The Fifth Dwelling Places of the Interior Castle
Teresa states that the fifth, sixth and seventh dwelling places are really one, but she then goes on to delineate very clear differences. Her description of the final three dwelling places consumes almost two thirds of her book. The fifth and sixth are an accelerating process of purification and transformation leading to the union with God that is described in the seventh dwelling places.
The action of God in the fifth dwelling is a totally new reality. It transcends everything in the previous dwelling places. There are brief but intense moments of union with God in prayer. This experience of union facilitates soul’s surrender to God in all of life. Relinquishing control is demanding and stressful. It usually involves letting go of those things that our heart clings to in a destructive but alluring way. It demands becoming more secure in God’s love. This abandonment to God expands dramatically compared to the initial stages of the fourth dwelling places. With God’s intervention, the passion for control of one’s life, so dominant in the third dwelling places, fades away.
“Whether you have little or much, He wants everything for himself.” (IC 5.1.3) This sense of “total” surrender is new in its frightening demands. It is the reason the Teresa says most do not advance in the fifth dwelling places.
The person moves steadily away from the self-centered life to one of centering on God.
“One has to strive to go forward in service of the Lord and in self-knowledge.” (IC. 5.1.1) “True union can very well be reached with God’s help if we make the effort to obtain it by keeping our will fixed only on that which is God’s will.” (IC. 5.3.3)
Growth in self-knowledge in the fifth dwelling places facilitates surrender to God. There are still deep roots of selfishness that resist the call to absolute love of God and neighbor. The Gospel stories and other spiritual understandings lead to deeper self-knowledge. They reveal the ego-inflation and self-absorption that have been hidden in the flow of ordinary life. It is frightening to see. Much that appeared good and virtuous has been, in fact, permeated with a self-centered agenda. This new self-awareness is the consequence of the touches of union, the prayer distinctive to the fifth dwelling places.
This prayer of union is a central message in the fifth dwelling places. It is a new and singular experience of the presence of God. All thinking and feeling is suspended for a short period of time, usually less than a half hour.
“God so places himself in the interior of that soul that when it returns to itself it can in no way doubt that it was God and God was in it.” (IC 5.1.9)
In the fifth dwelling places love ascends to levels not achieved before. The gifts of this prayer of union make this possible. This prayer of union is the singular dominant experience of this stage of growth. One begins to grow in the capacity to share God’s love for others. Teresa’s summary of these dwellings states: “All their desires are directed toward pleasing God.” (IC. 5.1.1)
God assists a recollected heart to grow in awareness of God’s presence in all persons and things at all times. God has absolute claim on one’s attention. The movement is from seeing God as part of one’s schedule to God becoming one’s schedule. This is a radical step in one’s transformation.
Teresa uses the example of the fat and ugly silkworm building a cocoon and evolving into a butterfly. She uses this wonder of nature to explain the changes that transpire in the fifth dwelling places. For her, this shows the transforming power of the prayer of union in the fifth dwelling places.
This building of the cocoon involves getting rid of the self-love and self-will along with attachments. Teresa says: “Therefore, take courage my daughters! Let’s be quick to do this work and weave this little cocoon by getting rid of our self-love and self-will, our attachment to any earthly thing.” (IC. 5.2.6)
On the positive side, the cocoon she says represents Christ. Our death in Christ leads to growing in love for God and our brothers and sisters. The main activity, however, is God transforming the silkworm into the butterfly, symbolizing the new person living in faithful surrender to God.
Teresa is eloquent in describing the beauty, power and giftedness of the union experience of God. Then she adds a very important and helpful insight. In the end, it is about the union of the person’s will and heart with God. Therefore, some individuals make equal or greater progress toward the center by their intense commitment to embrace God’s will in all things without the benefit of the experience of the prayer of union. By some other form of God’s grace they also participate in the transformation. This fits Teresa’s consistent teaching: the spiritual experiences are always a means to an end, union with God. (IC.5.3.3)
Teresa describes it thus: “O the greatness of God. How transparent the soul is when it comes out of this prayer…Truly, the soul does not recognize itself. Look at the difference between the ugly worm and the little white butterfly.” (Interior Castle. 5.2.7)
Teresa’s first treatment of human relationships in The Interior Castle finally appears in the fifth dwelling places. She points out that union with God must be made real in life. This is most true in one’s relations with others, all the brothers and sisters. Interpersonal relationships are the concrete expression of one’s love for God.
This fraternal charity is the final measure of one’s true relationship with God. It reveals the authenticity of prayer.
Teresa uses another comparison to enlighten us about the fifth dwelling places. She expands upon the often-used theme of human love in The Song of Songs. Teresa hones in on the three steps of marriage in the Spain of her time: meetings, engagement, and marriage. These relate to the final three dwelling places.
In the meetings, the couple get to know each other by discovering common ground and interests. In the fifth dwelling places, however, this communication is a one-way avenue. Christ reveals himself to the soul. Here again, it is the prayer of union that unveils secrets not accessible in any other medium.
Teresa often repeats that the prayer of union is related to one’s personal union with God’s will in daily life. Getting rid of self-love is moving away from always satisfying one’s self, exaggerating one’s needs, and affirming one’s importance. This struggle becomes starkly clear in the fifth dwelling places.
This is the experience of the Pascal Mystery. Death leads to life. There must be death to all previous attachments, all expressions of sin, all distorted self-love and the dead weight of evil that pervades the human experience. This passage through death only is possible by the special gifts of God’s action.
The sixth dwelling places are waiting. They will reveal, amazingly, there is still much to be done before the final passage to union with God in the seventh dwelling places.
