Gaea's

Evelyn Underhill (1875 – 1941) was an Anglo-Catholic mystic who had her first spiritual encounter as a child. She described them as “abrupt experiences of the peaceful, undifferentiated plane of reality”. She wrote extensively on the subject and, in her 1955 book Mysticism, defined the five psychological stages of the “mystical path” explaining how they vary between ecstasy and anguish.

1. Awakening of the Self to Consciousness of Divine Reality: Usually a sudden, clearly defined experience characterized by complete joy and wonder.
2. Purgation of the Self:  An attempt to rid oneself of the imperfections and material desires that stand in the way of union with the Divine. Usually involves intense self-discipline.
3. Illumination: A blissful awareness of the Divine and still no true union. Often experienced during meditation or contemplation and by artists in creative moments.
4. Purification of the Self: Also known as the “Dark night of the Soul”. An attempt at total surrender – of the self, of personal  identity and of will – to the Divine. However, this inevitably fails causing confusion and despair at the seemingly acute absence of the Divine.
5. Union with the Divine: A sense of eternal surrender to, and harmony with, the transcendent order or divine reality. Results in what Underhill called “divine fecundity”. (Eastern and Sufi mystics teach of a still higher stage: total re-absorption of the soul into the Infinite.)

Taken from The Mind, Body, Spirit Miscellany by Jane Alexander

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