The Visionary Eye

The fourth dimension of Mazeppist paideia is designed to train the visionary eye. There are those to whom this faculty comes unbidden: spontaneously, as a gift of grace. For others, the ordinary ecstasies of the everyday become available after many years of cultivating the "inner eye." In tasawwuf, one must first arrive at the state of fana' (loss of self) before one can continue forward in a state of baqa' (as a transfigured self, capable of retrieving in consciousness the effects of fana' and, therefore, equipped with the visionary eye). Whether by dint of disciplined effort or spontaneous gift (or some combination of the two), a process of sublimation occurs. James Joyce declared that "it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that they themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments" (Joyce, Stephen Hero). It is not for the Mazeppist to gainsay the conclusions of the visionary Mr. Joyce.

"This is the moment which I call epiphany. First we recognize that the object is one integral thing, then we recognise that it is an organised composite structure, a thing in fact: finally, when the relation of the parts is exquisite, when the parts are adjusted to the special point, we recognise that it is that thing which it is. Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The object achieves its epiphany."

--James Joyce, Stephen Hero.

A (now classic) example:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

--William Blake, Songs of Experience.