Science et Art

Painting of dancers by Leonid Afremov

Avec les seuls concepts, avec le seul entendement, tu ne comprends pas l’être humain. Arrivé à un certain point, tu dois faire passer tes concepts abstraits dans une contemplation artistique afin de ressentir que l’homme est créé par la nature comme une oeuvre d’art.

Evidemment on peut facilement se moquer de cela, car rien n’est plus atroce aujourd’hui pour les gens que si on affirme qu’une chose doit être envisagée de façon artistique pour être objet de connaissance. Et on déclamera encore longtemps sur le fait que, lorsqu’il fait acte de connaissance, l’homme doit être logique et non pas artistique; mais si la nature agit en fait artistiquement, on ne parviendra à rien qui la concerne avec la logique. Pour connaître les véritables mystères de la nature, on doit donc passer à la vision artistique.

C’est ce que pensait Goethe quand il disait : l’art est une manifestation de lois naturelles secrètes qui ne seraient jamais manifestes sans cet art.

Goethe pensait aussi cela lorsqu’il est arrivé en Italie, après avoir longtemps souhaité le faire, et qu’il crut atteindre alors son idéal de l’art, disant : quand je regarde ces œuvres d’art, j’ai alors la pensée que les Grecs, dans la création de leurs œuvres d’art, procédaient selon les lois mêmes selon lesquelles la nature aussi crée, lois dont je poursuis la recherche. – Goethe est une personnalité qui veut toujours faire passer à l’oeuvre d’art ce qu’est la simple disposition cognitive de l’âme.

[…] (Plus loin, parlant du Goethéanum détruit)

Le style de construction, dans tous ses détails, devait provenir de la même impulsion, des mêmes sources que l’anthroposophie elle-même. Car l’anthroposophie n’est pas une connaissance théorique abstraite, mais c’est une saisie de la vie, de la pleine vie.

C’est pourquoi, d’elle-même elle devient art. Elle réalise ce que Goethe, encore, a dit: Celui qui possède science et art, il a aussi la religion; celui qui ne possède pas ces deux choses, qu’il ait la religion.

Rudolf Steiner – Etudes psychologiques Imagination Inspiration Intuition p43-44

Threshhold of the Spiritual World

Cliquer pour accéder à Threshhold_of_the_Spiritual_World-Rudolf_Steiner-17.pdf

« Study center for Steiner’s work » – independent from anthroposophy, from steiner’s own will to take the matter with zetetism ffs. SHINE LIGHT ON THE WORK WITH NO BELIEFS FFS.

« Research Center for Spiritual Practices/Science »

And the depressing feeling mentioned before is itself the very beginning of true self-knowledge. To realise oneself as being in error in one’s relations to the outer world is a sign that one is realising the true nature of one’s own soul. It is in the nature of the human soul to feel such enlightenment regarding itself as painful. It is only when we feel this pain that we learn how strong is the natural desire to feel ourselves, just as we are—to be human beings of importance and value. It may seem an ugly fact that this is so; but we have to face this ugliness of our own self will.

In the spiritual world you feel a wrong done by you to another human being to be a disturbance of the harmony of the world, and you realise the necessity of meeting that human being again on earth in the next terrestrial life, in order to be able to get into such relationship to him as to be able to repair the wrong you have done. During the progressive development of the soul the range of vision is widened over a whole series of earlier terrestrial lives. In this way you arrive through observation at a knowledge of the true history of the life of your higher “Ego.” You see that man goes through his total existence in a succession of lives upon earth, and that between these repeated terrestrial lives he passes through purely spiritual states of existence which are connected with his terrestrial lives according to certain laws.

In my books Theosophy and An Outline of Occult Science, as well as in lesser writings of mine, the attempt has been made to prove reincarnation along such lines of reasoning as are characteristic of the modern doctrine of evolution in natural science. It is there shown how logical thought and investigation that really follow up scientific research (and its results) to its full consequences are absolutely bound to accept the idea of evolution, presented to us by modern science, in such a sense as to consider the true being, the psychic individuality of man, as something which is evolving through a sequence of physical existences alternating with intermediate purely spiritual lives. The proofs attempted in those writings are naturally capable of much further development and completion. But the opinion does not seem unjustified that proofs in this matter have precisely the same scientific value as that which in general is called scientific proof. There is nothing in the science of spiritual things which cannot be confirmed by proofs of that kind. But of course we must admit the difficulty is greater for spiritually scientific proofs to be acknowledged than proofs of natural science.

 

It is but another step from this feeling to that in which the soul says, “It is not only I who think, but something thinks in me; the cosmic life expresses itself in me; my soul is only the stage upon which the universe manifests itself as thought.” This feeling may be repudiated by this or that philosophy. It may, with various reasons, be made apparently quite obvious that the thought which has just been expressed, of the world thinking itself in the human soul, is entirely erroneous. In answer to this it must be realised that this thought is one which can be worked out through inner experience. Only one who has thus worked it out fully understands its validity, and knows that no refutations can shake that validity. One who has thus mastered it sees from this very thought, quite clearly, what so many refutations and proofs are really worth. They may appear infallible when you still erroneously believe in the convincing power of their content. In that case it is difficult to come to an understanding with people who consider such proofs as conclusive. They are bound to think another person mistaken, because they have not yet accomplished the inner work within themselves which has brought him to a recognition of what seems to them erroneous, or perhaps even absurd.

For one who wishes to find his way into spiritual science, meditations such as the foregoing on thinking are of benefit. For such a person it is a question of bringing his soul into a condition which gives it access to the spiritual world. Access may be denied to the clearest thinking or to the most perfect scientific method, if the soul does not bring anything to meet the spiritual facts, or the information about them ready to press in upon it.

It may be a good preparation for the apprehension of spiritual knowledge to have felt frequently what invigorating force there is in the attitude of soul which says, “I feel myself to be one in thought with the stream of cosmic events.” In this case it is less a question of the abstract value of this thought as knowledge, than of having often felt in our souls the powerful effect which is experienced when such a thought flows with force through the inner life and circulates like a breath of spiritual oxygen through the soul.

It is not only a question of recognising what there is in a thought of this kind, but of experiencing it. The thought is recognised when once it has been present in the soul with sufficient power of conviction; but if it is to ripen and bear fruit which shall promote understanding of the spiritual world, its beings and facts, it must, after having been understood, be made to live in the soul again and again. The soul must again and again be filled with the thought, allowing nothing else to be present in it, and shutting out all other thoughts, feelings, memories, and so forth. Repeated concentration of this kind on such a thoroughly grasped thought draws together forces in the soul which in ordinary life are to some extent dissipated. The soul concentrates and strengthens these forces within itself, and they become the organs for the perception of the spiritual world and its truths.

The right way in which to meditate may be learned from what has just been pointed out. We first work our way through to a thought which may be realised with the means that lie ready to hand in ordinary life and knowledge. Then we plunge into that thought again and again, and make ourselves completely one with it. The strengthening of the soul is the result of living with a thought which has thus been recognised. In this case the above thought was chosen as an example which was derived from the very nature of thinking. It was chosen as an example because it is very specially fruitful for meditation. But what has been said here holds good, with regard to meditation, for every thought which is acquired in the way that has been described. It is especially fruitful for meditation when we know the state of soul which results from the above mentioned rhythmic swing in the life of the soul. By that means we arrive in the surest way at the feeling of having been in direct touch with the spiritual world during our meditation. And this feeling is a sound result of meditation. The force of it should give strength to the rest of our daily life, and not in such a way that an ever-present impression of the meditative state is present the whole time, but so that one feels that from the meditative experience strength is flowing into our whole life. If the state brought about by meditation extends through daily life as an ever-present impression, it diffuses something which disturbs the mental ease of that life. And the state of meditation itself will not then be sufficiently pure and strong.

Meditation gives the best results when through its own character it is kept apart from ordinary life. It influences life in the best way when it is felt to be something distinct from and raised above ordinary life.

…

We should therefore never say that the Luciferic element is bad under all circumstances, for events and beings of supersensible worlds must be loved by the human soul in the manner of the Luciferic element. The order of the universe is not transgressed until the kind of love with which man ought to feel himself drawn to the supersensible is directed to physical things. Love for the supersensible rightly calls forth in the one loving it an enhanced feeling of self; love which in the physical world is sought for the sake of such an enhanced feeling of self is equivalent to a Luciferic temptation. Love of the spiritual when it is sought for the sake of the self has the effect of emancipation; but love for the physical when it is sought on account of the self has not this effect, but, through the gratification gained by its means, only puts the self in fetters.

Hermés le médiateur

La voie hermétique – Françoise Bonardel

Des hermétistes on dira donc qu’ils se caractérisent à la fois par une vision du monde orchestrée par le principe d’analogie, et par une forme d’écoute et de sensibilité dont l’ouverture et la plasticité permettent d’accueillir et d’intégrer les voies de réalisation spirituelle les plus diverses. Tout hermétisme authentique est de ce fait appelé à assumer peu ou prou la fonction de creuset.

Fondamentalement ouvert à la pluralité, l’hermétisme n’en est pas moins orienté par un constant et ardent deésir d’unité qui donna entre autres naissance à la quete philosophale dont le stade ultime fut indifféremment nommé grand oeuvre, pierre, or, androgyne ou rebis.

Eugenio Garin : « En réalité, le trait particulier et le terrain commun de l’hermétisme, aussi bien théologique que magique, se situent spécifiquement dans la recherche d’un plus haut niveau de connaissance dans lequel, tandis que l’on se saisit de l’unité du tout, on s’identifie avec le tout et on opère dans le tout en le transformant, la connaissance s’identifiant avec l’action » – Hermétisme et Renaissance

1. Il est vrai, sans mensonge aucun et très véridique
2. Que ce qui est en bas est comme ce qui est en haut, et ce qui est en haut comme ce qui est en bas, pour que s’accomplisse le miracle d’une seule chose.
3. Et de même que toutes choses ont procédé de l’Un par la seule médiation de l’Unique : ainsi sont-elles par adaptation nées de cette chose unique.
4. Son père est le Soleil, et la Lune sa mère; le vent l’a porté dans son ventre et sa nourrice est la terre.
5. C’est le père de tous les miracles du monde.
6. Intègre est sa puissance, si elle est convertie en terre.
7. Tu sépareras la terre du feu, le subtil de l’épais, doucement et avec grande habileté.
8. Elle s’élève de la terre vers le ciel puis redescend en terre et reçoit l’énergie des réalités supérieures et inférieures; ainsi gagneras-tu la gloire du monde entier, et toute obscurité s’éloignera de toi.
9. C’est là de toute force la puissance suprême, qui dominera toute réalité subtile et pénétrera tout corps solide.
10. Ainsi le monde a-t-il été créé.
11. Les applications en seront dès lors merveilleuses, selon les modalités que voici.
12. C’est pourquoi moi Hermès, détenant les trois parties de la philosophie du monde entier, suis avec raison appelé Trismégiste.
13. Est ainsi accompli ce que j’ai dit quant à l’opération du Soleil.

 

 

 

Entropy and Hermeticism

Operative Philosophy, understood as the development and evolution of conciousness, is an active path opposed to entropy

According to the law of entropy (the second law of Thermodynamics, initially formulated by S. Carnot in 1812 ), all systems in the universe tend to become disorganized in a natural and irreversible way as time goes by (Maxwell, 1860 and Boltzmann, 1872).  As a result, entropy is associated with disorder and chaos and with any process that “left alone” will end up becoming ruined.

This is a reality that can be observed daily: there is a progressive biological deterioration associated with age; time waits for no one; the same thing happens at a psychological level – we become progressively more rigid. As time goes by, our character sours from the inner scattering that takes place because we have not comprehended the experiences we have had throughout time.

However, it is possible to stop this process of cellular disorganization to a certain extent as we introduce “negentropy,” an element of order.  Basically, negentropy has to do with internal and external flexibility  sustained through willpower and effort.

Operative Philosophy is understood as the development and evolution of   consciousness which is an active path that opposes entropy because it is not probable (as is entropy).  What is more likely to happen is for us to let ourselves go, and be tempted by comfort and the path of less resistance, which will make us obediently and naturally comply with the process of disintegration of our energy.

On the contrary, evolution of consciousness requires opposition to the law of entropy and overcoming the tendency towards psychological deafness and sleep. It means facing and incorporating reality, acting coherently, understanding that disorder will not become ordered all by itself and that success in any area of life requires conscious action with willpower and effort.

Operative Philosophy requires us to act negentropically in all areas of our life: to take care of our physical and psychological health, to guarantee that the brain will be able to function at its best level, to overcome the inertia and comfort of sleep, to be able to act consciously.  Sleep stagnates us and through it, we lose our skills and abilities.

It is important to understand that we are live organisms subject to the laws of Nature and that the most probable outcome is for our energy to become inevitably scattered due to the law of entropy.

The other option is to grow spiritually, and follow the “improbable” path of introducing conscious order into our lives which, according to the rhythm of life, will help us to compact our individual energy.  If we respect  the laws of Nature we will generate a state of inner harmony which will increase our mental clarity, coherence, efficiency, and success which will be based on our own merit.

http://www.ihpusa.org/scienceentropy

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Stephen R. Covey – The 7 habits of highly effective people

Sow new actions, new thoughts, new habits, new character, reap new destiny.

Sow an action, reap a habit. sow new habits, reap new thoughts.

change your character, change your destiny.

act differently, think differently.

change your speech, change your mind

change your mind, change your actions

 

Paving the way for a Holistic syncretism between Science and Esotericism through Monism

 

Introduction

Mankind has dwelt upon the very subject of its own existence and of existence itself in every culture at any time period. This lies in the fact that we are well aware of our individualities and the separation between within and without, as we receive, feel and think about the information that our sensatory organs probe in the world. In modern mainstream western culture, science and philosophies seem to be solely focused on the material realm. The domination of the neo-liberal system worldwide and the exponential growth of the use of technique and technology in an industrial manner has deteriorated the global fascination of realities beyond the material senses, and set up a secularizing, atheistic, materialistic and nihilistic ideology in the minds of individuals being born and raised “normally” today.

A quote by Rudolf Steiner (whose will was to bring about a scientific understanding of the spiritual realities, and put it to practical use in our lives) illustrates this perfectly:

“What must be emphasized over and over again is the need there is today for things to be taken with deep seriousness. This goes against the grain. People choose to believe that things will continue in the same way. No, they will not.

If life continues without the stimuli that come from the spiritual world, industry can go on, banks can be in existence and universities where all the sciences are taught, other professions can be developed — but everything will lead to decadence, to barbarism, to the fall of civilization.

Those who are not willing to apply in practical life what can come out of Spiritual Science are working, not for ascent but for decline. And the majority of people today want decline and simply delude themselves into the belief that an ascent can still come out of it.”[1]

Whatever one may think of Steiner’s “Spiritual Science”, his conviction to take “things with deep seriousness” and his inner impulse to create a scientific understanding of the “spiritual” realms is an ever more existential urgency almost a hundred years later.

Shining light on the link between science, spirituality, theology and psychology by understanding esoterism seems to be the most important endeavor in regards to present-day concerns and my personal volition, as to help bring about a paradigm shift in all fields of knowledge. Stemming from the understanding that consciousness is the primary essence of the universe, and that what lies behind matter can be grasped from within, thus a deep understanding of our inner structure is needed for us humans to dwell in the material realm in peace and harmony. We, as an extensively networked civilization, have to shift our focus from exploiting the material realm and resources to developing our inner gardens, following the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself” as a collective.

The science in Esotericism

The book the Kybalion was written by “Three Initiates”, wishing to remain anonymous as to put the focus on the information not the authors. I imagine it was also done to give it an even more esoteric “aura”. The principles laid down in the Kybalion are said to come from the mythical figure of Thoth in ancient Egypt.

The hermetic tradition took its roots mostly in the Renaissance with the translation of the Corpus Hermeticum and Hermetica, referring to a perennial philosophy passed down throughout the ages.

“All the fundamental and basic teachings embedded in the esoteric teachings of every race may be traced back to Hermes. Even the most ancient teachings of India undoubtedly have their roots in the original Hermetic Teachings” – the Kybalion[2]

“From the land of the Ganges many advanced occultists wandered to the land of Egypt, and sat at the feet of the Master. From him they obtained the Master-Key which explained and reconciled their divergent views, and thus the Secret Doctrine was firmly established.” – The Kybalion

This prisca theologia is said to be the first Science from which all Sciences stem from. It thus could potentially serve as a “master key” to “reconcile the paradoxes” of the different perspectives of reality that each individual has, and which each culture has had. It could serve as a structure to bring about a syncretism between all Sciences and all Spiritual and Esoteric paths, as well as enable them be grasped by each other.

I will solely focus on the first principle for this article, but I would like to study the other ones as well.

“I. THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTALISM. “THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental.”–The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the truth that “All is Mind.” It explains that THE ALL (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”; the “Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; “Energy”; and in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is SPIRIT, which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE, but which may be considered and thought of as AN UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND.” – The Kybalion

The principle emphasizes on the fact that existence itself is contained within the “Mind of THE ALL”,  postulating Spirit as the fundamental substance (prima materia) of the universe.  The “All is Mind” refers to the philosophy of monism and exposes the link between every part of the “All” as consciousness or mental substance. Thus, the first “master key” of this “hermetic philosophy” that could link all different perspectives together, seems to be the cause of the holistic effect it says it has. Monism indeed unifies in a whole through the understanding that the fabric of everything is the mental substance of creation.

“The acceptance of the First Hermetic Principle is the only great point of difference between Modern Science and Hermetic students, and Science is gradually moving toward the Hermetic position in its groping in the dark for a way out of the Labyrinth into which it has wandered in its search for Reality.” – The Kybalion

This is a particularly interesting quote since this article is designed to show that the gap between science and hermetic truths is being breached and that the scientific and academic fields urgently need to take into consideration the perspectives of esotericism and spirituality.

The Kybalion seems to be a book about a kind of “mystic science” that deals not with facts and numbers but maxims and aphorisms that lead to intuitive and symbolically derived understandings. This should not be taken lightlyn for many scholars have been dwelling upon those very subjects, which used to be considered as sacred doctrines and wisdom and sprout forth magnificent civilizations. It is a matter of justice and truth then, than to reestablish the legacy of the knowledge and understanding of Esoterism and particularly the Hermetic teachings of the mythical figure of Thoth.

The Esoterism in Science

What I find most interesting is that around the time the Kybalion was published, the scientific field was undergoing a great paradigm shift with the birth of quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity. With regards to the philosophical axioms exposed in the Kybalion, it is fascinating read what some of the most prominent scientific minds believe and understand about reality.

Max Planck is considered to be the father of the quantum theory. Near the end of his life, this is what he had to say as a scientist about matter and science:

 

“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” [3]

 

The most “clear-headed” science thus reaches back to ancient wisdom.

 

“…I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” [4]

 

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”[5]

 

One of the most influential minds of the most clear-headed science thus indicates that science itself is limited by the fact that “we ourselves are part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” Our material senses and our bodies, which are probes in the material world for our consciousness, will never be able to escape from their own limitations by themselves.

Thus, the focus for “solving the ultimate mystery of nature” needs to be shifted within ourselves. We will never be able to evolve or find “ultimate answers” from the material, but from understanding and evolving our own consciousness. As the Delphi axiom says: “Know thyself”.

Since we are but manifestation of consciousness pondering about itself, knowing ourselves from within may enable us to grasp with greater depth that which matter stems from, for we are made of it.

Modern day quantum physicists are researching the theory the Holographic Universe. Here is a quote explaining the theory by analogy:

« Imagine that everything you see, feel, and hear in three dimensions (and your perception of time) in fact emanates from a flat two-dimensional field. The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms, where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card. However, this time, the entire Universe is encoded. »[6]

This Holographic Universe theory gives to every part of the material realm the quality of being “the All within the All” or “One in All and All in One”, because that is how a hologram works. By reaching to the end of the universe with telescopes, or breaking down atoms at the CERN, quantum physicists as well as ancient hermetic wisdom tell us that we will only be able to explain it through consciousness. Grasping this fact would make us recognize ourselves as the most free, complete and responsible expression of this hologram.

The two-dimensional field isn’t far  from “the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”; the “Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; “Energy”; and in short, all that is apparent to our material senses” postulated by the Kybalion.

It is also very similar to the “world of Ideas” of Plato. According to Neville Goddard, a prominent metaphysicist and mystic, the “Mind” of the All is ever-present for us in the form of the human Mind and Imagination: “The mouth of God is the Mind of Man.”. The material world is but a collective plane in which we can physically dwell, but which is a part of the great “Imagination” of the “All”, its substance is mental.

Roger Penrose, a famous mathematical physicist, said this about the evolution of our way of perceiving matter in the scientific realm: “…the contemporary understanding of material is very different now from the way it used to be. If we consider what matter really is, we now understand it as much more of a mathematical thing…But I think that matter itself is now much more of a mental substance…” [7]

This is fascinating in regards to the fact that the Kybalion exposes the first and most important principle of the Hermetic tradition as “The Universe is Mental.”

There is also a very interesting connection to make with the Kabbalah or the Book of Zohar, the esoteric wisdom of the Jewish tradition:

“We see a great world before us, and all the wondrous things it contains. But in fact, we see all that, only within us. In other words, there is a kind of photographic machine in the back of our brain, which portrays everything that we see, and there is nothing outside of us!”

–Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Book of Zohar[8]

The hermetic teachings seem to be related to the Book of Zohar for they both talk about the structure of the universe. The “Holographic Universe” scientific theory seems to fit perfectly with those teachings. “There is nothing outside of us”, this can be interpreted as the theory that the “projected 3D material realm” actually is contained within the “two-dimensional” field that birthed it. If that is the case, as we are focused and fascinated by the material realm, we are but the two-dimensional field experiencing itself in a 3d fashion. And there are traditions that have focused specifically on what lies beyond matter, and what we are composed of. We now have the necessary scientific background to understand that Kabbalists, Alchemists and many ancient traditions were not talking about ungraspable concepts and incomprehensible things.

Personal composition: Marrying the opposites, an illustration of the syncretism between science and esotericism, in an effort to shine light on the need to create a Spiritual Science.

 

The Kabbalah is an esoteric view of reality, the manifestation of Ein Sof from Kether to Malkuth as well as the ever-present structure of the Sephiroths in every part of existence. The “manifestation of creation from higher realms” that the scientists are decoding through mathematics and physics has been investigated for millennia by philosophers and sages. The Zohar and the Hermetic tradition are but examples of many, and are only perspectives fathomed by geographic location and time periods, by culture and by the uniqueness of the individuals who linked ideas together by pondering on structural truths across the ages in my opinion.

Thus, we can foresee a future birthing of a contemporary understanding of the prisca theologia, and strive to be very well versed in the history of ideas across the different cultures to bring about a global structure.

An idealistic neo-hermetic philosophy could perform a syncretism between all cultures, theologies, cosmogonies, arts, philosophies, sciences through the spectrum of monism and consciousness as fundamental substance of the universe, expressing itself in different planes and shapes and colors.

Science is focused on Malkuth, the material world, and is stemming from material techniques, whereas other traditions understand that there are different planes to investigate other than the material, and the human being is composed of all of them and can navigate in understanding through them from within.

I will point out the fact that the title of the article from which I took the quote of the Preface to the Book of Zohar is “All in One and One in All”.

 

Apparently, quantum physicists are very well versed in the lecture of “ancient wisdom”, particularly the Vedanta:

 

 “Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.” – Erwin Schrödinger[9]

I haven’t researched the teachings of the Vedanta, but they as well as other Eastern tradition like Zoroastrianism are most likely a great part of the thread followed by the mythical prisca theologia that the history of western esotericism need to shine a light upon, since it seems to be intrinsically linked to Hermetic teachings.

Both of the scientists that I have quoted are considered to be the fathers of the quantum theory. Does this stem from the fact that they both also seem to be educated in ancient wisdom?

I have found this quote around the internet, but couldn’t identify a reliable source. “Schrodinger (1961) claims that the Vedic slogan “All in One and One in All” was an idea that led him to the creation of quantum mechanics.”

If it is the case, then it is (another) historical proof of the utmost importance to give credit to ancient wisdom for giving “master-keys” of understanding to our most prominent scientific minds. There is a structural necessity in my opinion to shine light upon the “formerly hidden secrets of occult knowledge” for they may sprout forth a structural basis for new paradigms to be born in many fields.

If the hermetic principles, teachings of the Vedanta and of the book of Zohar correlate so much with each other and the most recent findings in physics, it is time to provide a definite syncretism of the traditions of ancient wisdom through the spectrum of monism and hermeticism, and to finally consider them as profound key to unlock new perspectives for our contemporary minds that are blind to subtle realms.

Studying the structure of the next paradigm

 

As we have seen, mystical figures of wisdom as well as scientific geniuses dwell on the same ideas about consciousness. Consciousness ponders about itself, and whether it be philosophical or scientific in its quest for understanding, it will always reach itself, only in different degrees. As the archetypal figure of the Ouroboros shows, the snake bites its own tail. Consciousness is contained within consciousness, thus even by trying to break up all the bricks of the material realm, which can be considered as a dense manifestation of consciousness; we will always find consciousness behind it. We will always find ourselves.

Through this understanding, we can now shine a light upon Carl Gustav Jung’s work and personal will to make Psychology or the Study of Consciousness the link between all fields, birthing a new paradigm. As we are consciousness pondering about itself, it is a matter of true urgency to go as deep with our understanding of consciousness within the psyche of Man than we have gone with the paradigm shift of quantum physics with matter. There hasn’t been a “quantum psychology” acknowledged as a new fundamental paradigm shift, but Carl Gustav Jung has brought about many new understandings and a solid esoteric foundation for the science of the psyche.

In my opinion, the Kybalion as well as the work of Rudolf Steiner and C.G. Jung need to be studied with utmost attention from the academic realm, for they contain a tremendous amount of knowledge that stem from a grasping from within of principles that are structural to the structure of consciousness and its manifestation in our material and immaterial existence.

Of course, all of them are but individual expressions of the grasping of those structures, which have been grasped for thousands of years and re-expressed and recomposed over time until now and will ever be.

Today, we have the opportunity to make a great syncretism between what used to be “sacred wisdom” with the most recent scientific discoveries.

As the quantum physicist and Nobel Prize receiver Wolfgang Pauli said: “I do not believe in the possible future of mysticism in the old form. However, I do believe that the natural sciences will out of themselves bring forth a counter pole in their adherents, which connects with the old mystic elements.”[10]

By making a strong stand with academic rigor on the link between Science and Esotericism or Spirituality, we may reduce the gap between what is occult and what is not to an exponential extent. Esotericism ponders about what lies beyond the material senses. Since that is consciousness, the hermetic axioms as well as the whole of theology and esoteric traditions will be rediscovered anyway by science, and grasped with a deeper understanding within the materialist frame.

We are seeking the essence from the material senses through the material realm, but as we have seen, the 3d reality stems from the “two-dimensional field” or “Spirit” or “world of Ideas” or “Imagination” which is consciousness itself, and which is every present and underlying in the material realm.

Thus by studying ourselves directly as subtler manifestations of consciousness than dense matter, we shall reach new and greater understanding. By studying human imagination, different states of consciousness (with meditation and psychedelics for example) and especially through direct experience from scientists, we may bring about an exponential evolution of our collective understanding of human nature and the existential questions of our species.

The paradigm shift in global civilization may stem from the fact that we acknowledge our responsibility as expressions of consciousness within consciousness, and the monistic reality of our “holographic universe”.

Socrates said according to Diogenes Laertius: “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”

Then one may hope that, as our culture rests not upon religion and faith anymore but on science and materialism, the very fact that we have disregarded religion will come to a paradigm shift with the understanding that theology, esotericism, age old philosophies and cosmogonies were talking all along about the most prominent scientific discoveries that we make today, just in a different fashion, with a symbolic, intuitive, imaginative or archetypal viewpoint.

One would want to pave the way for such a paradigm shift by marrying the opposites of science and spirituality, in order to help bring about a new “Spiritual Science” stemming from radical empiricism and openness to new discoveries. Cognitive science, psychedelics, hermeticism, C.G. Jung’s work as well as Rudolf Steiner’s and many other age-old and modern teachings, are to me very good resources to build a practical understanding of how consciousness can be refined and transformed from within.

This will enable us to evolve as a global civilization with a new paradigm on which to stand, one that may integrate a greater part of the whole than all previous civilizations. Hans Peter-Dürr is a quantum physicist who was really engaged in ecology and world peace. He held a particular belief about reincarnation :

“You are 78 years old. Do you believe in afterlife? Is there existence after death? Professor Dürr: “That is an interesting question. What we consider the here and now, this world, it is actually just the material level that is comprehensible. The beyond is an infinite reality that is much bigger. Which this world is rooted in. In this way, our lifes in this plane of existence are encompassed, surrounded, by the afterworld already. When planning I imagine that I have written my existence in this world on a sort of hard drive on the tangible (the brain), that I have also transferred this data onto the spiritual quantum field, then I could say that when I die, I do not lose this information, this consciousness. The body dies but the spiritual quantum field continues. In this way, I am immortal. “ – (P.M. Magazin 05/2007) “

This quote is an example of a kind of Spiritual Science that can stem from radical empiricism. Marrying a scientific mindset with a study of mystical philosophies seems to produce the kind of structure that our global species can rest its culture upon. It also shines light upon the fact that many ancient cultures focused on “other realms” and it will eventually give a greater understanding of their mindset, as well as a respect for all cultures, and all life.

Conclusion

There are tremendous amounts of fallacies in our global system as a civilization, in all fields of human endeavors, which are producing debilitating results for the evolution of our species in my opinion. It is of utmost importance in regards to present-day matters to be engaged in “marrying the opposites” of science and spirituality and/or esotericism.

As quantum physicists have brought about a paradigm shift in physics, a global paradigm shift in human civilization is on its way any way with the unstoppable progress of science and technique. This needs to be greeted with great wisdom and forecasting in my opinion, because we may evolve so rapidly in our scientific discoveries that our own immature evolutionary state as conscious beings would condemn us to be overwhelmed and “eaten by our own children”.

We cannot stand silent in front of the hidden “war” undergoing between the race in material scientific discoveries fueled by the neo-liberalist system, and the invisible conquest and cartography of the spiritual or mental realms that has been practiced for thousands of years, and is today invisible in our mainstream culture.

As long as our contemporary civilization will put aside Esotericism, there cannot be a balance in my opinion, because it is the link with the lost Nachtseite of nature by using C.G. Jung’s lexicon. If one individual’s individuation process stems from “marrying the opposites”, the unconscious and shadow parts of the self, then we can correlate this globally to the human civilization and understand the fact that as long as we do not recognize our own “shadow”, we will not be whole and there will be conflict.

As we are consciously recognizing our inner structure and the structure of the Earth and the Universe we dwell in, we will eventually reach a shift in paradigm as to recognize the truths of ancient wisdom in the light of contemporary science, and derive practical uses of these in order to allow each individual to grow in depth of understanding without any limit whatsoever, for the evolution of consciousness seem to be infinite and only narrowed by our own lack of understanding.

As cultures evolve, so will our understanding and our intellectual production of knowledge, from which new understandings and practices will stem from. This has been the case since the beginning of information exchange. It is my personal will to make a stand on the fact that we need to marry the spiritual and the scientific in all fields of knowledge and in culture in general, in order to bring about new practices that do not continue the infernal cycles that humanity has dealt with/ the mistakes of the contemporary age.

Monism, the “All” as “Living Mind”, consciousness as fundamental mental substance of the holographic universe, these understandings seem to be a basis on which the new paradigm may rest upon. Thus, psychology or cognitive sciences will be the link between all sciences and arts as well as spirituality, for they deal with the most fundamental substance of the universe in its most subtle form: our own consciousness.

[1] Rudolf Steiner – GA 202 – The Search for the New Isis, Divine Sophia – Lecture IV – Dornach, 26th December 1920

[2]  The Kybalion, 1908 – http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/kybalion.pdf

[3] – Das Wesen der Materie [The Nature of Matter], speech at Florence, Italy (1944)

[4] The Observer, London, January 25, 1931

[5] Where is Science Going? 1932

[6] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170130083231.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmost_popular+(Most+Popular+News+–+ScienceDaily)

 

[7] Journal of Consciousness Studies 1:24

[8] http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/58953?/eng/content/view/full/58953&main

 

[9] – Mein Leben, meine Weltansicht [My Life, My Worldview or My View of the World] (1961)

[10] Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung

Arthur I. Miller – W. W. Norton & Company, May 17, 2010 – 336 pages

Laying the tracks of my inner understandings of what ought to be done today and why

I have written this text without focusing on quoting books or having a very precise structure or methodology. But it gives a very good “trailer” on what my personal stands are. I apologize for the inconvenience brought about by the lack of structure and repetition of ideas.

The lack of academic knowledge and understanding about esotericism is the effect of many causes:

This type of knowledge, by definition, is hidden. It isn’t accessible by regular means of acquiring experiences. Those other ways may include, but are not limited to, some breathing and meditation techniques as well as the use of psychedelics. As the individual experiences another state of consciousness, the data received is not coming from the probing senses of touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. Those experiences are then explained through language, but are by themselves sometimes unspeakable, and even if explained, would in certain case be analogous to trying to explain the color red to a blind person.

They wouldn’t actually see it. And, as in the allegory of the cave of Plato, if most of the people, even the wisest of the masses, are believing that the shadows they see are the whole of reality, those who have a glimpse of the light are thought to be blabbering utter nonsense. This has been the case for a long time regarding esoteric knowledge, and this is part of the explanation about why it has been concealed by secret societies and initiates throughout the ages. The esoterists had to protect themselves from the masses, and they had to protect the knowledge from being misused and desecrated by unworthy men whose aims weren’t pure. Thus goes the saying : « pearls shall not be thrown before swine » in the Bible.

Though today, at the so called “Age of information”, we are now in a complete opposite dynamic regarding “secret knowledge”. It seems, poetically, that swines have used pearls to become masters of the world, and turn it into a wasteland of consumerism and entertainment. This is a very good, global mirror, of our inner state as individuals: we are blind to the fact that we dwell in the shadows, we have lost inner sight and are blind to the depth of outer reality. Thus, we realize that we must seek the pearls by ourselves at this point of time. And the pieces of wisdom that once were so concealed, are today available in the blink of an eye to the curious soul who dares to seek on Google what gives rise to the shadows that have been so entertaining to watch.

The states of consciousness are plural and take different tastes and shapes and colors. They are also comprised on a scale, as visible colors go from red to violet depending on the frequency of the light spectrum. The hermetic principles are to be understood in symbolism and analogy. They emphasize on the fact that everything is mental, thus saying that everything is symbolic isn’t far from it. And symbolism is a realm of subjective subtlety that cannot be grasped by science, or explained by logic. How could one explain logically the feelings provided by a poem that touches the inner world of the reader as the words give rise to an interaction between the individual and the content that the words refer to, which are lived internally through imagination and feeling?

It operates on a whole other range than the material realm.

Scientists have not developed the inner tools to understand the different spectrums of consciousness as they have developed those to view a broader range of the spectrum of material light. There is no “mapping” of the mind yet. Psychedelics may be used as those tools, as they are portrayed as such by scientists who studied them.

“LSD is a catalyst or amplifier of mental processes. If properly used it could become something like the microscope or telescope of psychiatry.” (Stanislas Grof, in LSD Psychotherapy, 1980)

With the extraordinary synchronistic discovery of LSD and the rise of the psychedelic era in the last century, there was a breach made between chemistry, biology, the human mind and spirituality. Though we know what happened : the global banishment of psychedelics from the scientific realm was one of the most critical acts of modern-day obscurantism in the 20^th century.

History shows in western culture that the dogmatism of the political and religious fields have led a massive campaign of systematic destruction of knowledge and cultures throughout millennia. Whether they were ‘pagans’, kabbalists, alchemists or scientists as Galileo, and the psychedelic-curious nowadays, active repression of these occult activities was the motto of the dominant powers. It has imprinted in our behavior as a culture a hindering disdain and automatic dismissal of the esoteric realms of knowledge.

This is of course well illustrated by the definite secularization of culture and the systematical undermining of religions, as well as profound esoteric and theosophical understandings.

An anecdotal evidence of this is portrayed on the Wikipedia page of the famous metaphysicist and mystic Neville Goddard. His page only exists in Russian language, for everything else has been deleted entirely three years ago due to “insufficient sourcing”. The comments on the Wikipedia edit page point the fingers on “Wikipedia’s atheistic culture”[1]

Viewing religious and mystical matters solely through the prism of atheistic materialism is quite an unproductive and utmost destructive endeavor, for it lacks the necessary openness of mind to grasp and feel what is to be pondered upon, and disdains the very beauty of the truth it cannot understand, for it fears it. Watching the shadows for so long makes one’s eyes very sensitive to light. It may even condemn one to stay in the dark because light would blind the eyes, thus, one would begin to be very dangerous towards those who aren’t blinded by the light, but seeing.

One of the great fallacies of materialism is its profound belief of its own capability of deriving knowledge only from reason and logic. This stems from the scientific method and reductionism, which are absolutely fantastic tools. But which cannot rest upon themselves, for without balance they lead to the greatest fallacies. Indeed, everything human beings will ever be able to produce in the material realm will derive from their own ability to sense their surroundings and understand it. If they lack the organs to see ultraviolet light, they will build machines to sense it.

But scientists have never stopped to ponder about the fact that their thoughts and feelings themselves come from organs of perceptions (namely, brain and heart), and that these could reach spectrums of different scales of consciousness through the development of their inner potential. [Quote rudolf steiner : Nature only leaves man between things, and only Man can finish himself up and become Human]

And even if they did, how will they ever produce a machine that will be able to access the thought realm, since they are themselves this “machine”? As far as we know, thoughts and imagination are subjective realms and yet are shared by all subjectivities. We dwell in the world of thoughts and imagination just as fish dwell in water or we dwell in the air on earth. So we have capabilities that will never be reachable to the lifeless machines we seem to be so desperate to raise as our new gods. And this realm is spaceless and timeless for all we know of what our imagination can do. So who is to say that we are not dwelling in it, and that the whole Universe is dwelling in this imaginative substance ? For all we know, space and time could only be welcomed at the surface of/be born into existence from- a spaceless and timeless substance.

Thus psychonauts, esotericists, psychologists, all explorers of the mind, are at the forefront of the mapmaking of the suprasensible realities, and have been forever. We just don’t quite view it as important today because we are identifying ourselves with our thoughts and being softly mesmerized in the Samsara and Maya (define terms).

Panem et circenses is the motto the entertainment society has built itself upon. We are in the dark age of Kali Yuga, the greatest disconnection from the whole cosmos according to Hindu Cosmogony. We dwell in the illusion of matter, the shadows of the allegory of the cave is what fascinates us so deeply instead understanding the objects that shape the forms of the shadows, which are the ideas, and the light that shines through these, which is consciousness.

We need to become the whole scenery instead of watching the shadows.

We cannot understand the ability to think because when we are engaged in the activity, we are caught in it. Thus, we cannot grasp thought by thinking about it. And science rests on rational thinking and linear causality, which obviously closes off the first doors to grasping esoteric knowledge from within, because the latter involves symbolic imagination and a great flexibility and sensitivity of the mind. Whereas the logical side of the intellect thrives on reductionism, cutting everything to pieces, the intuitive side of the intellect dwells in a holistic, integrative, imaginative and feeling approach.

It is well spread in mainstream scientific vulgarization that there are two sides of the human mind or the two hemispheres of the brain: the creative and logical side. I would like to point out that, through understanding the millennial principle of Gender laid down in the book the Kybalion (1917), we can say that there are both feminine and masculine sides to consciousness.

Laser-focused, reductionist, directed logic and linear thinking dancing with holism, openness to feeling and free association of intuitive symbolism through imagination.

It is quite like a battle between science and art or science and religion.

The analogy for the two hemispheres of the brain reflects the fundamental dualism that our whole world rests upon. Be it feminine and masculine, hot and cold, feeling and thinking, logic and intuition, imagination and reason, conscious and unconscious, right or left hemispheres, the fundamental dualism rests on the unity of the brain, the unity of the cosmos. The unity of consciousness, for it is all that exists, and it rests upon nothing.

Both hemisphere are linked by the “Corpus Calloseum”, and by use of analogy, it is this mediator between the two sides of Man that needs to be taken care of in ourselves in order to bring about a “marrying of the opposites”: the alchemists’ hermaphrodite, the wedding of the sun and the moon, integrating the “shadow” or the “unconscious”, becoming “whole” through the “individuation process” of C.G. Jung. We need to focus on understanding how to become wholly individuated human beings. What is the inner equivalent of the biological Corpus Calloseum, and how to become very pragmatic on going through the individuation process and integrating all aspects of our Self.

I intend, in my studies and in my work, to mediate between the two sides, because they are but two sides of the same thing. Just as matter is not separate from consciousness according to monism and modern quantum physicists, it is also the case that science, religion and art which are not hermetically separated in my opinion. Theology, philosophy, psychology, sociology and all human sciences are all linked together.

For they all stem from consciousness and ponder upon consciousness.

I think that there is a profound urge to reestablish a paradigm in the epistemology of the acquisition of knowledge, which must be linked to the recent discoveries on consciousness, quantum physics, as well as age old philosophies, esoteric knowledge, and the Jungian psychology.

Our modern science stems from a culture whose philosophical maxims and assumptions come from the Enlightenment era in France. There would be another science and culture if we were to adopt different philosophical foundations, and much more advanced ones, with a broader understanding of our place in existence, and our purpose as a collective species. Another world view, which would give proper place to the greatest understandings of all cultures in a syncretism structured by reason and logic, but permeated by the heart and the profound devotion in science (every field actually) to truth and knowledge above human fallacies. This would link back science to religion in my opinion. (and art/spirituality)

This can be done through paradigm shifts in all fields of knowledge. We need to pave the way for a new understanding of the human nature as well as the universe’s essence and whereabouts. We’re still clinging to a materialistic nihilistic secularizing and dehumanizing global system, whilst battles are fought in every front to shine light on the totality of the human being and on an alternative way to rule our own lives than the top-bottom poison of the neo-liberalist oligarchy.

Will we individually and collectively understand the necessity to bring about a paradigm shift in our own consciousness?

Trouble is coming for the system as a whole, because it rests on a mathematical fallacy. Money is created out of thin air, and profit is the new god. In regards to the earth as a whole, this is analog to a cancerous disease in the human body. The mutated cells rebel against the natural homeostasis of the system, closing off from others and reproducing themselves until they kill the organism they inhabit. This suicidal tendency in the body of man is reflected in his mind and as a whole in the society we inhabit. When the ego doesn’t recognize its part in the totality of the human mind-body-soul system, when it discards the shadow dwelling in the unconscious, when society as a whole forgets the Nachtseite of nature, cancer arises. The communication between parts of the whole is broken.

The paradigm shift will then have to rise from a scientific, logical, but Gaian-like mindset. A radical ecology of the mind, soul and body, of each individual and of the earth itself, as we are but parts of a greater body of consciousness. The cancerous disease that mankind is infecting the whole biosphere with stems from the disconnection from the whole, within each human being. The persona and ego become the tyrants of the body, mind and soul, because it becomes so dense and filled with information, social and mental constructs, that it doesn’t recognize truth from falsehood anymore, it just feels so alone and disconnected, and is feeling so threatened to die that it kills off everything on sight in order to be the only one left standing.

They have become the shadow that they’ve been so fascinated by, and act with intention to fight off the light.

This pathology is both stemming from psychological, spiritual and cultural lack of homeostasis, and it has chaotic effects on the body, the mind and soul of individuals and cultures. This vicious circle is precisely what we aim to step out from as educated citizens of the worlds. Thus, paving the way for a virtuous circle to replace the dying old paradigm, and pushing forward its death and the rise of a new culture, is the most important endeavor today in my opinion.

When power, money and science become blind to harmony and beauty, they become so entrenched in their self-sufficiency that they produce nightmarish monsters of devastation. “Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.” (Openheimer looking at nuclear explosion quoting the Bhagavad Gita).

For humans and nature are but makers and users in the eyes of technology, and thus this unbalanced equation makes it so that technology uses us for its own ends whilst disguising as serving us. Very strong minded, faithful and passionate individuals are urgently needed in order to be able to redirect the power of the technological progress through desirable ends for the whole biosphere.

We will only be able to enter into the next paradigm without letting any bit of grossness lurking behind some corner within ourselves. All must come to light and be transparent. The tremendous power of the human being ought to serve the harmony of the whole, and not separate itself in a cancerous fashion leading to unbalance of a world wide range.

And this voluntary servitude must come from true free will and grasp the divine from within, as an act of surrendering of the Ego to the Self. Becoming the masterful servant of the Whole instead of an independent outcast.

We must defeat the hypnotic trance of culture and mass media that has created the perfect structure for humans to be caught in a self-fulfilling cycle of surrendering our own power and mind to consumerism, entertainment, in general, and falsehood. Shifting away from the Ego-gratification paradigm, we may enter a more holistic approach and finally rise above our present-day and age-old misunderstandings of our place on Earth.

[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Neville-Goddard%E2%80%99s-Wikipedia-page-taken-down#HrLqg

Greek philosophers and the Perennial Philosophy

Foreword

This text was originally written for my English course last year. The subject was historical and geographical, so I wrote about Greek philosophers in order to talk about what fascinated me, which is the prisca theologia. It did not have to contain quotes and a rigorous academic structure. I was thrilled to write this text when I was studying sociology because I could talk quite freely about subjects that are dear to me. I’ve extended it a bit and added a few paragraphs at the end.

Introduction

As we know, our modern civilization owes much to the ancient Greek philosophy and political endeavors. I would like to lay down in this text the thread which seem to have been followed throughout history, from one of the most ancient and mysterious Greek cult to the Renaissance’s Alchemists.

It is known as the “prisca theologia”. It was already postulated by Plutarque in 70AD, but it was most famous at the time of the Renaissance in Florence, as the works of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. When theology is out of the equation, it is called “perennis philosophia”. Agostino Steuco wrote his De perenni philosophia in 1540. In contemporary literature, Aldous Huxley wrote about it in his book The Perennial Philosophy in 1945.

It is defined as a thread linking all philosophies and theologies together, through the understanding of universal principles that were revealed in distant times. These revelations infused civilizations from ancient Egypt to the renaissance alchemists.

I believe that the Greek civilization, by passing down this knowledge at first in a secret and oral fashion, and then by writing, has allowed our own civilization to be nourished by this eternal wisdom, though I will not develop on this point in this text because of its shortness.

Orphic Cosmogony

I will begin by introducing Orphism, which was a mysterious religion originating around the 6^th century BC. There are multitudes of Orphic cosmogonies, because everything about this ancient religion is scattered, written as quotes or summarized. Though this is what I found interesting in regard to my subject: they taught that man’s essence was twofold. The story of man’s origins is as follows: Zagreus, Zeus’s son and also first incarnation of Dionysos, was offered the empire of the world by Eros. The Titans, jealous and uplifted, seized him and devoured him. Zeus, horrified by this crime, killed the Titans with lightning, and from their ashes arose the first men.

Thus, in the Orphic cosmogony, Man is both emanating from the Gods and the Titans, having equal tendencies to being divine or monstrous. Orphism professes that Man is to be purified, by combining his divine part with his Titan counterpart in order to be uplifted. The Titan part allows Man to be audacious, and to confront the established order. His Divine part is to be remembered as its essence. It is this remembrance that allows Man to reach the divine world once again. Thus, initiation into the Orphic Mysteries was linked to promises of ending the cycle of reincarnation and rising to a kind of godly-hood, by remembering the divine essence of the intimate being. This topic of initiation into mysteries pre-dates Greek civilization, and meant a great deal throughout the ages and cultures.

Pythagoras

Following up with Pythagoras, which is one of the most influential philosophers in ancient Greece. According to him, the soul has three vehicles: ethereal, linked to the stars and infinite bliss; luminous, which suffers the punishment of sins after death; and terrestrial, the vehicle it occupies here on Earth. Pythagoras himself is said to have remembered four different previous incarnations of his. This is the doctrine of metempsychosis that he teaches: the soul of man is forever reincarnating into plants, animals and men alike.

He created a kind of school, or brotherhood, or monastery, or all three of them at once, now call Pythagoreanism. It was highly secretive and rested on an initiation process, commonly shared symbols and vows of secrecy as well as ascetic practices and rituals. Much of Pythagoras’s life is, as many ancient Greek philosophers and doctrines, scattered and volatile, which doesn’t allow much empirical statements and is a gate to a lot of creative discourse. What is most commonly known though is his sacred worship of numbers, as the source of all knowledge. He was professing the fact that the entire Universe is, as mathematics, a continuous harmony of the equilibrium between emptiness and form, the apeiron and the peiron. (These concepts were already coined by Anaximander)

The form “breathes” from the emptiness, which creates separation, and the whole universe as well as mathematics is thus a living being which is ever differentiated by this breath. This resembles some Eastern philosophies, and is quite frankly in my opinion, a great unraveling of universal principal laid bare in his doctrine, that we in our modern age have begun to touch with science through quantum physics and the realization that 99.9% of our surrounding is indeed “void”.

Pythagoras is depicted as a reformer of Orphic traditions. Through the prism of Orphism, I would like to link this reforming quality to the Titanic part in him, rebelling against the established order, in an evolutionary impulse. Purified by his Divine part, this rebellion becomes a quest for truths of higher realms and a will to spread the knowledge. Thus allowing his doctrine to uplift the minds of men throughout history by “updating” ancient practices to fit his contemporary nomos (culture) and personality, as we are doing now also.

He is also one of those who brought religion and philosophy into politics in ancient Greece, and developed a way of living to be given to his students who sought to understand the mysteries of the universe and live “the good life”. He left no writings himself, everything he did, taught, and was, we can only know of through the writings of his students and next-generation philosophers and historians. This is quite common at this period.

Socrates, Philolaus, Plato

One of the last philosophers who did not write was the famous Socrates, who was also following the ancient thread of the Perennial Philosophy which I am only showing a glimpse of. Pythagoras is said to have had a great influence on Plato through Philolaus, who had apparently written one or three books on the doctrines of Pythagoras, and which were strictly forbidden to be made public. Plato acquired the books, and thus were the sacred doctrines made public through his work. He was the first philosopher, or Initiate, to kind of break the vow of secrecy of the followers of the Mystery Schools (schools of Initiates).

I hypothesize that this is due to Socrates’s influence on Plato, because Socrates, as is known, had this particularity of having a way of life which rested upon accepting his own fallacy, his own ignorance, and talking to everyone, be it a politician, a slave, or an aristocrat, through a way of inquiry which sought to cause self-inquiry in everyone he talked to, in order to realize their own ignorance. Socrates is then responsible, in my opinion, for bringing philosophy to the doorstep of those who wouldn’t have thought of it without his innocent questioning. Plato brought this impulse further through his writings.

Kemet, Hermes, Thot, Thoughts

Socrates is said to have traveled to Egypt (or Kemet), which is where he received an initiation into the Greater Mysteries, like Pythagoras and Thales before him. Those teaching all originate from one mystical, mythical, historical figure. We can call it an archetype since it has taken many shapes and form throughout the ages. He is now called “Hermes Trismegistus”, meaning the Thrice Great, and is linked to the god Thoth in Ancient Egypt. The tradition around the prisca theologia revolves around this figure, as according to the tradition it is Hermes or Thot that formulated this antique wisdom for the first time, allowing all human cultures through dissemination backed up by secret initiation cults to be filled with the knowledge of the universe throughout the ages.

It is a fun fact (if one’s humor is sensible to playing with etymology between civilizations and ages, using the “language of the birds”, dear to the Renaissance’s Alchemists) that Plato dealt with Thoughts as the primary essence of the visible world, which is only a reflection, a shadow of the worlds of Ideas.

Thot is associated with Hermes in Greek mythology and Mercury in Roman mythology, which are both “messengers of the gods”.

Isn’t the realm of Thoughts what link us all to the non-material world, the world of Ideas which structure the material world we dwell in, and what enables us to deal with mathematics as well as everything linked to virtue, beauty, harmony, theology? Thus, Thoughts, or Thot, or Hermes, or Mercury, can be understood as being the “messengers of the gods”, the link between the human mind and the world of ideas of Plato. The link to the “gods” is within the mind of man, it is his inner talk and imaginative power, his thoughts. Neville Goddard, a famous modern metaphysicist and mystic, coins the concept as such: “The mouth of god is the mind of man”

The most ancient and ever present teachers of humanity are thus made known through a play on words, analogies and symbolism. This is how knowledge can be derived “hermetically”, following the teachings of the prisca theologia that was linked to the renaissance’s alchemists who used the language of the birds.

Conclusion, broadening

What I have tried to picture in this short text is the never-ending thread of the Perennial Philosophy. Dating back to ancient Egypt that was passed down in ancient and classical Greece through philosophers and their endeavor to discover, develop and protect the sacred mysteries of the Egyptians, and translate them into “right ways of being”. Using this knowledge for practical use. At first only through the oral discourse, as well as allegories and mythology, and then by writings with Plato, being in my opinion the first Initiate in Greece to spread those teachings and let those with “ears to hear and eyes to see” (a famous quote from initiates) have a glimpse of esoteric knowledge through his writings. The best example of this is the Allegory of the Cave, which, depending on the depth of anyone’s knowledge, and as any story or object, can be understood through ever deepening layers.

This deepening of life’s understanding might be made possible by remembering our ‘Divine essence’ and penetrating our ‘Titan core’, infusing it with the depth and harmony of the divine essence. The process of Initiation sought in the schools can be likened to a second birth, occurring within one’s own psyche (ψυχή, soul). The greek word metanoia (μετάνοια, of Mind, a change in the trend and action of the whole inner nature, intellectual, affectional and moral. Treadwell Walden 1881). By analogy, we can view it as the same process that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. It is linked to the making of the Alchemist’s Philosopher Stone (the inner one), as well as the Individuation Process described by Carl Gustav Jung. The latter has made a great stand on the importance of understanding archetypes, intuition, symbolism, the psyche as the basis for all fields of knowledge.

The prisca theologia itself is symbolic, subtle, archetypal, but also philosophical, historical and very practical. The use of analogies to derive understanding is a common practice of hermeticism. The understanding of man’s purpose and inner composition is still an ever burning question for our societies. It would be wise from our modern wise to look upon those mythologies with great understanding, without dismissing them as pure historical information, but grasping the symbolic and archetypal essence of the teachings in the light of our modern day consciousness.

[From here on, I’ve extended the spectrum of what I talk about in order to correlate this previous work with my personal convictions]

The thread from Orphism was linked to the Egyptian civilization, whose esoteric knowledge infused the works of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and many others, whom we still study today as great minds. It can also be found in Gnosticism and early Christianity, as well as in middle east civilizations which translated the Greek writings. The thread seems to have then been vivified by the renaissance’s alchemists, scientists and philosophers. Pouring into the beginning of the new age spirituality and Theosophy in the end of the 19^th century. And we can follow it up to now in the rise of the study of psychedelics, cognitive sciences, quantum physics, and the discreet but powerful thread of new age spirituality growing in the mainstream culture through the internet.

This Perennial Philosophy will continue to influence and be rediscovered by mankind forever, as it lies in the depth of our psyches. In my opinion, this is why esoteric or occult knowledge carry that name. The fact that it is indeed occult in the external world is just a reflection of the fact that it is hidden within the mind. Every culture has pondered upon the same subjects, although in a different fashion. It’s obviously the case, since the human mind or his psyche, his soul, is structured in its essence in the same way in any man at any time period.

Flowers all need soil, water and sun to grow. Human beings all have a spirit, a soul and a body, and each part has relevant nutritional needs. We’re just not on point, as a global species, or western society, as to what the correct way of nourishing our spirit, soul or body are, just as we have no idea, as a western civilization, on the importance of breath compared to the eastern tradition. Breath in the material realm is a symbolic manifestation of the dance of the apeiron and peiron, thus it represents existence itself, just like the rise and fall of the shore of the sea, or the water cycle of the earth.

For us, scholars of the western world and mindset, it would be quite a repetition of the past ethnocentrism than to consider that anything distant cultures in space and time have to say about the mind, or the very specific working of those minds which are different from our own (because language and culture structure the minds), is “rubbish” or need not be studied. Or worse, to deem it interesting but to study it in a very narrow minded perspective.

This kind of scientific dogmatism has produced one of the greatest act of obscurantism in the 20^th century in my opinion, with the global banishment of psychedelics from the scientific realm. Becoming a social taboo, these substances were left unresearched for decades, whereas they might be keys to unlock deep understanding in many fields, and especially in cognitive sciences. The same can be said, for example, about the said “junk DNA” that is now at the center of the new epigenetic paradigm in biology. In my opinion, the prisca theologia and esoterism in general is the “junk dna” of all fields of human knowledge. It’s perfectly normal, since it is hidden in plain sight.

The structural subordination to the neo-liberalism madness of the academic and scientific social fields (P. Bourdieu) through the political field makes it difficult for scholars’ endeavors to step out of servitude to the economic system, and reignite culture with true inspirations of humanism. The structural biases of the fields put a great hold on the true quest for knowledge, for they limit the spectrum of productivity to endeavors that serve agendas that are polar opposites to the pure deontology of the greatest minds like Hippocrates. But in my opinion, and in regards to many ideologies throughout the ages, truth and understanding will prevail against falsehood and separation.

cisuM doG

Stephen J. Rivele speaks about music…

“Vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man’s soul. Music is the language of God.  We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That’s what musicians are.”

We must all find the silence in ourselves so that we can hear the music of God. When that silence envelopes you then your soul can sing

The Mouth of God is in the Mind of Man.

Riding polarity

« Courage may be transmuted into Fear, and the reverse. Hard things may be rendered Soft. Dull things become Sharp. Hot things become Cold.

And so on, the transmutation always being between things of the same kind of different degrees. Take the case of a Fearful man. By raising his mental vibrations along the line of Fear-Courage, he can be filled with the highest degree of Courage and Fearlessness.

And, likewise, the Slothful man may change himself into an Active, Energetic individual, simply by polarizing along the lines of the desired quality »

• The Kybalion