Prayer: The Interior Castle

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)

Teresa of Ávila – The Interior Castle – book

Outer courtyard

The castle of the soul stands in the middle of the world — yet many spend their whole lives outside its gates. The soul “lives outside”: among worries, possessions and other people's opinions, with no idea of the beauty it carries within. Vermin swarm all around — snakes, lizards and wild beasts, images of everything that eats away at our attention. Teresa is precise: there is only one gate into the castle, and that gate is prayer. Whoever begins to pray has already entered.

  • the soul lives “outside itself” — with things, not with God, and the vermin cling to it
  • vermin: snakes (the world, honours, possessions), lizards (flitting thoughts), wild beasts (appetites and bad habits)
  • the castle gate = prayer and meditation — nothing more is needed for the first step
  • in practice: find a few minutes of silence every day; the form doesn't matter, what matters is that you show up
“The soul is a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many mansions.” Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle 1.1
“Prayer is nothing other than an intimate friendship: a frequent one-to-one conversation with the One we know loves us.” Teresa of Ávila, Life 8.5
Interactive 1234567soul
snakes (the world, honours, possessions) lizards (thoughts and fancies) wild beasts (appetites, passions, bad habits)
PILGRIMS' PATHS Yellow dots = documented phases of life; mapping them onto the mansions is only a rough estimate.
Portrait of a resident
Outer courtyardFirst mansionsSecond mansionsThird mansionsFourth mansionsFifth mansionsSixth mansionsSeventh mansion

Overview

▲ snakes (the world, honours, possessions)
■ beasts (appetites, passions, bad habits)
● lizards (thoughts and imaginings)
○ our effort + ordinary grace · the ascetic way (1–3)
○ God's gift · supernatural prayer (4–7)
| | Entry through prayer

1Self-knowledge and humility — the vermin of the world slipped in along with the soul; the first task is to learn who I am and whose I am.

2Calling and perseverance — God calls through sermons, books, friends and even illness; the temptation is to turn back — don't give up on prayer!

3An ordered life — discipline and good works; this is where Teresa places the rich young man of the Gospel — he had kept everything, and yet he went away sad.

4The prayer of quiet — two basins: water brought in by aqueducts (our effort) vs. a spring right inside the basin (gift) — the supernatural begins.

5The prayer of union — the silkworm: the caterpillar dies in its cocoon (which is Christ) and a white butterfly flies out; the union is brief and is recognised by love for one's neighbour.

6Spiritual betrothal — the soul already belongs to the Bridegroom — and that is exactly why the hardest trials come: illness, being misunderstood by those around you, inner darkness; and in between, deep touches of God.

7Spiritual marriage — “we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) — a permanent dwelling at the centre.

“She divides prayer into three parts:
1. picturing the mysteries we are to meditate on,
2. reflecting on these mysteries with the mind,
3. resting in God lovingly and attentively: this is when the fruits of meditation are gathered and the mind opens to divine illumination. One passes from natural to supernatural knowledge when the soul yields to this peaceful repose, loving and calm at the same time.”

Teresa of Ávila (M. Auclair: God's Wanderer, p. 227)

“It seems fitting to me that for frail women like me, wretched and without any courage, God does not hold back consolations. That is how he is dealing with me now. … But that servants of God, respected men, very sensible and intelligent, make a fuss when God doesn't give them great devotion — that is something I find disgusting just to hear. Let them accept consolation if the Lord grants it, and value it. … But they shouldn't torment themselves if they don't have it. … if the Lord doesn't grant it, it means it isn't necessary. Let them show a little self-control!”

Teresa of Ávila (M. Auclair: God's Wanderer, p. 223)

Behind the scenes of how the castle came to be (the very beginning of The Interior Castle)

“Few things that obedience has laid on me have been as hard for me as writing about prayer now. For one thing, it doesn't seem to me that the Lord has given me the spirit or the desire for it, and besides, for three months now my head has been weak, with such a roaring in it that even necessary business I can only deal with in writing with suffering. … For the Lord has not given me so much virtue that I don't feel a natural reluctance, when at the same time I have to struggle with constant illnesses and all kinds of worries. … I think I can hardly say more than I have already written before… In fact I'm afraid it will be almost the same: I am literally like those birds that people have taught to speak, except that they can do no more than repeat over and over what someone taught them or what they overheard. If the Lord wants me to say something new, His Majesty must inspire it in me, or remind me of what I have already said elsewhere. I would be content even with that, because my memory is so bad … And so in this writing I address myself above all to them (the nuns), also because it seems unreasonable to me to think I could be of use to other people too. … if I do manage to convey something, they will surely understand that there is no reason to think it comes from me. Unless they had as little sense as I have ability for writing such things — that is, unless the Lord in his mercy grants it to me.”

The pilgrims' paths through the castle

How individual figures of faith moved through the mansions over the course of their lives. Click a name in the legend to highlight one pilgrim's path; the placement in the mansions is a rough estimate based on their own testimonies.

Interactiveouter courtyard1st mansions2nd mansions3rd mansions4th mansions5th mansions6th mansions7th mansionsthreshold of the supernatural0102030405060708090AGESt AugustineSt Augustine — aged approx. 16–28St Augustine — aged approx. 29–31St Augustine — aged approx. 31–32St Augustine — aged approx. 32–33St Augustine — aged approx. 36–75Martin LutherMartin Luther — aged approx. 0–21Martin Luther — aged approx. 21–23Martin Luther — aged approx. 23–28Martin Luther — aged approx. 28–33Martin Luther — aged approx. 33–62Teresa of ÁvilaTeresa of Ávila — aged approx. 7–20Teresa of Ávila — aged approx. 20–39Teresa of Ávila — aged approx. 39–43Teresa of Ávila — aged approx. 43–57Teresa of Ávila — aged approx. 57–67Brother LawrenceBrother Lawrence — aged approx. 0–18Brother Lawrence — aged approx. 18–26Brother Lawrence — aged approx. 26–36Brother Lawrence — aged approx. 36–60Brother Lawrence — aged approx. 60–77Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal — aged approx. 0–23 (1623–1646)Blaise Pascal — aged approx. 23–28 (1646–1651)Blaise Pascal — aged approx. 28–31 (1651–1654)Blaise Pascal — aged 31 (23 November 1654)Blaise Pascal — aged approx. 32–39 (1655–1662)John WesleyJohn Wesley — aged approx. 0–22John Wesley — aged approx. 22–32John Wesley — aged approx. 32–35John Wesley — aged approx. 35John Wesley — aged approx. 35–87Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards — aged approx. 0–17Jonathan Edwards — aged approx. 17–23Jonathan Edwards — aged approx. 23–33Jonathan Edwards — aged approx. 33–46Jonathan Edwards — aged approx. 46–54Moravian BrethrenThe Moravians — approx. years 0–4The Moravians — approx. years 4–5The Moravians — approx. year 5The Moravians — approx. years 5–10The Moravians — approx. years 10–100+D. L. MoodyD. L. Moody — aged approx. 0–17D. L. Moody — aged approx. 18–19D. L. Moody — aged approx. 19–23D. L. Moody — aged approx. 23–34D. L. Moody — aged approx. 34–62Thérèse of LisieuxThérèse of Lisieux — aged approx. 0–10Thérèse of Lisieux — aged approx. 10–13Thérèse of Lisieux — aged approx. 13–22Thérèse of Lisieux — aged approx. 22–23Thérèse of Lisieux — aged approx. 23–24Frank LaubachFrank Laubach — aged approx. 0–30Frank Laubach — aged approx. 31–45Frank Laubach — aged approx. 45–46Frank Laubach — aged approx. 46–56Frank Laubach — aged approx. 56–85C. S. LewisC. S. Lewis — aged approx. 9–30C. S. Lewis — aged approx. 30–33C. S. Lewis — aged approx. 33–61C. S. Lewis — aged approx. 61–62C. S. Lewis — aged approx. 63–64Thomas MertonThomas Merton — aged 0–23Thomas Merton — aged approx. 23–26Thomas Merton — aged approx. 26–34Thomas Merton — aged approx. 34–50Thomas Merton — aged approx. 50–53Dallas WillardDallas Willard — aged approx. 0–18Dallas Willard — aged approx. 18–24Dallas Willard — aged approx. 24–45Dallas Willard — aged approx. 45–70Dallas Willard — aged approx. 76–77Richard RohrRichard Rohr — aged approx. 5–18Richard Rohr — aged approx. 18–27Richard Rohr — aged approx. 28–42Richard Rohr — aged approx. 42–74Richard Rohr — aged approx. 74–83N. T. WrightN. T. Wright — aged approx. 4–17N. T. Wright — aged approx. 18–28N. T. Wright — aged approx. 32–37N. T. Wright — aged approx. 37–54N. T. Wright — aged approx. 55–77Timothy KellerTimothy Keller — aged 0–20Timothy Keller — aged approx. 20–25Timothy Keller — aged approx. 25–48Timothy Keller — aged approx. 49–64Timothy Keller — aged approx. 69–72Pete GreigPete Greig — aged approx. 0–22Pete Greig — aged approx. 22–30Pete Greig — aged approx. 30–32Pete Greig — aged approx. 32–38Pete Greig — aged approx. 38–57Tim MackieTim Mackie — aged approx. 11–16Tim Mackie — aged approx. 16–20Tim Mackie — aged approx. 20–33Tim Mackie — aged approx. 33–42Tim Mackie — aged approx. 42–49

Hover over or click a name to highlight one pilgrim's path. Mapping them onto the mansions is only a rough estimate — but they all have one thing in common: growth is measured in decades.

The life of Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)

Outer courtyardbefore entering the castle
01515
Born in ÁvilaOn 28 March, as Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, the third of the nine children of Alonso and Beatriz. The family was wealthy but not without a shadow: her grandfather was a converted Jew whom the Inquisition in Toledo had forced to do public penance, and the Cepedas had to buy their patent of nobility.
7around 1522
Running away to be martyredShe and her brother Rodrigo set off for the land of the Moors so that they would be beheaded there and go straight to heaven. Their uncle caught up with them just outside the walls of Ávila and brought them home. When the escape failed, they built hermitages out of stones in the garden.
Her mother diesBeatriz de Ahumada dies at thirty-three, worn out by childbearing. Teresa is thirteen, and nine siblings remain in the house.
131528
Drifting awayThere follow years when she is more interested in tales of chivalry — she used to read them in secret with her mother — in dressing up and in the cousins who visit the house than in prayer. She herself later judges it far more harshly than it probably looked.
Sent to schoolAfter rumours about a romance, her father places her as a boarder with the Augustinian nuns of Our Lady of Grace. She stays there a year and a half, until illness takes her away.
161531
The desire returnsThe first days, she says, she hated it. But after a while Sister María de Briceño, who looked after the boarders, opens up prayer to her to such an extent that Teresa begins to seriously consider religious life.
2nd mansionscalling and perseverance
Leaving against her father's willHer father would not give his consent — he wanted her at home for as long as he lived. So Teresa leaves the house in Ávila secretly at dawn, with only her brother Antonio, knowing she is parting with her father on bad terms. She went out of decision rather than desire: she admits herself that at the time she feared for her soul more than she loved God.
201535
Entering the IncarnationOn 2 November she takes the habit at the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation just outside the walls of Ávila — a large, half-open house where over a hundred and fifty sisters were living at the time. She makes her vows two years later.
Illness and comaHer father takes her to a folk healer in Becedas, and the brutal cure nearly kills her. She falls unconscious for four days — back at the convent they were already digging her grave and dripping wax on her eyes — and when she comes round, she remains almost paralysed for three years.
231538–39
Learning interior prayerOn the way to the healer, her uncle Pedro puts Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet into her hands. From it she learns a prayer that rests neither on thinking nor on the right words, but on quietly staying with the One who we know loves us.
Her father diesAlonso dies on Christmas Eve, and Teresa is with him to the last. Straight afterwards his confessor, the Dominican Vicente Barrón, gets her to return to the prayer she had abandoned.
281543
A convent like a parlourThe Incarnation is more an open house than a convent: around a hundred and eighty sisters whom the convent cannot feed, so they rely on their families, receive visitors from town in the parlour and wear whatever each can get hold of. Teresa was a sought-after companion there — and it cost her years.
28–391543–1554
Twenty years between two shoresFor almost a year she gave up prayer completely — not out of unbelief, but out of shame at living a double life: witty and popular in the parlour, full of remorse in the chapel. She herself calls this period the hardest years of her life.
4th mansionsthe prayer of quiet — the supernatural begins
391554
ConversionFor a feast day, a statue of the scourged Christ is brought into the convent oratory. Teresa sinks to her knees before it, and remorse strikes her so deeply that she never turns away from prayer again. Shortly afterwards Augustine's Confessions come into her hands — and in his story she recognises her own.
6th mansionsbetrothal, raptures — and the hardest trials
Suspected of delusionThe visions come in the very year the Inquisition bans spiritual books in Spanish. Her confessors judge it to be the devil; some order her to confess her experiences as sins. It takes years before she finds someone who believes her.
441559–1560
Visions and the piercing of her heartVisions of Christ come, raptures — and an experience she describes as her heart being pierced with a fiery spear-point: a pain so sweet that she would not want to be freed from it.
A vision of hellA brief but devastating glimpse of the place she says she had been preparing for herself. What remained was not fear but the desire to do something — and out of that grew the idea of renewing Carmel.
Ávila in uproarThe town rises up against yet another convent with no income: the council threatens legal action and wants the house shut down. Meanwhile her prioress recalls Teresa to the Incarnation to answer for everything.
471562
Finishing the Book of Her LifeShe wrote her autobiography at the command of her confessors, who needed to judge whether her experiences were from God. She completes the expanded version three years later; the text then ends up with the Inquisition for years.
Founding St Joseph'sOn 24 August, in secret and in a small house: the first reformed Carmel. Discalced sisters, no endowments, strict silence — and only thirteen sisters, so they could fit around one table.
521567
Allowed to keep foundingRubeo, the general of the order, comes to Ávila and inspects the house — and instead of a reprimand gives her permission to found more convents, including two for men. In August, Medina del Campo is founded.
Meeting John of the CrossIn Medina she meets the twenty-five-year-old John of the Cross, who was just about to leave for the Carthusians. She persuades him to stay — and he becomes the soul of the male branch of the reform.
531568
The Discalced friarsIn Duruelo, in a tumbledown farmhouse without proper windows, she opens the first men's house of the reform. John of the Cross begins there with two companions on 28 November.
Prioress where she isn't wantedThe apostolic visitor appoints her prioress of the Incarnation — the house she once left, where the sisters await her as the one who has come to force the reform on them. At her installation, uproar breaks out.
561571–1574
The house is transformedShe touches neither the habits nor the rules: first she pays off the debts and brings in John of the Cross as confessor. Three years later the Incarnation is a different house — and the sisters don't want to let her go.
7th mansionspermanent dwelling at the centre of the soul
571572
Spiritual marriageOn 18 November, while receiving communion from the hands of John of the Cross. According to her testimony it is a lasting grace — no longer visits, but dwelling at the centre of the soul.
The great persecutionThe general chapter in Piacenza halts the reform and orders Teresa to withdraw to a single house and stop founding. The papal nuncio Sega writes of her that she is a restless woman who roams the world and teaches as if she were a master.
John of the Cross imprisonedIn December 1577 the Calced Carmelites abduct him and hold him for nine months in a dark cell in Toledo. He doesn't escape until August 1578 — and in that cell, meanwhile, he composes most of the Spiritual Canticle.
601575–1579
Writing under the banShe writes at her confessor's command, with a roaring in her head that she herself describes as a river and the screeching of birds, and with no hope that the reform will survive. At the same time she is forbidden to visit her own convents.
621577
The Interior CastleBetween 2 June and 29 November, with a five-month break in the middle. The seven mansions of the soul — the text at the top of this page.
Her brother Lorenzo diesLorenzo had come back from Peru a rich man and was paying for her foundations. He dies in June 1580; Teresa loses her closest ally and, at the same time, her only reliable source of money.
651580–81
A province of their ownIn June 1580 Pope Gregory XIII grants the Discalced Carmelites a separate province; it is established at the chapter in Alcalá in March 1581. What she had been accused of for twenty years is thereby confirmed.
The last journeyShe wanted to go to Ávila; the provincial sent her to Alba to be present at the birth of the duke's daughter-in-law's child. She arrives on 20 September so exhausted that she never gets up again.
671582
Dies in Alba de TormesOn 4 October, towards evening. That night Spain switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, so the next day was straight away 15 October — which is also the date of her feast day.
Seventeen conventsStarting at forty-nine, she managed within twenty years to found seventeen convents for women and to bring a male branch of the reform into being. She made most of her journeys by cart on Spanish roads, usually ill.

On the left, outward trials and hardships; on the right, life with God — and, marked in gold, her work and the joys of ministry. Placing them in the mansions is a rough estimate based on her own accounts (The Book of Her Life, Spiritual Testimonies); Teresa herself stresses that the mansions are not a staircase, one step after another, and that one moves through the castle upward, downward and sideways.

How do today's evangelicals see this?

That is exactly what a separate infographic is about. The questions it opens up:

  • Distance ourselves from contemplation?
  • What to make of mysticism?
  • Is wordless prayer safe?
  • Can experience be the measure of growth?
  • Hard work, or delight?

Keller: Prayer — hard work, or delight? →

Where it went wrong historically: there is a branch where experience was turned into doctrine — Keswick, the Holiness movement and, from there, Pentecostalism (Azusa Street 1906). And that is exactly where the pastoral damage was done: individual experience became a compulsory second stage — and whoever doesn't have it is a second-class Christian.

More infographics

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