Angelus Silesius.....selections from: The Cherubinic Wanderer

[Guest guest]

GODHEAD

 

 

 

 

1

BEING IS NOT MEASURED

 

Turn wheresoe'er I will, I find no evidence

of End, Beginning, Centre or Circumference.

 

 

 

 

2

GOD NEVER EXPLORETH HIMSELF

 

The Thought and Deed of Deity

Are of such richness and extent

That It remaineth to Itself

An Undiscovered Continent.

 

 

 

 

3

IN THE SEA MANY ARE ONE

 

A Loaf holds many grains of corn

And many myriad drops the Sea:

So is God's Oneness Multitude

And that great Multitude are we.

 

 

 

 

4

ALL INTO ONE AGAIN

 

The All proceedeth from the One,

And into One must All regress:

If otherwise, the All remains

Asunder-riven manyness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

GOD IS NOT GRASPED

 

God is an utter Nothingness,

Beyond the touch of Time and Place:

The more thou graspest after Him,

The more he fleeth thy embrace.

 

 

 

 

6

THE SUPER-DEITY

 

What hath been told of God is not enough for me:

My life and light flow from the Super-Deity.

 

 

 

 

7

MAN MUST GO BEYOND ALL KNOWLEDGE

 

What Cherubs know sufficeth not: beyond their zone

I fain would take my flight unto where nothing's known.

 

 

 

 

8

THE KNOWER MUST BECOME THE KNOWN

 

Naught ever can be known in God: One and Alone

Is He. To know Him, Knower must be one with Known.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9

MAN LOVETH EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING

 

One only Thing I love and know not what it is:

Because I know it not, therefore I've chosen this.

 

 

 

 

10

MORE KNOWN LESS UNDERSTOOD

 

The more thou knowest God, the more thou wilt confess

That what He truly is, thou knowest less and less.

 

 

 

 

11

THE BLAME IS THINE

 

If gazing on the Sun endangereth thy sight,

The blame is in thine eyes, and not in that great Light.

 

 

 

 

12

GOD IS WITHOUT WILL

 

We pray: Thy Will be done! and lo! He hath no Will:

God in His changelessness eternally is still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13

THE REST AND WORK OF GOD

 

Rested God never hath, nor toiled—'tis manifest,

For all His rest is work and all His work is rest.

 

 

 

 

14

OF ETERNAL MOTION

 

The secret of Eternal Motion thou wouldst learn,

I, of Eternal Rest: which is of more concern?

 

 

 

 

15

REST IS THE HIGHEST GOOD

 

Rest is the highest Good. I'd keep both eyes close pressed,

That He might have repose, were God Himself not Rest.

 

 

 

 

16

THE SOMETHING MUST BE FORSAKEN

 

If thou dost love a Something, Man,

Thou lovest naught that doth abide.

God is not This nor That—do thou

Leave Somethings utterly aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

SIN TROUBLETH NOT GOD

 

God feeleth pain for sin in thee

& #8195;As in His son,

But in His Self of Deity

& #8195;He feeleth none.

 

 

 

 

18

THROUGH THEE GOD LOSETH NAUGHT

 

Choose, Man, which of the twain thou wilt,

Thy self-destruction or thy peace.

Through thee God suffereth no loss,

Neither through thee hath He increase.

 

 

 

 

19

GOD LOVETH NAUGHT BUT HIMSELF

 

God is so dear unto Himself,

Folded in self so utterly,

That He can never cherish love

For anything that is not He.

 

 

 

 

20

GOD FORESEETH NOTHING

 

God foresees nothing—'tis thy dull and blundering sense

Doth clothe Him with the attribute of Providence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

21

GOD HATH NO THOUGHTS

 

God thinketh naught. Yea verily,

Were thought in Him, then might He sway

—Which were a thing unthinkable—

Now this way, now the other way.

 

 

 

 

22

GOD IS AND LIVETH NOT

 

God is, but in God-wise. He loves and lives, 'tis true,

But not as I or thou or other beings do.

 

 

 

 

23

WHAT IS SPOKEN OF GOD IS MORE FALSE THAN TRUE

 

Since thou dost measure God by creature qualities,

There's more of lie than truth in thy theologies.

 

 

 

 

24

GOD BECOMES WHAT HE WILLS

 

Eternal Spirit, God becomes

All that He wills to be—but still

Abideth ever as He is,

Without a form, an aim, a will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

25

THOU MUST THYSELF BE SUN

 

I must myself be Sun. I with my beams must dye

The all-uncoloured Sea of the whole Deity.

 

 

 

 

26

GOD DENIETH HIMSELF TO NONE

 

Take, drink, all that thou wilt or canst—'tis given thee free,

Thou hast the whole of Godhead for thy Hostelry.

 

 

 

 

27

NO CREATURE FATHOMETH THE GODHEAD

 

No creature fathometh how deep the Godhead is,

Even the soul of Christ is lost in that Abyss.

 

 

 

 

28

GOD NAUGHT AND ALL

 

God is a Spirit, a Fire, a Being and a Flame,

And yet again He is not one of all these same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

29

GOD BECOMETH WHAT HE NEVER WAS

 

Here in the midst of Time God doth become what He,

The Unbecome, was not in all Eternity.

 

 

 

 

30

THE GODHEAD IS MY MOTHER

 

God hath begotten me—such my true genesis,

But do thou never ask me who my Mother is.