Neoplatonism

Neoplatonists would have called themselves Platonists, following as they did the teachings of Plato. Helena Blavatsky would have called Neoplatonists Theosophists. From The Keys to Theosophy she states: “The name Theosophy dates from the third century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples who started the Eclectic Theosophical system.” “They (Neoplatonists) were the Theosophists of early centuries."

Neoplatonists felt themselves to be interpreting Plato, not altering his teachings. However during the 19th Century, historians and philosophers decided that the beliefs of this group differed sufficiently from Plato’s original ideas to require the prefix “neo,” meaning “new”, to the root word. This school of thought began in the third century AD in Alexandria by followers of Ammonius Saccas. Ammonius was born to devout Christian parents and he was officially educated at Christian schools but he rejected the exclusive narrowness of his parents Christianity, claiming that he was “god-taught.” He took a far more expanded view of religious philosophy than any one religion could offer.

Saccas believed that knowledge consisted of three grades, ascending from mere opinion derived from sense perception, to science gained through dialectic, to illumination gained from direct spiritual intuition. This essentially is the same as Plato’s three grades of knowledge outlined in the Republic. HP Blavatsky suggests that Ammonius’ endorsement of solitary prayer or meditation to achieve enlightenment is found in Plato’s belief that direct realization of the Form of the Good occurred when one remained “silent in the presence of the divine ones.”

Neoplatonists addressed subjects that Plato did not explore and tried to do so as Plato would have. Such subjects as evil, memory and the new rage in the third century - Christianity. The goal was to separate Plato, the man, from Platonism, his philosophy.

Ammonius Saccas left no written works, so his student, Plotinus, who compiled Saccas’s teachings in the Enneads, is actually credited with the founding this philosophy but through Plotinus and other famous students of Saccas, such as Clement, Origen, Porphyry, Longinus, Iamblicus and, of course HPB, we have learned about the school of Neoplatonism and its founder’s intent.

The School

Saccas founded his school in 194 AD in Alexandria, which was at the time the place for intellectual endeavor attracting scholars from all over the world. They came not only to the great library but also because there a great enthusiasm for ancient Greek wisdom, Pythagoras and Plato, in particular. In fact, with this emphasis on Platonic study in Alexandria at the time, some present philosophers are finding indications in the old literature of an "unwritten philosophy" that Plato shared with a few select students and a recognition of the role played by the Mystery Schools in the past eras of Grecian culture.

The existence of an inner and outer circle of students seems to be the norm in the Mystery Schools. Saccas’ school also had a division; there was the exoteric and esoteric. Students were further divided into classes - the neophytes, initiates and masters. The rules of the school were copied from those used in the Mysteries of Orpheus. "What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoras learned when he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries, and Plato next received a perfect knowledge of them from Orphic and Pythagorean writings."

In the Orpheus tradition the manifested world is inseparable from divine essence, having emanated from it and will eventually return to that divine essence. Of course, many reincarnations and transmigrations are necessary for purification before this return can happen. There are three distinct characteristics of the Orpheus system. First is the idea of a supreme essence. Second is the idea of a human soul which was emanated from that divine essence. Third is the practice of Theurgy, the art of using the divine powers of man to direct the forces of nature.

One of the primary goals of Ammonius Saccas and his school was unity. He wanted to reconcile all religious sects, all peoples and all nations under one common faith, to form a Universal Brotherhood in the hopes of ending violence by uniting all with a common theology. To do this he needed to show that there was one source from which all religions came. With his students he explored the School the Vedantic thought, Zoroastrianism, the Jewish Kabala, Buddhism, ancient Egypt and compared them with the philosophies of Plato and Pythagoras. He wanted to show that there was a prisca theologia and all the various differences were simply variations on the same theme.

Beliefs

Unity. All faiths have a common binding origin. Neoplatonism calls for recognition of that basis and an understanding of our brotherhood with all mankind.

In a quote by Madame Blavatsky from The Keys to Theosophy she states that Ammonius Saccas had asserted that the ideas from his Eclectic Theosophical System “dated from the days of Hermes.” If we follow these teachings back to Hermeticism, Saccas studied Plato, Plato studied Pythagoras, Pythagoras studied in Egypt, Egypt was settled by the survivors of Atlantis, and Atlantis was settled by the survivors of Lemuria where Hermes was known to be a King-Instructors. See Hermeticism.

In Hermeticism Nous is the name of the One, the Source. In Hermeticism Source created Nous II who created the earth. This first emanation, Nous II, or intellect, relates to the Forms in Plato's philosophy.

Neoplatonists believed in one Supreme Eternal Unknown and Unnamed Power which governs the universe by immutable and eternal laws. They also believed in a hierarchy of mortal and immortal beings, emanations from the One, both physical and non-physical associated with earth and its development. Sometimes called intermediate gods, angels, devas or demons, Iamblichus is noted for adding hundreds to the list. An interesting note here about Iamblichus, according to H. P. Blavatsky he believed in and practiced “ceremonial magic and practical theurgy” which the other neo-Platonists felt was “dangerous.” Hypatia of Alexandria, whom we will discuss later, was also noted for her skill at theurgy.

Metempsychosis or reincarnation is believed to have first appeared in the Orphic Religion in Thrace some time before the fifth century BC. Orpheus, the founder, was believed to be a poet. His philosophy taught that the body and soul are united in a sort of contract. The immortal soul longs for freedom while the body holds it as a sort of prisoner. Upon death the contract is temporarily void. The soul is free for a while until the next round of incarnation. The round of freedom and incarnation is inexorable without the grace of redeeming gods. The gods calls them to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer their lives the higher their next incarnation will be, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live forever as God from whom it came to begin with. Dionysus, in particular, is to be sought in this intervention of reincarnation.

Why Dionysus? In mythology, Dionysus, aka, Bacchus, is the son of Zeus in one of his incarnations. (Interesting that gods reincarnate too.) He is killed by the Titans and eaten by them, all but his heart which Athena manages to save. Athena tells Zeus of the crime by the Titans. Zeus hurls a thunderbolt at the Titans and from the resulting soot, sinful man (represented by the Titans) and divine soul (represented by Dionysus) are born. So sinful body will return time and time again with divine soul in bondage. Such are the teaching of Orpheus which found their way into Neoplatonism.

We learned that reincarnation was necessary for the soul to purify itself in order to reunite with the One. What made the soul impure to begin with unless simply the descent into matter caused this? In Hermeticism matter, or Nature, is not impure but a beautiful environment to be enjoyed and appreciated. According to Plotinus, matter is to be identified with evil. “Matter is what accounts for the diminished reality of the sensible world, for all natural things are composed of forms in matter. The fact that matter is in principle deprived of all intelligibility and is still ultimately dependent on the One is an important clue as to how the causality of the latter operates. If matter or evil is ultimately caused by the One, then is not the One, as the Good, the cause of evil? In one sense, the answer is definitely yes. As Plotinus reasons, if anything besides the One is going to exist, then there must be a conclusion of the process of production from the One. The beginning of evil is the act of separation from the One by Intellect, an act which the One itself ultimately causes. The end of the process of production from the One defines a limit, like the end of a river going out from its sources. Beyond the limit is matter or evil.”

If we can replace “intelligibility” with “consciousness” modern scientists, as well as, Rudolf Steiner would take exception to the statement “matter is in principle deprived of all intelligibility.” Matter, all matter, has some form of consciousness. A modern physicist would propose that any object is held together by a sort of consciousness, an intelligence of the very subatomic particles that “chose” to remain in an organized form to make a solid object. Spinning protons and neutrons somehow remain in place instead of spinning off into the cosmos. Steiner says that rocks, plants, animals, all have a form of consciousness. We may not be familiar with its form of consciousness but at one point in our development as a species we did experience these lower forms of consciousness which with sensitivity can be communicated with and understood.

The Neoplatonists seem to be saying that matter is evil because it gets in the way of the human being making their return to the One. This is simply a matter of choice. It does not have to be an impediment to progress. On the subject of evil we end with the Neoplatonic view that evil is the absence of light, or intelligence but not an entity unto itself. There is no personification of evil in a Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, Beelzebub or Prince of Darkness causing havoc with innocent souls, instead, the innocent souls lack the light of intelligence to prioritize the goal of purification and return to One.

Plotinus and Origen believed the descent of the soul into the material was a necessary event to unfold the divine Intellect, or God. The descent itself is not an evil, for it is a reflection of God's essence but both Origen and Plotinus place the blame for experiencing this descent as an evil squarely upon the individual soul. They believed rational soul will naturally choose the Good, the God, the One, and that any failure to do so is the result of forgetfulness or ignorance. So we have free will to choose the One or be caught up in the material world. Evil is thus the absence of light or knowledge.

Reincarnation is necessitated by karma. What you sow you shall reap in one life or the next. There is a curious balance of energy that seems to be required before one can be purified and move on.

Theurgy, the art of using the divine powers of man to rule the blind forces of nature was an accepted belief of Neoplatonists. As mentioned earlier Iamblichus was a famous practitioner of Theurgy. He believed that the soul, once descended into Nature, was so enamored by it that it became blind to the higher aspects of spiritual life. He thought the spell of matter needed to be broken by physical ritual which involved some carefully chosen items called sunthemata, “items that had the property of revealing and communicating some aspect of the divine, and could be physical objects (stones, plants, animals), perfumes, music, actions, songs or poetry. A ritual immersion in sunthemata had the effect, like a magnifying glass, of concentrating a divine aspect on the soul and awakening the corresponding aspect in the soul. Ritual was a natural adjunct to the worldview of Iamblichus: philosophy prepared the mind, and ritual awakened the interior eye of the soul to the natural orders of the Kosmos. In time the soul itself became sunthemata, a conscious channel for the divine influx capable of demiurgic action and co-creation.”

There were many diverse schools of thought at this time but because of opposition from the burgeoning numbers of Christians in particular, Neoplatonists decided to move their school to Athens.

Online resources

Articles

• The Eclectic Philosophy by Alexander Wilder

Audio

• Neoplatonism and the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky Anton Lysy

Video

• Turning-Points for the West: From Pythagoras and Plato through Gnosticism and Neoplatonism (3 Parts) by Stephan Hoeller and Tony Lysy