Discernment of Spirits

Ignatius set out fourteen “Rules for the Discernment of Spirits” for the First Week (SE 313–327), plus a more advanced set for the Second Week. The doable core:

1. Define the two movements (SE 316–317). Consolation (SE 316): an interior movement that inflames the soul with love, brings tears, faith, hope, charity, and “every increase of hope, faith, and charity, and all interior joy” — a quieting, drawing-toward-the-good peace. Desolation (SE 317): “darkness of soul, turmoil of spirit, inclination to what is low and earthly, restlessness… want of faith, want of hope, want of love” — the opposite movement, leaving one listless, sad, and separated.
2. Notice and name which one you’re in. Throughout the day (this is where it meets the Examen), catch the movement: Am I being drawn toward life, or toward drift and despair? Naming it accurately is half the work.
3. Rule 5 — never change a decision in desolation (SE 318). Ignatius’s pivotal practical rule: “In time of desolation we should never make any change, but remain firm and constant in the resolutions and decision which guided us the day before the desolation, or in the decision to which we adhered in the preceding consolation.” The reasoning: in desolation we are being counselled by the bad spirit, and “following his counsels we can never find the way to a right decision.” So: hold your course; postpone big calls until the storm passes. 4. Act against desolation, don’t obey it (SE 319 — agere contra). Desolation tempts you to do less — to drop prayer, withdraw, give up. Ignatius says do the opposite: intensify, not slacken. Add a little more prayer, examination, or penance; push gently against the pull.
5. In desolation, be patient and remember it passes (SE 320–321). Desolation is temporary. Recall that consolation will return; don’t take the desolate state as the truth about your life.
6. In consolation, store up strength and stay humble (SE 323–324). Use good times to lay in reserves for the lean ones, and don’t let consolation make you presumptuous — because desolation will come again.
7. Examine the trajectory of a movement, not just its surface (Second Week rules). Ignatius warns that the enemy can disguise itself as an “angel of light” — a movement that begins good but, traced to its end, leads downward. So judge a movement by where it tends, beginning to end. (Sourcing note: the consolation/desolation definitions and Rule 5 are direct short quotations from SE 316–318; the agere contra, patience, and “angel of light” rules are faithful paraphrase of SE 319–334. Step numbering here is for usability, not Ignatius’s own.)

Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Jesuits, drew the discernment rules from his own convalescent self-observation — noticing that daydreams of worldly glory left him dry, while imagining a life of service left him lastingly joyful — and codified them in The Spiritual Exercises (~1548, SE 313–336). → (Ignatius of Loyola).

Discernment is the interpretive backbone that makes the rest of the Exercises work: the feelings stirred by contemplation (composition of place) and surfaced in the Examen are read using these rules. The tradition has elaborated them extensively (notably Jesuit author Timothy Gallagher’s modern commentaries, the Office of Ignatian Spirituality, The Jesuit Post).

Stoic “is it up to me?” / pause before reacting — examine the impression before assenting; don’t be governed by the raw feeling.

• CBT / DBT — don’t act on emotion mind; check the facts — the clinical version of “don’t decide in desolation”: recognize distorted, distressed states and defer high-stakes action until regulated.
• “Sleep on it” / cooling-off rules — folk and behavioural-economics wisdom that decisions made in acute affect are unreliable.
• Affect-as-information (psychology) — emotions carry information about your situation; the skill is reading them without being ruled by them.
• Buddhist noting practice — labelling arising mind-states (“aversion,” “restlessness”) to see them as passing weather, not commands.
• IFS / parts work — noticing which inner “part” is driving and not letting a reactive part make the call.

Deciding anyway while desolate. The cardinal error Rule 5 exists to prevent. If you’re in turmoil, hold; revisit the decision when you’re steady.

• Obeying desolation’s “do less.” Withdrawing, quitting, and isolating feel right in desolation and are usually wrong — agere contra: do a little more, not less.
• Mistaking every bad feeling for desolation (or every good feeling for consolation). Ignatius’s “angel of light” rule warns: trace a movement to its end. A pleasant pull that leads you downward isn’t true consolation; a hard, clarifying feeling can be.
• Treating clinical depression as spiritual desolation. A persistent, pervasive low state with loss of function may be a mood disorder needing treatment — discernment is not therapy.
• Tracking without acting. Naming the state is step one; the rules tell you what to do about it. Don’t stop at observation.
• Going it alone on big calls. Ignatius assumed a spiritual director; for major decisions, an outside perspective guards against self-deception.