Illusion of the form
by Adriano Nardi
© copyright by Esonet.it – Esonet.com
Dedicated to Athos A. Altomonte’s work of instruction
Everything that surrounds us and that is knowable through our senses, we can say that it exists; usually we say it's real, although its guise (what we see) is substantially illusory. This is because every representation veils in its form the underlying life that is its cause.
Therefore any reduction of metaphysical reality into physical forms (language, symbol, ritual, etc.) as much as it can be close to the metaphysical reality, it's physical therefore it's not real. This is true even if we talk about the highest levels conceivable by the mind, like it happens when we refer to geometrical, numerical, symbolic, psychological or philosophical languages.
It is true that we can't do without these ‘guises', if we want to give a complete sense to what we want to transmit.
In the Masonic Temple , for example, the Monad (Spiritual Man) is represented by a triangle and sometimes by an eye inscribed into a triangle (the ‘Father' that is behind the ‘Son'). This is a way of communicating an initiatory reality through a symbol, which in its form is substantially false, although the concept hidden by the symbol is true. The Monad is a real, energetic and luminous essence in emanation, which presumes the study of the aspects of Fire (*) to approach its understanding. Having to express such complex ideas, it has been necessary to build a language, an initiatory language, which has given a physical guise to metaphysical concepts.
(*) There is in the sun, in the planet, in man and in the atom a central point of heat or (if I can use such a limiting and improper term) a central cavity of fire, a nucleus of heat; this central nucleus reaches the limit of its sphere of influence, its insuperable circle through a three-fold channel. (‘A Treatise on Cosmic Fire' , A. A. Bailey)
The Temple is a symbolic representation of metaphysical concepts – from the most complex to the simplest – disguised in substantially untrue forms, and we must highlight this, not because of the concept contained in them but because there isn't a ‘compass' in metaphysical reality.
Therefore we must keep in mind that the initiatory language is the instrument, the container through which we express real concepts of light.
The concept can be perceived by the cardiac center, but then it must be transmitted to the physical brain that elaborates it, originating an appropriate form for the physical manifestation.
In ordinary imagery it is accepted the statement that we are ‘Children of God'. If we look at ourselves from a physical point of view, it is difficult to imagine and accept (for people who have developed the slightest ability of discernment) the anthropomorphization of the divinity; whilst if we look at the ‘inner side' as a complex of forces and energies, the approach to this statement is less illusory.
The illusion must not be denied, but we must learn to use it by recognizing it, in order not to become its slaves and learn to dissolve it.
