Parmenides, "the father of Western metaphysics", was a philosopher-shaman who lived in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. In his poem On nature (Peri fusiV; Peri physis) he depicts the fullness of Reality as a "well-rounded sphere". Ever since (and likely long before), the sphere-image has served as a powerful symbol of mystical Presence (compare with the fifteenth century Italian philosopher Nicholas Cusanus: "God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere"). The sphere recurs in the Fifth Ennead of the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus (204-270 AD). Recently, historians Sara Rappe and Gregory Shaw have suggested that the sphere of Plotinus was more than a metaphor; it was intended as a meditation object. Shaw argues that Plotinus viewed the sphere as a beacon or signal (sunqhma; synthema) of Being, capable of stirring the wonder and yearning of the One in the soul. Ritually attuning the soul to the synthemata was part of the spiritual tradition known as Theurgy. Would you care to try it?

1. Entry into a sacred awareness requires preparation. First, think about the difference between how you experience animate and inanimate objects. When we meet other persons, we register their presence not just with the senses but with a recognition inside ourselves that our own conscious life is proximate to that of another. This feeling typically does not occur with inanimate things. Recall times when you had such a feeling toward an object � maybe a childhood toy, a favourite art work, an heirloom. Go for a walk, preferably in a varied natural setting; invite the intuition that all the things you meet are ensouled � that they contain an inner life or presence. You might imagine that everything is translucent and illumined from within like a lamp. You can nurture this mind-set with softly spoken reminders (e.g. Rilke�s line "there is no place that does not see you"). Notice how the world is filled with curves and partial or distorted circular forms. If your mind was vast enough to hold the whole universe, what shape would it be? Be sensitive to moments when you sense a depth, either inside or outside yourself.
   


2. All of your frustrations and sicknesses and mortality are real. They are what you are. But they are not all that you are. These concerns usually crowd the foreground of our attention, leaving the infinity that we also are as an unnoticed backdrop to the action. This foreground and background can be temporarily reversed through ritual gestures of cleansing and calming. Do whatever works. Take a bath, and feel the daily frets dissolving. Sink into relaxation, each outbreath bearing off tension like an ebbing wave. Imagine placing objects representing each of your current concerns on a little raft that floats away. The light that shines in all things shines in you too. Feel it.
   


3. Adopt a physical posture that supports a mental attitude of relaxed awareness - standing, sitting or lying. Generally, a straight spine works best. Imagine a single bright dot surrounded by darkness. The dot moves, tracing a line. The line rotates, sweeping out a circle. The circle curls, forming a sphere. Inside this sphere visualize yourself and your immediate environment. The sphere continuously expands to include your neighbourhood, region, country, everyone you know, all the creatures and cities and peaks and oceans and weather, the globe of earth, the solar system, out and out to embrace star clusters and swirling nebulae and huge, diaphanous honeycombs made of filaments of galaxies � the entire cosmos contained by the sphere. (Plotinus: "Let there be, then in the soul a shining imagination of a sphere having everything within it, either moving or standing still.")
   


4. Now imagine that every form within the sphere, from the tiniest cell to the largest galactic arc, starts to glow, becoming transparent, bursting with light. All the mass is revealed as energy. Everything is also slightly reflective; in the gleaming depth of each thing is the image of every other thing in the universe. Focus on your own body, empty and luminous and immersed in the glitter of reflections. The body is the sphere. The soul is the radiance of the sphere. The spirit is the motion of the reflected images that constantly flow through the structures within the sphere. Feel loving toward it. This is the Truth.
   


5. Let go of the details of the visualization until only a diffuse light remains. Rest in the perfect stillness and silence of that Presence.
   


6. Gradually and gently reorient yourself to the sensations of your body. Listen for sounds, slowly open your eyes, move your limbs. As mundane thoughts return, imagine sparks of light between the thoughts for awhile. Savour.