2. Roots

2.1. Orphism

See Chaos, Gaia, Eros: Ch. 9.

2.2. The long line of Platonism

  • 2.2.1. ANCIENT EGYPT
    • Ua
    See [Charles Finch, preprint]
    Amenhotep IV - Akhnaton, 1387 - 1366 BC
    Twenty-one years of monotheism. Following the priesthood of Heliopolis, Amenhotep IV worshipped three sun-gods:
    Re-Harakhti
    The falcon-headed Horus of the Horizon.
    Aton,
    The physical sun itself.
    Shu
    A third sun-god, deposed Amun, the king of gods of Thebes. [Steindorff, Ch. 14] He ordained the worship of Aton before all other gods, and built a precinct for Aton, called Akhetaton or Amarna, midway between Thebes and Memphis.
  • 2.2.2. ANCIENT GREECE
    • Early antiquity
    Orphism (ca 800 BC)
    The Orphics brought the doctrine of the immortal soul to Greece from the East. [Grube, p. 121]
    Pythagoras (ca 550 BC)
    Inspired by his long stay in Egypt and by the orphics, Pythagoras introduced a mathematical religion combining the metempsychosis of the immortal soul, the primacy of the One, and an arithmetic cosmology.
    Parmenides (ca 475 BC)
    Parmenides asserted the existence of the One, eternal and immovable, as the basis of the material world.
    Empedocles
    Platonists
    Plato, 428-347 BC.
    After the death of Socrates, Plato wrote the early (Socratic) dialogues in two groups (8+6=14, including Republic I). Following his first trip to Sicily (387 BC) and his meeting with Pythagoreans, especially Archytas of Tarentum, he founded the Academy, and wrote the 8 middle dialogues (including Republic II-X). Following his second trip to Sicily (367-365 BC) he wrote the 6 late dialogues. The theory of ideas and forms occurs in the middle dialogues, especially Phaedo, Symposium, Republic II-X, Phaedrus, and Parmenides. The Good, a special form, appears in the Republic. In Parmenides Plato says that the One is not in time and has no share of time. [Kraut, p. 39] The cosmology, the World Soul, and the Demiurge, are presented especially in Timeaus, the first of the late dialogues. [Kraut, p. xii] In Timeaus Plato says that forms are eternal, that time is a moving image of eternity. [Kraut, p. 39] In the Timeaus, we find the tripartition: ideas, world-soul, and sensibles. [Merlan, p. 221] The soul includes the world-soul, and individual souls, both incarnate, as human souls or minds, and discarnate, as daemons. Daemons carry messages between gods and humans. [Louth, p. 34]
    Old Academy
    Speusippus
    Xenocrates
    Speussippus and Xenocrates identified the soul with mathematicals. [Merlan, p. 222] Xenocrates trinity: Zeus (number), monad, dyad. Also, One-number-soul, dyad-intelligibles, existence-sensibles. Daemons (both good and evil) are sub-lunar. [Dillon]
    Aristotle
    Posidonius
    The division of being into three spheres (ideas, mathematicals, and physicals) was reported by Aristotle as Platonic. Posidonius equated this with the tripartition of Aristotle: ideas, mathematicals, physicals. Hence the equation: world-soul = mathematicals. [Merlan, p. 221] Middle Platonists
    Philo, Alexandria, 20 BC - AD 40.
    Philo Judeaus worked at the harmonization of Platonic and Hebraic philosophy. Among other things, he identified the angels of Moses with the daemons of Plato. [Edwards, v.6, p. 152]
    Numenius
    Neoplatonists

    Here is a definition of Neoplatonism, abstracted from [Merlan, p. 1].

    • 1. Hierarchy of spheres of being, ending with ordinary reality (being in space-time).
    • 2. The series is a causal chain.
    • 3. Series begins with a principle which is the source of all being.
    • 4. The supreme principle, the One, is beyond being, is unique, and utterly simple.
    • 5. Each successive sphere is more complex, and more deterministic.
    • 6. The knowledge of the One is above predicative knowledge.

    And here are the neoplatonists:

    Ammonius Saccas (Alexandria, 175-250 AD)
    Origen (Alexandria, Christian, 185-254)
    Plotinus (Rome, 205-270)
    Porphyry (Rome, 232-304)
    Iamblichus (Syria, 250-326)
    Proclus (Athens, 409-487)
    In Iamblichus and Proclus, the tripartition (ideas, mathematicals, physicals) was reiterated, together with the equation, soul = mathematicals. [Merlan, p. 221] Perfection of Plotinus, triads within triads. [Harris, p. 10]
    Denys, the pseudo-Dionysios (Alexandria, ca 500)
    The hidden author of the Corpus Areopagiticum adapted the triads of triads of Proclus to the angels/daemons of the neoplatonic hypostasis of soul and created the hierarchies (he invented the word) of angelic choirs:
    • first rank: seraphim, cherubim, thrones
    • second rank: dominions, powers, authorities
    • third rank: principalities, archangels, angels
    For Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, these choirs of angels would be intelligibles, that is, belonging to the Nous, above the realm of Soul. [Louth, p. 37]
    Marinus (Alexandria, Jewish, c. 500, infl. Kabbalah)
    Marius Victorinus (Rome, Christian, c. 350)
    Hypatia (Alexandria, Pagan, c. 415)
    Stephanus (Alexandria, Christian, to Byzantium c. 600) [Harris, p. 11]
    Byzantine
    Michael Psellus (1018-1079)
    George Gemistos (1360-1450)
    Islamic
    al-Farabi (870-950)
    Avicenna (980-1037)
    Averroes (1126-1198)
    Jewish
    Isaac (850-950)
    Joseph (d. 1149)
    Solomon (1020-1070)
    Abraham (1092-1167)
    Christian
    Augustine (354-430)
    Boethius (470-525)
    Pseudo-Dionysis (c. 500)
    John Eriugena (820-870)
    Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
    Dante
    Meister Eckhart (1260-1327)
    Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)
    Renaissance
    Ficino (1433-1499)
    Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)
    Cambridge
    John Colet (1466-1519)
    Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683)
    John Dee (ca 1600)
    Modern
    Bergson (ca 1900)

    We have followed Deck, Dillon, Edwards, Gregory, Grube, Harris (Long line of platonism given in 20 pages), Kraut, Louth, Merlan, and Steindorff.

    2.3. Neoplatonism

    Here we follow [O'Brien, 1975] and the Foreword by Ian Mueller in [Morrow, 1992]. The influence of Aristotle eventually outstripped that of Plato, but Platonism continued as an underground current, with occasional surges to the surface. One such surge was the Middle Platonism of the Hellenistic period, another was the Neoplatonist movement of Roman times. The most noted Neoplatonists were Plotinus (204-270) and Porphyry (232-304) in Rome, Iamblichus of Chalcis (260-330) in Syria, and Proclus of Xanthus (d. 485) in Athens. The first and most important extant Neoplatonist writings we have are Porphyry's edition of Plotinus' treatises. The key doctrine of Plotinian mysticism, the One, seems to derive from Philo the Jew, who had sought a synthesis of Old Testament and Platonic teachings, via Albinus. The mystical journey, according to Plotinus, is the return to the One. This is the first of three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul.

    2.4. Corpus Hermeticum

    This section is condensed from [Copenhaver, 1992]. The Corpus Hermeticum is a body of writings compiled in the second century CE, probably in Alexandria. It was important in the early Florentine Renaissance, when it was understood to be the ancient work of Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, contemporary of Moses, and the basis of an ancient theology (the prisci theologi) culminating with Plato. This theory was debunked by Isaac Casaubon in 1527. Some idea of the content may be gleaned from the titles.
    • 1. Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus: Poimandres.
    • 2. (untitled)
    • 3. A sacred discourse of Hermes.
    • 4. A discourse of Hermes to Tat: The mixing bowl or the monad.
    • 5. A discourse of Hermes to Tat, his son: That god is invisible and entirely visible.
    • 6. That the good is in god alone and nowhere else.
    • 7. That the greatest evil in mankind is ignorance concerning god.
    • 8. That none of the things that are is destroyed, and they are mistaken who say that changes are deaths and destructions.
    • 9. On understanding and sensation: That the beautiful and good are in god alone and nowhere else.
    • 10. Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus: The key.
    • 11. Mind to Hermes.
    • 12. Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus: On the mind shared in common, to Tat.
    • 13. A secret dialogue of Hermes Trismegistus on the mountain to his son Tat: On being born again, and on the promise to be silent. Singing the secret hymn, Formula IV.
    • 14. From Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius: Health of mind.
    • 15. (missing)
    • 16. Definitions of Asclepius to King Ammon on god, matter, vice, fate, the sun, intellectual essence, divine essence, mankind, the arrangement of the plenitude, the seven stars, and mankind according to the image.
    • 17. (untitled)
    • 18. On the soul hindered by the body's affections. On praise for the almighty and a royal panegyric.
    • Asclepius: To me this Asclepius is like the sun. A Holy Book of Hermes Trismegistus addressed to Asclepius.
    The 17 discourses amount to 66 pages, and the Asclepius 26 pages, in the English version of [Copenhaver, 1992]. Tat is a variant of Thoth.

    2.5. Chaldean Oracles

    The Chaldean Oracles (CO) were written by Julianus the Theurgist around 170 CE, but were long thought to be derived from an original by Zoroaster, based on divine revelation. It is a work of theurgy, that is, ways of calling upon gods (god-working) by means of magical rituals and incantations. Like the Corpus Hermeticum (CH), the CO was a basic text for the Neoplatonists. In about 24 pages in the English translation [Stanley, 1989], a scheme of beings is described, having some similarity to the Hebrew Kabbalah. Further, an analysis of the human soul into three parts is given. Hecate is an important figure in the CO, and the word jinx is introduced.
    Revd by Ralph Herman Abraham on 24 Nov 2000