In 1273 December 6th Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Christian philosophers of all time, had his enlightenment moment. Sitting at mass that December morning, he experienced something so profound that it changed for ever how he felt about all that he had done before. And he had done a lot. Recognised by his teachers as a genius while still a young student he was assigned staff who were to follow him around and write down his words. By 1273 this had amounted to almost 8.5 million words through which he had laid the foundation for the Christian church to emerge from the superstition of the Dark Ages into the dawning light of the Age of Reason.
“Words are as straw”
However, following this enlightenment moment, he was to say that all (his) “words were as straw”. Presumably he meant that the direct spiritual experience went so far beyond that which words could contain that words became almost valueless. From then on till his death a couple of years later he scarcely wrote another word.
The Butterfly Moment
Why do I mention this? Because this happened in 1273 and B73 in the Equilibrium sequence is called Chang Tsu. He was a Chinese philosopher who is also famous for an enlightenment moment. Walking along the riverbank one day he saw a butterfly flutter by. In this moment he had some out of the body synchronicity moment. He famously remarked he did not know if he was a man seeing a butterfly or a butterfly looking down on a man.
A step into soul consciousness
The butterfly can symbolise the aura. Starting as an earthbound caterpillar, it goes through a process of transformation that results in it unfurling brightly coloured wings and flying up in the sunlight. In a similar way materialistic man can enter a process of spiritual transformation whereby his primary identification moves from the physical body to the light body. At this point man becomes like a butterfly fluttering by.
