Teilhard and the crimson, blazing matter
negotiating consolation and desolation
“Crimson gleams of Matter, gliding imperceptibly into the gold of Spirit, ultimately to become transformed into the incandescence of a Universe that is Person — and through all this there blows, animating it and spreading over it a fragrant balm, a zephyr of Union — and of the Feminine.
“The Diaphany of the Divine at the heart of a glowing Universe, as I have experienced it through contact with the Earth — the Divine radiating from the depths of a blazing Matter: this it is that I shall try to disclose and communicate in what follows.” (16)
Thus begins Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s explanation of his intended purpose in writing The Heart of Matter. In fairness, he has already prefaced this initial account by saying, “In spite of certain appearances of strictly rigorous argument, the considerations that follow make no attempt to work out a designedly coherent structure… Rather do they aim at describing a direct psychological experience.” (15) Okay, now it makes perfect sense!
Teilhard, due to his creation of words, and his capitalization of many, has sometimes been relegated to the impenetrable. It does take plenty of work to make heads or tails of his verbiage. I have just started re-reading his book, and I do find there are almost indecipherable words and sentences — indeed, paragraphs.
Aside from his opening meditation on “The Heart of Matter,” there appear quite a few commentaries on various subjects, including his “Mass on the World,” a work of shimmering beauty. Teilhard’s writings are shot through with cosmic love. No — better to say they are immersed, even drowned, in love.
I told my wife recently that from time to time, I have clearly understood his language. As he says, they come more from experience than from coherent structure. They could rightly be considered visionary and mind-expanding in nature. And those sorts of visions could rightly be considered divine and/or psychedelic. (I was formerly no stranger to occasional mind expansion of the latter kind.)
Still, Teilhard’s scientific methods have been regarded as speculative at best. One prime example was his participation in the Piltdown Man hoax. This concerned a specimen discovered in England in 1912. Far from a fossilized being, it turned out to be a combination of human and ape bones. It is unlikely that he was the primary culprit, but his continued reliance on the so-called findings was incriminating from a purely scientific perspective.
That said, he has continued to stir interest and fascination for decades, particularly among those pursuing theology, philosophy, and cosmological evolution. (But again, a huge thumbs-down from empirical scientists.) His phrase “a Universe that is Person” resonates with those who envision planetary, galactic, even universal evolution into mind or super-sentience. Teilhard’s “Omega Point” is nothing less than that: everything becoming united in Christ.
Of course, Father Teilhard was about more than scientific pursuits. He was, after all, a Jesuit priest. The Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534, is rooted in a spirituality that features the concepts of consolation and desolation. Put too simply, consolation is the experience of moving closer to God, while desolation is the opposite.
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One key element of Ignatian wisdom is this: avoid making major decisions in a state of desolation. Conversely, decisions in times of consolation tend to bear fruit.
It’s hard to know precisely if and when Teilhard experienced desolation, but he had ample impulses for it! We do know he had plenty of problems with the Vatican, who at the time found his ideas pretty much beyond the pale of proper theology. (Some might even say his bold decisions were made in states of desolation!)
If I may, allow me to include a side note — an experience that carried considerable weight in my own life.
In my final semester at Middle Tennessee State University, I got the idea in my head that I should leave school and go to California. My interests had shifted considerably from the time I started college.
Though my major was Political Science, my exploration of religious faith — Christianity, and to a lesser extent, Buddhism and Zen — had set me on a different path. I began to see myself as a seeker of truth, wandering the Earth. [No grandiose vision there!] Combining that with my great love of music, I decided that I should return to the land of my youth, San Diego, and get a job in a record store. I even went to the school library, looked through a San Diego phone directory [yes, one of those archaic documents], and found a store near the ocean.
So I called my Mom and told her what God was leading me to do! She didn’t have very much to say. Without even realizing it, she tapped into a couple of the key principles of Ignatian spirituality. She suggested that I go ahead and finish out the semester, since I was so close to graduating anyway, and then see what I thought. If God really wanted me to make this major change in my life, waiting a few more weeks wouldn’t hurt.
And after a couple of days had gone by, it occurred to me that God really didn’t want me to run off to San Diego!
In The Art of Discernment, Jesuit writer Stefan Kiechle presents “Ten Guiding Principles of Discernment.” My mother and I unwittingly implemented numbers 2 and 3 on that list: “develop a good sense of timing” and “seek wise counsel.” Our conversation checked both boxes.
So what does this Ignatian business of consolation and desolation have to do with Teilhard’s vision of cosmic flame at the heart of matter?
Maybe what he experiences in “blazing Matter” can be interpreted through those categories. For Teilhard, the encounter with radiance in the world is itself a movement of consolation. The spark of God encountered in matter draws him out of self and into communion with the cosmic Christ.
On the other hand, when matter is perceived as “dead” — let’s say as smoldering embers, even as ashes — it becomes a source of desolation. There is movement away from the divine radiance, from God. Nihilism, despair, and lifelessness can take root.
Perhaps the challenge for us is learning to see the world not as ash, but as ablaze with God’s presence. Teilhard’s gift — despite whatever flaws it bore in a purely scientific sense — was his resolute conviction that matter itself is radiant with Spirit. To live in consolation, then, is to live with eyes open to that flame.
We will know those crimson gleams of matter.
