Letter 14: TEMPERANCE

"The organs of action are simply crystallized will. I walk not because I have legs but rather, on the contrary, I have legs because I have the will to move about. I touch, I take and I give not because I have arms, but I have arms because I have the will to touch, to take and to give.

The "what" of the will engenders the "how" of the action (the organ), and not inversely. The arms are therefore the expression of the will to bear touch further than the surface of one's own body. They are the manifestation of extended touch, due to the will to touch things at a distance.

It is similar with wings. They are also exteriorized will -- a will become organ. This is the will to go out from the usual orbit not only in the horizontal but also in the vertical, not only to bear touch forward, but also to bear it above. Wings express the will for movement according to a cross, i.e., not only that of expansion on a plane but also that of elevation to another plane.

...There are physical wings (as with birds), etheric wings and astral wings...Just as the bird, whose body is solid and liquid, elevates itself by means of wings from the solid and liquid regions into that of the air, so does the Angel elevate itself by means of currents of vital and psychic energy -- which correspond to wings -- into the spiritual world higher than vital and astral elements…

From tradition we know that there are also human beings endowed with wings. Thus the right panel of a triptych forming the circle of deesis, a Russian icon from the hand of Nicephorus Savine, shows St. John the Baptist as winged…

The astral and etheric wings of a human being signify a more-or-less advanced degree of recovery of the divine likeness in him. For certainly it was the lot of man before the original sin to have wings. He lost them subsequently. How are they recovered?

Wings are organs of the subtle bodies -- astral and vital -- and not any kind of activities of the conscious self. It is therefore a matter of the domain of the un-conscious when it is question of wings. It is a matter of the task of rendering spiritual endeavors turned towards God, such as prayer and meditation, semi-organic, i.e. to transform conscious acts of the self into psycho-vital currents of the subtle bodies...

Now it is "unceasing prayer", established in the psychic and vital bodies, which forms the currents directed above in these bodies, and which can lead to the formation of wings. I say "can", because the formation of wings demands something still further, namely a current from above which moves to meet that from below. Wings are formed only when the two currents -- that of human endeavor and that of grace -- meet and unite...

Pure humanism can create only the wings of Icarus. And the lot of Icarus is known: his wings of "wax" melted in the warmth of the sun, and the unfortunate Icarus fell to the earth. Regarding demonism, it can develop only the wings of a bat, i.e. those of darkness which are organs by means of which one can plunge into the depths of darkness." --VT

"Icarus"
oil on paper  15"x22"

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