5

Since, therefore, nature is powerless in this matter and industry but

slightly able, little should be given to inquiry but much to unction,

little to the tongue but much to inner joy, little to the word and to

writings and all to the gift of God, that is, to the Holy Spirit, little or

nothing to creation and all to the creative essence, Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit, saying with Dionysius to God the Trinity:

"Trinity, superessential and superdivine and supergood guardian of

Christian knowledge of God, direct thou us into the more-than-unknown and

superluminous and most sublime summit of mystical eloquence, where new and

absolute and unchangeable mysteries of theology are deeply hidden,

according to the superluminous darkness of instructive silence - darkness

which is supermanifest and superresplendent, and in which all is aglow,

pouring out upon the invisible intellects the splendors of invisible

goodness."[ ¹]

This to God. To the friend, however, to whom I address this book, let me

say with the same Dionysius:

"Thou then, my friend, if thou desirest mystic visions, with strengthened

feet abandon thy senses and intellectual operations, and both sensible and

invisible things, and both all nonbeing and being; and unknowingly restore

thyself to unity as far as possible, unity of Him Who is above all essence

and knowledge. And when thou hast transcended thyself and all things in

immeasurable and absolute purity of mind, thou shalt ascend to the

superessential rays of divine shadows, leaving all behind and freed from

ties of all."[ ²]