Mysticism and Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, The Cloud of Unknowing Author, and Julian of Norwich

Chapter Four: The Mystical Space of Richard Rolle

Chapter Four The Mystical Space of Richard Rolle Alas for those who never sing, But die with all their music in them. (Oliver Wendall Holmes) What are the servants of the Lord but his minstrels? (St. Francis of Assisi) A Man of His Time The mystical space of Richard Rolle is represented by a curious alternation between an apparent denigration of the material (bodyspace ) world in favor of the embracing of the spiritual (soul-space) dimension, and a conflation of physical sensation and its spiritual source in the expression of the delight of experiencing God. In this dichotomous attitude, I consider Rolle to be representative of his time. By that I mean that, in the elucidation of his mystical experiences , Rolle demonstrates a decidedly medieval worldview in which the physical and spiritual worlds coexist in a unity of reciprocal indication and in which all the senses, not just the visual, are credited with a part to play in the apprehension and interpretation of the spiritual realm. In his texts, Rolle reveals himself to be a man living a (predomi141 nantly) hermitic lifestyle who experiences something that is beyond sensuality. Yet, in his writing, he describes his mystical experience in the most sensual of terms with each of the five senses represented at some level. Additionally, Rolle appears not only to use the sensible world as a source of analogy for spiritual experience but also to indicate a mingling of body-space and soul-space in which bodily senses are attuned to the spiritual world. Rolle’s sensual descriptions of spiritual apprehensions are representative of the medieval habitus that conceived of the ineluctable connection of heaven and earth. At times, Rolle can be seen to be unconsciously confirming that such a connection existed by the way in which he seeks to sever it. For example, he recommends a separation of self from the world for his readers who desire closeness to God, and he frequently denigrates materiality, while at the same time he uses sensible metaphors as the primary descriptors of his mystical experience . Thus, the nexus of physical and spiritual is maintained even in Rolle’s advocating of the conscious exchange of physical sensibility for spiritual sensibility. In Lefebvrian terms, Rolle’s appropriation of physical concepts such as heat, sweetness, and song becomes a product of representational space that participates in the interplay between symbol and meaning. The interdependence of body-space and soul-space in Rolle’s schema has an impact on spatial representation and the elaboration of mystical space in his texts. That is, both the mystical experience (which, for the purposes of this chapter, I designate as content) and the way in which the experience is expressed in words (form), are of equal importance to Rolle. My use of the term form is partly informed by Marion Glasscoe’s application of it. She notes, in referring to Rolle’s use of the word in the phrase “form of lyvyng,” that ‘form’ refers “to [Rolle’s] writing as well as to a lifestyle” (1993, 70). In my consideration of Rolle’s mystical space, therefore, I will examine both form and content for spatial implications. Rolle’s tendency to structure the form and content of his mysti142 richard rolle cal space into, very often, a tripartite arrangement is relevant to this examination. Thus Rolle’s explication of three degrees of love and the reception of the threefold mystical phenomena of calor, dulcor, and canor are considered and allusion is made to the three levels of heavenly reward to be enjoyed in the company of the three hierarchies of angels which, in turn, are each divided into three subcategories. In Lefebvre’s terms again, the conceptualization of experience into such a careful triadic arrangement fits into the category of representations of space, in which Rolle can be understood to be advancing a very definite schema for the way he wishes his readers to conceptualize the mystical experience. The idea of form also refers to the textual expression of Rolle’s mystical space in that language is a crucial component of Rolle’s mysticism . The importance that he places on the Holy Name, for example, indicates his confidence in the power of certain words to effect a level of spiritual transformation. That is, to Rolle, the form of expression is equal in importance to the content of his mystical experiences. At the most basic level, of course, the words...