#perenialism

[the-syndic4te]

Olavo de Carvalho - Perenialismo (on Guenon and Schuon)

[beautynorder]

One day I will probably make a long list of the things Guenon was wrong about. Probably

[wearetimeblog]

It is the same as regards the knowledge of the four elements,1° which in alchemy play such a major role. These elements are not the chemical constituents of things, but are the qualitative determinants of 'matter' as such, so that, instead of speaking of earth, water, air, and fir; one can also speak of matter's solid, liquid, aerial, or igneous mode of existence. The analytical evidence, that water consists of two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen, tells us absolutely nothing about the essence of the element water. On the contrary, this fact, which can only be known circumstantially and so to say abstractly, actually obscures the essential quality 'water'. Furthermore the scientific approach strictly limits the reality in question to one given plane, whereas the immediate and symbolical intuition of the element awakens an echo which resounds through all levels of consciousness, from the corporeal to the spiritual. Modern science 'dissects' things, with a view to possessing and mastering them on their own level. Its aim is above all technology. Rationalism clung to the belief that by means of material and quantitative analysis it could discover the true nature of things. Characteristic of this point of view is Descartes' opinion that the scholastic definition of man as 'an animal endowed with reason' tells us nothing about man unless, by the study of his bones, tendons, tissues, etc., we know what the word `man' really means. As if a definition were not all the nearer to the essential, the broader it is! Analytical understanding is ultimately nothing more than the knife which probes into the joints of things. By so doing, it permits a clearer view of these. But the essence is not accessible to mere dissection. Goethe understood this very well when he said that what nature did not reveal to us in the light of day, could not be forced out of her by 'levers and screws'.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul - Titus Burckhardt

[wearetimeblog]

In the Divine Intellect, however, the two aspects 'Knowledge' and 'Being' are both present, whereas in the human intellect there is the aspect 'knowledge' alone, for in a certain sense the human intellect is separate from what it knows. The wider and more comprehensive its vision, the more it is detached from its object. The 'vital spirit', on the other hand, is (subjectively and according to common experience) unreservedly immersed in corporeal existence. These are the two outermost limits of ego-bound or individual consciousness, and it may well be said that this consciousness is split between mind (nous) and body. The Cartesian cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am') is immediately refuted by the fact that thinking is not capable of grasping its own being. The utterance 'I am' is either the expression of a transcendent and ever-present certitude infinitely above all thought, or merely of the common experience of individual corporeal existence, which does no more than passively accompany thought, however much it may be swathed in a whole network of imaginings. Knowledge and being are reflected separately in individual consciousness as mind and body. To escape this duality, consciousness must return to the 'sun' of the heart. As the alchemists say, 'body' must again become 'spirit', and spirit 'body'.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul - Titus Burckhardt

[wearetimeblog]

It is true that the Intellect has direct and immediate knowledge of itself, but this knowledge lies beyond the world of distinctions, so that, from the point of view of distinctive perception (divided as it is into object and subject), it seems non-existent. Rather different is the human subject, endowed as it is with the faculties of thought, imagination, and memory, and dependent on sensory perception, for the human subject has as object the whole corporeal world. It is from the Universal Intellect that the human subject derives its capacity for knowing. Finally there is man himself, composed of spirit (or intellect), soul, and body, who is both part of the cos-mos which is the object of his knowledge and who also, in virtue of his special rank (that is, his pre-eminently spiritual nature) appears as a small cosmos within the larger one, of which he is the counterpart, like a reflected image.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul - Titus Burckhardt

[wearetimeblog]

For modern science 'truths' (for general laws) — without which mere experience would be no more than shifting sand — are only simplifying descriptions of appearances, useful but always provisional 'abstractions'. For traditional science, on the other hand, truth is the expression or 'congelation' (in a form accessible to the reason) of a possibility contained in the Universal Intellect. And since this possibility is permanently and immutably contained in the Intellect, it must also manifest itself in the outward world. [...] According to the modern point of view science is built up exclusively on the basis of experience. From the traditional point of view, experience is nothing without that core of truth which comes from the Intellect, and around which individual experiences can crystallize. Thus Hermetic science is based on certain traditional symbols which derive from a spiritual revelation. The expression 'revelation' is used here in a somewhat wider sense than that usually given to it by theology, but is not intended in a purely poetic sense. In Hindu terms, the spiritual process in question would be regarded as a revelation 'of second rank', that is to say, as smriti rather than shruti. In Christian terms, one would speak of an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intended not for the whole community of the faithful but only for certain people capable of a particular mode and degree of contemplation. It was in this way, at any rate, that Christian alchemists regarded the heritage of Hermetism. Hermetism is in fact a branch of the primordial revelation which, having persisted throughout all ages, extends also into the Christian and Islamic worlds.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul - Titus Burckhardt

[wearetimeblog]

The logical coherence of the world — that which makes its manifold appearances a more or less graspable whole belongs just as much to the world as to the unitary nature of the human subject. Nevertheless, in every knowledge, however much of it may be coloured by the individual or the species, there is something unconditional. Otherwise there would be no bridge from subject to object, from 'I' to 'thou', no truth and no unity behind the countless 'worlds' as seen by so many and so widely varying individuals. This unconditioned and immutable element, which is the source of the more or less hidden 'truth-content' in every piece of knowledge - and without which it would not be knowledge at all - is the pure Spirit or Intellect, which as knower and known is absolutely and indivisibly present in every being. Of all beings in this world man is the most perfect reflection of the universal - and, as regards its origin, divine - Intellect, and in this respect he can be regarded as the mirror or total image of the cosmos.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul - Titus Burckhardt

[wearetimeblog]

"IN the Uncreated Principial Substance, which Hinduism terms Prakriti, there is perfect equilibrium between the upward, the expansive and the downward tendencies, sattva, rajas and tamas. The creation itself breaks this equilibrium, being in a sense a "victory" of tamas over sattva. This is inevitable, for creation means separation, and tamas is the tenebrous downward separative pull of manifestation away from the Principle. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep", says Genesis. The balance is partly restored, though still as it were within the framework of tamas, by the Fiat Lux. But "the rest on the seventh day", after the creation of man, celebrates the restoration of equilibrium at a higher level, for this final creation goes beyond separativity and introduces an element of reintegration. It is through the human species that this world is connected with the higher states of being; through the Heart of man alone lies the path of return; through this center manifestation "flows" back to its Principle in conformity with sattva, the luminous upward tendency which counter-balances the tamasic impetus with which all creation is penetrated. Hence the enmity, so much stressed in sacred texts, between man and Satan who is a personification of unbridled tamas, the "desire" inherent in manifestation to be separate from the Principle and to remain separate in an illusory self-sufficient independence.1 Hell is the special domain of Satan because it is situated at the outermost edge of creation where the illusion of separate existence, that is, of the absence of God, is sharpest; and the domain of man is Paradise because he is inwardly one with God, while outwardly, as a tree growing out of that root of union, he is a living witness to the Divine Presence. He can say "I" and mean "God", for his supreme quality is his capacity for individual extinction."

Martin Lings - Signs of the Times