Even though Meister Eckhart celebrated richly the God of light and wonder and creation, he also laid out a profoundly generous banquet of teachings on the Apophatic Divinity as well.
Following are a few Via Positiva teachings from him that are indispensable:
Every creature is a word of God and a book about God. This means that every creature is a Bible, a holy book and revelation about God. It also means that every creature is a Logos, a word of God, another Christ, a Cosmic Christ. The universe is such; a tree is such; a river or a stone or moss is such. Humans can be such.
If the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice. Being alive, being here, having the miracle of existence is the greatest gift of all. Living is about thanking; true religion is about gratitude.
The gift of life is a radical gift, a breakthrough in 13.8 billion years of history. What a surprise that each of us was invited aboard this evolutionary choo-choo! Can we remember to be grateful? And pass on the gift to others? Pass on the sacred and healthy Earth to others?
Following are some of his important Via Negativa teachings regarding the Apophatic Divinity whom we honor in a special way in this season of Advent and Solstice. Be with them, meditate on them especially this season.
God the ineffable one has no name.
The divine one is a negation of negations and a denial of denials.
God is neither this thing nor that thing that we can express.
God is a being beyond all being; God is a beingless being.
Truly God is a hidden God.
The naked God is without a name and is the denial of all names and has never been give a name and so remains a truly hidden God.
God’s darkness is a superessential darkness. A mystery behind mystery. A mystery within mystery that no light has ever penetrated.
The final goal of being is the darkness and the unknowability of the hidden divinity, which is that light which shines ‘but the darkness cannot comprehend it.’ (Jn. 1.5)
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, pp. 14, 34, 40-43.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner image: Stonehenge has important alignments on the winter solstice (not reflected in this photo.) Image by Howard Walsh from Pixabay
Queries for Contemplation
Which of these teachings from Eckhart take you deepest into the apophatic divinity and into this dark time of Advent and Solstice?
Recommended Reading
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after he died.
“These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly.
12 thoughts on “Advent, Solstice, Eckhart on the Apophatic God”
Matthew, Today you share with us some of Meister Eckhart’s wisdom in saying: “Every creature is a word of God and a book about God.” And you comment on this saying, “This means that every creature is a Bible, a holy book and revelation about God. It also means that every creature is a Logos, a word of God, another Christ, a Cosmic Christ. The universe is such; a tree is such; a river or a stone or moss is such. Humans can be such.” And probably one of Eckhart’s most famous quotations is: “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.” And this means that being alive, being here, having the miracle of existence is the greatest gift of all. Living is about thanking; true religion is about gratitude. And you tell us that with 13.8 billion years of history, “what a surprise that each of us was invited aboard this evolutionary choo-choo! Can we remember to be grateful? And pass on the gift to others?” Then you end by sharing with us a number of Eckhart quotes on the via negativa, and you ask us: “Which of these teachings from Eckhart take you deepest into the apophatic divinity and into this dark time of Advent and Solstice?” For me it would be: “God’s darkness is a superessential darkness. A mystery behind mystery. A mystery within mystery that no light has ever penetrated.”
Is there not irony in apophatic divinity or making apophatic statements in the first place? Should we not experience ‘what is’, ‘what exists’, instead of speculating in words ‘what is not’, because we do not know ‘what is not’ do we? — BB.
Bill, Thanks for your comment and question. You ask: “Should we not experience ‘what is’, ‘what exists’, instead of speculating in words ‘what is not’…” Yes, of course we should experience what is–and we do whether we like it or not, because what is, is inescapable. But that does not rule out our meditating (rather than speculating) on “what is not.”
Auquinas, like Eckhart, taught the three fold way of apophatic, katophatic and mystical union as the synthesis of the incarnation of the preexistence of the Divine identity of the soul being originally Oned With God, manifesting in the physicality of our humanity. Mystical Union is the process of synthesizing both the apophatic (the via negative, the darkness, the unknown) and the katophatic (the via positiva, the light, the known) as a creative, transformative partnership of relationship with.
This mystical union of incarnation unfolds, evolves and emerges through contemplation and reflection upon BOTH the apophatic AND the katophatic. It is focusing solely on only one or the other that leads to paradoxal duality.
Mathew teaches this Mystical Union as the fourfold pathway of Creation Spirituality, that being the Via Negativa, the Via Positiva, the Via Creativa and the Via Transformativa, which in my perceptual understanding is an expansion upon both what Eckhart and Aquinas taught regarding the revelatory wisdom of God/Soul/Self becoming and being actualized.
My sense is that collectively we are moving away from the duality that religion indoctrinated… letting this go… and are now turning toward the unfolding, evolving emergence of the reality of Mystical Union, through a matured awareness and synthesis of relationship with… in more compassionate, loving, cooperative, collaborative, co-creative and transformative ways.
Yes, the farther reach of the mystical union is the revelation that the “Heart-Mind of God” is in everyone but is blocked by ego falsities and traumas in greater and lesser degrees in everyone. Jesus as a translator of the Sacred Heart, which is really, our, or humanity’s Sacred Heart, leads us, especially through the Gospel of Thomas, to our Sacred Heart. Our egos “give in,” or merge in union with our natural sacredness which we recognize in our hearts.
Jeanette, Today you write, “Mystical Union is the process of synthesizing both the apophatic (the via negative, the darkness, the unknown) and the katophatic (the via positiva, the light, the known).” This is a good way of saying it, however when you say, “Aquinas, like Eckhart, taught the three fold way of apophatic, katophatic and mystical union…” I’m not so sure that the two fold movement from apophatic to the katophatic ends in mystical union–that sounds more like the three levels of Plotinus and with its purgation, illumination and union…
In my exposure to physics and metaphysics I learned that ‘dark matter’ has become the central mystery of modern physics. Dark matter properties are found to be undefinable and seemingly inaccessible. I wondered if it was ‘the hidden face of G*d’. So this morning after reading the DM I searched online ‘Dark Matter / Darkness of God’ and came to this very enlightening speculative essay by a student of Process Theology. The unnamed author sees in dark matter a nurturant womb-like aspect which speaks to a feminine aspect – ‘Mater’.
https://www.openhorizons.org/a-nurturant-darkness-god-as-dark-matter.html
Gwen, Thank you for the article and your idea that, “Dark matter properties are found to be undefinable and seemingly inaccessible. I wondered if it was ‘the hidden face of G*d’.” With a panentheistic God, how could it not be a part of “the hidden face of G-d.”
TO MATTHEW AND ALL MY NEW COMPANIONS ON THE JOURNEY,
THANK YOU, FOR ALL YOUR REFLECTIONS AND PRESENCE IN MY LIFE. YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE AND I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL. LIFE FOR ME IS ABOUT LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS AND I AM STILL DEEPENING MY UNDERSTANDINGS OF WHAT ALL THIS IMPLIES AND HOW TO RESPOND DAILY TO LIFE CHALLENGES, JOYS, AND SORROWS. KEEPING JESUS AS THE CENTER OF MY LIFE AND THE GOSPEL WAY OF LIVING IS THE JOY OF MY LIFE. I TRY DAILY TO SHARE THAT WITH OTHERS. HOPE THIS IS HELPFUL AND I PRAY CHRIST MAY BIRTH IN EACH OF US A DEEP GRATITUDE FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE AND JOY AT CHRISTMAS DAY AND THROUGH 2023.
Brigid, Thank you sooo much for what you wrote today !!!
Matthew, in one of your recent DMs, you also differentiated the difference between the terms Godhead and God in our human attempts at understanding the mystery and ineffability of Divinity, the apophatic and the cataphatic natures of the Divine. In more human metaphoric terms, the Divine has also been symbolized as the Sacred Mother and the Divine Father. The Wholeness and Unity of the Divine Spirit has been described (even though unnameable) as Loving Diverse Oneness… The important thing on the spiritual journeys of our eternal souls seems to be that each one of us, like All Creation, are unique loving conscious sparks of this Loving co-Creating~Evolving Diverse Oneness Eternal Conscious Divine Nature….
🔥💜🌎🙏
I have always admired the Jewish refusal to name God, as a way of maintaining reverence before the ineffable. I like Richard Rohr’s explanation of the Trinity as God for us, the Holy Spirit within us, and Jesus walking beside us. This is God experienced, as much as we mortals can describe, not so much God defined IMO. I like Eckhart’s concept of God as a mystery behind and within mystery. It is the experience of God, not the definition of God, that matters, and neither can ever be described adequately with words.