Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 2 opens with Teresa pointing out that a soul who has entered into this process and turns away is "in a state of grave error" and is in the deepest darkness. She has stepped out of the castle and so is no longer able to radiate the light coming from God at its center. All her works will be fruitless, since they can no longer be motivated by the love coming to her from God. Works done outside of communion with God are motivated by a spirit of evil and a desire to glorify the individual rather than God, and so will yield no lasting good. She uses the analogy of a tree previously planted by a clear spring of water that pulls up its roots and replants them in a muddy, smelly bog. The fruit the tree will bear in...