THE STAR.
A strange emotion seized me. A fiery trembling ran in
waves through all my body. My heart quickened its
beating, tumult agitated my mind.
I felt that I was surrounded by portentous mysteries.
And presently shafts of Light penetrated my being and
illuminated many things before in darkness, whose
existence even I had never suspected. Veils vanished of
which I had been before unaware. Voices spoke to me.
And suddenly all my former knowledge took a new and
different meaning.
I discovered unexpected correlations in things which
hitherto I had thought foreign to each other. Objects
distant and different from one another appeared near and
similar. The facts of the world arranged themselves before
my eyes according to a new pattern.
In the sky there appeared an enormous star surround-
ed by seven smaller stars. Their rays intermingled, filling
space with immeasurable radiance and splendour. Then I
knew I saw that Heaven of which Plotinus speaks:
"Where... all things are diaphanous; and nothing is dark
and resisting, but everything is apparent to every one
internally and throughout. For light everywhere meets
with light, since everything contains all things in itself, and
again sees all things in another. So that all things are
everywhere, and all is all. Each thing likewise is
everything. And the splendour there is infinite. For
everything there is great, since even that which is small is
great.
"The sun too, which is there, is all the stars; and again
each star is the sun and all the stars. In each however, a
different property predominates, but at the same time all
things are visible in each. Motion likewise there is pure;
for motion is not confounded by a mover different from
it. Permanency also suffers no change of its nature,
because it is not mingled with the unstable. And the
beautiful there is beautiful, because it does not subsist in
beauty. Each thing, too, is there established, not as in a
foreign land, but the seat of each thing is that which each
thing is.
.... Nor is the thing itself different from the
place in which it subsists. For the subject of it is intellect,
and it is itself intellect. ... In this sensible region, therefore,
one part is not produced by another, but each part is
alone a part. But there each part always proceeds from the
whole, and is at the same each time part and the whole.
For it appears indeed as a part; but by him whose sight is
acute, it will be seen as a whole.
"Where... is likewise no weariness of the vision which
is there, not any plenitude of perception which can bring
intuition to an end.
"For neither was there any vacuity which when filled
might cause the visible energy to cease; nor is this one
thing, but that another, so as to occasion a part of one
thing not to be amicable with that of another.
"Where... the life is wisdom; a wisdom not obtained by
a reasoning process, because the whole of it always was,
and is not in any respect deficient, so as to be in want of
investigation. But it is the first wisdom, and is not derived
from another."
I understood that all the radiance here is thought;
and the changing colours are emotions. And each ray, if we
look into it, turns into images, symbols, voices and moods.
And I saw that there is nothing inanimate, but all is soul,
all is life, all is emotion and imagination.
And beneath the radiant stars beside the blue river 1
saw a naked maiden, young and beautiful. She stooped on
one knee and poured water from two vessels, one of gold
and one of silver. A little bird in a near by bush lifted its
wings and was poised ready to fly away.
For a moment I understood that I beheld the Soul of
Nature.
"This is Nature's Imagination", said the voice gently.
"Nature dreams, improvises, creates worlds. Learn to unite
your imagination with Her Imagination
and nothing will ever be impossible for you. Lose the
external world and seek it in yourself. Then you will find
Light. "But remember, unless you have lost the Earth, you
will not find Heaven. It is impossible to see both wrongly
and rightly at the same time."
