a journey of faith. Each mansion describes a step closer to God and is a spiritual growth map for people who desire an on-going experiential and transformational relationship with the Divine. The journey through each mansion describes an order and sequence for growth in the spiritual life that is reliable and recognizable, like landmarks on a map.
If Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle provides the map, Thomas Ashbrook’s Mansions of the Heart furnishes the travel guide. Using Interior Castle as the map, Ashbrook guides the traveler into the life-transforming journey of the soul through each of St. Teresa’s Seven Mansions, including information about the sights, activities, culture, travel advisories, and accommodations of each mansion on the journey through sections on
“Your Hearts Desire” in relationship to God;
“Key Activities” in response to God;
“Changing Patterns of Prayer” in communication with God;
“Jesus’ initiatives” to draw one into a deeper intimacy with God;
“Schemes of the Enemy” to try and destroy growth and hinder movement; and
“Keys for Growth” that help to cooperate with God.
A travelogue is also included with the fictional life stories of Abigail and Michael as they make their journey through each of the mansions.
The journey through the seven mansions, as described in both The Interior Castle and Mansions of the Heart, is somewhat similar to hiking the Appalachian Trail or Camino de Santiago. The map and the travelogue are provided but everyone’s experience on the journey is different and unique. There are travelers behind and ahead, and usually others alongside. There are identifiable landmarks and a similarity of experiences along the way, but each person’s journey is distinct. Using the map, travelogue, and brief personal experiences, I will review the journey as it unfolds through each mansion. However, as a travel guide, I am able to accompany you only so far as I have yet to reach the end.
Before the journey begins, the cares and conflicts of the world are the primary focus. The desire or awareness to enter the first mansion does not exist. The journey begins with a glimpse of ourselves in relationship to God and some form of prayer and reflection. The first mansion is a beginning exploration of a relationship with God. Teresa believed that because humans are made in the image of God, there is an internal hardwiring for Divine intimacy. In my six-year-old self, as honestly and simply as I could, I turned my mind and heart towards a new way of living. The journey of faith had begun and the possibility of knowing God became known. Journeying with people in the first mansion is often paradoxical as the travelers are often discouraged by their own sinfulness and lack of holiness, as well as full of hope and contagious enthusiasm.
As I accompany others in their faith journey, those in the second mansion are aware of their mixed motives, an inability to successfully manage personal sin, and the radical need for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit becomes evident. While in college, I became aware of split loyalty to Jesus and my attachment to other pursuits. I experienced a conflict between God’s priorities and fleshly desires. Teresa recommends that travelers seek out others with greater spiritual experience who can advise and mentor along the way. Becoming a part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship during college became a place where I joined other like-minded companions and learned to tune my spirit to the voice of God within.
The journey between the second and third mansions is a huge leap of spiritual growth and may take years. As a travel guide, the third mansion is fairly easy to recognize. The traveler is dedicated, hyper-vigilant, and determined. A ministry-driven life is an apt descriptor. Time, talents, and treasures are stewarded as God’s. Hard work, long hours, busyness, and persistence are characteristic in this mansion. Over a decade of my life was spent in this mansion. I became a fixture at church, the women’s ministry, as well as hosted Bible studies and book clubs out of my home. There was a tireless effort and endless energy expended to do more for God.
A prevalent landmark within the third mansion is spiritual dryness. A growing awareness of being disconnected from God emerges. Common characteristics are symptoms of disappointment, burnout, dissatisfaction, frustration, and apathy, as well as an instinct to work harder and do more. A guide or companion can be critical at this juncture of the journey, helping to name and reframe the dissatisfaction and disconnection as a longing for more and a divine summons into deeper intimacy. Without my spiritual director, I would likely have missed this landmark and continued to experience more and more burnout.
The fourth mansion is a time of transition, a fundamental shift from one way of being to another. The environment changes from a recognizable landscape to a liminal wilderness. Spiritual growth consists of purging the habits and behaviors that keep one from full partnership with God. The traveler experiences the hard, holy work of removing all that impedes a deeper and truer union with God. It is disagreeable and uncomfortable work as a weeding and pruning of the soul take place. But even more fundamental, an internal shift occurs allowing God to draw the traveler into a deeper and more intimate relationship. It was in the wilderness of the fourth mansion that I learned the practices of solitude and silence, the keys to freedom and intimacy, as they are necessary practices for purging, weeding, and pruning.
In the fifth mansion, the transition through a liminal wilderness continues. However, in this mansion, there are glimpses of the potential and possibility of union with and transformation by God. The movement from doing and serving to being and loving occurs. In this mansion, I began to understand that God cherishes me as unique and special. I also lost my way and fleetingly returned to the previous mansions finding it dissatisfying. Having a spiritual companion or director is helpful to adjust to the slow work of learning to live in the presence of God. As I companion others through this mansion, it is helpful to point out the two landmarks: experiencing a deepened desire to love God and others well and the profound awareness of the ability to do so; and how old wounds often resurface with a vengeance and discouragement can be intense. Travelers experience a deep dissatisfaction with their spiritual growth as it is often largely unrecognized.
In Interior Castle, Teresa devotes eleven chapters to the sixth mansion. This is by far the most comprehensive, experientially dense, and theologically complex section of Interior Castle. Marked by a deeper experience of God’s transforming love, there is a recognition of a wonderful change that has occurred. In the sixth mansion there is an increasing experience of what it is like to live in the here and now in the Kingdom of God. Traveling through the sixth mansion is similar for both myself as a traveler and as a spiritual director. It is an experience of mutual partnership with God as the ultimate Companion and Guide, and a complete dependence upon God, and a genuine sense of beauty and wonder. God is healing me and those I companion, to be the unique people we were created to be.
Some people have visited the seventh mansion, but few dwell here. As is true of the previous mansions, the seventh is also a season of the journey, not a destination. The seventh mansion represents the ultimate degree of intimacy with God that can be experienced this side of heaven, an unprecedented integration of mind, body, and spirit in
the life of Jesus. I know only a handful of people that journey this far. For example, I think of Dallas Willard as one who journeyed through the beauty of the seventh mansion having integrated being and doing, with an unintended self-forgetfulness.
Teresa’s Interior Castle is the map I so desperately need. Ashbrook’s Mansions of the Heart is an excellent travelogue. Together they help me get a sense of where I am in my inward spiritual journey. Teresa makes me realize how critical it is to strip myself of all that is holding me back so that I can fully entrust myself and the future to God.
Spiritual growth happens in the ordinary messiness of life: in the workplace and the bedroom, in baby nurseries and funeral homes, and on the soccer fields and subways. Teresa honors the dignity of the soul at work and play, and in dreams and fantasies. She believed that all are offered to the One who receives all, accepts all, and redeems all for a life of holiness. She understood spiritual growth as a journey into the love of God. I have returned to the map often in my own spiritual journey and in my work as a Spiritual Director. I highly recommend both Interior Castle and Mansions of the Heart if you long for a more intimate relationship with Divine, if you are struggling or feel stuck in your spiritual life, or if you are a guide or director for others on their own spiritual journey.
