The Lexicon
Transformation and the path
Illumination
Illumination is the inflowing of light into the soul, the middle stage of the mystic way in which the purified heart begins to perceive the radiance of the divine. After the long labor of purgation, the seeker is granted a new sight: the world becomes luminous, prayer becomes a flooding presence, and the mind is bathed in a knowing that is more like seeing than thinking. The contemplatives mapped this as the second of the three classical stages, between purification and the final union.
Carried by 38 teachers · across 5 traditions · 8 quotes
The Sufi philosophers of light called all of reality a hierarchy of luminance, with the Self itself an incorporeal light needing no definition. To be illumined is to have the inner lamp kindled, so that what was opaque becomes transparent to its source. It is the dawn of the spiritual life, the moment grace makes the soul a window rather than a wall.
In their words
Anything in existence that requires no definition or explanation is evident. Since there is nothing more evident than light, there is nothing less in need of definition.Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi
It has been shown that your ego is an incorporeal light, that it is self-conscious, and that the incorporeal lights do not differ in their realities.Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi
Don't turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.Rumi
An intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which nothing can break, and a discretion which nothing can corrupt.Eliphas Levi
The light of God surrounds me. The love of God enfolds me. The power of God protects me. The presence of God watches over me.James Dillet Freeman