Choosing life or death? The hand is from Michelangelo's Adam in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I drew this in August 2003 and as I reflected I wrote "Adam is recumbent, almost lacksadaisical, nonchalant, indifferent reaching out half heartedly to God ... I feel a lack of commitment as if leaning forwards to receive from God was too great an effort." Notice the inclination to the hand. I find drawing brings to sight the issues and attitudes deep within me. The spiritual senses are only semi-metaphorical because the physical senses are somehow linked.
In the main, concepts about the spiritual senses come from the early Fathers of the Church. However they are framed in spiritual growth terms and are linked metaphorically to the physical senses. The most striking piece (contra to my earlier posting) I found smell is the opening sense. Here I'm indebted to Thomas Keating's writings.
"The spiritual sense of smell is manifested by an inner attraction for prayer, solitude and silence--to be still and wait upon God with loving attention. ... The spiritual sense of touch is more intimate than the sense of smell and the attraction to the delightful perfume of God's presence. The divine touch, like the divine perfume, is not a bodily sensation. Rather it is as if our spirit were touched by God or embraced. ... A still more profound communication of God is the spiritual sense of taste. ... When we taste something, we usually consume it and transform it into ourselves; it becomes a part of us. ... When our whole being is rooted in God, we see him in everything and everything in him."I am also surprised to find similar movements in the Protestant Methodist tradition in the writings of John Fletcher.
"Sometimes the spiritual eye is opened first, ... Then the believer-in a divine, transforming light ... reads the scriptures with new eyes; ... and everywhere it testifies of the One whom his soul now loves. ... Thus he beholds, believes, wonders, and adores; sight being the noblest sense ... Perhaps his spiritual ear is first opened. He knows, by the gracious effect that it is the voice of Him who once said `Let there be light'. ... Perhaps Christ will manifest Himself to the spiritual feeling. ... This manifestation is generally of the least order ... they [will not] be fully satisfied, until they find that the effects of this manifestation are lasting, or until they obtain clearer ones by means of the nobler senses-the sight or hearing of the heart."I realise now the importance of sight as the pre-eminent sense used to express a movement to greater experience of the presence of God. Here I note the feminist critique of looking as objectification or capture but theologically this spiritual sight of seeing is because this seeing is secondary. The timeless God necessarily sees before, during, and after simultaneously.
