Agnes: What is in between me and another person is often comparisons and imagination relat-ed to what I know about him or her. I do not see him right now; he is not today what he was yesterday or ten years ago. To see is to respect (Latin: respectare - to look again); I see this per-son right now as he or she is, not with my old eyes, but with a fresh look, with respect. I can get out of my egotistic world. Love can only take place in the present.

What prevents us from real Love? There are a few things that are like veils. Some of the strong-est of these are the emotions.

A burning candle is analogue to our way into unity, without imagination and projections. How-ever, would a cookery book with the most beautiful illustrations take away the hunger? What benefit can we have even from the best food, with fine, appetizing scent, if it cannot become part of our unity?

The first candle stands for the element Earth, for the literally wonderful body, which we have received of the matter of the planet earth. The second candle represents the element Water, of which our emotions and dreams are formed and from which our imagination with its pictures are created. The third candle reminds us of the element Air, which provides us the substance of objective perception. The fourth candle is the reflection of the Divine Fire, from which the im-pulses come and through which everything returns to Unity.