Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
The Mount of Carmel
To use John’s own hand-drawn sketch of Mount Carmel — its central ‘narrow path of nothing’ flanked by two dead-end roads — as a visual map and decision-checker for the spiritual ascent: a symbol you return to when choosing whether you are grasping or releasing.
In 5 lines: Study John’s sketch of Mount Carmel — two dead-end side roads (earthly goods; spiritual goods, both grasped) and a centre path marked nada. Redraw it by hand and write your own attachments on the side roads — include the spiritual ones. The centre isn’t having nothing; it’s clinging to nothing. Name what the climb is for. Then, in real choices, ask: side road or centre? — and take the centre.
What it is
John of the Cross drew a small diagram — a sketch of Mount Carmel — and placed it at the front of The Ascent of Mount Carmel as a one-page map of the whole journey.
It shows a mountain with three roads. Two side roads are dead ends: one of the goods of earth (possessions, pleasures, esteem), one of the goods of heaven (spiritual consolations, gifts, experiences sought for their own sake).
Both, John says, end in “the more I sought them, the less I had.” Up the centre runs a narrow path marked over and over with one word — nada (“nothing”) — and at the summit: “on this mount only the honour and glory of God dwells.” His verse: “to come to enjoy what you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. to come to be what you are not, you must go by a way in which you are not.” The practice is to treat this sketch as a living map and decision-checker: study it, even redraw it by hand, and then carry it as a quick inner question whenever you face a choice — am I taking a side road (grasping a thing or an experience), or the centre path (holding it lightly, free)? It turns John’s doctrine into a portable symbol.
The Method
Built faithfully from John’s diagram and its inscriptions (short quotes only):
- Study the three roads. Read the sketch: the left road of earthly goods, the right road of heavenly/spiritual goods, and the central path of nada. Note that both side roads — even the “spiritual” one — are shown as dead ends when their goods are sought graspingly.
- Redraw it by hand. Copy the mountain, the three paths, and the repeated nada yourself. The act of drawing is itself the contemplation; you are mapping your own terrain, not admiring John’s.
- Place your own attachments on the side roads. Honestly label what you are currently chasing — a possession, a status, a relationship outcome, or a spiritual high, a sense of progress, a feeling of being holy. Both columns count.
- Trace the centre path: hold the same things, but free. The centre is not having nothing but clinging to nothing — “in detachment of spirit one finds. all things.” You may still use and enjoy the goods; the path is the freedom from grasping them.
- Read the summit honestly. John’s summit is union with God (“only the honour and glory of God”). Whatever your frame, name what the journey is for, so the map has a destination and not just a discipline.
- Use it as a daily decision-check. In a real choice, recall the sketch and ask: side road or centre? Am I grasping (need this to feel okay) or holding lightly (free either way)? Choose the centre. (Sourcing note: the diagram and its mottos are short and frequently reproduced; the lines above are attributed quotation and paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
John of the Cross (1542–1591), Spanish Carmelite priest, poet, and mystical theologian, co-reformed the Discalced Carmelites with Teresa of Ávila.
He drew the Mount Carmel sketch as a teaching aid for the nuns and friars in his care and set it at the head of The Ascent of Mount Carmel, his most systematic treatise on the apophatic (negative-way) path.
The mountain image runs back through Carmelite tradition and the wider biblical “ascent” motif; John makes it a precise map of detachment.
The Traditions' versions
Using a symbolic map or image of the path to orient the journey is a recurring contemplative device: - Teresa of Ávila — Interior Castle. Teresa maps the soul as a crystal castle of seven mansions; like John’s mountain, a spatial picture of inner progress.
- John of the Cross — the Way of Nada (active detachment). The practice the map encodes; the sketch is its picture.
- Eckhart — Gelassenheit / releasement. The same centre-path logic — let-go-of-grasping — without the diagram.
- The Cloud of Unknowing — naked intent. Stripping away particular images to reach God beneath them, the apophatic move the summit names.
- Vision boards / values maps (secular). Externalising a goal or value-set as an image to steer daily choices — the same cognitive use, different content.
Common refinements
Reading nada as deprivation. The centre path is freedom from clinging, not having nothing or punishing yourself. You may still enjoy the goods — held lightly.
- Only labelling earthly attachments. John’s sharpest point is that the spiritual side road (chasing experiences, progress, holiness-as-identity) is just as much a dead end. Be honest about that column.
- Admiring the diagram instead of using it. It’s a working map, not a poster. Redraw it with your attachments and re-use the question in real choices.
- Turning it into scrupulous self-audit. If the map becomes a stick to beat yourself with, you’ve left the centre path. Hold it lightly too.