If you've been keeping up with my monthly updates, you may recall that I mentioned switching to the Calm meditation app from Headspace in part because the mini-dharma talks are at the end of the meditation time instead of at the beginning. I would get excited by the discourse in Headspace and not be able … Continue reading A Children’s Book with Plotinian Themes, Followed By Book Chatter
Tag: platonism
Remember, Proclus’ Birthday Is On 8 February
Proclus was born in 412 CE on 8 February. We have his birth chart (amazingly), so he's one of the few ancient Platonists whom we can honor on a birthday. I am posting this a few days early so that anyone who might want to honor him has the heads up and can think about … Continue reading Remember, Proclus’ Birthday Is On 8 February
Deity-Focused Compassion Meditation
This post begins with Apollon, the Lord of Abiding Compassion. Apollon is the God who harmonizes all things together. He pulls us into unity from division; he gathered, and does gather, and will gather, the parts of Dionysos — for we are cut apart much as he was by our interactions with the world — … Continue reading Deity-Focused Compassion Meditation
Matter Is Not Evil
From Proclus, On Evils, §31.5-14, trans. Opsomer and Steel, with images. If matter is evil, we must choose between two alternatives: either to make the Good the cause of evil or to posit two principles of beings. For, indeed, everything that exists in any way whatever must either be a principle of complete beings or … Continue reading Matter Is Not Evil
Seira Org Charts
As a follow-up to my most recent post on the divine series, I would like to share some Google Draw diagrams that I've made to use when explaining these things. I'm adding two quotations for reference to this post, but I think it's a good idea to look at them while reading another thing I've … Continue reading Seira Org Charts
On being in a God’s series
I have written at length about seira, both on this blog and in The Soul's Inner Statues. One thing I've reflected on over the past few days — seeded by interactions in a variety of places since July or so — is just how grounded and level-headed the conversation about individual people being in a God's … Continue reading On being in a God’s series
Three Thoughtworms
There are many quotations rolling around in my mind all of the time. I read a lot. Because it is (a) November and we are entering the holiday shopping season and (b) I am watching the Twitter headlines with horrified fascination, I would like to present the following three quotations. It is a sacrilege not … Continue reading Three Thoughtworms
Athene, Dancing
In the Philosophical History, Damascius writes that he saw an agalma of Aphrodite in armor and that the image struck him. I had a similar, much less intense experience recently when I came across this secular-function image of Athene, La Danse Triomphale, created in 1925 by Carlo Sarrabezolles. The plaque on the image's base reads, … Continue reading Athene, Dancing
Apollon, Abiding
As night deepens her caresses, as the sun inflectssouthward, each decline of lightbrings with it sudden shock, a yearningfor illumination now sunk beneath the western rocks.In the inky sweetness of fast-descending night,I am torn in two, hungering for summerwhile yearning for the lightlessness to yawn deeperbecause within myself I feel the stir of light.Somehow a … Continue reading Apollon, Abiding
KALLISTI 