The Enlightenment Table

The Enlightenment Table by Natalia Lakes

Close your eyes. You are sitting before a table—a real table, not the imagined one. There is fruit here: dewy strawberries still warm from the sun, grapes, a gleaming crisp apple. A slice of cake, rich with layers of raspberry cream, tilts delicately. A pale green pitcher anchors it all—classical in shape, curved like the neck of a swan, a vessel fit for myth. These are real. Tangible. You could reach out and touch them. But wait.

You press a candle into a cupcake’s swirl of blue frosting. You strike a match. The flame leaps to life.

And so does she.

A ballerina rises from the surface of the table. Her limbs are poetry—long, curved, precise. Her tutu trembles with each leap, each pirouette catching the light. She twirls in the air between the pitcher and the cupcake, never disturbing a crumb. Around her, baroque  roses bloom, drift like perfumed ghosts suspended in time. They fill the room with a decadent scent—deep, luxurious and a little sinful. The velvet fragrance of these roses curls into vanilla buttercream, a breath of cocoa, and the almond glaze of the confections.

You are in the dream now.

Step One: Setting the Table of Awareness

Begin by breathing in slowly through your nose, as if you were drawing the scent of those opulent roses deep into your lungs. Hold it. Then exhale, with the reverence of someone blowing out a birthday candle.

Each breath grounds you. The objects on the table become your anchors. Just as the artist anchored whimsy in realism, so too do you anchor your soul in the world, while allowing your spirit to rise.

Say silently in your mind: “I am both the table and the dance upon it.”

Step Two: The Ballerina of the Mind

With each slow inhale, picture her—the ballerina—dancing atop your subconscious. She is the embodiment of your higher self: graceful, effortless, untethered by fear. She is not weighed down by worries, heartbreak, or history. She knows only movement, beauty, and light.

Visualize her pirouetting across your third eye, leaping across the tightrope of your spine.

Each movement she makes clears away a cobweb in your mind. She is sweeping the attic of your soul. Let her.

Repeat: “She dances for me. She is me.”

Step Three: Roses from the Infinite

Now turn your attention to the pitcher. You watch yourself reach inside, not to pour, but to plant. You place roses—dream-roses—within it. They bloom in icy lavender and radiant blush. They are thoughts made sacred.

You are choosing what blossoms within you. You are not at the mercy of weeds. Each rose is a mantra. Each petal, a truth. Choose them carefully. Arrange them beautifully.

Say: “My mind is a garden. I choose what grows.”

You are no longer the observer.

You have become the spell.

Step Four: The Candle of Conscious Creation

The candle still burns. Steady. Golden.

It is your will—your inner flame. You may be surrounded by sweetness and shadow, decadence and dream, but the flame does not judge. It simply burns.

Make a wish. Not for something petty, not for a new handbag or a compliment. Make a wish for something sacred.

Whisper it: “I wish to remember who I truly am.”

Then, blow out the candle in your mind. But let the smoke rise in slow spirals, forming symbols in the air. The ballerina pauses. She bows to you. The roses lean closer. The fruit gleams like relics.

You are no longer the observer.

You have become the spell.

The Spiritual Message

This painting is a spell. A portal. A still life where stillness is only an illusion. It is a reminder that the path to spiritual enlightenment is not always marked by austerity and suffering. Sometimes, it is a table set with fruit, a dancer spun from stardust, and a cupcake crowned with light. Own the dream. Let the ballerina dance in your home. Let the roses bloom. Let your spirit feast.