Maietor : a seeker- Leukothea: a wise woman
- Luxnopoles: maker of lamps
An Illuminating Encounter
A Perennialist Dialogue
Persons of the dialogue:
Scene: It is twilight in Luxnopolis 1
As he hurries along a street in Luxnopolis, Maietor meets a couple, Leukothea and Luxnopoles, who are walking while engaged in an animated dialogue.
Maietor: "I am looking for something called a luxnidion 2 at a festival called Luxnokaia." 3
Leukothea: "Yes, I understand what you're talking about, and I could give you directions if you wish."
Maietor: "I should be able to find it myself. I've been placed on an occult path called Lukabasantos, 4 which my teacher says will lead to the festival of Luxnokaia."
Luxnopoles: "Then why are you speaking to us about this?"
Maietor: "Just talking."
Leukothea: "So you just want company, not directions?"
Maietor: "Yes, I suppose that that is what it is."
Luxnopoles: "It would be easier for you to take further directions from us who are local residents, having got thus far, especially because from here onwards it is difficult."
Maietor: "I trust what I have already been told, which has brought me thus far. I cannot be sure that I can trust anything or anyone else."
Leukothea: "So, although you once trusted your teacher, your informant, you've not been taught a means of knowing whom you can trust?"
Maietor: "That is so."
Leukothea: "Have you any other aim?"
Maietor: "No, just to find what my teacher called a luxnidion at the Luxnokaia festival."
Luxnopoles: "May I ask why you seek the Luxnokaia festival?"
Maietor: "My teacher--a very powerful man--has told me that Luxnokaia is where there are these devices called luxnidions which enable a person to read in the dark."
Leukothea: "You're correct, but there is a prerequisite, and also a foundational piece of information necessary. I wonder whether you've given them any thought."
Maietor: "What are they?"
Leukothea: "First, a luxnidion is a lamp."
Maietor: "Oh, really, that's very interesting."
Leukothea: "And the prerequisite for reading by means of such a lamp is that you already know how to read."
Maietor: "You can't prove that!"
Luxnopoles: "No, we can't, certainly not on a dark night like this."
Maietor: "What is the piece of information?"
Leukothea: "The piece of information is that the Luxnokaia festival is where it has always been held, but that the lamps themselves have been moved somewhere else."
Maietor: "I don't know what a "lamp" is, but it seems obvious to me that the Luxnokaia festival is the place to locate such a device. That, after all, is why it is called a festival of illumination.
Luxnopoles: "But a "festival of illumination" may have two different meanings, each opposed to the other. The meanings are: 'A festival where lamps may be obtained,' and 'A festival where lamps were once obtained but which now has none.'"
Maietor: "You can't prove that!"
Luxnopoles: "You would seem like an idiot to many people."
Maietor: "But there are many people who would call you two idiots. Yet perhaps you aren't. You probably have an ulterior motive, sending me off to some shop where lamps are sold by a friend of yours. Or perhaps you don't want me to have a lamp at all."
Leukothea: "We are worse than you think. Instead of promising you the Luxnokaia festival and allowing you to assume that you will find the answer to your problems there, we would first of all find out if you could read at all. We would find out if you were near this festival. Or whether a lamp might be obtained for you in some other way."
Maietor, uncertain as to what to say or do, walked away from the strange couple. Leukothea and Luxnopoles, continued on their way, conversing about how sad it is that persons who call themselves seekers know nothing at all about what to seek for, how to seek, and what prerequisites there are for productive seeking.
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1 Luxnopolis: city of lamps
2 Luxnidion: a small lamp
3 Luxnokaia: a festival of illumination in honor of Minerva (Athena)
