Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them

Evidence

Ecstasies, visions, and dialogues with God, this interior experience is sufficient for some women. Others feel the need to communicate it to the world through acts. The connection between action and contemplation takes two very different forms. There are women of action like Saint Catherine, Saint Teresa, and Joan of Arc who are well aware of the goals they set themselves and who lucidly invent the means to reach them: their revelations merely give an objective form to their certainties; they encourage them to take the paths they have carefully planned. There are women narcissists like Mme Guyon and Mme Krüdener who, at the limit of silent fervor, feel suddenly “in an apostolic state.” They are not very precise concerning their tasks; and—like patronesses seeking excitement—they do not care too much what they do as long as it is something. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915

Categorization

• DEFINE: Beauvoir’s core distinction between lucid women of action and narcissistic mystics — a key analytical pairing for the chapter.
• XREF: connects to: Woman’s supposed intuition is prized because it asks nothing of man’s ego. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 397; The mystical exaltation of woman still subordinates her as man’s instrument of salvation — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 589; Mystical fervor fails to redeem a woman from the inescapable passage of age. (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Exalting woman spiritually sanctions her earthly subordination rather than liberating her #complicates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 591
• Marginalized position pushes women to seek self-realization in imagination rather than action #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1942