The "Ladder" of Significationin Walter Hilton's "Ladder of Perfection"

ANDRZEJ WICHER

The piercing brightness of the living ray

Which I endured, my vision had undone,

I think, if I had turned my eyes away.

Dante, Paradiso, Canto xxxiii

The Middle Ages are known as the period of a great triumph of hierarchical think-ing in which philosophers were building vast conceptual structures resembling Gothic ca-thedrals. This phenomenon is often associated with philosophical realism, which in thefirst half of the fourteenth century gave way (at least in some places) to nominalism, asso-ciated first of all with William of Ockham, which questioned the hierarchic principle itself,and which tended to dismiss various hierarchies as so much multiplication of unnecessary(and unreal) entities. Should this process be viewed as a collapse of paradigmatic thinkingas such? My suggestion is rather that we should regard the flourishing of mystical writingsin the fourteenth century as an attempt to find a new paradigm for religious thinking inan age where the nominalist, or quasi-nominalist, critique of the established hierarchiesseemed to open up a perspective of relativism, or even nihilism, and the facades of Gothiccathedrals started to show ominous cracks.

Indeed, we may have an impression that mystical writers strove, as it were, to snatchreligion from the gaping jaws of nihilism, which made it necessary for the mystics to comeclose, or even very close, to the edge of the abyss of nothingness. In the world of those writ-ers many familiar road signs are missing, there is little or no mention of any specific placeor time, but what we might find particularly difficult to put up with is the lack, in mostcases, of anything that could be called a plot or a character. We are dealing with texts thatpurport to show us the way, but, unlike the familiar guidebooks, they do not take us fromone country to another; rather strive to turn us away from "the world" as such, like a roadsign on which, instead of a place name, would find the word, "Nowhere." Such is the essenceof the mystical via negativa (the negative way)1 of approaching the godhead, which MeisterEckhart referred to in the following way: "God is not light nor life nor love nor nature norspirit nor semblance nor anything we can put into words."2 It seems also very difficult toconstruct any paradigms in the thin air of "nothing," and yet some mystic writers talk of"nothing" as if it were the only substantial form of "something" and a sort of passport to"everything." As the anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" has put it:

Institute of English and General Linguistics, University of Silesia, ul. Żytnia 10, 41-205 Sosnowiec, Poland.

The European Legacy, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 787-792,1997©1998 by the International Society for the Study of European Ideas

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788 r v ANDRZEJ WlCHER

"Well," you will say, "where am I to be? Nowhere, according to you!" And you will be quite

right! "Nowhere" is where I want you! Why, when you are "nowhere" physically, you are "ev-

erywhere" spiritually.... And, though your natural mind can now find "nothing" to feed on,

for it thinks you are doing no thing, go on finding this no thing, go on doing this no thing,

and do it for the love of God.3

Let me now concentrate on the work of Walter Hilton, the fourteenth-century En-glish mystic who is frequently compared with the anonymous writer of "The Cloud ofUnknowing." Hilton, in his "Ladder of Perfection," attempts to resolve the crucial problemof distinguishing between good and evil, or rather that of "false" and "real" being, a prob-lem that directly pertains to the debate of nominalists and realists, through using a meteo-rological metaphor. In this metaphor we can see the mechanism through which manyparadigms and hierarchies are formed, as a way to answer the challenge of two things thatare apparently similar, though it is considered vital to be able to tell them apart:

Sometimes there appears in the sky a ray of light that seems to be the sun, itself, but it is not;

and sometimes the sun itself appears. The distinction between the two is this. The false sun-

light appears only between two black rain clouds. Because the sun is near, a light shines

from behind the clouds which looks like the sun itself, but is not. The true sun shines only

when the sky is clear, or at least not overcast by black clouds.4

Evil is then caused by a hasty upward movement that neglects or underestimates the ob-stacles that have to be overcome before the ultimate purpose of union with the godhead isreached. Thus the construction of a hierarchy or a paradigm becomes a problem of self-preservation, a strictly moral problem of not succumbing to the temptation of attractivebut perilous shortcuts. Therefore, Hilton's way of thinking and his use of metaphors bearswitness to his distrust towards any projects of instant salvation or visions of a sudden floodof divine light.

"Darkness" in Hilton's writings refers to the state of being already cut off from thevanities of the material world, though not yet united with God, the state of passage parexcellence:

For although the process may be painful, it is much better for the world to be hidden from

view than for the soul to be out among the false pleasures of the world, which appear so at-

tractive and desirable to those whose eyes are blind to the light of spirit. For when you are

in this darkness you are much nearer to Jerusalem than when you are living in that false

light. So respond wholeheartedly to the stirrings of grace, and learn to live in this darkness.

When you grow accustomed to it, you will soon find peace, and the true light of spiritual

knowledge will grow within you; not all at once, but imperceptibly and little by little.s

Hilton's way. of thinking is less uncompromising and radical than that of the author of"The Cloud"; instead of a ray of sunshine, sent by the sovereign God, that pierces the"cloud of unknowing" and provides an instant enlightenment,6 we have to do here with arather painstaking movement of the contemplative towards God, or rather, following thevegetable metaphor used by Hilton, with the slow but sure germination of the plant ofspiritual light within the human soul.

Particularly interesting seems to be here the use of the word "blind," which is clearlygiven a paradoxical interpretation: The really "blind" are those who imagine themselves

The "Ladder" of Signification in Walter Hilton's "Ladder of Perfection" o*» 789

living in full daylight, while the enlightened are those who stay in darkness. Naturally, thepositive interpretation of "darkness," as a refreshing and spiritually renovating experience,runs counter to the usual associations with the notion of darkness in the Judeo-Christiantradition, even though Hilton resorts to a quotation from the Old Testament prophetIsaiah to shore up his point: Anima mea desideravit te in nocte ("My soul has desired Theein the night").7

But let us go back to Hilton's extended metaphor of the clouds, which he develops toa considerable degree:

This light of false knowledge shown by the devil to the soul in darkness is always seen be-

tween two black rain clouds. The higher cloud is presumption and self conceit, while the

lower is oppression and depreciation of our neighbour. So whatever appearances of knowl-

edge and fervour may shine in a soul, if they co-exist with presumption, conceit, and disre-

gard for our neighbour, it is not the light of grace given by the Holy Spirit, even though the

knowledge may be true in itself. If it comes suddenly, it is of the devil; and if it comes after

prolonged study, it is the fruit of man's own mental powers.8

Thus, the parallel incidence of light and darkness is considered a sure sign of devilish, or,at best, purely human, designs, which by definition are doomed to failure. The suddennessof the spurious enlightenment is here, characteristically, treated as symptom of its devilishprovenance, whereas in "The Cloud," the brutal effect of "the shaft of spiritual light" wasan aspect of its divine nature. Hilton, however, also attributes godlike features to a coinci-dence of darkness and light, provided they appear one after the other and not side by side:"For I know that the light that succeeds this darkness is sure and true. It shines from thetrue Sun in the city of Jerusalem to light the way for a soul struggling in darkness and call-ing for light, and gives it comfort in its trouble. For I do not think that a false light eversucceeds true darkness."9

A complete darkness is then a precondition for the divine light to shine, and it seemsthat human (or rather the contemplative's) activity should be directed to the preparationof that perfect state of void or darkness. Not surprisingly, the devil tries to prevent the soulfrom reaching that blissful state. Hilton is talking of the way some people may take the ini-tial stage of conversion for the whole of it: "For at the beginning of his conversion a per-son who is disposed to receive great grace is so suddenly moved in spirit, feels such delightin devotion, and sheds so many tears of compunction that he is inclined to think himselfalready half in heaven."10 The sudden storm into Heaven cannot be entirely successful, aperiod of doubts and mental tribulations is needed to cleanse the soul and to harden itagainst the devil's wiles, a period that is compared to Purgatory:

As a result he is often greatly tormented, and this is not surprising, for he has long beentwisted by the false love of the world that he cannot be straightened without heat and pres-sure, just as a twisted bar cannot be straightened without being plunged into the fire andheated.... And yet the soul would rather endure all this pain than be blinded by the falselove of this world. For this would be hell to such a soul, but the suffering of this kind of painis nothing but purgatory."

The next rungs on the ladder of perfection are called by Hilton the stage of honorand the stage of glorification, which really are two degrees of saintliness:

790 O^> ANDRZEJ WlCHER

After this, when the soul has been mortified in this manner and led from love of the world

into this darkness, so that it no longer takes the slightest interest or pleasure in the world,

but finds it bitter as wormwood, then comes the third stage, that of honour. This is when

the soul is partially reformed in feeling, and receives the gift of perfection and the grace of

contemplation: it is a time of great peace. It is followed by the fourth stage, that of glorifi-

cation, when a soul is fully reformed in the bliss of heaven.12

It seems important for Hilton's style of thinking that he envisages an intermediary stagebetween the worldly attitude and the soul's immersion in the "bliss of heaven." It is a stagewhere the thought still returns to the matters of this world but finds them "bitter as worm-wood." The existence of that transitional stage greatly authenticates the whole process ofspiritual growth, and it serves as an additional safeguard against both a premature feelingof triumph and a fit of despair. The "taste of wormwood" bids farewell to the contem-plative's old life, and, at the same time, ushers in a new one.

The fact that Hilton's thinking is much more hierarchical than that of the author of "TheCloud of Unknowing" does not mean that he is less fascinated with the subject of "nothing"and its paradoxical implications. This subject, however, is in Hilton's writing closely related tothe somewhat more material notions of night and darkness, a darkness that is, as it were, preg-nant with light, just as the "Cloud" author's "nothing" is a key to "everything":

Whoever loves God dwells in light. But anyone who realises that the love of this world is

false and transitory, and therefore wishes to abandon it and seek the love of God, cannot at

once experience His love, but must remain awhile in the night. He cannot pass suddenly

from one light to the other, that is from the love of this world to the perfect love of God."

The night then into which the contemplative is to plunge is placed between twozones of light, one transitory and disappointing, the other perfect and permanent. Whathappens within the "night" must then be pure magic, and so it is. The subtle light that per-sists even in the deepest darkness is something that defies common sense and logic as itseems to intensify in step with the deepening of darkness:

But this is a night pregnant with good, a glowing darkness, for it shuts out the false love of

this world and ushers in the dawn of the true day. Indeed, the darker this night, the nearer

true day of the love of Jesus, for the further the soul in its longing for Jesus retires from the

clamour of worldly desire and impure thoughts, the nearer it approaches to experiencing

the light of His love.14

Hilton envisages the functioning of his "glowing darkness" as analogical to a great magnet,or, anachronistically speaking, a "black hole" that inexorably attracts light in proportion toits blackness: "When my soul is withdrawn from all sinful inclinations as though asleep, thenour Lord is my light, for then in His grace He draws near to show me His light."15

Thus, we come across in Hilton two parallel images: of light between two clouds andof darkness between two forms of light. But whereas the former image, that of an "inter-mediary light," was given a pejorative interpretation, the "paradoxical darkness," or the"pregnant" or "glowing" darkness, within which the "plant of light" is growing, fares muchbetter with Hilton than the "intermediary light," "false" light. This seems to reflect Hilton'sattachment to the via negativa, with its tendency to look for the depth of being in the vi-cinity of "unbeing."

The "Ladder" of Signification in Walter Hilton's "Ladder of Perfection" <">*_, 791

It seems, however, a peculiarity of Hilton's, maybe a trace of his conservatism, that hethinks of the mystic's experience in terms of a hierarchical progress, rather than a "leap" ora "plunge," although his refusal to use a forceful, "phallic" imagery may stem from the factthat "The Ladder of Perfection" is addressed to a woman.16 Hence perhaps we meet inHilton a "feminine" imagery of pregnancy and impregnation when the subjects of "noth-ing" and "darkness" are discussed.

We could see, then, in the above-discussed work, a dynamic paradigm, based onmetaphors of change and intermediacy and connected with the via negatived, that appearsto overcome at times the static, hierarchic paradigms, although, by the same token, it alsomakes rational discourse in mystical writings so much more difficult. At the same time,Hilton is aware of the dangers of "moving too fast," and the ambivalence of his dynamicparadigm manifests itself in his definitions of supreme good being often conceptually closeto those of supreme evil. He wrestles with the impossible problem of how to rationally di-vide good and evil, truth and falsehood, showing himself to be a tough reasoner and theo-logian. Finally, he has to surrender to the enormousness of their formidable task becausetheir embracing of the via negativea can justly be seen as such a surrender. And yet is the"negative way" that allows the mystics to approach the problem of good and evil in a freshand novel way: from the point of view of their unnameability. That unnameability andunknowability call for ever newer metaphorical approximations, all of which, however, areby definition, undermined by their own ontological status.

By the same token, the turbulent times of the fourteenth century seem to have en-couraged a distrust in fully developed hierarchical structures, even though, as Hilton'swritings testify, they were never completely forgotten. The structures that can be retrievedfrom the fourteenth-century mystical writings seem to be very dynamic, focused on "be-coming" rather than "being," and showing a certain restlessness that befits more thepostmedieval mentality.

NOTES

1. It is true that the roots of the medieval via negativa are in the late classical writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, but it also cannot be denied that in the fourteenth century it has to do with a intense re-newal of interest in this mode of mystical experience.

2. See F. C. Happold: A Study and an Anthology (London: Penguin Books, 1975), 275.3. "The Cloud of Unknowing," in The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works, ed. and trans. Clifton

Wolters (London: Penguin Books, 1978), 142.4. Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, ed. Clifton Wolters, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London: Pen-

guin Books, 1988), 170-71.5. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 169. Hilton's thinking on "darkness" could be compared with

Meister Eckhart's use of the term "vacuum," which the latter author applies to a condition of thehuman soul where it can "suck in" the light of God, being devoid of earthly attachments, and accord-ing to the principle of "coincidentia oppositorum." Cf. Mistrz Eckhart, Kazania, ed. W. Szymona(Poznan: W drodze, 1986), 234.

6. "The Cloud of Unknowing," 95.7. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 169.8. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 172.9. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 174.10. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 181.11. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 181-82.

7 9 2 <•"•*> ANDRZEJ WlCHER

12. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 182-83.13. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 165.14. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 155-56.15. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, 166.16. Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, xvii.