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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Divine, he and God had become one and the same. He a state where “union and action/service in the world are
claimed in a theopathic locution while in a state of mys- completely combined” (Duckett, 2013).
tical ecstasy that “I am the Truth (God).” For this and
similar claims he was jailed, tortured, and executed for Spiritual Direction for Stage 7
blasphemy. A few centuries later Rumi defended Hallaj by The Sufi Al-Ghazālī speaks of a seventh station of the
saying that what he meant was that he was nothing, that heart (rida) as the stage of gratitude, and he offers this
God is all, and that there is no being but God’s. Hallaj spiritual advice for people who have reached it: “your
in fact, claimed Rumi, showed the extreme of humility duty ... after surmounting these hurdles and achieving
and self-abasement (Van Cleef, 140). Contemporary Sufi the goal of this worshipful service safe from disasters is to
scholar Fethullah Gülen holds that his theopathic utter- give praise and thanks to God for this enormous blessing
ances did not come from him but could only come from and generous favour” (Al Azhari). Spiritual direction is
God (Gokcek, 6). Hallaj was displaying the characteris- also needed for those at this station in the area of ecstatic
tics of someone who had attained fana (annihilation of experiences. Sufi scholars are divided in their approach to
the ego) and had reached the seventh station, rida. sekr (mystical intoxication) and sahv (mystical sobriety).
When Teresa of Avila writes of the seventh mansion Sobriety is when spiritual wayfarers return to their senses
of union, words appear to be inadequate to describe this after an “event” of spiritual ecstasy. Although the ecstasy
state of union that few people experience because it is so is God-given, the person can choose to return to sobri-
different from what has gone before. The occasional and ety. Some Shaykhs guide their spiritual directees towards
transient unitive experiences with God of the sixth man- sobriety as a more stable state than spiritual intoxication.
sion now become a permanent state and she experienced They are advised to combine their mystical prayer with
ecstatic visions. Teresa describes it: “This is the seventh action for good.
Mansion, for as He has a dwelling-place in heaven, so has Teresa has some advice to offer those in the seventh
He in the soul, where none but He may abide and which mansion who are experiencing the mystical ecstasy of
may be termed a second heaven” (Teresa [b], 7.I: 3, 263), the “touches” of God’s love: “When you receive these
which is an “instantaneous communication of God to the impulses, remember they come from this innermost
soul” (Teresa [a], 214). mansion where God dwells in our soul, and praise [God]
Using her framework of romantic love, she describes greatly” (see McLean, 8). Michael holds that spiritual
this final state as a spiritual marriage with Jesus. Within direction for people at the seventh level is the same for
her Christian theology, she sees that this union with the sixth—objectivity and accountability—in order that
Jesus has given her entry into fellowship with the Trinity. they prevent themselves from letting their power go to
It is transference of life. By her self-emptying she has their heads, something akin to the sobriety recommended
created the space for the willing conferral of the per- by the Sufis. Michael concludes that few spiritual direc-
manent Divine self-bestowal that now fills her soul. All tors will be called on to direct people at the sixth and
her “inner restlessness and longing are transformed into seventh levels because of their rarity. The best assistance
the peaceful certainty that she rests habitually in God’s to be offered to them is to pray for them (Michael, 122).
presence” (Giles, 6). In Sufi terms, she had attained fana
and reached the seventh station of rida. She had moved Conclusion
even beyond her point vierge; no veil existed between her Many symbols have been used to describe the mystic’s
and her Beloved. Her only aim was to please God, and search for union with God—stations and halls, palaces
this was expressed concretely: “this is the purpose of the and mansions, valleys and gardens, as well as veils, lad-
Spiritual Marriage, of which are born good works and ders, spirals, and concentric circles. They all subscribe
good works alone” (Teresa [a], 228). In Sufism with the to the notion that the capacity of spiritual wayfarers to
death of the nafs (ego), the self is completely immersed receive the inbreaking of God is deepened more and more
in the Divine in a state of contentment. This is similar to as they progress through a series of stages. This capacity
the total union of Teresa’s Spiritual Marriage, yet it is also is deepened as the ego is progressively annihilated, and

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