Work · Medieval & Scholastic
The Interior Castle
Describes the soul as a castle of crystal with seven dwellings through which prayer leads inwards, from self-knowledge to spiritual marriage with God.
Introduction
Teresa wrote “The Interior Castle” between June and November 1577, partly in Toledo and partly in Ávila, at the request of her superior Jerónimo Gracián, while her autobiography was held by the Inquisition. The soul, she writes, is like a castle made of a single diamond or very clear crystal, with many rooms grouped in seven dwellings, and God lives at its centre; prayer is the gate. The first three dwellings describe the effort of self-knowledge and an ordered life; the fourth marks the beginning of a prayer that is received rather than made; the fifth to seventh describe the union of the soul with God in the images of betrothal and spiritual marriage. The measure of progress, Teresa insists, is love of neighbour, not visions. The book is read as the summary of her teaching and a classic of Christian mysticism, and it has been studied as a description of inner experience.
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