Session 4
The Practice of Visio Divina

Visio Divina - sacred icons
 

Reflection

The image in this session is iconic—a sacred form meant not only to bring you insight and further understanding, but to put you in touch with the realities it is depicting. Many traditions around the world use similar techniques. Sometimes we call them icons. In other traditions they are named mandalas or totemic, sacred symbols. Wherever they are found, they are not created to be simply arresting or beautiful, but are a sacred art form coming to us from other dimensions meant for contemplation.

Some images are, of course, ancient, from a long traditional past such as orthodox icons, sacred geometrical patterns in mosques, or temple images carved or painted as sacred beings in temples and churches. Other images are more contemporary like the one above which is iconic in its intent—created to be contemplated with an inner gaze and not just the outer eye.

The practice we use is called Visio Divina, a Latin term which means a form of spiritual seeing or gazing through the iconic image as you would through a window toward its meaning and a deeper reality. In this way it becomes a means of communication with something or someone beyond ourselves. As a spiritual practice, it not only develops the outer eye of appreciation, but also the inner eye of the heart to perceive truth and come into contact with divine Presence.

The image above has three central features, each spiritually significant. Combined, they tell a story (or express a teaching) that relates to contemplative life as a form of mystical experience. Drawn from the modern fractal world, the image also uses ancient, universal forms, as well as those that are ordinary and familiar.

Practice

  1. Sit with the image above, quietly gazing at it for 2-3 minutes. Journal your impression and what you see.

  2. Go back to the image again. Gaze at it with your inner eye for several more minutes: what is drawing your attention. What do you think that means? Again, journal your in-sights.

  3. Go back to the image one more time, for two or three minutes more. Ask yourself, what questions does the image raise for me? Journal answers to further questions that the images has raised from this practice of Visio Divina.