Oldal 133 [133]
OCR
WORDING THE SILENCE: INITIATORY READING OF MYSTICAL TEXTS THE MODUS MYSTICUS The repeated words in the quotation above form a euphonious whole; the dimensions may change, but what remains unchanged is: God is... all... and... This constant unites the four dimensions. Although the spatial images are unfathomable, there is nevertheless something about this way of speaking that one can grasp. That is, one can understand the fundamental rhythm that, even without understanding the content, puts everything in its rightful place; thus, the dimensiones become part of a structure that is imprinted in the whole body and memory. The description of the unfathomable space structures this long letter — the way Hadewijch segments the text is very clear up to a certain point, and is more or less predictable when the topos of ineffability appears: there are five moments of silence, which can be divided up into those of ‘keeping silent about’ something and those of ‘keeping silence’. Keeping silent about something is the result of the limitation of human beings who are unfamiliar with the experience of God, and indicates a boundary that cannot be crossed. Keeping silence, by contrast, is due to Hadewijch’s own inability to express in human language that which is beyond our faculty of understanding. There are two reactions to this: the first is that the mystic recognises human limitations by humbly saying no more. The second reaction is to overcome this weakness by nevertheless speaking, but in a different language: speaking, as Letter 22 puts it, ‘with an inspired soul to an inspired soul’ (ghegheest spreken te ghegheester zielen). There is one mysterious text, Letter 28, that is written in this inspired language that I call the real modus mysticus: a language driven by the tension between silence and speaking, a speaking that is not ‘about’ something but dwells ‘in’ and moves ‘towards’ something. She takes the reader/listener into the dynamics of this space of words and there, already taken up in this flow, she says: ‘He who about this wants to say something, he must speak with the soul’ (Letter 28, 92-93) (Die hier toe iet spreken wilt, hi behoeuet metter zielen te sprekene), and later on she states that the soul speaks with ‘her wholeness’. But before this is uttered, Letter 28 brings us, with the very first sentences, to the space where the encounter with God takes place: In the richness of the clarity of the Holy Spirit, therein the blessed soul celebrates blessed-making feasts. Jn de rijcheit der claerheit des heilichs gheests, Daer inne maket de salighe ziele verweende feeste. The account begins in an overflowing ‘clarity’ (claerheit), which we know both from Letter 1 and Letter 17. The term ‘therein’ emphasises the spatial nature of + 131 ¢ Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 131 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:17
