The Cloud of Unknowing

Embracing Mystery and Uncertainty--perhaps even "unknowing"

Welcome to all the new subscribers… there’s a bit of news on the all new, Camino de Blue Ridge, a pilgrimage I will be leading in September 2025. At this precise moment, a couple of spaces have opened up and there’s not a wait list. So, do check it out if you’re looking for a wonderful experience of hiking in the Blue Ridge with 25 companions. Here’s the link. You have a better chance if you’re coming as a single. But we do have one room open for a couple. You fill out an inquiry first, then I’ll be in touch.

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Photo by Paul Pastourmatzis on Unsplash

This morning, I have no view. Everything is shrouded by a cloud—by a thick, cold morning, heavy and wet mist. I can’t see beyond the Mother Beech tree, standing proudly, only twenty five feet outside my glass tree house where I am sitting right now.

I feel suspended right here… right now. It’s an eerie feeling. Something must be up, I think to myself. I take notice of my breath. I inhale. Hold the breath in my gut, then ever so slowly, exhale. Take notice. Pay attention. Become aware. This is the way to live as a modern mystic without our monasteries; without the bell ringing the hours. This is the hour to pay attention.

Clouds are always signs and symbols of mystery and seeing the cloud so thick around me this morning, transports me to one of the most widely read books of all times in Christian history. It’s a book by an anonymous writer in the 14^th century who penned this spiritual classic which beautifully describes what the “cloud of unknowing” actually is and isn’t. It’s an enthralling invitation to wade into this book and I recommend you read it and join the millions of pilgrims who have read this all time classic—The Cloud of Unknowing. Here’s the link to consider the book. I chose this version because Evelyn Underhill wrote the introduction.

The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984) famously said “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” There is much to consider in Rahner’s one sentence. Much. Perhaps, this is the invitation being asked of us in these days of uncertainty and confusion.

This is how the mystics spoke and described what they called, “a cloud of unknowing.” This metaphor aptly describes going beyond our minds and descending into the heart and experiencing the presence of the Holy. It is what the modern day Episcopal priest and author, Barbara Brown Taylor describes when she wrote,

“I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place.”

The Cloud of Unknowing is about abandoning linear, logical certainty and moving to the deep waters of holy ignorance and what I call—the Presence. It is precisely what the Apostle Paul, himself described when he prayed, “I pray that you may be strenghtned in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” This is the journey of descending down into that secret place of inner knowing and inner Presence.

In my poem I’ll be sharing, I describe this— “Presence.” I call this a Presence because in the Cloud of Unknowing, what one encounters is a Presence and I honor the presence with a capital, “P.” How else might one name an encounter with an almighty cloud?

Here’s a bit more I dug out on Wikepedia this morning for you:

The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.

Here’s an actual excerpt from this classic and widely read book. This one paragraph alone introduces you to the beauty of the experience of such an encounter:

"For the first time you [lift your heart to God with stirrings of love], you will find only a darkness, and as it were a cloud of unknowing [...] Whatever you do, this darkness and the cloud are between you and your God, and hold you back from seeing him clearly by the light of understanding in your reason and from experiencing him in the sweetness of love in your feelings. [...] And so prepare to remain in this darkness as long as you can, always begging for him you love; for if you are ever to feel or see him...it must always be in this cloud and this darkness."

— The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works. Translated by A. C. Spearing. London: Penguin. 2001. pp. 22. ISBN 0-14-044762-8.

My poem, “The Cloud of Unknowing” is my own attempt to describe this good Presence. So, earlier this morning as I sat down and saw this fog, mist and cloud, I sat down and this is what came out.

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