The Five Steps

Sicut etiam sursum versus quinqueperita quadam distinctione mundus iste visibilis gradatur, terra, aqua, aere, aethere, sive firmamento, ipso quoque coelo supremo, quod empyreum dicitur: sic et animae in mundo sui corporis peregrinanti quinque sunt ad sapientiam progressus: sensus, imaginatio, ratio, intellectus, intelligentia. Sensu corpora percipit, imaginatione corporum similitudines, ratione corporum dimensiones,et similia, primum videlicet incorporeum: quod tamen ad subsistendum eget corpore, ac per hoc loco, et tempore. Intellectu super omne quod corpus est, vel corporis creatum spiritum, qui ad subsistendum non eget corpore, ac per hoc nec loco, sed sine tempore nequaquam possit, cum natura mutabilis sit. Intelligentia, quae utcunque,et quantum naturae creatae, super quam solus est Cretor, fas est,immediate cernit ipsum solum summe et pure incorporeum, quod nec corpore, ut sit, nec loco, ut alicubi, nec tempore, ut aliquando,eget. Mundanum est itaque cor, et ab omni terra et aqua longe recedendum ut in serenitatem rationis evadat. Propter primum incorporeum discernendum in intellectus soliditatem urgat,ob secundum incroporeitatis genus intuendum in intelligentiae ingem candorem ascendat, tamquam in montem Thabor, excelsum valde, ut tertium et invisibile videat incorporeum: sicque transfiguratum, sic glorificatum Jesum oculis cernat, vestimenta propter gloriam carnis, qualia non potest fullo facere super terram: faciem vero ob incomprehensibilitatis, incorporeitatis, invisibilitatis simplicem formam, in qua Patri manet aequalis, non sustineat, imo in faciem suam ratio, intellectus et intelligentia cadant: Petus, Jacobus, et Joannes Patrem audiant, non tamen videant; quod vero viderint vel audierint, descendentes nemini dicant. Multa enim, dilectissimi fratres, mira, suavia, jucunda, luce plenissima, vident, gustant, sentiunt, in oratione et contemplatione sua raptim, et quasi in excessu mentis, quae sibi redditi nullatenus dicere possunt, imo et vix meminisse, viri spirituales, et qui consuetudinem exercitatos habent sensus. Ecce a quibus, quateus, ad quid mundandum est cor, ut quod sine omni corpore subsistens, sine qualitate decorum, sine tumore magnum, sine loco ubique, sine tempore semper, intuere possit: alioqui Deum omino videre non poterit. Et ideo: Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; hic per speculum et in aenigmate, ibi,ut est. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo IV In Festo Omnium Sanctorum Source: Migne PL 194.1701d-1702d

As this visible world extends upwards by five distinct steps, earth, water, air, the ether or firmament, and finally the highest heaven which is called the empyrean, so also for the soul on its pilgrimage in the world of its body there are five steps to wisdom: sense perception, imagination, reason, intelligence and understanding. Through sense perception it perceives material objects, through imagination the likenesses of material things, through reason the dimensions of corporeal objects and the like, which is the first immaterial step, but it must subsist on a body and therefore in space and time. Through intelligence the soul perceives that which is above everything that is material and every created spirit in matter. It does not need a body to subsist and because of this it is not in need of space, but it cannot exist outside of time because its nature is mutable. Understanding, insofar as a created nature has it, is that which has nothing above it but the Creator, and rightly it has immediate sight of what is supremely and purely immaterial, that which has no need of a body, nor space to be somewhere, and no time to be at some time. Our heart, then, must be purified, so that leaving earth and water far behind, it may ascend into the serene state of reason. There it first discerns immaterial things and they urge it on to the firmament of intelligence, where the second order of the incorporeal comes into view, and from there it ascents into the fiery brightness of understanding, as to Mount Tabor, that exceedingly high mountain, and there to the third order of the immaterial, the unseen. There its eyes gaze upon Jesus, Jesus transfigured, glorified, the glory of His flesh making his very garments such as no fuller on earth could make them. 1 The face, however, because of incomprehensibility and incorporeity and invisibility, in which He remains always equal to the Father, cannot be endured, and reason, intellect and understanding fall on their faces. Peter, James and John may hear the Father, but they may not see Him, and then what they have seen and heard they may tell no one when they have come down from the mountain. For indeed, dearest brothers, spiritual men see and taste and feel many wonderful, fully radiant, and joyous things when they are caught up in prayer and contemplation, and they are as beside themselves so that they cannot at all tell such things to anyone when they have returned to themselves, and indeed they scarcely can remember, even though they have been trained by long practice. Behold, then, from what things and to what extent the heart must be purified so that it might be able to look on what exists without materiality, and on beauty without quality, and on greatness without extension, which is everywhere without place and always without time, and without which it shall not be able to look on God. Therefore, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,' 2 which here is as through a mirror, and there as He is. 3 Isaac of Stella, from the Fourth Sermon for the Feast of All Saints 1 Mk 9.2 2 Mt 5.8 3 1 Cor 13.12