The Secret Ladder

The Secret Ladder - A Spiritual Adventure Writing the Book The Secret Ladder didn’t take long to write once I got started, but it took a very long time to get as far as the writing. Quite soon after my return to Ireland at the end of 1997, I began to want to write about the whole experience. I started to jot down isolated incidents from my time in Aubépine, but two things soon became apparent. First, I had no idea where the story should begin or end, and second, I didn’t like the sound of my written "voice". After a number of false starts, I abandoned the idea, and there things remained until 2003. That year, I felt a really strong urge to try again. Then I heard about a creative writing class that was taking place not too far from where I work. Thinking it might help me to find a "voice", I enrolled in September. It was the right decision. Susan Knight, our teacher, gave me great encouragement, and after a class dealing with the classic forms of the novel, I knew the shape the book would take. It would be in the form of a quest.

Finding a title

My first idea was to call the book Aubépine, which is the fictitious name I give the real village where the monastery I write about was situated. "Aubépine" is the french for "hawthorn"; in spring the hills around the monastery are covered in the white flower of the hawthorn bush. But my publishers, Darton, Longman and Todd, weren’t too happy with the title. "Nobody will know how to pronounce it", they said; and they were right: nobody did. So various options were tried and discarded (I liked The Nut Orchard from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. "Ahem! Perhaps not." said my brother wisely) before I finally hit on The Secret Ladder, from the great quest poem of St John of the Cross, The Dark Night.

On a dark night, kindled in love with yearnings,

Oh, happy chance!

I set forth without being observed, my house being now at rest.

In darkness and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised,

Oh, happy chance!

In darkness and in concealment, my house being now at rest.

The Quest trilogy

When I had completed The Secret Ladder, I realized that the whole story had not been told; the quest was not over. I also realized that there had been an earlier stage not recorded in the book. I began to write a sequel, and then I put it aside for a while and began to write the earlier history. All three together will form as complete a story as the story can be while I am still living. The working title for the sequel (which will be the next to appear) is The Crystalline Fount from John of the Cross’ poem The Spiritual Canticle:

O crystalline fount! If that on this thy silvered surface

Thou wouldst of a sudden form the eyes desired which I bear outlined in my inmost heart!

The title I currently have in mind for the projected "prequel" is The Strange Islands from the same poem.

My Beloved, the mountains, the solitary wooded valleys,

The strange islands, the sonorous rivers, the whisper of the amorous breezes.