The light of knowledge

In common parlance, the terms ‘knowledge’, ‘sapience’ and ‘wisdom’ are often used as synonyms, thus losing the subtle but significant difference that distinguishes them.
Following the suggestions that come to us from the etymology of these words, we discover that knowledge is the understanding of facts obtained through experience and the consequent reflection upon it; ‘sapience’ recalls the idea of having taste and smell, and is therefore linked to the ‘juice’, the distillate, of knowledge; ‘wisdom’, finally, is above all informed by the concepts of intelligence and light, and is the righteous and loving application of sapience.

The Lambdoma Space thus clarifies the two definitions: Sapience is the divine intelligence of Love (3.7), Wisdom is the golden expression of Love (5.7); light is therefore that element capable of making clear, manifest and evident any attempt to know Reality, while Love, to which both sapience and wisdom bow, should be the motive, and the purpose, of any intellectual quest.
Wisdom, therefore, is configured as the final stage of the human cognitive journey: the clear vision of Reality that the intellect moved and nourished by Love has been able to conquer on its way is transfigured into the even more dazzling light of wisdom where opposites are finally recomposed in unity and Reality appears for what it essentially is, Truth.

We are in chaotic and dispersive times, times in which the search for meaning is submerged by the choking tide of tiny, maddening fragments of significance and truth that are mistaken for the Absolute.
Words, news, events, meanings, explanations, interpretations chase each other, overlap, deny or affirm each other in a jumble increasingly laden with confusion and with the consequent illusory claim to Truth; all this disjointed movement obstructs the inner ‘dynamic stillness’ that characterises the tension towards knowledge.

The Tibetan Master states that there are three meanings of the term knowledge: “First, there is theoretical knowledge. This includes all knowledge of which man is aware but which is accepted by him on the statements of other people, and by the specialists in the various branches of knowledge. It is founded on authoritative statements and has in it the element of trust in the writers and speakers, and in the trained intelligences of the workers in any of the many and varied fields of thought. The truths accepted as such have not been formulated or verified by the one who accepts them, lacking as he does the necessary training and equipment. (…) Then, secondly, we have discriminative knowledge, which has in it a selective quality and which posits the intelligent appreciation and practical application of the more specifically scientific method, and the utilisation of test, the elimination of that which cannot be proved, and the isolation of those factors which will bear investigation and are in conformity with what is understood as law. (…) This discriminating and scientific process has enabled man to arrive at much truth in relation to the three worlds. (…) This leads inevitably to the emergence of the third branch of knowledge, the intuitive. The intuition is in reality only the appreciation by the mind of some factor in creation, some law of manifestation and some aspect of truth, known by the soul, emanating from the world of ideas, and being of the nature of those energies which produce all that is known and seen. These truths are always present, and these laws are ever active, but only as the mind is trained and developed, focussed, and open-minded can they be recognized, later understood, and finally adjusted to the needs and demands of the cycle and time.” (1)

Knowledge, then, is not an end in itself, it is not to be used for mere individual development, but, and this is a key point, it is the vehicle of Love and Will, it is to be used to fully develop the faculty of active and intelligent love.
True creative thinking, and the knowledge derived from it, is abstract and intuitive thinking, it is the light of Intelligence implemented by Love, it is the synthesis of Intelligence and Love, of a loving mind and a thinking heart.
On the opposite side of knowledge is ignorance, which takes us back to Plato, to the Myth of the cave, to the theory of Ideas and knowledge (2) since human intelligence, says Plato, must train itself to turn to the Idea, to the Unity that is grasped with the abstract mind, while the multiplicity of sensations of the formal world are sifted, and known, by the concrete mind.
We are therefore invited to fully develop, not only as individuals, but as Humanity, our cognitive capacity so that the world around us acquires full meaning and induces us to take the next step, that step that projects us into the Subtle Worlds where the sources of all meaning dwell.
On this journey we are aided, according to rhythm and cyclicity, by the fiery encounters of the Luminaries who flood Space with their rays of energy.

Today, according to the heliocentric perspective, Mercury and Uranus meet in the fiery substance of Taurus, releasing that clear and sharp Light which is the vehicle of all possible knowledge.
The Sign of Taurus, connected to the unmanifest third Hierarchy, ‘Light through knowledge’ (3), offers the luminous background upon which the two Luminaries can project their own lights in turn; the disruptive and shaping action of Vulcan, esoteric and hierarchical ruler of the Sign, insists upon the mental substance, kindling the Fire of understanding and bestowing foresight and discernment.
Through these two wings the mind can ascend the cognitive spiral, entering the realm of Wisdom.
Mercury, winged vehicle of the 4^th Ray, uplifts minds, with the power of its accelerated motion, to the light of the Sun in which they are made similar to that radiance and then access, without intermediaries, the direct knowledge of Reality.
Uranus, which bears within itself the power of the 7^th Ray, by virtue of its being a ‘foreigner’ sees and governs inviolate horizons and, strengthened by this ‘occult’ knowledge, impels minds to build a new civilisation founded on Brotherhood and aimed at the Common Good.

The Supreme Intelligence, then, if illumined by the light of the Perfect Heart, can penetrate the meshes of Being and lead Humanity to know, and assert, its destiny as luminous creator.

“The Perfect Heart can express all potentialities of nature
to such an extent that any form can find life.
The Perfect Heart contains within itself
all the nascent life manifestations of the creative forces.
Absolute Reason, from which humanity derives its striving essence,
affirms solicitously the creative manifestations.
The constructive work of the cosmic energies
is directed by the Perfect Heart.
The duration of action in Cosmos is termed perpetuity.
Why then is it not possible to apply this concept to the energy
which impels the spirit into higher spheres?
When efforts are made to refine even the plant life,
why not apply the same effort toward humanity?
The Perfect Heart strains all its energies for this ascent.
The Cosmic Fire is in eternal motion,
directed by Absolute Reason and the Perfect Heart.” (4)

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1. A. Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, p. 15-16
2. Socrates emphasises the conceptual importance of universal and necessary knowledge, and Plato insists that such knowledge presupposes permanent models, intellectual and non-sensible ones. According to Plato, mutable and sensible things are nothing in themselves, they possess being only in the sense that they reflect in a manifold way, participate in an imperfect way of or exemplify an Idea (Eidos). The things we grasp with our physical eyes are physical forms, the things we grasp with the eye of the soul, i.e. with intelligence, are non-physical, intelligible forms, pure essences (Ideas). The peculiar nature of Ideas is therefore that of being grasped only through intelligence, through a cognitive act. In this regard, Plato outlines the Myth of the cave. Inside a cave, the philosopher explains, stand men chained with their faces to the dark background, while behind them, outside the cave, shines a light. Between the light and the cavern is a corridor where other men hold statues: those inside the cavern see the shadows of the statues cast by the light outside on the cavern walls and mistake them for real objects. If one of those bound men, Plato continues, could get out of the cave, he would first be dazzled by the light, but he would later realise that he could observe the shadows, then the things themselves and then, turning his eyes to the sky, even the Sun that gives form and substance to things. In platonic philosophy, then, knowledge is based on four stages: sensation (the shadows) which is directed at isolated sensible images, belief (the statues) which grasps the sensible objects in which the isolated data are gathered, reflection (the real world) which reaches up to the knowledge of mathematical objects, and finally the intellect (the sun) through whose light the Ideas are recognised. With the first two phases I obtain only opinions (doxa), while with the other two I gain knowledge (episteme); knowledge therefore admits different degrees of rigour and validity as it presents different degrees of reality to which it refers, and the highest degree of knowledge is that to which corresponds the ultimate degree of reality (knowledge of Ideas).
3. See A. A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, p. 34
4. Agni Yoga Series, Infinity I § 301