Saint John Climacus instructing the monks of Sinai, from manuscript Greek 418, folio 248 recto, a manuscript of the twelfth century.
In Step Twenty-six of The Ladder of Divine Ascent we read,
Ὥσπερ διάφορα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τὰ φῶτα, οὕτως πολλαὶ καὶ διάφοροι τοῦ νοητοῦ ἡλίου αἱ ἐν ψυχῇ γινόμεναι ἐπισκιάσεις· ἄλλη μὲν γὰρ, ἡ διὰ τῶν σωματικῶν δακρύων, καὶ ἄλλη ἡ διὰ τῶν ψυχικῶν· ἑτέρα ἡ διὰ τῶν τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμῶν, καὶ ἑτέρα διὰ τῶν νοερῶν· ἄλλη ἡ ἐξ ἀκοῆς λόγου, καὶ ἑτέρα ἡ ἰδιαιρέτως κινουμένη ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἀγαλλίασις· ἄλλη ἡ ἐξ ἡσυχίας, καὶ ἑτέρα ἡ ἐξ ὑπακοῆς. Πρὸς τούτοις πᾶσιν ἄλλη ἡ δι᾿ ἐκστάσεως τὸν νοῦν ἐν φωτὶ τῷ Χριστῷ παριστῶσα ἀῤῥήτως καὶ ἀφράστως.
As the lights that reach the eyes differ from one another, so too are the overshadowings of the noetic Sun that occur in the soul many and various. One comes through bodily tears, and one through tears of the soul. Another comes through the eyes of the body, and another through the noetic (spiritual) eyes. One comes from hearing a word, and another the joy welling up spontaneously in the soul. One comes from hesychia (stillness), and another from obedience. Besides all these, there is yet another, one which through ecstasy presents the νοῦς to Christ in light ineffably and inexpressibly.
The νοῦς is the faculty of spiritual perception. The noetic Sun is Christ, bringing divine illumination. ‘Overshadowings’ is a reference to the Transfiguration, when a bright cloud overshadowed the disciples (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:34). The Hesychast Fathers of the fourteenth century wrote about the experience of the light of the Transfiguration. Here Saint John Climacus anticipates them by some six hundred years.
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