Via Negativa

For silence is not God, 

nor speaking is not God;


fasting is not God, 

nor eating is not God; 


onliness is not God, 

nor company is not God


nor yet any of all 

the other such two contraries. 


He is hid between them,


and may not be found 

by any work of thy soul, 


but all only by love of thine heart. 


He may not be known by reason, 


He may not be gotten by thought, 


nor concluded by understanding; 


but He may be loved and chosen 


with the true lovely will 

of thine heart.





From The Epistle of Discretion: (by the author of The Cloud of Unknowing)


"Yea, say what men say will, but do thou as I say thee, and let the proof witness."