🌷The Art of Transfiguration🌷
“On the day when a woman as she passes before you emits light as she walks, you are lost, you love.”
“I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat was threadbare – there were holes at his elbows; the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.”– Victor Hugo
“In love, we are in the same time loving ourselves, by transfiguring the other one exactly as we aspire to become”.
Today I want to speak to you about one of my favourite subjects- Transfiguration. We all practice it, more or less, consciously or unconsciously. And also, we also sometimes do the opposite, we de-transfigure people, situations, aspects, and even ourselves. 🥰
Transfiguration is a process through which the exterior reality -filtered by the ennobling perspective, the imagination and power of expression of the one that transfigurates – transforms, especially for himself, in a new, uplifting, wonderful, spiritually-affective, charged reality, that triggers in him a state of ecstasy.
We speak about the art of transfiguration and not by accident. It does require a certain poetry, intuition, sense of observation and openness of the soul to see in the other his or her most beautiful traits, maybe even the ones who are less obvious to everyone.
Now, why should we practice the Art of Transfiguration ?
🌺It transforms our existence into something magical
Don’t settle for less than magical. A plain, boring life is a premature death. Don’t pass by people without looking into their eyes, without feeling them, without giving a smile. Don’t go to work without gazing at the sky at least once, and take some time to withdraw from the agitation.
From there, you can dive into depths inside yourself. And only from that place, you can truly notice the depth of everything going on around you, and feel enriched by it, enlivened and enchanted. Just dive into the mystery.
🌺It doesn’t take extra time
See, it’s not about doing something that would take much of your time. It’s not a complicated technique or anything like that. You don’t have to stop a second from what you’re doing, but you CAN SHIFT you perspective from a mundane one to a higher one, let’s say, and see beyond what everyone sees. In exchange, you can experience a special state of expansion of your consciousness and the sacred can become revealed in the profane, as Mircea Eliade would say.
🌺It is a way of awakening qualities in ourselves
It is said that “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” and it’s true! Because due to the law of resonance, you couldn’t notice anything exterior which already doesn’t exist in yourself. That’s why, when you have a glimpse of something mysterious and alluring, it means you have access to it because a part of that exists in you, and by transfiguring it, you basically mirror and amplify it in yourself, as well as in the other person ! Isn’t this a huge secret ?!
🌺It is the vision specific to poets, artists, writers, painters, romantics.
In order to be a writer, you not only should possess a good sense of observation, but also to dive into the present moment and observe the poetry behind a gesture, the tone of someone’s voice, the magic of someone’s laughter, as in a trance-like state. Only then you can feel the emotion behind ordinary aspects. The truth is…there are no ordinary moments! Then you too can become a poet, a painter, an artist, and you can capture into your words the surreal, the ineffable and the beauty. The important ingredients are just attention and openness !
🌺It is a way of awakening the soul
When we fall in love, we naturally tend to transfigure our existence. Life suddenly seems painted in a thousand colors, we find everything as beautiful, worthy, we feel lively, open and motivated, and we contaminate others with our joy of life. The other person seems perfect, we see all his virtues and we are incredibly curious to discover every little aspect about them and dive into his inner universe. That’s why transfiguration is the natural language of the soul. Unfortunately, people get bored too easily and let that fade away. But what if we wouldn’t let go of that state after the initial “honeymoon” or energy of the beginning starts to end? Well, the ego has an intricate unconscious tendency towards insensitivity, dullness and boredom. In simple words, it ruins all the fun. And this phenomena tends to occur after a while, after we’ve known the person, and to our mind she or he becomes “familiar”. But actually each person is an entire universe, that transforms each and every day, where there are infinite treasures to discover ! So in this case, the conscious choice would be to rejoice, appreciate, be enthusiastic! Let’s not forget the origin of the word “enthusiasm”- “en theos” -to be one with God !
The true mastery in the Art of Transfiguration is…
Now that we understand how good it is to see and appreciate the beauty in what lies around you, let’s challenge ourselves to go even deeper.
Do you remember the story about the Beauty and the Beast? Belle, the beautiful woman, fell in love with the Beast, despite his appearence? Because she had the capacity to see through and reach to the beauty, kindness and wisdom that lied inside him. It’s a nice story, but could YOU do that?
Because it’s easy to adore someone who is already very inspiring and fascinating in an obvious way! It’s easy to transfigure someone who looks and acts like Prince Charming into the perfect man, but that’s not the artistry of transfiguration…that’s undeniable obviousness!🥰
Therefore, Transfiguration is not a tool that comes in hand only when we’re in rituals, or shows, or when everything helps us transfigure, but when everything makes it even harder to transfigure.
Seeing Shiva (or the universal masculine principle) in your beloved, even when he’s tired or moody, and seeing a Goddess in you, even when you have a difficult moment in your life, because that’s actually when it’s the most needed.
So my love, do you think you could see the not-so-visible qualities in someone, or in something?
Having a state of contentment when things aren’t working very well, is an illustration of this capacity.
Having compassion for someone who is behaving ill towards us.
Being at peace when someone doesn’t love us back, and still loving them as they are.
And even perceiving beyond the illusion in everything seen and unseen.
Now that’s a real level of artistry in Transfiguration
That being said, I encourage you to exercise your capacity to transfigure something each day, be it a situation at work that is bothering you, be it something that didn’t go as you planned today, or someone said something…take a moment when you’re waiting for the bus to arrive…look around you? What do you see? Isn’t it the play of life unfolding, concealing it’s magic into the concrete details of the earthly day-to-day experience?
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!” -Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes
