Tag Archives: Dionysius the Areopagite

Work on The Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra has been shelved until a later date. For now our interest and purpose turns to the cyclic nature of these blogs, as February into March recounts the spiritual writings of the Masters of old. The premier frontrunner in this mystical enterprise is Dionysius the Areopagite. In the past we have presented insight into many of his works, but our present task is to focus on the one work which serves as a “word-key” for the rest, the Theologia Mystica or the Mystical Theology. This work has served as a major source of inspiration for others who have highlighted the negative, or via negativa way—such as the anonymous writer of the Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Meister Eckhart. Brief as it may be, it is the core solidification of all that follows along the path of Mystical Darkness—or the Luminous Way. St. Paul once encountered an inscription in his travels which stated, “To the Unknown God.” Initially, this provided the fodder for Dionysius to utilize the exact language of the “Unknown” God that encapsulated his deeper use of “Unknowing” which triggered such vast spiritual treatises like the present one and indeed of his entire corpus. read more