“The mystics are artists; and the stuff in which they work is most often human life. They want to heal the disharmony between the actual and the real: and since, in the white-hot radiance of that faith, hope, and charity which burns in them, they discern such a reconciliation to be possible, they are able to work for it with a singleness of purpose and an invincible optimism denied to other men. This was the instinct which drove St. Francis of Assisi to the practical experience of that poverty which he recognized as the highest wisdom; … St. Teresa to the formation of an ideal religious family; … Florence Nightingale to battle with officials, vermin, dirt, and disease in the soldiers hospitals. …” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mystics as Artists

Mystics are artists in the sense of being creators and agents of change. If they don’t make the changes them selves, they are either helping others to do so, or working with God and the angels to make it happen. They are not artists of chaos. They are not artists who seek to reveal the dark and slimy underbelly of life on the material plane. Instead they are
seekers of beauty, much like painter Georgia O’Keeffe saw beauty in the desert where she lived. 

Georgia OKeeffe, Summer Days (1936)

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“The oracle of Dodona was presided over by Jupiter, who uttered prophecies through oak trees, birds, and vases of brass. … The ‘talking’ trees stood together, forming a sacred grove. When the priests desired answers to important questions, after careful and solemn purifications they retired to the grove. When they had stated their questions, the trees spoke with the voices of human beings, revealing to the priests the desired information. …
“Most curious of the oracles of Dodona were the ‘talking’ vases, or kettles. These were made of brass and so carefully fashioned that when struck they gave off sound for hours.” ~Manly P. Hall

Talking Trees

“The trees of Dodona didn’t actually talk. What they did varies depending on who you listen to. Some say actual voices could be heard coming from the trees. Others, that the rustling leaves made sounds that could only be interpreted by the oracles. In either case, we are talking about sound coming from the trees.

Talking Kettles

“More interesting is the tale of “talking” vases or kettles made of brass. The fact that it was said they gave off sound for hours after being struck indicates that this is something different from listening to the “voices” in the trees and from the birds. This sound more like a tool used to raise the vibrations of the priests and others present during the oracular ceremony. This sounds very similar to the singing brass bowls used in Tibet and the crystal ones used elsewhere in spiritual and mystical ceremony.”

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“Even in the superior phase of the Soul—that which proceeds the impressionable faculty and any sensation—how can we reconcile immunity with the indwelling of vice, false notions, ignorance? …

“If the Soul were material and had magnitude, it would be difficult, indeed quite impossible, to make it appear to be immune, unchangeable, when any of such emotions lodge in it. And even considered as an Authentic Being, devoid of magnitude and necessarily indestructible, we must be very careful how we attribute any such experiences to it or we will find ourselves unconsciously making it subject to dissolution.” ~Plotinus

The Immune Soul

The soul is immune from many things, but Plotinus is primarily telling us that it is immune to having negative emotions. It is immune in that it cannot experience for itself such emotions, or for that matter, most positive emotions. It cannot be jealous, angry, vengeful, or hateful. It cannot even be happy, sad, joyful, or friendly. All such emotions are experienced by the body and the mind, not the Soul. But there is one cautionary message that needs to go with this idea. While the soul can’t experience such emotions directly, it can be affected by them indirectly.

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“Those whose names he knew first were called last, so that one who has knowledge is one whose name the Father has pronounced. For one whose name has not been spoken is ignorant. … For whoever remains ignorant until the end is a creature of forgetfulness and will perish with it. … Hence, whoever has knowledge is from above. If called, that person hears, replies, and turns toward Him who called. That person ascends to Him and knows how he is called. Having knowledge, that person does the will of Him who called. That persons desire to please Him, finds rest, and receives a certain name. Those who thus are going to have knowledge know whence they came and whither they are going. They know it as someone who, having become intoxicated, has turned from his drunkenness and, having come to himself, has restored what is his own.” ~The Gospel of Truth

Called Last

Why should those with knowledge be called last? For the same reason that the ship’s crew and captain are the last ones to leave a sinking ship. The ones with the knowledge about life boats, life vests, and so on, must show the passengers and help them get off first. Likewise, those who gain knowledge must help teach the rest so they too can be saved.

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“When you go on an excursion choose the places well lit by the Sun. These are the southern slopes of the mountain.

“There is always more prana or vital energy in the mornings than at noon. At that time, the organism absorbs the greatest amount and the most powerful positive energies. The first rays of the Sun (at sunrise) are the most energetic; the Sun reaches the pinnacle of its action. …

“Those who have lost meaning in life must greet the Sun every morning. Get up and see the rising Sun for a month and see how you will feel then. In the springtime look at the flowers and trees in bloom.

“People today often like to speculate with sophisticated phrases about the existence of God and to ask if there is a God. I do not solve this question in a philosophical way, but I just say that God exists as the Sun is shining.” ~~Biensa Douno

Let the Sun Shine In

Whether you are traveling or staying at home doesn’t make any difference. Choose a place well lit by the sun. Also one well lit by the Sun. Notice that Douno always capitalizes the word in the text quoted. I can’t be certain that my interpretation is the same as his, but when I capitalize it, I am referring to the spiritual Sun rather than the physical sun. While the two are related just as we are related to our own spirits, it is important to recognize the difference.

This doesn’t mean that we all have to live in wide open spaces where we get a lot of sun. That would be impossible for most urban dwellers today. It does mean that when we engage in spiritual practices, we should go to an open area such as a field or a park and look upon both the physical sun and the Spiritual Sun “behind” it.

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“We find nowadays many silly men who would be so interior and so detached, that they will not be active or helpful in any way of which their neighbors are in need. Know such men are neither hidden friends, nor true servants of God. …
“If thou dost desire to unfold in thyself the Contemplative Life, thou must enter within, beyond the sense life; and, on that apex of thy being, … look unto God with gratitude and love and continual reverence. Thou must keep thy thoughts bare, and stripped of every sensible image, thine understanding open and lifted up to the Eternal Truth, and thy spirit spread out in the sight of God s a living mirror to receive His everlasting likeness. Behold, therein appears a light of the understanding, which neither sense, reason, nature, nor the clearest logic can apprehend, but which gives us freedom and confidence toward God. It is nobler and higher than all that God has created in nature; for it is the perfection of nature, and transcends nature, and is the clear-shining intermediary between ourselves and God.” ~Ruysbroeck

Too Interior

Even though the two paragraphs I quoted from seem to be on different subjects, they are related in one important way. In the second one, Ruysbroeck advises us to turn within for enlightenment, to achieve higher states of consciousness. But this should not lead you to believe that all answers are withing, and all spiritual growth occurs when looking within. The first paragraph helps clear that up when he tells us that we must not be so interior as to be inactive in the physical world and unwilling or unable to help other who need our help (especially, I might add, those who need help finding their way to the Path of Light, the Path of Enlightenment).

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“Now therefore we say (as the Scripture informs us) that God dwells in Heaven, and it is the Truth. Now mark, Moses writes that God created the heaven out of the Midst of the Waters, and the Scripture says, God dwells in Heaven; therefore we may now observe. That the Water has its origin from the longing of the eternal Nature after the eternal Light of Good.; but the eternal Nature is made manifest by the longing after the Light of God, as is mentioned before; and the Light of God is present everywhere, and yet remains hidden to Nature. …
“Therefore, O noble Man, let not Antichrist and the devil before you, who tells you that the Deity is far off from you, and directs you to a Heaven that is situated far above you; whereas there is nothing nearer to you than Heaven is. You only stand before the Door of Heaven, you stand in the Gate” ~Jacob Boehme

God in Heaven

It is a variation of the old “Which came first, the chicken pr the egg?” question. If God dwells in Heaven than log would dictate that Heaven existed before God. If that were the case, who created heaven, and why? On the other hand, if God came first, then created Heaven, where was God before Heaven existed? These question are a dilemma, a paradox, at least to the logical brain-mind.

Here is where you go astray with this; you can’t think of God, Heaven, or anything spiritual, and relate it to time. The entire concept of time doesn’t exist there. It has no relevance. God didn’t exist before Heaven and heaven didn’t exist before God because the use of the idea “before” implies time, and specifically linear time, in a realm where time does not exist at all. Since time doesn’t exist in spiritual worlds, a time-based dilemma cannot exist there either. The paradox exists only in your brain-mind, not in the reality of Heaven and God.

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“Let whoso thirsts to see his God cleanse his mirror, purge his spirit; and when thus he has cleansed his mirror, and long and diligently gazed in it, a certain brightness of divine light begins to shine through upon him, and a certain immense ray of unwonted vision to appear before his eyes. … From the beholding of this light, which it sees within itself with amazement, the mind is mightily set on fire, and lifted up to behold that Light which is above itself.” ~Richard of St. Victor

“… All his relations with the given world of sense, the sphere of becoming, have been purified and adjusted. Now the expansive and educative influence of the Divine Light is able to penetrate nearer to the heart of his personality; is brought to bear upon those interior qualities which he hardly knows himself to possess, and which govern his relation with the spiritual world of Being.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Cleanse Your Mirror

Hopefully, you all realize that these spiritual teachers are not advising you to grab a bottle of Windex and head for the bathroom to clean the mirror found there. This is allegorical, and can have several meanings. Cleansing our mirror can mean changing how we see ourselves, both on the conscious and subconscious levels. It can also mean changing how we look at the world around us, because what we see is, in effect, a mirror of what we thing and what we believe. The farmer and the hotel builder see something very different when looking out over an empty meadow, neither is seeing it as it truly is.

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