on Light (part one Introspection)

Light. What is it? We say we seek it in the Western Esoteric Tradition, but what are we seeking here?

St John 1:4/1:5 "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

On one level, Light is that intuitive and inspirational knowledge that one gets while contemplating a subject or object. If focused, one can see the reality behind what was focused on. It is the literal and figurative light bulb that comes on over the head of a person depicted in modern illustrations. It is that 'aha' moment when we didn't see the solution before, although it was right in front of our face and now we do. It is the Light that shines upon darkness! We all have it to a degree. We all use it one way or another, but do we have access to it on greater levels?

What if we turn this Light towards ourselves, our inner selves, in order to introspect and understand ourselves better? "know Thyself" How can we accomplish this?

One way is to look at a specific feeling, emotion, or thought that we are having and trace it back intellectually as far as possible. Using our imagination to assist us and doing this until all our intellectual / reasoning faculties are exhausted, then letting it all go and await The Light to shine on the subject! Centering prayer helps one reach this 'calming of the waters' of the mind, and once the waters are calm, they can reflect the Light more clearly! This is a 'circular' type of introspection were one can be in Light, get the information, go back to intellectual thinking, reasoning, back to imagination, back to the calmness, back to Light, back to intellectualizing and so on.

Honesty and Purity of motive in searching for truth is important here. We have to be honest enough to let go of all preconceived ideas about what the answer could be. We cannot force the Light to answer things 'our way'. We have to have the purity of motive to search for the truth, no matter how that could effect us.

Writing is also very helpful in introspection, it helps to *verbalize* ourselves. Once verbalized, we can see ourselves in others... understand others better as we understand ourselves better... For we are closer to each other more than we might think!

in LVX,
a +brother