On the quality of the Divine Light
Jun. 12th, 2022 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boccaderlupoThe Divine Light does not dominate, coerce, manipulate, or control. It illuminates, and this may be the way to discriminate between delusions and the Divine Light.
I begin to understand somewhat why some of the writers in the Philokalia deprecate the imaginative faculty. It's not necessarily that these imaginings are inherently evil or delusions, it's that practitioners in the early stages may not be able to discriminate between them. This recalls Iamblichus's discussion in De Mysteriis when he makes distinctions between the qualities of the presence of the gods and those of the various other spirits.
I begin to understand somewhat why some of the writers in the Philokalia deprecate the imaginative faculty. It's not necessarily that these imaginings are inherently evil or delusions, it's that practitioners in the early stages may not be able to discriminate between them. This recalls Iamblichus's discussion in De Mysteriis when he makes distinctions between the qualities of the presence of the gods and those of the various other spirits.
