Rosicrucian Heritage Magazine - 2009-03 - AMORC

cannot be said to be superior for the same electricity
runs through both. The perceived difference is one
of intensity. They are both aspects of the same. Can
a toe be inferior to a finger?
Students on the path have often asked if
illumination is a journey or a destination. It is both.
The question arises because of the habitual way of
separatist thinking common to most people. The
experience of illumination is an integral part of
life. It is life itself.
Life is lived and understood in tiny pieces from
day to day and from incarnation to incarnation. It
is like a jigsaw puzzle; each piece links with the
other pieces to unfold the grand picture. So it is
with illumination. Those small and seemingly
insignificant pieces of our daily existence – the
first toothless smile of a baby, the bitter quarrels
between couples and a beautiful sunset, slowly add
up to reveal a pattern and meaning. At times the
meaning is revealed as we experience the act and at
other times, it could be just a few moments or years
later. A diligent and faithful practice of the steps
or application of the principles coupled with the
right mental attitude of perseverance and prudence
would bring about fragments of knowledge to light
the way as one journeys through life.
We are familiar with the experience of an
unsolicited recall of a childhood experience
which we had forgotten. As we contemplate the
experience the veil falls off and its significance
is revealed. Nature slowly reveals her secrets in
measured doses. Each time we have the “Ah-Ha”
experience, or we say either silently or audibly to
E v e r y i n d i v i d u a l i s r u n n i n g a
personal race and each must draw
his conclusions and lessons.
others expressions such as: “I didn’t know,” “…So,
that’s what it is;” we have experienced illumination
at that level.
As the housewife pulls back the thick curtains
in her parlour, every morning to let in sunlight, so
does Nature, at the most auspicious time, pull back
the veil of illusion to reveal her light to us, the light
that we are. When this happens, we perceive the
light of the mundane and we understand at once,
that there is the mystical in the mundane and the
mundane in the mystical and that all is one.
Every individual is running a personal race and
each must draw his conclusions and lessons. There
is not a set time and date for all of us to experience
The Rosicrucian Heritage -- No: 1, 2009
As the housewife pulls back the thick curtains in her parlour,
every morning to let in sunlight, so does Nature, at the most
auspicious time, pull back the veil of illusion to reveal her
light to us.
illumination. If we pay more attention to Nature
and try to understand her and flow with her, our
illumination will unfold as it should. For example,
if we form the habit of watching the Sun rise we
will experience how gracefully it emerges from the
horizon. There is no haste involved. Sunrise clearly
illustrates that there is not a cosmically decreed
moment for all to experience the dawn. As we in
Nigeria are waking up to the warm embrace of the
first rays of the sun, other human beings in other
parts of the world are shutting their eyes to a well
deserved repose after a hard day’s work.
If we are fortunate to be in close
association with those who have
experienced illumination, in whatever
field, there is not a guarantee that
faithfully copying their methods would
produce the same effect, when you think you want
it. This is so because what you see manifested
is the result of preparations over incarnations.
Champions, they say, are not made in the field of
play, they are discovered there.
Intuition and Illumination
Our former Imperator, Ralph M. Lewis, in his
article on Intuition, Idealism and Illumination, which
we have deliberately reproduced in the souvenir
brochure of this Convention, refers to illumination
as “the force which provides the most exalting experience
of life, giving one a feeling of unity with God or the
Absolute and enabling an individual to sink into his
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