The Lamp as Spiritual Insight

The Spirit dances, carrying torches. Just as a torch appeared above the interpreted lamp, so also seven lamps appeared above that lamp, being a seven-fold radiance. For just as the manner of perfect luminous intellect is called seven eyes, and seven pillars support the house of wisdom, so also the seven lamps sit upon the lamp, in another manner being that which the Savior took during His visitation, soul and flesh.

For how is this whole lamp not golden, having not committed sin nor known it, upon which sit seven lamps: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of divine counsel, and strength, and knowledge, and piety, and fear of God. And how does each of these stand in relation to the one who ceased rising from the root of Jesse, having been made clear previously when it was foretold: 'A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse' (Isaiah 11:1), and the whole scope of the prophecy announcing these things.

And this seven-shining power of the seven lamps above the lamp is nourished and increases, the oil being dispensed through the seven wicks, flowing as the nourishment and guarding the light. And this is nothing other than the study of the knowledge of the truth. For from studying we bear fruit in memory and a stronger vision.

Upon all those things observed—the lamp, the torch, the seven wicks, and the lamps—two oils were also seen above the lamp, one of which was on the right and the other on the left of the torch. And see if the study concerning the intelligible things and the gifts of the Holy Spirit is oil being harvested from the oil on the right, while that concerning the world and its constitution and the providence from God is pressed from the oil on the left.

They suppose, according to a theory, to say another, an oil being on the right of the torch, to be the theory concerning the Only-begotten Son of God, the one on the left nourishing the Word concerning the incarnation. For this one also shines, but not in the same way as the theory on the right and preceding. I once heard a teacher leading the Catholic Church clarifying the presented word, that the torch above the lamp is the...

The light is the illumination of the Father, and the oils on the right and from the good-smelling ones are the words concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit. But he did not provide this interpretation, bearing this meaning, as to how one thing is on the right and the other is from the good-smelling ones.

Since the present theory concerning the lamp is not a sensible but a mental one, see whether this is not that which Moses saw on the mountain according to the pattern shown to him, and not another being of the so-called idea; toward the invisible and mental lamp the sensible one was constructed according to the description of the hierophant Moses.

It is not untimely to write alongside the things seen and that which was said in the Gospel by Jesus: 'No one,' he says, 'having lit a lamp, puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel or a bed, but on the lamp, so that all those in the house may see the light' (Matt 5:15).

It is possible in these things to take the house to be the Church of the living God, becoming His house, in which those remaining and dwelling, standing according to its doctrines, are illuminated toward the lamp placed by the lamp, which is snatched away by the one educating those traversing in the house of God according to the statutes and canons and doctrines of the ecclesiastical opinion. And this teacher illuminates when he lifts up his own mind like a lamp, which he does not hide under a bed or vessel, but places upon his spoken word, being allegorically addressed as a lamp, having 'a tongue of instruction' as it must be said.

It is also possible to call the practical life a lamp, upon which the enlightened mind of the one who has enlightened himself with the light of knowledge rests. Let him who is urging on the present clarity of the existing prophetic word examine whether it is necessary to receive it or to seek another from those... having stepped into understanding. For thus an exactified intellect comes to bear fruit.

'And I asked and said to the angel speaking in me, saying, What are these, Lord? And the angel speaking in me answered and said to me, saying, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of all' (Zech 4:6). The prophet says he asked the angel speaking in him, desiring to learn what the divine things shown to him were.