Dante acknowledges his connection to Virgil and even into Purgatory. Virgil is gone before Dante could reach the Earthly Paradise, or the Primordial State. This is a state of supernatural happiness. However, it is still not yet the Beatific Vision. Continue reading
I’ve been cleaning up paperwork. I stumbled across some personal musings that go back decades. The topics then are similar to those of today, although the approach was quite different. I also found some class notes for a discussion group on Oriental Metaphysics by Rene Guenon. They date back to … Continue reading
Your desire then is to penetrate her soul; that is what is needed, even if the reasons are unclear. Skin, which a moment ago was an organ of intense pleasure, suddenly becomes an obstacle. The frustrating conclusion is that the soul is impervious to physical contact. Continue reading
Don Quixote chose to be a Knight Errant. He ventured out into the world to right wrongs, defend widows and orphans, and earn the love of a beautiful woman. He found out that the path is hardly easy. Continue reading
Perhaps the quinque viae, the five ways of reasoning, of St. Thomas Aquinas will not necessarily convince you, but you will emerge from meditative work on the five arguments proving the existence of God with a clear head and a calm heart, well-prepared and equipped to seek and find other ways to certainty. Continue reading
Birth can be either “holy” or “natural”, i.e. it can either be an act of obedience to divine will or rather it can be effected as a consequence of a “call from the earth”. A soul can be sent to the earth or it can be attracted by the earth. Continue reading
Scheherazade Sehnsucht is the inconsolable longing in the heart for we know not what. … [It is] that unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World’s End, the … Continue reading
Man alone is capable of communion with God. For to man alone among the living creatures does God speak: at night through dreams, by day through the intellect. And He uses every means to foretell and prefigure the future blessings that will be given to those worthy of Him. ~ … Continue reading
The purely biological or scientific standpoint falls short in psychology because it is intellectual only. But the psychic phenomenon cannot be grasped in its totality by the intellect, for it consists not only of meaning but also of value, and this depends on the intensity of the accompanying feeling-tones. The … Continue reading
Aware of this, Solovyov devised a complex system that incorporated Platonic and Gnostic elements into a Christian philosophy and metaphysics. This would be more compelling than a creed. So he is not really calling for a Christian conversion per se, but rather for the more objective demand for a return to the Logos, and its terrestrial equivalent Sophia which he claimed is objectively knowable. Continue reading