I’m going to say something that may sound radical and contentious. But I think it’s the gospel truth.
Here it is:
I regard our enlightenments as being mediated by the Divine Mother and the angelics or celestials, as I call them. Importantly by the archangels.
They determine the timing and the strength of our experience, as I’ll illustrate tomorrow from my own experience.
Now you want me to cite my sources.
Well, here’s an angel enlightening Moses:
“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” (1)
Here’s Isaiah being ministered to and enlightened by a seraph:
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple … and one [seraphim] cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
“… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
“Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
“And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (2)
My favorite is the impact on Alfred Lord Tennyson of a visit by a seraph. I’m going to cite his experience at some length because it’s such a useful description.
“I stood upon the Mountain which o’er looks
The narrow seas….
“A curve of whitening, flashing, ebbing light!
A rustling of white wings! the bright descent
Of a young Seraph! and he stood beside me
There on the [mountain] ridge, and look’d into my face
With his unutterable, shining orbs.
So that with hasty motion I did veil
My vision with both hands, and saw before me
Such colour’d spots as dance athwart the eyes
Of those, that gaze upon the noonday Sun….
I felt my soul grow mighty, and my spirit
With supernatural excitation bound
Within me, and my mental eye grew large
With such a vast circumference of thought,
That in my vanity I seem’d to stand
Upon the outward verge and bound alone
Of full beatitude.
So “full beatitude.” That is at least a higher-dimensional state.
When the heart opens, the tsunami of love that’s released leaves one feeling in “full beatitude,” fully blessed, wanting nothing more than more love.
The mere sight of the seraph has released Tennyson’s innate abilities. Seldom do we have accounts like this one.
Each failing sense,
As with a momentary flash of light
Grew thrillingly distinct and keen.
I saw the smallest grain that dappled the dark Earth,
The indistinctest atom in deep air,
The Moon’s white cities, and the opal width
Of her small glowing lakes. …
“… My human brain
Stagger’d beneath the vision, and thick night
Came down upon my eyelids, and I fell.
“With ministering hand he rais’d me up:
Then with a mournful and ineffable smile,
Which but to look on for a moment fill’d
My eyes with irresistible sweet tears…
“‘There is no mightier Spirit than I to sway
The heart of man: and teach him to attain
By shadowing forth the Unattainable….'” (3)
Indeed, I consider that the truth.
But here we see three instances, among many, of angelics or celestials mediating enlightenment – in fact providing it, enlightening the servant – Moses and Isaiah – and the artist – Tennyson.
Tomorrow I’d like to look at my own examples of celestial mediation in several of my experiences of what would ordinarily have been enlightenment, but was toned down to keep my feet on the ground.
(Concluded in Part 2, tomorrow.)
Footnotes
(1) Exodus 3:2.
(2) Isaiah 6:1 + 6:5-7.
(3) Alfred Lord Tennyson in Marghanita Laski, Ecstacy in Secular and Religious Experiences. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1961, 401-2.