Thanks for this. It just so happens I'm reading Ioan P. Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. He writes quite a bit about Ficino so far – I'm only just finishing chapter 2. He says Ficino was afflicted with what was called black bile, melancholy, and his pneuma was transparent, like Kierkegaard, which allows the soul to "cast a glance into the eternal archetype of time" and obtain knowledge beyond sensory perception. And that Ficino anticipates Pascal and Heidegger.
"We’ve seen Plato’s attraction to idealistic assassins and intellectual utopians, but Plato also draws those who prefer silence and secrecy. This strand of his influence runs underground, through brotherhoods and initiates and doctrines held in reserve, some of which surely history has never come to know."
Guessing these would have to be replacements for the loss of the Oracle in Christendom. Also guessing none of these later initiatory orders had a place for women - which is bad news if women are fundamentally better at oracling. Maybe you could count Blavatsky and Alice Bailey and similar characters as oracles channeling transdimensional Tibetans - a culture as close to having philosopher kings as you will find. How those tie in with Aryosophy - I never read those books.
But as for the loss of the Oracle, I think it's a symptom of the Church being, basically, gay.
I don't see why I should listen to conservative Catholics banging on about the sins of gayness when their whole worldview is the fiction of a gay guild.
"northern Europe was being utterly transformed in the bubbling, boiling tempest that was Protestant utopianism, and this drew on more than ancient Greece. Anabaptists, Zwickau prophets, Batenburgers, millenarian preachers and spontaneous communes, Hutterites, Dissenters and Diggers. Much of this was popular Biblical primitivism in nature" - Norman Cohn's Pursuit of the Millennium is a great read. The Adamites are entertainment gold.
"The first to try this was Plotinus, the great mystic of the third century, whose entire philosophy pointed away from politics toward the soul’s ascent to the One." - and had the common sense not to aggravate the authorities, unlike Jesus.
"The best known of these killers was perhaps Brutus. Although popularly associated with Stoicism, his real allegiance was to the Academy. He studied under Antiochus of Ascalon, who had made it his life’s work to revive Plato’s original teachings. Plutarch says Brutus championed the Academy above the other philosophical schools."
Heh, didn't tell us that when we did O-level Eng Lit. Thought he was just another Roman officer.
For my money the reality of Plato's metaphysics isn't anywhere near lofty academia or elite politics, it's in any pleb who has NDE or drops acid. Did Strauss have any mystical experiences, trips to the world of all knowledge etc etc? I haven't heard of it. The very last people to understand Plato are Machiavellian schemers hunched behind desks in universities. If anyone does know if Strauss merged with The One, or tripped out to the dimension of all knowledge - do let us know. If he thought none of that was real - more fool him. If he wanted to explore the other realms - quick phone call to Tim Leary would have served him better than some wank-off meeting about conservative politics.
A Platonist government is currently closing the Strait of Hormuz
Message received stand back and standing by.
Very interesting, thanks. Glad you're still around online.
Magnificent article. I look forward to the next one!
Thanks for this. It just so happens I'm reading Ioan P. Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. He writes quite a bit about Ficino so far – I'm only just finishing chapter 2. He says Ficino was afflicted with what was called black bile, melancholy, and his pneuma was transparent, like Kierkegaard, which allows the soul to "cast a glance into the eternal archetype of time" and obtain knowledge beyond sensory perception. And that Ficino anticipates Pascal and Heidegger.
"We’ve seen Plato’s attraction to idealistic assassins and intellectual utopians, but Plato also draws those who prefer silence and secrecy. This strand of his influence runs underground, through brotherhoods and initiates and doctrines held in reserve, some of which surely history has never come to know."
Guessing these would have to be replacements for the loss of the Oracle in Christendom. Also guessing none of these later initiatory orders had a place for women - which is bad news if women are fundamentally better at oracling. Maybe you could count Blavatsky and Alice Bailey and similar characters as oracles channeling transdimensional Tibetans - a culture as close to having philosopher kings as you will find. How those tie in with Aryosophy - I never read those books.
But as for the loss of the Oracle, I think it's a symptom of the Church being, basically, gay.
I don't see why I should listen to conservative Catholics banging on about the sins of gayness when their whole worldview is the fiction of a gay guild.
All reminds me of Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus books.
"northern Europe was being utterly transformed in the bubbling, boiling tempest that was Protestant utopianism, and this drew on more than ancient Greece. Anabaptists, Zwickau prophets, Batenburgers, millenarian preachers and spontaneous communes, Hutterites, Dissenters and Diggers. Much of this was popular Biblical primitivism in nature" - Norman Cohn's Pursuit of the Millennium is a great read. The Adamites are entertainment gold.
"The first to try this was Plotinus, the great mystic of the third century, whose entire philosophy pointed away from politics toward the soul’s ascent to the One." - and had the common sense not to aggravate the authorities, unlike Jesus.
"The best known of these killers was perhaps Brutus. Although popularly associated with Stoicism, his real allegiance was to the Academy. He studied under Antiochus of Ascalon, who had made it his life’s work to revive Plato’s original teachings. Plutarch says Brutus championed the Academy above the other philosophical schools."
Heh, didn't tell us that when we did O-level Eng Lit. Thought he was just another Roman officer.
For my money the reality of Plato's metaphysics isn't anywhere near lofty academia or elite politics, it's in any pleb who has NDE or drops acid. Did Strauss have any mystical experiences, trips to the world of all knowledge etc etc? I haven't heard of it. The very last people to understand Plato are Machiavellian schemers hunched behind desks in universities. If anyone does know if Strauss merged with The One, or tripped out to the dimension of all knowledge - do let us know. If he thought none of that was real - more fool him. If he wanted to explore the other realms - quick phone call to Tim Leary would have served him better than some wank-off meeting about conservative politics.
Thinking of The Conformist.