The Illuminative Phase of Training has one primary aim, and three parts.

The primary aim is the attainment of Love, love of God, love of ourselves, and love of our fellow beings.

The three parts are, Initiation, Physike, and Self-knowledge.

We begin the Illuminative Phase of Training with an initiation ceremony that, like in the Purgative Training Phase, empowers the student to internalize the subject matter of the training phase.
We follow the initiation with the study of what we call, Physike, or the study of the natural world. We do this through the study and application of the Seven Liberal Arts which are, Geometry, Astronomy, Arithmetic, Music, Dialectic, Grammar and Rhetoric.

The Logos, quoted in the Gospel of Thomas, said, "Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there." We see this statement as an admonition to look for God in Nature.
Through the contemplation and study of the natural world we come to see the inherent divine beauty of the One, or God, in all things. This is a method whereby we come to fall in love with both creature and creator. Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments were to love God, "with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all your strength," (these four having a direct correlation to the Eikasia, Pistis, Dianoia, and Noetic levels of human consciousness), and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The fulfillment of these commandments is not done merely through a will to obey, but through the discovery of the Beautiful in all things. People have to fall in love and they do so by coming to see the divine in the beloved.

The study of the natural world is also necessary for people to understand how to properly care for the world.

The mass of humanity sees itself as mere smart animals, and uses its vast intellectual power to consume every available natural resource.
Ancient writings say that humanity has been given charge to care for the world, and God has granted us intellectual power far beyond all other beings so that we can fulfill our task. With this great intellectual power, however, comes great responsibility, and only when we come to love our world for its divine beauty will we truly be able to perform our work.

The third part of the Illuminative Training Phase involves coming to truly follow the Delphic admonition to, "Know Thyself."
This is accomplished though a spiritual training process referred to as, "loosening the seven seals on the scroll."

A true love of God is essential for our development. A true love of God insures that we will never stop longing for our true place in Nature.
A true love God can never truly be accomplished without a true love of ourselves, our neighbors and all self-aware beings.
A person can't just decide to love God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind and expect to succeed any more than he could just decide to love a man or woman with all his/her heart, soul, strength and mind. The person has to come to know the woman or man, and then perhaps fall in love. In the same sense, we fall in love with God through getting to know God. We do this through the use of our rational mind with the aid of the seven liberal arts. (which are, of course, the sciences of analysis).
It might seem counter-intuitive to suggest that the use of reason can cause us to fall in love, but when we use the liberal arts to explore the creation we gradually begin to see the awesome beauty of creation's Architect. We fall in love with that Beauty.
Our attempt to come to love God, as opposed to loving another person is also, "rigged," because though we may not fall in love with another person due to their flaws, or perceived flaws, we will definitely fall in love with God, because God is our source. God is the Good, the Beautiful, the One.
By accomplishing the Delphic admonition to "Know thyself," we come to see the true beauty, inherently divine station, and potential for good we possess, causing us to love ourselves, and love our neighbor as well.
Also, though coming to know Nature, we also see the beauty of our fellow creatures in nature which insures our love and compassion for them as well.

The third phase of training is the Unitive Phase of training.