A Higher Aspect of Contemplation: Part Two
by Alice Ouzounian
(NB: As with her last article, this one is also reproduced with Ms. Ouzounian's kind and chartitable permission. Again, I cannot stress enough the value of the various articles included on her own site, Plotinus, which is a must for all Seekers. Please visit it; you won't regret it.)
The tender and loving faces or guises of the Divine that the Unknown God chooses to take for our understanding touch us deeply, enticing and pulling us gradually inwards behind the invisible veils of our psyche, to allow us to change our consciousness with a whole range of pure and untapped energies, and to help us live life more intensely and earnestly. Hence, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and bigotry gradually vanish from our minds.
These specific mystical experiences also bring about something different, something indescribable but crucial and important. We could even go as far as to say that the whole spiritual process is to help us reach a certain center that is both within ourselves and yet also beyond ourselves, since this center is nowhere and everywhere at the same time. What do we mean by that? That these hallowed faces are symbolic images reflecting the Unknown God’s Presence in us, yet they take different expressions in the various world’s religions. But they leave their imprints in our psyche and through them, we are gradually led back to the Center of God’s Omnipresence. These faces or guises are deeply personal, directly infusing our soul with the intimate qualities of God’s infinite love and wisdom. Consequently, through these secret and sacred "face-to-face" encounters, a hallowed merging occurs, a union of man with God’s image, which we can refer to as a "veil."
Intimate contact with these Divine faces leaves us with a strong impression that transforms us forever and rejuvenates us. A new world appears in and around us in which things look quite different, yet nothing really changes from the outside. We are what changes because only consciousness can move and change the energies in and around us. It is indeed consciousness that harmonizes, blends and transforms our perceptions.
On all our planes of manifestations and in all our different aspects, we are made of pure energy. Hence the same law affects our intellect, emotions, ego, and individuality. Different spiritual energies pour into our psyche all the time, but we remain unaware of them until a direct mystical experience brings us face-to-face with an aspect of the Unknown God, which reveals to us and reflects in us, our own angelic nature. So, unless we look into the mirror of our own purified heart, we will never be sensitive to and change into our own angelic essence.
A Pythagorean way of saying this would be: "It is only after we cooperate in the purification of our psyche that the Muses bestow upon us their ineffable and transcendent gifts and that we can receive them." With each Divine face that emerges from within the darkness of our own unconsciousness, a new level of consciousness appears in the light of our conscious mind. A new face of God manifests within our heart.
The word "face" emphasizes that to understand something spiritual, we must project or receive an image, even if this image reflects an abstract idea. We must be moved and excited from within by what we see; be enthralled and aroused intellectually by it, so as to attract to ourselves and learn to blend with one of the Divine faces.
Now, each Divine face represents a level of consciousness. Hence, for a mystic, such an experience means that our psyche is about to blend, or has already blended, with one of the emanations of the Unknown God. We should allow ourselves to be magnetically pulled in by the Divine face that attracts our psyche. Of course, we cannot perceive the Unknown God "face-to-face" simply because the God we are trying to describe is the Unmanifest Presence of Pure Being.
Within a seeker, a hidden path opens up that belongs to his inner and Divine self. To unfold this path of initiation and tread consciously upon it, you must desire with all your heart to succeed in your quest and persevere until its fruition at the end of your incarnation. When the time comes and you are "ripe" to let the Divine Light appear in you, this energy will take the most appropriate Divine face to attract and transform you with love from within your being. To receive such divine gift, you must first learn to let go and discard your old ego patterns, your old faces and models, so you may be reborn anew.
As personalities, we do indeed change, and with those changes, our traits change, too. As we purge our psyche of the complicated stories and excuses that we make up, we enter slowly into a new world, subtly unveiling a Divine face, one appropriate to our personal needs of the moment. This Divine face projects an imprint on to our own face like a hologram, and in this way, our level of consciousness is affected by these subtle energies, and our traits and attitudes soften and mature, becoming more beautiful, and therefore more attractive and magnetic.
If we are to be called mystics or seekers, our first step on this path is to learn to observe ourselves. Generally, we find excuses to cover our own mistakes, faults, weaknesses. This is disastrous to someone on the mystic path, since it is only on that level of spirituality that we will learn to let go of our egotistic patterns and experience what is meant by "vanishing completely into the Center of God’s Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience, the Center of Pure Being, the Unmanifest Light."
Consequently, we understand that we must desire to climb the ladder of Light within ourselves so as to reach higher levels of consciousness. We do that guided by the inspiration, impulses and gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit. We also understand, however, that important spiritual work is going on within our psyche, subtle alchemical operations that must remain sealed in the darkness of an inner "cocoon" for our own protection.
We understand, therefore, that before we are able to acquire the appropriate level of consciousness that allows us to receive the inspiration and guidance of Divine wisdom, we must first free ourselves of all the chains and fetters of the ego. We must be prepared to embrace the different emanations and qualities embodied—the Divine faces of the Unmanifest God. Thus, each Divine face embodies a Divine expression and quality, as it purifies and transforms our ego into a more refined expression. However, to reach the Center of the Unmanifest Light, at a certain point of our journey, we must abandon all the Divine aspects, letting go of everything, including the most spiritual gift received by the Holy Spirit. Hence we embrace one-by-one all the divine qualities of the Unknown God, and at the end of our quest, we must "return" them to the Source, to the Unmanifest Center of Pure Being. Only then does the Omnipresence of the Unknown God become active in us.
In this context, spiritual psychology is important, since the world of the observer/observed belong to it. Spiritual psychology teaches us to be vigilant, alert and conscious of our own mistakes, faults, and weaknesses. We all create around us a personal "story," meaning that we skillfully make up excuses for our own shortcomings, accusing others, or blaming instead of looking objectively into our own cynicism. We must understand that faults are, in themselves, distortions of qualities. For example, compassion and love can turn into jealousy or hatred. Spiritual awakening cannot happen unless we become conscious of our own patterns and strive to change them.
Our imagination plays an important role in the creation of spiritual and sacred ideas, for through these ideas, we create mental images and sacred faces, giving form to the formless God. Our imagination makes visible and understandable the diverse manifestations of unknown and unmanifested impulses. So, before we can have an idea and give meaning to what God is for us—even if the idea is abstract—it will still remain in a world of duality where God and human remain separate. Hence, to approach the Unknown God, we must first recognize and be "penetrated" by His Divine face, or His Divine emanations, His Divine qualities. We receive these impulses only when we are ready and well-prepared. However, this process is, indeed, a lifelong spiritual project that demands total dedication to purify our astral and mental bodies and simplify the way we live. That is why a wise mystic knows that God is nearer to him than he is to himself, and that God is therefore a better judge of his personal needs.