The three lights: natural, ghostly and divine

St Dionysius speaks of three kinds of light that belong to the soul who attains to pure knowledge of God. The first is natural, the second ghostly, and the third divine.

Now consider what this natural light is and how far it helps the soul to know God. The soul innately knows that existing things are not of themselves. But there must be one thing that is of itself and from nothing but itself: whatever that is, it created all things.

Further, the soul innately understands that the good which is scattered among things exists as a whole in the one cause of things. It is also natural to the soul to love each thing so far as it is good. And when her natural intellect comes upon the cause of things, whose good, spread out in things, exists as a whole in their common cause, then this natural perception stirs up in her a natural love toward this cause of all things.

All creatures are weak and changeable, not in reality (which is exempt from this) but in the early stages of perfection. St Augustine says, The soul cannot stay for long on one thought but slips from it into others. Nor can she hold several thoughts at once; she must leave one and let it go in order to come alive in another. But God has nothing in common with creatures, and so it is clear that there is no lack in him. He has nothing in common with creatures, but this is true of God alone, and to the extent that the soul is like him she is without defect. By nature the soul knows and loves God above all things.

The second light is ghostly; it comes from faith. But the whole content of faith goes beyond what the nature of the soul can reach. The faith is that three Persons exist in the same nature, and the same nature exists in three Persons. No natural light or intellect is sufficient for this, for no natural light gives any likeness of it. What the three Persons do, or are capable of doing, comes out of their unity; for though there are three Persons they do not act as three but work as one God. That is a ghostly light by which the soul, in faith, can actually see that this is so, a light that her natural mind could never give her.

The third light is the light of glory, divine light. The soul receives this into the highest power of the soul. In this light we see God with nothing standing between. So far as this light sinks into her highest power, so far is God directly known. In this light the soul perceives the noble nature of all things in God, for everything that ever came forth, or is coming forth, or ever will, has in God eternal life and being, not defective as it is in creatures but as his very being, for it is his nature. God has his own being not out of nothing; he has it from his own nature, which in itself is truly something, though it is nothing to the understanding of any creature.

This nature has no cause, and therefore it cannot be grasped except by understanding that likewise has no cause. The understanding of creatures is finite, and so it has a cause; hence it cannot grasp the causeless mind, neither Christ nor his humanity can grasp it in that way. Where God beholds his own nature, which has no ground, it cannot be comprehended except by understanding that likewise has no ground. This understanding is nothing other than his nature itself: only God in his own nature can conceive himself. This conceiving is the understanding in which, revealing himself, God shows himself in a light that no man can reach. As St Paul says, God dwells in light that cannot be approached.