Rocky Mountain Atelier TMO Master's Message

"It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels."

- Augustine of Hippo

"Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom."

- Michel de Montaigne

There is a parable from India about a group of blind men trying to describe an elephant. Each one feels a different part of the beast and comes up with a different description. Each is right to the extent of their limited perception. In the end they come to blows thinking the others are deluded or wrong. Really, they are all right and all wrong. Each is right in having a part of the truth and each is wrong in not having all the truth, yet believing that they do.

This story occurred to me as I was thinking about the nature of the various world systems that we find as mystics, both the occult sort and those promoted by the great world religions. Perhaps one calls to you, but how can -this- one be true unless -that- one is not? How can any of them be true in light of what we've learned in a more reductionist mode of thought? However, no matter how divinely inspired any path might be, it still had to be described to other humans who did not have the original enlightening experience. Only some of the true nature of the elephant can thus be passed on to each of us blind individuals with what senses we do have.

So, I have to always humbly remember that for any revelation I may have, I am only experiencing a tail or tusk and not the All-ephant.

May you ever dwell in the Eternal Light of Divine Wisdom

William Fickas, S.I.

Master Rocky Mountain Atelier, TMO