endymions_bower | Essays on a Polytheistic Philosophy of Religion

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endymions_bower

I have a book available:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/edward-butler/essays-on-a-polytheistic-philosophy-of-religion/paperback/product-20092701.html

This book includes the two articles I published in The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, "The Theological Interpretation of Myth" and "Polycentric Polytheism and the Philosophy of Religion", as well as two previously unpublished essays, "Neoplatonism and Polytheism", which is the text of a talk I gave at the American Academy of Religion conference in 2005, and "A Theological Exegesis of the Iliad, Book One".

My contributor's agreement with The Pomegranate prevents me from making this available as an ebook, unfortunately; so it is only available in print.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

setjataset.livejournal.com

Oh wow I have to have this!

From: (Anonymous)

I did read this prior to 'fasting' but did not really absorb properly; I'm going to read it again in a couple of weeks. I'd like to review it sometime too but will have to master more of the general approach first I think.

I do have a couple more quick questions for you, somewhat triggered by the book, if it's not a bother... if it is, feel free to say!

From:

lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com

Sure, fire away.

From: (Anonymous)

Thanks,

A while back I came across this:

http://paganmonist.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/monism-is-not-monotheism.html

My question is, how far would you see his experience as in line with the Henadic Manifold idea?

No need to read the whole thing if uninterested -- if you scroll down to the illustration the experience description is there. The earlier stuff is setup about how he sees his particular 'manifold oneness' vis-a-vis other approaches.

Particularly interesting from the Proclus pov perhaps is: "I was self-aware in a multitude of centers and there was no separation between me and anything else." That 1st "and" seems to imply some kind of henadism.

Not asking you to judge/parse the guy's experience of course! Just, if you experienced the henadic manifold might you write this?

From:

lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com

My first reaction is that I am, unlike the author, completely comfortable with "hard polytheism". The whole point of henology is that the individuality of things is real. Platonic henology is not about the experience of everything being a single substance or about everything being numerically one thing. It is about unity being the most basic property of things, but this just means it's individuals all the way down. Individuals come in many different kinds, of course, and for each of these kinds there is a potential experience of the unity or solidarity of that kind; hence there is even a potential experience of the unity of all beings qua beings. But the One precisely can't be this sort of unity, because if each thing isn't one thing then the One isn't doing its job, is it? As for this person's mystical experience, mysticism bores me. When they say "self-aware in a multitude of centers," I am incapable of seeing in this any sort of interesting insight; it just sounds like narcissism.

Edited Date: 2012-06-02 08:35 pm (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

Oh, ok! You would not call the experiences of Plotinus as mentioned by Porphyry "mysticism" then, presumably?

Moving on -- in many wisdom traditions there is some transformation of physical bodies as a result of meditation or contemplation and I wondered if there are any sources in platonism (or other Greek sources) reporting that? For example, that the philosopher seems to become luminous or radiates a sweet smell, that their saliva turns sweet (two common ones seen in Taoism, Jainism and Kabbalism) or any other positive bodily transformations?

I expected to find something like that in hagiography like Eunapius but I don't remember anything, does anything spring to mind? Thanks!

From:

lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com

The kind of thing Porphyry describes probably would count as "mysticism", but notice that Plotinus didn't choose to write about this himself. So this is a third-person characterization of Plotinus's experience which we have no idea whether Plotinus would have endorsed. But even if he would have, experiences are just events in the lives of souls, they belong to psychology.

As for corporeal transmutations of the sort you describe, it's really not my field, and I'm afraid I'm drawing a blank.

From: (Anonymous)

Not to worry, I realise this isn't your thing at all but you obviously know the literature backwards so I though I'd ask.

Many thanks for detailing your perspective! JW

From:

lemon-cupcake.livejournal.com

If that sort of corporeal transmutation were to be described anywhere in the Platonic tradition, I would look for it in Iamblichus' De mysteriis. For the Hellenic tradition more generally, I would have a look at Georg Luck's Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts (2d ed., 2006), with the understanding that subjective transformations are sometimes described in objectifying terms, and the fruits of meditation sometimes obtained through ritual.