Ancient Verses; The Philosophy of the Neo-Platonists

The last time I covered the occult, I talked about why the Hermetic books are magical and not philosophical, namely because it takes the mind to be the fundamental aspect of reality, and thus works from the least obvious modes of causation by gods, spirits and human minds down to the most obvious material interactions, positing that they come last of all in value. In a funny way this makes sense for a mystic, since indeed physical interactions are of no real immediate concern when searching for higher knowledge. The late antique Platonists, known in modern times as Neo-Platonists added to Hermeticism the rigour of Greek philosophy and brought with them distinctly Greek ideas, which they comingled with the Hermetic ideas to bring about a synthesis of mystical thought with very Greek attitudes, which rivalled and influenced Christianity as it arose as a force in the world. In fact Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism very much rubbed shoulders as both can be traced back to the city of Alexandria on the Egyptian coast.

 

**Hypatia of Alexandria was a well known Neo-Platonist and one of antiquity's rare intellectual women**

 

The reason Platonism birthed such a complex spirituality can be traced back to Plato himself, who was seen in his own time and context as not only a philosopher but also  a spiritual teacher who had hidden doctrines, and ties to the Eleusinian mysteries which honoured the Goddesses Persephone and Demeter outside of Athens. Plato’s followers over the course of centuries were as metaphysically inclined as they were worldly. The metaphysical strains of Platonism can be said to have reached their culmination in Plotinus, the originator, along with his teacher Ammonius Saccas, of what has come to be known as the Neo-Platonic school. Plotinus’ core mystical thesis is perhaps the most rigorous metaphysical treatment of any philosopher, changing the landscape of the spirit forever, even though his idealist philosophical theories are hardly known and appear utterly unreasonable from a modern perspective of what constitutes the proper skeptical limits of philosophy.

 

**Plotinus in Raphael's The School of Athens**

 

The Neo-Platonists under the philosopher Plotinus and his followers use a concept, strange to modern ears, to understand how the universe was set out. They said that the universe was composed of emanations from the One, a theory known as emanationism. The best way to think of the emanations from the Godhead is to think of a lit candle in a dark room. The flame is the One, the halo around the flame represents the highest metaphysical realms while the area at the very edge of the darkness, where the shadows creep around the light is where the material realm becomes manifest. Material is thus not much more real in the grand scheme than shadows. This cleverly does away with the problem of evil by suggesting that we inhabit a place of interplay between dark and light necessarily and not because of any fault on the part of the One.

 

**Plotinus' cosmology is confusing and metaphysical, but not superstitious**

 

Now this is a true philosophy, applying to itself a rigour unlike the Hermetic discourses has implications for Hermeticism as well. For instance in the axiom as above so below, as below so above, in Plotinus’ worldview above and below is a false dichotomy; there is only the view from above and the view from below. Ultimately it’s all the same non-material substance organized in a hierarchy based on how close it is to the One, with material reality as an insubstantial shell or veil around higher realms, a shadowy by-product of transcendent beauty. In short, the world of material interaction and disunity seems real, but Plotinus believes that this is a fault of perception rooted in a material body. One can then start to question the reality of material objects from an epistemological perspective. Since the body is a material object as well, it makes little sense to say that matter is the fundamental part of reality on the authority of your sense perceptions. The material world is thus very much like the Matrix; so real to the things in it that another reality is almost impossible to imagine, even though it is ultimately unreal.

 

**Spirituality, the original red pill according to Plotinus**

 

Spiritual attainment is characterized by the realization of this fault in material reality for oneself through the process of henosis best described as becoming One. In the process, one becomes disentangled from material reality and is able to leave behind a material conception of the universe.  This view itself has been hugely influential through the centuries and regularly appears in variously modified forms in occult treatments as well as being a widely accepted formulation of the goal of spiritual attainment. While this might seem like it has nothing to do with magic, the achievement of henosis results in the ability to theoretically exploit higher knowledge on the material plane, which is ultimately the signature of a sage as opposed to a philosopher. Thus magic is not based so much on the affinity of the mind and the One like the Hermetic view, but rather magic is an appearance rooted in ignorance, a misunderstanding of reality as such. One person’s spiritual attainment is another person’s magic, is the general sentiment. Later Neo-Platonists would delve, perhaps ill advisedly, into occult disciplines such as astrology, theurgy and divination to greater or lesser degrees in their personal pursuit of higher knowledge, and even as their school of thought and greatest exponents would suffer persecutions at the hands of organized Christianity, Neo-Platonism unseen, seized her persecutors influencing everything from doctrines on miracles and transubstantiation to views of witches and the occult. Neo-Platonism, by this accident of history, was discarded along with its unique views of the cosmos and continue to languish after scientific materialism made Plotinus’ metaphysical refinements moot.