ENTERING THE CASTLE: AN INNER PATH TO GOD AND YOUR SOUL by Caroline Myss (Free Press)
Reviewed by Lisa Finander
What is your relationship to God or the divine? Do you know your own soul? What rewards do you believe you will receive for living a spiritual life? Will prayer, meditation, and good deeds keep you safe from life's misfortunes–poverty, illness, unhappiness? What do you demand from God through your prayers–a soul mate, wealth, everlasting youth?
In her new book, Entering The Castle: An Inner Path To God And Your Soul, Caroline Myss inundates you with 373 pages of timeless questions, guided visualizations, and exercises based on the schema of The Interior Castle, a 16th-century classic written by nun and mystic St. Teresa of Avila. I read the first 183 pages of Myss's book intermittently over a three-week period, completing many of the exercises. More time than I would normally spend to review a book, but her writing style defies skimming, and the exercises immerse you in the nonlinear world of the eternal. Besides, I am a geek when it comes to soul work.
Like Myss's earlier books, such as Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential and Anatomy of The Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, Entering The Castle isn't a quick or easy read. Her scholarly treatment of spiritual principles paired with corresponding exercises reveals a lifetime of study, perhaps a few lifetimes. For the first 117 pages, Myss methodically, if not gently, prepares you for the work that lies ahead. She is both adored and criticized for her manner of imparting wisdom. There are no fluffy bunnies or velvet blankets shrouding her conviction. "The Castle is not a 'health spa for the soul,'" she writes, and indeed, it seems rather like a boot camp crossed with a doctor's office. "Contemplation," she writes a few pages later, "is the discipline of piercing through the ego's self-centeredness and impatience"; "It may include enduring the boredom–sometimes for years– of waiting for God to show up."
Ken Wilber's forward initiates the reader to some of the book's key concepts, first introduced by Avila and adapted by Myss. Castle is a metaphor for the soul. Our Castles contain seven mansions, each filled with numerous rooms. Soul is our inner self, mysterious, unknown, and divine. Ego, the outer self on view to the world, craves security, and feels fear, anger, jealousy, greed, and the other not so pious emotions. Heaven and hell are psychological states of being that we experience while we are alive versus places we go upon death. When you identify with your inner self, you experience heaven; when you identify with your outer self, you experience hell.
Myss's guided visualizations take you on a medieval tour of your personal Castle, complete with reptiles, vermin, and dungeons. Conversations occur between your soul and your ego in each room, with the goal of removing the egoic obstacles that keep you from experiencing the divine. When you enter the first room of the first mansion, you begin by exploring your fears of humiliation. Have these fears, Myss asks, " influenced what you studied in school, the career you chose, the mate you have, the place you live, the religion you practice, the friends you maintain, the charities to which you give?"
Later meetings with your soul involve more ego-deprecating questions like why you create chaos in your life, how you hold others prisoner by refusing to forgive them, and how you attempt to control the actions of God. You don't enter these rooms just once but many times until you free your ego-self from the illusions that separate you from your soul. In addition, Myss encourages you to explore any extra rooms in your Castles not covered in the book. Because she has little patience for the childish demands that our lives and everything in them be under our control, Myss is an interesting mix of enlightened mystic and scolding nun, a personification of her Catholic upbringing. Of course, you can purchase a CD version of the material, recorded from one her lectures, if you believe this will make the process easier to complete, but be warned; the reviews on Amazon complain that Myss's tone is so angry and condescending that they couldn't listen to it.
Some years ago, Myss spoke at a local Barnes & Noble to promote Sacred Contracts. I attended the talk with about 30 others. After she spoke, she took questions from the audience. A middle-aged woman asked Myss to clarify one of the book's concepts. The woman still did not understand after Myss responded. Myss then dismissed the woman with a disapproving smile, saying something to the effect that the woman didn't want to get it.
Although the text version is gentler, you can still hear her distain. She states in this book that she is "ferociously private," and the reader intuits the wall she puts up. You'll also find it in the stories she chooses to illustrate her points. People come to her vulnerable and seeking guidance, and she retells the experience from a place of distant superiority. Perhaps the annoyance she expresses comes from her frustration over the human tendency to expect others to change instead of focusing on changing ourselves. On the other hand, there are those who do love her Dr. Phil-like style of filleting the participant.
But, getting caught up in Myss as a person distracts from the true beauty of the work. Myss is asking us to take on life's enduring questions – questions first answered by our parents, teachers, and the religious institutions of our childhood and often left unexamined in adult life. She is not apologetic about what spiritual work demands from us–a daily commitment to God and our souls, a practice that brings us grace first and then through us, brings grace to the world. In her words, "It takes patience and inner work to excavate the many rooms in the mansions of your soul. Yet, in each one you will discover another domain of your being–your spiritual gifts, your divine jewels ... then you have to use them and wear them out in the world in this lifetime–because your soul will not allow you to forget them or hide them."
Entering The Castle is Myss's unique rendering of an ageless mystery, a painting created by the brush strokes of a sometimes harsh and judgmental painter. Her words tell us things we'd rather not hear. Our charlatan smiles and self-serving kindness maybe don't fool her. We condemn Myss's shortcomings because it is our ego's last defense, and not a very good one at that. How many of us imperfect beings have brought our soul's treasures to the world with such devotion? That is the real gift of Myss's work; she is exceptional and flawed like all of us. Perfectionism is just another one of the ego's excuses for delaying our journey. Whether you view her as the wicked stepmother or a compassionate guide doesn't matter; the itinerary is the same.
©2007 Lisa Finander
Other examples of Lisa Finander's writing:
- The Empress
- Strength
- Moon As Mapmaker: Exploring Your Inner Landscape Without Fear
- Entering The Castle: An Inner Path To God And Your Soul (Review)
- For Love and Money: Creating the Work You Enjoy (Interview)
