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The Fountain by John of the Cross (1542 - 1591) Timeline English version by Willis Barnstone Original Language Spanish Christian : Catholic 16th Century How well I know that flowing spring      in black of night. The eternal fountain is unseen. How well I know where she has been      in black of night. I do not know her origin. None. Yet in her all things begin      in black of night. I know that nothing is so fair and earth and firmament drink there      in black of night. I know that none can wade inside to find her bright bottomless tide      in black of night. Her shining never has a blur; I know that all light comes from her      in black of night. I know her streams converge and swell and nourish people, skies and hell      in black of night. The stream whose birth is in this source I know has a gigantic force      in black of night. The stream from but these two proceeds yet neither one, I know, precedes      in black of night. The eternal fountain is unseen in living bread that gives us being      in black of night. She calls on all mankind to start to drink her water, though in dark,      for black is night. O living fountain that I crave, in bread of life I see her flame      in black of night.     -- from To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light, Translated by Willis Barnstone Amazon.com   / Photo by www.ericcastro.biz /	Themes   Birth, Rebirth   Bread   Fire   Food   Light Recommended Books All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time, by Robert Ellsberg Ascent of Mount Carmel: St. John of the Cross, by John of the Cross / Translated by Henry L. Carrigan Jr. A Bilingual Edition of Poems By ST. John of the Cross; Spiritual Songs and Ballads., by John of the Cross / Translated by Kenneth Canatsey Collected Works of St. John of the Cross: St. John of the Cross, Edited by Kieran Kavanaugh Dark Night of the Soul, by John of the Cross / Translated by Mirabai Starr More >>
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

In this poem, John of the Cross is speaking of a secret fountain as if it is a divine, living being -- and it is. This isn't merely a poetic metaphor, it is a description of actual mystical experience rendered into the language of poetry.

Mystics throughout the world and in all traditions describe an awareness of a flowing of water, a water that is alive. Coming into contact with that water, touching it, drinking it, feeling it flow inside you and all around you, quickens a new sense of life within. Everything, yourself included, is suddenly seen as radically alive in a way that could not have been imagined before. It is this water that is the foundational "stuff" of the manifest world, all things are formed of it and exist within it.

Accompanying this is a sense of a rising up and overflowing of energy -- a fountain. This is felt as originating in the seat, beginning to spread out in the solar plexus, flowing generously in the heart, and anointing the crown with a glistening light.

John of the Cross refers to this fountain as "she," equating it with the Holy Spirit in Catholic theology.

And why is this fountain always discovered "in black of night"? Night, the dark night of the soul, is fundamental to the mystical language developed by John of the Cross. One way to understand it is as the disorienting space of initiation, when the awareness has released its identification with material creation, and waits uncertainly for the Divine. Understood this way, the night is the spiritual threshold. It is within this psychic desert that we discover the fountain.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.