Some Notes on a Platonic Theology, Part 1: Triads and Trinities

[readoldthings]

The One

 

In Platonic thought, the First Principle is called the One; it is also known as the Good. The One is not one being among many; the One, rather is Being Itself, or that by virtue of which everything anything has existence. In one sense, the One does not even exist-- not because it is nothing, but because it precedes existence and allows for the possibility of existence. In another sense, the One is everything that exists.

Intellect

The Second Principle is Intellect, or, in Greek, "Nous." It is sometimes named "Divine Mind" in English translations of Platonic writing, or "Angelic Mind" in the work of Christian Platonists like Ficino. It is better not to think of it as mind in the ordinary sense. Intellect consists, not of ordinary thoughts, but of Ideas. Note the capital I-- the word in Greek means something like "showings." In the 19th century, it was translated into English as "Form," and that is the word under which most people know it. Intellect consists of the Ideas or Forms, the fundamental patterns which create, shape, and sustain existence at lower levels of reality. It is important to note that Intellect isn't static; the Ideas aren't like blueprints sitting on a table somewhere. They are alive, constantly shaping our experience of reality.

The easiest way to understand the Ideas is to consider mathematical formulae, and, of these, the most traditional is the Pythagorean Theorem:

a²+b²=c²

The Pythagorean Theorem describes the geometry of a perfect right triangle. The trouble is, no perfect right triangle exists in the material world-- every physical triangle is off by at least some tiny fraction of a percent. The perfect right triangle of the Pythagorean Theorem, then, does not have material existence-- but it has a higher existence, which shapes and determines conditions in the material world. And notice: We can understand the perfect right triangle with our minds, even though we can never encounter it with our senses.

Now imagine the Pythagorean Theorem is alive. That's an Idea.

Intellect is not one idea among many, just as the One isn't one being among many; it is Idea Itself, as the One is Being Itself.

Soul

The Third Principle is Soul. In the same way that Intellect isn't what we commonly think of as the thinking mind, the word "soul" also means something a little different from its common English usage. Specifically, it isn't something that you "believe in," and it isn't some kind of weird, invisible bag of gas (perhaps weighing 27 grams?) which floats away from the body at the time of death in order to go live up in space or something. It's easier to understand what it is if you consider that the Greek word for soul is psyche; the definition is roughly the same as psyche. Soul includes all of our thoughts and emotions, our energy, desires, and sense-impressions.

Soul Itself-- you already saw this coming-- is not one individual Soul among many, but that by virtue of which everything which is ensouled has soul.

These three-- the One, Intellect, and Soul are called the Three Primary Hypostases. Hypostasis means a kind of Being or Substance, and so the Three Hypostases are also called the Three Primary Beings.

The Intelligible Triad

Everything which exists can be understood as possessing three basic properties: Existence, Life, and Thought (In Greek: On, Zoe, Nous.) Being is mere existence; Life is activity; Intellect is the capacity for awareness. It's very important to note that the Intelligible Triad is not the same as the Three Primary Hypostases-- rather, each hypostasis possesses Being and Life and Intellect. And so do you! 

Also note that Intellect or Nous, in reference to the Intelligible Triad, is not the same as Intellect or Nous, the hypostasis-- though they mean something similar.

The Three Primary Hypostases, the worlds which they produce, and the lower world of Matter are all arranged hierarchically to one another. The One comes first, and with it, those Beings which are eternally united to the One-- yes, those would be the Gods. Intellect comes next, with its inhabitants, the Ideas. Soul is next, and with it the souls. Matter comes last, and material objects with it; matter is not a Fourth Hypostasis, as it has no causal power. But the terms of the Intelligible Triad are arranged horizontally to one another-- they occur on the same plane, at every level.

Pagan Platonism, Christian Platonism, Platonic Druidry

In the thought of late antiquity, the identities Primary Hypostases were assigned to the classical gods. There are various ways of doing this, depending on who you are reading, and sometimes individual thinkers contradict themselves-- Plotinus usually identifies Intellect as Saturn, but sometimes Intellect is Juno, who he also identifies with Aphrodite. Aphrodite, meanwhile, he elsewhere identifies with Soul! One older translator wrote that, in Plotinus's thought, the classical gods are basically vestigial. I think that's too much of a stretch-- Plotinus wrote at length of the importance of honoring the Gods, but he also made it clear that, in his view, they are subordinate to the One Itself, which he also refers to as God or the First God.

Proclus, on the other hand, was far more concerned with finding the old gods their proper places in the hierarchy of being-- so much so that he stretches the basic system I've described here nearly to its breaking point. Proclus divides Intellect into two levels, connected by various overlapping Triads and Heptads. His whole system is complex, baroque, fascinating and sometimes a bit ridiculous. It would require turning this blog post into a book to really get into the details of Proclus's thought here. 

In the next post, I want to discuss another possible Platonic theology, based on traditional Christianity. After that, I want to look at a third possibility, based on the Druid Revival. Finally, I'll close this series with some thoughts on an ecumenical Platonism through which any spiritual tradition can be understood. 

Comments

[readoldthings]

That's an excellent point re. the Sassanids. Persian history is a blank spot for me as it is, I think, for many Westerners (or at least, Americans), and there's a lot that we miss because of it.

But as for this:

Imagine trying to shout firebrand sermons from the Enneads

Imagine the following, in the fire-and-brimstone voice of a Southern preacher:

"The bodily Kind, in that it partakes of Matter is an evil thing. What form is in bodies is an untrue-form: they are without life: by their own natural disorderly movement they make away with each other; they are hindrances to the soul in its proper Act; in their ceaseless flux they are always slipping away from Being.

"Soul, on the contrary, since not every Soul is evil, is not an evil Kind.

"What, then, is the evil Soul?

"It is, we read, the Soul that has entered into the service of that in which soul-evil is implanted by nature, in whose service the unreasoning phase of the Soul accepts evil- unmeasure, excess and shortcoming, which bring forth licentiousness, cowardice and all other flaws of the Soul, all the states, foreign to the true nature, which set up false judgements, so that the Soul comes to name things good or evil not by their true value but by the mere test of like and dislike."