Wisdom says: ‘Turn and see.’ The praxis of turning is called metanoia. It turns the nous right round so that awareness turns and awakens to illumined theoria, vision of God through God in God, in the heart. It steps back from oblivious perception into spiritual insight. It restores remembrance of God by awakening the ‘eye’ of the heart. Turning initiates the praxis of theoria, the practice of single-eyed seeing, which sees the wholeness of things in God and the completeness of God in everything.
In metanoia, the nous turns round and awakens to God ever present at centre in the midst. In theoria, God is seer and seen, and God’s is the seeing that mysteriously works the holy healing called theosis. Deification, or theosis is not our doing, but it does call for our whole-hearted co-operation, our holy synergy. Theoria is recognition that ‘I AM’ is God’s Holy Name, unveiling God. Without recognition, everything is upside down and the wrong way round. Experiences in time come and go, but recognition of ‘I AM,’ hallowing the Holy Name of God, is timeless, the same yesterday, today and forever.
It is turned recognition that sustains the remembrance of God, not ephemeral experiences. Patristic wisdom trusts the saving Name to save, releasing our subjective self-obsessions. On the other hand, awakening to God in uncreated light is personal, direct and immediate, not mental abstraction. Experience, peira, for Hesychast wisdom, is neither reifying objectification not subjective fantasy. Theosis, deification, is called glorification in Scripture, is the experience of God-centred love and love’s glory is ineffable.
