A spiritual journey through the seven mansions of St. Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle. Practices of prayer, reflection, humility, and self-knowledge will turn spiritual insights into experiential wisdom.
An 8-week online course journeying through the seven mansions of St. Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle with James Finley and Mirabai Starr as guides. Deepen your awareness of the “inner witness” and experience the Interior Castle an embodied pathway of union with God.
Interior Castle is a spiritual journey through the seven mansions of St. Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle. It explores her perspective on progressively deepening states of consciousness as a pathway to union with God. Along the way, practices of prayer, reflection, humility, and self-knowledge turn spiritual insights into experiential and embodied wisdom.
Based on James Finley’s many years of reading, meditating, and leading retreats on this 16th-century mystic, this course also draws from Mirabai Starr’s work translating the original Spanish text to reveal the essence of Teresa and her message. Interior Castle is intended for students already experienced with the spiritual path. This course is presented largely in James Finley’s poetic, creative, non-linear style and is, therefore, best suited to those who have experience learning in a heart-centered way that transcends and includes the intellect.
Below you will find the course schedule for all upcoming offerings. You can register or sign up to be notified of an upcoming course by clicking the buttons below.
Interior Castle is an 8-week online course. Students should expect to invest 4–6 hours of work each week on the course material, reading assignments, online discussions with other students, and time for personal reflection.
Students will have access to course content for the duration of the course. Course content will be available four weeks after the course ends.
Interior Castle is not required reading for this course although it is highly encouraged. We recommend Mirabai Starr’s modern translation (Riverhead Books: 2004). The translation James Finley references throughout the course is from E. Allison Peers (Doubleday: 1961), which is out of print.
To apply for financial assistance, please complete the online Financial Assistance Form at least 1 week before registration is scheduled to close. Please do not register for the online course until your request for financial assistance has been processed.
This is a sample video from the course.
Course material will be presented in a format modeled after the structure of James Finley’s retreats. The rhythm of the teaching will follow the same flow: an invitation to contemplative practice, a teaching, personal reflection questions, sharing in group discussions, and an invitation to contemplative practice.
Students can progress through each week at their own pace.