The soul as heaven: Eckhart on the powers that are moved

Virtutes caelorum movebantur (Luke 21:26), the powers of heaven shall be moved. This is a gospel saying of our Lord, and the translation runs, 'The powers of heaven shall be moved.' Heaven suggests something mysterious or hidden, God being so mysteriously concealed by the light of his divine splendor that no one can, by the strength of his own intellect, attain the beatific vision of his godly countenance. As Job exclaims, 'Who can by searching find out the things in heaven?' As though to say, no one in the world. The sage laments this, crying, 'Alas, O Lord, you are a hidden God!' According to St Augustine, God hides in the recesses of the soul, disguised in the workings of grace wherein he shows himself to the soul covertly, so that none may know except the soul wherein he is thus secretly concealed. And St Paul says, 'Everything which is in the soul is hidden.' The soul then is the godly heaven and spiritual place where, in unbroken stillness, God does his perfect work. As God spoke through the prophets, 'Behold, I create in you a new heaven.'

It is the stirring of the powers of these incarnate heavens by the light of God's glory shining on them which Christ refers to when he says, 'The powers of heaven are shaken.' These words point us to the good works of the soul, which she is accustomed to do when God, being hidden in her, makes her the heaven of his incomprehensible divinity. For every act proceeds from power, and power proceeds from essence. So from these words we learn three things about the noble nature of the soul. First, her transcendent being, which is why he speaks of heaven. Next, her powerful faculties, which is why he uses the word powers. Third, her fruitful operation, which is why he uses the word moved.

Now to begin, let us note that if the soul has a heavenly being, she must possess three heavenly properties. First, the innate eternity of heaven. Second, its motion in a circle. Third, its overflowing into creatures below. I demonstrate these three things as follows. The first, that heaven is eternal, I explain in this way.

The heavens have an incorporeal, immaterial nature in bodily form. No outward appearance is admitted. Color is excluded, and no variable force can act within it, so its condition is one of fixed stability. Then the circular motion of the heavens is argued this way. Anything that travels in a circle comes back to its starting point, and anything that comes back to its starting point travels in a circle. Now the philosopher says the mover of the heavens is in the East, where the sun rises. We see with our own eyes that every day the sun dawns in the East and sets in the West, to rise again the next day at the place where, the philosopher says, the mover resides. It returns each day to its start. Therefore the sun goes in a circle. This is not to be confused with the sun's own period of revolution. The starting point of its own path is not reached in one day, it takes a whole year, three hundred and sixty-five days that is. Rather we must take this as referring to the heavens altogether, with the sun carried along in their motion, the sun doing yearly what they accomplish daily. Third, I argue the heavenly downpour into creatures from the fact that everything subject to birth and decay is unstable and lacking in heavenly power. As the philosopher observes in the book on The Celestial Nature, 'Heaven is to all lower things the inflow of being and of life.'

Now for the soul to be this spiritual heaven, she must return to her eternal being, to the circular motion of her cause, and to her highest nature streaming down into her lower powers. First and foremost let me say that as she goes about this, it is fitting for the soul to turn to her eternal being and carefully notice how, by God's grace, she is immortal in her nature, which he has made fit to share in his eternal bliss. She is an incorporeal nature in bodily form, a spirit not following the body in its fleshly birth, so no outward likeness can invade her, provided she is always on guard against the fading of her own likeness, in which she reflects and shows forth God in his own proper nature. Nor may she allow the entrance of any wickedness to drive her from her heavenly perfection and cast her into suffering, for she suffers without suffering in the power of God, by which she is made strong in suffering. Besides, no other power can act in her. She is so secure in God, who is unchanging stability, that neither death nor life nor depth nor height nor any creature can separate her from his fixed and unchanging deity. So with King David she may say, 'In cleaving to God lies the gift of immortal happiness.'

Second, the soul progresses in a circle, for she rises with the rising sun, in her eternal nature, that is, in her heavenly Father's heart, where the true Son is ever dawning, his self-begotten Son, the light and brightness of his eternal sufficiency. And she returns into the Father's mind, where she is spoken forth in heavenly fashion, as the prophet says, 'God made the heavens in his understanding.' This intelligible heaven means the soul returned whole to God as to her source. For he speaks into her his eternal Word, and confirms her in all heavenly perfection, as the prophet cries on becoming the heaven of the Deity, 'By God's Word the heavens are fixed and established.'

Third, this spiritual heaven of the soul drips divine grace and consolation. Just as the angel-mover rolls the heavens round and gives them energy, furnishing the heavens with the power of his might so that heaven may pass it on and so supply all things with their being and activity and life, even so God gives the soul his godly power with all its grace, which wells up in the Father's heart, giving her the means of growing strong and vigorous in his own proper motion, in which she gives her being and activity and life to all her lower powers, to the members of her body and to all their operations, until they, made alive in God's eyes, bring forth fruit of eternal life. This was the drink the prophet longed for when, aware that the Holy Spirit was stirring the deep waters of his heart and that his highest power was receiving and conceiving the dearest power of divinity, Isaiah cried, 'Drop dew, you heavens from above,' meaning, pour into all my powers, all my members, all my works, the sweet heavenly dew which you have received into yourselves from God.

Further we must note how he has decked the natural heavens with seven planets, seven noble stars which are nearer to us than the rest. The first is Saturn, then comes Jupiter, then Mars, then the Sun, after that Venus, then Mercury, then the Moon. Now when the soul becomes a spiritual heaven, our Lord will deck her with these same stars in spiritual form, as John saw in his apocalypse when he saw the King of Kings seated on the throne of the majesty of God, holding seven stars in his hand. Know that the first star, Saturn, is the purger. Jupiter, the second, is the well-wisher. The third, Mars, is the one of wrath. The fourth, the Sun, is the light-giver. The fifth, Venus, is the lover. The sixth, Mercury, is the winner. The seventh, the Moon, is the runner.

In the heaven of the soul, Saturn becomes angelic purity, bringing as reward the vision of God, as our Lord says, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' After him comes Jupiter, the gracious, whose reward is the possession of the earth we are eagerly searching for, the true earth beyond the body we wear and the ground we tread with our feet, the earth flowing with the milk of humanity and the honey of divinity. Of this our Lord says, 'Blessed are the meek in heart for they shall inherit the earth.' Next follows Mars, of grim, determined nature and passionate suffering for God, bringing the reward of the kingdom of heaven, as our Lord says, 'Blessed are they that suffer persecution for God's sake for the heavenly kingdom is theirs.' And after him the sun of light, bringing as its reward to the soul, along with knowledge of the truth, the habit of right-doing and of giving to everyone what is their own, and she, being God's by creation and adoption, therefore gives herself to God in turn. According to the words of our Lord, 'Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.' Then comes Venus, the lover, bringing the reward of union with God, as our Lord said, 'He that loves me is loved by my Father, such come to him and abide with him.' From her too comes the reward of consolation, since love sets the loving heart lamenting and mourning for her love. As our Lord says, 'Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.' After her comes Mercury, the winner, as soon as the soul gives up everything for God, bearing as his prize the palm of deity, including the kingdom of heaven. According to the words of our Lord, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Last comes the Moon, the runner, with her reward of happiness attained, as St Paul says, 'So run that you may obtain.' Now the soul attains God best by running to him with a tranquil heart, for his dwelling is in peace. Our God chooses peace for his children, and his child is heir to his eternal bliss, as our Lord says, 'Blessed are the peaceful for they shall be called the children of God.'

Beyond these planetary stars there is the heaven where the fixed stars are, which shine by night, the signs of the works done by the soul. In the night of the shadow of this world these shine before people, according to the words of our Lord, 'Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.' The other stars all get their light from the radiance of the sun, Venus as well, the love-star, which shines brightest of them all. So the works we do are heaviest with power and brightest with light when we have fully taken on the nature of the loving Venus, star of love, whose nature is open to receive the sunshine of the true and intelligible Deity.