boccaderlupo | Entries tagged with philosophy

Idolatry, then, is the mistaking of a proximate, finite good for the transcendent Good.

It is a sin insofar as it is like any other sin—namely, anything that distracts us from paying attention to The Divine.

In Neoplatonism, the divine symbols have a transformative and elevating power, like the noetic rays, because they are regarded as the things demiurgically woven into the very fabric of being and therefore directly attached to, and united with, the gods themselves, the principles of being. One should not be deceived by the Greek term sumbolon, which has so many different meanings, sometimes far removed from the realm of metaphysics. What is important is the underlying theological and cosmological conception of the divine principles and powers that appear and become visible through certain images, objects, numbers, sounds, omens, or other traces of presence. —Algis Uždavinys, Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity

If the cosmos is the manifestation of the hidden thoughts of the Divine, then it would make sense for there to be inherent resonance between material objects and their immaterial antecedents, trace remains of the divine origins of all things.

The erotic impulsion of the Good, that pre-exists in the Good, is simple and self-moving; it proceeds from the Good, and returns again to the Good, since it is without end or beginning. This is why we always desire the divine and union with the divine. For loving union with God surpasses and excels all other unions. —Saint Maximus the Confessor, Fifth Century of Various Texts

God reveals Himself to each person according to each person's mode of conceiving Him. To those whose aspiration transcends the complex structure of matter, and whose psychic powers are fully integrated in a single unceasing gyration around God, He reveals Himself as Unity and Trinity. In this way He both shows forth His own existence and mystically makes known the mode in which that existence subsists. To those whose aspiration is limited to the complex structure of matter, and whose psychic powers are not integrated, He reveals Himself not as He is but as they are, showing that they are completely caught in the material dualism whereby the physical world is conceived as composed of matter and form. —St. Maximus the Confessor, "Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice"

Emphases mine. The latter point brings to mind the "mirror" concept

sdi shared, I believe, from Taoism.

Watch on YouTube

Good recent discussion with Dr. Eric Perl on mysticism, Being, The One, and more (from a good channel).

The Divine Light does not dominate, coerce, manipulate, or control. It illuminates, and this may be the way to discriminate between delusions and the Divine Light.

I begin to understand somewhat why some of the writers in the Philokalia deprecate the imaginative faculty. It's not necessarily that these imaginings are inherently evil or delusions, it's that practitioners in the early stages may not be able to discriminate between them. This recalls Iamblichus's discussion in De Mysteriis when he makes distinctions between the qualities of the presence of the gods and those of the various other spirits.

Wherefore all things share in that Providence which streams forth from the superessential Deific Source of all; for they would not be unless they had come into existence through participation in the Essential Principle of all things. —Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy (emphasis mine)

A loaded quotation with Pseudo-Dionysius at perhaps his most (Neo)Platonic: captures the idea of participation, the distinction between what we might call The One and everything else, and admits of it as a principle, indeed THE principle that delimits Being (essence) itself.

Overall the writings attributed to him are comparatively short but so crammed with nuance that they make for slow going (and much fruitful distillation).

"For it might be said that the reason for attributing shapes to that which is above shape, and forms to that which is beyond form, is not only the feebleness of our intellectual power which is unable to rise at once to spiritual contemplation, and which needs to be encouraged by the natural and suitable support and upliftment which offers us forms perceptible to us of formless and supernatural contemplations, but it is also because it is most fitting that the secret doctrines, through ineffable and holy enigmas, should veil and render difficult of access for the multitude the sublime and profound truth of the supernatural Intelligences. " —Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy

We are eternally what we make ourselves here. —Jeffrey Burton Russell

"Natura, da Signor guidata, fece nel spazio la comedia universale, dove ogni stella, ogni uomo, ogni animale, ogni composto ottien la propria vece." —Tommaso Campanella, "Sonetto 15"

There once was a man who said "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad."

Dear Sir,
Your astonishment's odd.
I am always about in the Quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
God

—Ronald Knox

“To God all things are fair, good and just, but men suppose some things are unjust, some just...”—Heraclitus

"Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night" —William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

"And even he that desires the basest life, yet in so far as he feels desire at all and feels desire for life, and intends what he thinks is the best kind of life, so far participates in the Good." —Dionysius the Areopagite, The Divine Names, translated by C.E. Rolt

Magic is the study of correspondences between the material and immaterial realms.

I wrote previously about a potential view of Christianity's "original sin" as referring to estrangement from The Divine. Alternately, there are some passages in the Gospels that suggests Christ was suggesting the possibility of divine union through participation in his cultus.

1. Matthew 16:28: "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till the see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

This is sometimes interpreted as Jesus believing that his reign as the Messiah of Israel--that is, his physical kingdom in the real world--was imminent, and the expectation by some of his disciples that they would live (or at least some of them would) to partake in that new kingdom. This expectation, of course, was turned on its head by the death of Jesus. Thus, then, this prophecy was unfulfilled.

Alternately, we could conceivably eke out an esoteric meaning to this passage: namely that it is possible for followers of the cultus (even those today) to obtain a glimpse into the divine kingdom, even prior to their physical death. That is, they will witness "the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

But what is this kingdom, then, if it is not physical? Consider Jesus's reply to Pilate, when asked if he is a king. "My kingdom is not of this world."

2. Luke 17:21. "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

This passage comes from one of Jesus's responses to the Pharisees, who question when the kingdom of God should arrive. Perhaps they were trying to bait him into confessing his designs on being the Messiah. This same expectation, however, is woven throughout Christianity, as if Jesus was anticipating the Harold Campings of the world, namely those sects that would make precise predictions about the end days.

Don't buy this jive, Jesus seems to say. Because the kingdom is not a physical place. It is not in spacetime. Rather, it is state of being. Couple with the saying above, this implies that divine union is both achievable, at least partially, in this life, and that this state, "the kingdom," is within the soul.

3. John 1:12. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

That's a bold claim. Followers of the cultus, then, are to become sons of God. But isn't it only Jesus that is the son of God, according to some doctrines? I'm not clear as to the exact original words in this passage (Greek), but it calls to mind the "Bene Elohim," or other divine or semi-divine beings that are arrayed around the most high. Angels, maybe? Is this the same convocation found meeting in the book of Job of the Old Testament, where the Enemy busts in on the party? At any rate, there's support for this passage can be found in Luke 20:36, where followers of the cultus are "equal to the angels." Either way, a powerful claim, namely that they are transformed into a semi-divine status.

None of this is to say for certain that these esoteric interpretations were what Jesus or his followers had in mind, but rather that there are some interesting passages hinting at divine union not entirely unlike that found in the later Neoplatonists such as Iamblichus.

All references KJV.

In the Primum Mobile of the Paradiso, Dante observes the orders of angels, which correspond to the various spheres. This derives from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an early Christian writer and another current of Neoplatonism feeding into the Commedia.

As noted in this essay, although some regard Pseudo-Dionysius as a "crypto pagan," the takeaway for me is that, regardless, his work represents yet another point of contact between Platonic and Neoplatonic thought and Christian mysticism. With Dante's explicit call-out to him, it further represents, as with the reference to Timaeus noted earlier, additional correspondences extending into the poem.

Worth reflecting on the fact, too, that Dionysus employs the term "eros" in relation to God, and for certain accounts of the early universe, Eros is among the primal divinities, and may indeed be the one that gets things rolling (see Hesiod, Parmenides, Aristophanes).

In addition to the angelology, there are interesting parallels between Pseudo-Dionysius's approach to God and Dante's encounter, which is recounted in the final canto of the poem. Consider (from the Mystical Theology):

"For the higher we soar in contemplation the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness that is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence of thoughts and of words."

It can be convincingly argued that Dante's conception of God, much like that of St. Augustine's, as noted by Roger Theodore Lafferty, "was no longer the superman Jahveh [Jehovah/YHVH] of the early Hebrew mind. He had become a great first principle." In effect, then, a synthesis between Ancient Greek thought and that of that nascent mystery religion, Christianity.

An interesting through line from the Paradiso back to Plato's Timaeus: In his address to the reader in Canto XXII, Dante invokes the stars from which his genius flows, and this calls to mind the action of the Demiurge, who sows the myriad human souls in their respective stars. It is left for the "younger" gods to create the bodies these souls will inhabit, and then, if after living a life of appropriate virtue, those souls will return to these happy stars once again after their bodily death (else they will undergo a process of reincarnation, giving them additional chances to get things right).

Back to the Paradiso, Dante subsequently turns to survey the planets below, using explicitly mythological language to characterize them. It is in this correspondence, perhaps, that we find another clue to Dante's syncretism: In Dante's association of the Almighty with the "Demiurge" (whether this is accurate or not), there remains space, as it were, for a layer of additional celestial gods that correspond to the planets and to nature. This is a hierarchal view, of course, that may not comport with some "hard polytheist" Neoplatonic readings. Whatever we think of such a synthesis, it may be the philosophical grounding that allows Dante to more or less comfortably nest classical myths, for which he has a clear affinity, within the Christian worldview.

Indeed, earlier, in Canto IV, Beatrice specifically refers to the Timaeus, qualifying however that the sense of returning to a particular star contradicts what Dante is observing as he passes through the heavens. She goes on to indicate, though, that the Platonic conception may be closer to the truth if not taken literally.

To clarify, I'm no Dante scholar by any means, and not trying to say Dante read Plato directly, but rather that certain Platonic ideas may have filtered down into the work. As a reference, an interesting 1911 article on the philosophical aspects of Dante by Roger Theodore Lafferty.

If advertising is a degraded form of magic, it's some weak sauce. It co-opts images from more potent sources with the goal of getting you to buy crap.

A deeper form of magic may perhaps be the kind associated with cultures and religions. You know, the kind that makes a person kill another or themselves, or alternately show extraordinary devotion to a person or cause. Or makes someone roll out of bed and go to work every day, for decades upon decades.