"Just as it is impossible to observe the near and the distant simultaneously, so, too, it is impossible for a being to grasp fragmented and pure Reality simultaneously: to the extent that the one acts on the intelligence, the other remains inoperative -- for which reason he whose intelligence is directed predominantly towards the diverse, the phenomenal, can know correspondingly less of the unified, the essential. In other words: he who restricts himself to those modes of knowledge suited to perceiving the diverse, the apparent-- namely the senses and reason-- cannot know what is knowable through the Intellect alone, it being one with the Intellect, as light is one with the eye. That which is most distant from the eye is the sun; for even the stars are visible to the eye only by its light. And just as the sun is at the same time closest to the eye, because the eye is an image of the sun and is one with its light, so the highest principle of knowledge is furthest and nearest; and equally, by its light alone can beings perceive the diverse, the symbolical, without seeing the source of light. The stars are perceptible only because the light which makes them visible is necessarily a diminished light, otherwise no phenomenon would be visible, only light itself. Colour corresponds to the respective substantiality, form to essence, light to the Spirit which comes from the Divine, distances to planes of reality; in order to see the essential, the real, in a phenomenon, the eye must be far from it; so that the particular, the accidental, in it does not obscure the general, namely, that which determines its nature"
