Theoria and praxis, distillation and inspiration

We love books.  While we haven't quite stooped to keeping books in our oven, our little apartment has long ago run out of shelf space.  Books stack in precarious piles around the edges of the living room and reach for the ceiling on top of shelves.  Many of these are spiritual and mystical books, ranging from the most orthodox of orthodox Christianity (St. Francis de Sales' "Introduction to the Devout Life") to the least orthodox (but perhaps more interesting!).  I've read all of them, some several times, but i can't say that i've truly absorbed the implications of any of them.  St. Maximus the Confessor said that "Theology without action (praxis) is the theology of demons."  I don't think i know any more about demonic theology than i do about angelic theology, so perhaps i missed out on the content as well as the implications!

Anyhow, the point is that i look back on my ~ 15 years of devotional study, and wonder what "progress" i made.  I did certainly mature from a pious but naïve youth to a more open-minded, broadly educated adult (who finally finished school not long ago, after an education of nearly epic length!).  My religious perspectives certainly have changed.  I can't say that i'm a kinder person, that i'm more charitable (not just in the "dropping money in the basket" way), that i'm any closer to getting in touch with the Divine -- but perhaps this is because my work and familial responsibilities demand more attention and resources.  There are those books, though, mocking me.

I was thinking about that this morning when i drew two cards out of the Tarot deck:  Temperance and the Star (the latter link might be a bit NSFW if your boss can't handle nonsexual art nudes).  (I took the images from Wikipedia's depiction of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which i don't use, though i like Pamela Colman Smith's artwork.)  Temperance and the Star both depict a female figure with two water vessels in the midst of pouring.  The difference is that Temperance transfers liquid from one vessel to the other, while the Star pours them out, one upon the waters and the other upon the earth.  One can understand the water here as inspiration or the "stuff" of spirituality.  Pouring it between containers is an allegory of distillation or refinement (compare the alembic); pouring it out is an allegory of divine or heavenly inspiration.  Distillation and inspiration aren't opposites, but they do involve different agents.  The former is the work of the mystic or "spiritual alchemist" who refines received ideas,  extracting out the "aqua vitae" ("water of life" -- the "living essence" of the idea).  The latter comes from above.  The Star's work happens in secret, at night, without an obvious human agent to receive the results.  (Perhaps our mystic slept too soundly and missed a midnight date with Lady Star!)


The previous two paragraphs introduced two dualities: theoria and praxis, distillation and inspiration.  I would certainly be overextending my rhetorical abilities to put them in correspondence.  They do make an interesting constellation of analogies for understanding how the "stuff" of spiritual life flows around and through a person.  Collected inspiration can be refined and purified through the work of Temperance or nepsis (spiritual sobriety -- the virtue keeping one on the hard, long, but ultimately rewarding path).  Theory has practical implications, and practice influences and inspires theory. 


The personal implication is the necessity of patience in one's spiritual growth.  Inspiration comes when it wills, not when i will.  Distilling it is a lifelong internal work.  Careful praxis may take time to work out, so that it forms a partnership with theoria, rather than fighting against it.  (Just because some group is oppressed, doesn't mean one should immediately rush the barricades with them!)  Perhaps this is only self-justification, but it also seems wise to be patient with one's one nature.  If it takes me a long time to gather and to distill, to refine myself and my ideas, then as long as i'm following the path of true spiritual sobriety, i should let things develop naturally.