Nocturnal and diurnal Man

By Athos A. Altomonte

‘How easy is it that a very experienced Brother decides to dedicate to himself, instead of bearing the weight of common burdens?'

Before answering I think it is fair to wonder how a common mind can imagine the thoughts of someone with an uncommon mind. To guess the thoughts of ‘a very experienced Brother' means to be like him or very close to him. Unless it is a matter of logic and deduction. First of all I must say that an able mind is unable to give coward answers such as ‘whatever' or ‘I'm not interested'. It is unlikely that ‘a very experienced Brother' abandons the service field where he works sometimes invisibly. Perhaps to recreate around himself the right conditions so that the man who is searching can find, understand and finally love initiatory culture. Or we must know the difference between cultural sciolism, which has an exoteric nature because it uses the physical reason, and initiatory culture, which has an esoteric nature because it uses the inner vision.

Being able to head for the initiatory path

It is likely that ‘a very experienced Brother' works to make the following two absolute factors understandable: horizontal orientation , that concerns the mind attracted by the inner sense of its conscience; and vertical re-orientation , that concerns the conscience attracted by the ‘inner light' of its subtle counterpart. Without knowing them, dis-orientation is almost certain.

Talking to the Eggregore

The Corpus Massonicum (like other profane Bodies) is created in the likeness of Man; its managerial Organs are the ‘bellies' destined to administer and distribute peripheral resources; likewise Church and Freemasonry. I think it is obvious that neither a Saint nor an Initiate can be placed in the abdomen. They must be elsewhere, far from uses, praxes and formal reproductions, which are the ‘shadows of Ideas'. Therefore, by the rule of diamagnetism, if someone wanted to find an able mind, he should look far away from the shadow. Perhaps in the head (of the system) where Ideas are generated, or in the heart (of the system) where the warmth of spiritual intelligence is generated.

For the people who know it is easier to find them; they can ‘talk to the Eggregore' that animates the ‘bodies made of men'.

Light that blinds and light that illuminates

‘If our man (an Initiate, note of the Author ) came down and sat down on the same bench, wouldn't his eyes be full of darkness, since he is suddenly coming back from the sun?' ‘Yeah, of course', Glaucon answered'. This is what Plato tells us in the ‘ Myth of the Cave' .

As a common man I couldn't argue with that; nevertheless, my initiatory education allows me not only to disagree, but even to assure you that this is not true. The initiatory light is not the blinding light of the physical sun. Furthermore, what blinds the lesser initiate is not the daylight but the flame of mental pride (sciolism).

When the Initiate talks about ‘light', he doesn't mean the light of intelligence, which is a lesser characteristic, but the ‘light of the soul' which doesn't light the pride but enlivens altruism, pushes to the search for common welfare by breaking the shadow of superstition and ignorance.

The initiate searches for the Light by going ‘towards it', not ‘against it'. The ‘light' can't blind him because it is not the sun; it is not in front of him, but inside him. The light of the Initiate is the light of the soul.

The initiate looks for the light of the soul; when he finds it, he stays there, because they belong to each other. Indeed, the soul ‘animates' man and man expresses his project on the physical plane. Once reached the inner light, the greater Initiate becomes himself a point of light that enlightens consciences and cancels the shadows around him.

Armageddon? The conflict between nocturnal and diurnal nature

The light emerging from the Initiate ‘illuminates the surrounding space'. An ancient Commentary says: ‘…the initiate inflames the space with the word…'. I think it means that the light of wisdom (see knowledge by contact) allows the initiate to illuminate the exterior shadows that surround him (illusion, archetype of the matter) by chasing them away. At this point we should discuss the methods of initiatory transmission, like the so-called ‘mouth-ear', which many people limit to its literal meaning.

I know that ‘a very experienced Brother' doesn't disappear, because it would be a selfish and counter-initiatory action. Nevertheless his perspective of mind and conscience changes; this changes his position in the world and the people stuck to the ‘old perspective' find it difficult to find, understand and see him. Compared to when he was a nocturnal man, the Initiate is now complete with the light of the soul. This helped the diurnal nature of the solar element (monad) to prevail. This is the true difficulty and the conflict of the initiatory path, that can be solved only by the ‘great choice'. The great choice is to renounce to oneself, but why?

The nocturnal man, in his heart of hearts, would like the light, but he shuns it because he shuns the comparison with the diurnal aspect that would destroy his nocturnal identity (physical-animal nature). This is the conflict between the animal nature that doesn't want to ‘let go' the domain of the ‘mind that lies', stopping the subtle conscience from illuminating it at any cost.

The nocturnal nature doesn't only fight any glare of inner light, but also the light that might come from the outside. This is why the presence of a diurnal man (the Initiate) is opposed through deafness, forgetfulness and inner doubts.

Do we want to understand the sense of Armageddon? It would be sufficient to study the devious conflict that takes up the natural man (nocturnal nature) against the inner light and against any instrument of light. And this would only be a little taste of esotericism.