Our heavenly Father does not want that the soul suffers from illiteracy in the live of grace as it is salvatic for her to read His Book of Life and He desires that no soul will be “erased from this book” (Ps 69. 28). Thomas Aquinas referred to it as the knowledge of God,


And he added, “The Book of Life may be understood in two senses. In one sense as the inscription of those who are chosen to life; thus we now speak of the Book of Life. In another sense the inscription of those things which lead us to life may be called the Book of Life.” [2]

By reading the Book of Life the soul receives education regarding the the importance of being stripped off the “tunic of skin” (Gn 3. 21) which the first man and woman were clothed in after the fall and the holy fathers understood as the base nature of the fleshly attitude, the soul's refusal to receive the healthy nourishment of the heavenly manna. It is thus proper that the high priest of the Old Covenant is seen carrying the Book of Life in His right hand (Fig. 21). In this book the soul learns the mysteries of her Royal Archetype within as God created it in the beginning (Gn 1. 26) and restored by the death of His Son on the Sacrificial Hill of the Cross. It was by this restoration of the divine image within which Christ as the “high priest of all the blessings which were to come” (Heb 9. 11) lifts the burden of the “tunic of skin” off the soul's back, or by the words of Abba Isaac, which is, 


It is only in this manner that the soul is “raised as it were by the natural blessing of its own purity and borne aloft to the heights by the light breath of spiritual meditation; and leaving things low and earthly will be transported to those that are heavenly and invisible.” [4]

In order to be able to read this blessed Book of Life the soul must first learn each of the letters of this spiritual alphabet in the live of grace. When she has learnt the letters fluently she is able to read this book where she learns the mother tongue of her Royal Image and thus she can converse with the angels in the Holy in unveiled language. Here in the courtyard she is as a child attending school for the first time in this super mundane life. The next letters of these fiery runes which she began to study at the altar she learns on her walk from the altar to the bronze laver when she approaches the entrance into the Holy gradually.

(K) The curtains of the courtyard. The sheets were shining white and a barricade for the holy ground within the courtyard. They refer to what is holy or hagios and separated from the world outside and thus the area within the curtains was consecrated to God. This separation was both in actual reality of space and time as well as spiritual – reputation of all impurity and evil, what Gregory of Nyssa defined  to flee from evil (apostinai tou kakou) and the beginning of the resemblance with God (homoiosis pros to Theion).
   To such a disposition the heart aspires in this place. The curtains had to be of “finely woven linen” (Ex 27. 18). The words “finely woven” give us an account of how this linen was woven. It has been estimated that the numbers of threads had been 1400 per square meter, but this reveals how strong they must have been. These curtains had to resist all the turbulent winds in the desert which could blow unexpectedly without warning. They refer thus to the divine protection which the soul enjoys in the mystery of the Tetramorph.

(L) The sockets of the pillars. The pillars rested on the sockets and without them the pillars had collapsed and had never been able to resist the wild desert cyclones. In spite of their importance the sockets were invisible and hidden in the sand. They are an eternal admonition regarding the importance of the virtue of humility as a foundation of all other virtues – a Christ like humility. We will never be able to understand this humility otherwise than by getting participation in the humility of our Redeemer who was humble of heart. Certainly the message of these sockets is precious. The sockets are an perfect image of the humility at best: they reveal actually the Christification of the soul in faith. The message of the sockets in this place is authentic: they are token of souls who prosper in the fiery trials of the prayer life. In the fiery oven of His purification God does not eradicate our personality, but leads it to its original role within the created order: “to praise the grace of His glory” (see Ep. 1 .6).
   The fiery mercy of God awoke continuously amazement among the holy fathers as can best be seen by following quotation, “I, whom am but straw, receive the Fire, and – unheard of wonder! – am inflamed without being consumed, as of old the burning bush of Moses.” [5] The sockets reveals as a matter of fact that these sixty warriors of the Church have literally speaking “become carpets” in the Sanctuary of the Living God like their Royal Image who became the servant of all and thus they help God to protect the faithful with their intercession as they are God's warriors in His spiritual army in the Militant Church on earth and do not retreat when they face the enemy of salvation and his demonic legions with their evil thoughts.

Dear reader. In this place the soul learns to pay attention to the evil thoughts and incitements from the enemy of her salvation and his demonic legions. This she is now able to do because she has sought refuge under the wings of divine mercy within these curtains,

He rescues you from the snare
of the fowler set on destruction;
he covers you with his pinions,
you find shelter under his wings
His constancy is shield and protection.

You need not fear the terrors of the night,
the arrow that flies in the daytime,
the plague that stalks in the darkness,
the scourge that wreaks havoc at high noon.

Though a thousand fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right , hands
you yourself will remain unscathed.
You have only to keep eyes open
to see how the wicked are repaid,
you who say, Yahweh my refuge!
and make Elyon your fortress.

No disaster can overtake you,
no plague come near your Tent;
he has given his angels orders about you
to guard you wherever you go.

They will carry you in their arms
in case you trip over a stone.
You will walk upon wild beast and adder,
you will trample young lions and snakes.