Know thyself is the maxim that is given to us by the God at Delphi. Plato’s Alcibiades I and the commentary tradition surrounding it establish that the self is the soul, hereafter interchangeably described as the soul or the psūkhe (IPA: /psiˈçi/), which is using the body as an instrument. Plato’s Republic and the Platonic … Continue reading On the soul’s descent; or, a cosmic web of thoughts and ideas, barely arranged
Category: polytheism
Why worship Gods?
And now for the text version, which might be better here — WordPress degraded the image quality of the infographic. Why Worship Gods? Platonists are fond of saying that the world is full of Gods, quoting from a pre-Socratic philosopher named Thales. Platonists like Proclus add that everything prays, each in its own way, just … Continue reading Why worship Gods?
April 2022 Update: Shifting
I started out the month being very tempted to write a post about how my female leadership role model is an orca just so I could have plausible deniability if it went over poorly (April Fool's Day). It has become increasingly clear to me that the city of pigs that Socrates references in the Republic … Continue reading April 2022 Update: Shifting
☀️ For Belesama 🌬
Luminous Belesama, solar-formed, bearing bright nourishment, I pray to you, O Goddess of light and water. Your crown is the gleaming solar corona, …
Gods, Theurgy, Philosophical Schools, and Community
There is a lot of weirdness in contemplation. After I pray to Apollon in the mornings, I simply breathe. If everything inside can be calmed (not halted, but calmed), it is possible to rest in an inner place, where light seems to stream and where I know there is something true waiting to be coaxed … Continue reading Gods, Theurgy, Philosophical Schools, and Community
Platonizing Alan Watts’ “Spectrum of Love”: A Listen-Through
Spotify introduced me to Hælos' Full Circle last year — first, via a song called "Alone," and then a transitional piece called "Intro/Spectrum." Perhaps I had heard the piece before and had just skipped it. I know that it started appearing on playlists in November 2021, when I noticed it for its poignant words — spoken, set to music, from some kind of lecture. This post analyzes that lecture through a mildly Platonizing framework.
March 2022 “We Are Individuals in Communities” Divination
Obligatory context: In 2020, due to feeling a lot of social burnout, pessimism, and pain about our wider polytheistic communities, I started doing a divination reading every three months about Western polytheistic communit[y/ies]. The point of this divination, like most divinations I do, is to highlight growth areas that we may be missing that prevent … Continue reading March 2022 “We Are Individuals in Communities” Divination
Here, Below
Among the milkweed and sedge, horizon line far from our estimation, we lay under the neverday sky, tugged by what were not autumn breezes. What course is best to pour open, we thought — each of us so certain in our answers when we rose to descend — whiplike checks of boxes, dealbreakers. Who is … Continue reading Here, Below
March 2022 Update: Am I Into Block Printing Now?
The more I consider it, the more Marina's "True" has become the anthem of my 30s. I've followed Marina since shortly after she released her first album because one of the polytheistic blogs I followed — a Blogspot one that was one of two sources that persuaded me to buy a Plato Complete Works anthology … Continue reading March 2022 Update: Am I Into Block Printing Now?
KALLISTI 