When the soul feels itself to be thus filled with riches
and in such fullness of heart, the spirit sinks away
down into love, the body seems to pass away, the heart to melt, every faculty to fail.
And the soul is so utterly conquered by love that often it cannot support itself. Often the
limbs and the senses lose their powers.
And just as a vessel filled up to the brim will run over and spill if touched, so at times
the soul is so touched and overpowered by
this great fullness of the heart that in spite of itself it spills and
overflows.
These strange, intense and beautiful words come from a booklet entitled There Are Seven Manners of Loving by Beatrijs of Nazareth, an early 13th century mystic in the Beguine movement. They mix spirituality and sensuality, earthly images and transcendent emotion in a charming, utterly un-selfconcious fashion.
Today, for many of us in the West, such a mater of fact approach to the spiritual seems quite puzzling. Our perception of the divine has little to do with jugs and jars and the messy overflows of ordinary life, let alone intense, overwhelming love. For Beatrijs, this crude distinction between the secular and the spiritual is never drawn; such false distnctions are simply absurd.
The Beguines were a community of female mystics that lasted for about 500 years, from the early 13th century to the French Revolution. Like many religious movements among women in Europe, the Beguines desired a personal, more immediate spiritual experience than those that the Church upheld as orthodox.
Unlike traditional nuns, the Beguines never entirely withdrew into cloisters. The Beguines maintained, throughout their long history, strong ties to the world. Indeed, their influence is easily discerned in the theology that formed Joan of Arc, a theology that included both ecstatic visions and the grim pragmatics of war.
The text for The Fourth Manner is taken from the middle of Beatrijs' book, which can be thought of as a technical manual for the aspiring mystic. It provides practical, down to earth advice to the novice on her journey towards spiritual ecstacy. Seven Manners was written in the vernacular - medieval Dutch - which helped contribute to its distribution as a popular "how to" guide.
Taken out of context as they are here, Beatrijs' words gain a peculiar, ambiguous resonance. The process of altering the context of a text - so that its imprecision and possible interpretations are increased - has always delighted me. It allows us to reconsider the text's original meaning and to create a unique, personal interpretation.
Thus, the process of understanding becomes a process that is not pre-wrapped and uniform - like our response to an ad with its precisely targeted demographics and desires - but instead an enriching experience that we create entirely for ourselves.
This piece was commissioned and premiered by the Elgin Choral Union, Elgin, IL, John Slawson, conductor.