Julian of Norwich

On May 13, 1373 Julian of Norwich was graced with a series of visitations from God in the form of sixteen visions. Shortly after these revelations, or "showings" as Julian referred to them, she wrote a description of them as well as a brief analysis of their content. Almost twenty years later, still puzzling over the nature and meaning of these signs, she expanded her original work and wrote an extended treatment of the revelations, her search leading her to an exploration of the nature of the soul, the mystery of the soul's relationship to God, the problem of sin, and the nature of divine love.

That day in May transformed Julian's life. While she remained an anchoress and spiritual counselor in Norwich, much of the rest of her life was devoted to deciphering the cryptic meaning behind this experience of divine revelation. Interpreting the visions is made even more difficult by the complexity of her experience of the visitations, for Julian informs us that she was aware of three modes of perception. She received the showings "by bodily vision and by words formed in my understanding and by spiritual vision". "Bodily vision" implies sensory perception of physical reality, while "words formed in my understanding" consists of words "dictated" to Julian interiorly. The last mode of understanding spiritual vision, might be labeled as "insight" or an immediate, intuitive understanding of significance.

In her clear, lucid, prose style, combined with the images of the medieval mystic, Julian establishes herself as an independent, female religious authority and she gives a staunch affirmation of the divinity of God with this unique view point: the motherhood of God.

In her work Julian describes some visions with disarmingly simple and vivid prose; Christ crowned with thorns, for example, or the discoloration of his face. Other visions are more abstract or philosophical. The thirteenth revelation, for example, which declares our need to value the works of God. While Julian had all sixteen visions consecutively, sometimes their spiritual significance was the fruit of years of brooding. All three modes interweave in the Showings to suggest how extraordinarily rich was the totality of her spiritual experience.

Julian's visions are an expression of the realizable, felt presence of God. Having had the visitations to some extent forces her to spend time clarifying her sense of what this experience of divinity is like. When we encounter God, according to Julian, our proper attitude is one of "reverent fear" before the awe-inspiring majesty of divine power. This is not simply a subjective or mental state but a spontaneous response to the objective reality of God's presence.

But we do not experience God solely as a being outside ourselves; we also perceive divine reality to exist within. Julian begins with a traditional theological model in her discussion of the nature and relationship of body and soul. God created our bodies from "the slime of the earth, which is matter mixed and gathered from all bodily things". The creation of our souls, however, is attributable to nothing except divine spirit and this creation is hence literally "inspiration." The theological consequence of this act of creation is that "man's soul is kept whole". That is, divine reality underpins the very fact of our humanity and unites us to God, defined by Julian as "substantial uncreated nature". Realizing the true nature of our being is simultaneously an act of "creating God." God is thus not only creator but is also continually created, given form, and realized through the instrumentality of humanity.

The divine part of our being, our soul realizes the nature of God through a metaphysical correspondence that is set in motion when we encounter this Presence. But not only does our soul share divinity in being created by God; we also create God out of the divine nature of our souls. Because of the congruity between divinity and humanity, we "shape" the creation of God in the course of realizing our humanity.

Julian ponders further such theological concerns as the nature of the soul, the nature of God, and the connection between them. If God is in fact the divine ground of our being, both physical and spiritual, then by "knowing" our souls we should come closer to a knowledge of God. For Julian reciprocity exists between the human and divine worlds so that self-knowledge both presupposes and preordains a knowledge of God. One consequence of this insight is that the path toward spiritual perfection lies not in rejecting the human condition but in embracing it, for "by the leading through grace of the Holy Spirit we shall know them [soul and God] both in one; whether we are moved to know God or our soul, either motion is good and true."

The unrealized potential of the soul is to be united to God, but our sinful human condition prevents our ability to do this. When grace is operative, however, and our souls are with humility ready to receive it, the "substance" of our souls is restored, and we perceive the true (i.e., sacred ) nature of our humanity. Faith helps us recover the divine ground of our being and assures us that with self-knowledge comes knowledge of the infinite mystery of divine presence: "When we know and see, truly and clearly, what our self is, then we shall truly and clearly see and know our Lord God in the fullness of joy".

In her first showing, Julian sees Christ and emphatically declares, "I grasped truly and mightily that it was he himself that showed it to me without any go-between...". This is a significant beginning, for Julian must establish her independence. She sees this miraculous vision of Christ without mediation. No other saint, guide or individual assists her in accessing Christ. Julian establishes herself as one who is worthy, capable and humble enough to receive an independent visitation from God. At this very crucial beginning, Julian distinguishes and separates herself in a religious sense, and a literary sense. As an anchoress, she separates herself from the male dominated clergy of the time period. She does not need the male "go-between," the male clergy, to escort her to the presence of God. Moreover, as a writer, she distinguishes herself from her male contemporaries who traditionally have some sort of guide or mediator, most often male but sometimes female, who helps arrange for the vision or guides the individual to God.

Though Julian's spiritual vision may seem terribly feminine, and it is, the situation in which it is written is quite the opposite. The Anchorite Order began, according to Thiebaux, "in the English countryside in the eleventh and twelfth centuries