The decans (or faces/ πρόσωπα) constitute an enigmatic form of rulership in ancient astrology. Rumored to have originated in Egypt,[1] the decans were associated with particular stars whose faces shone through the constellations, thus giving rise to their alternative designation as “faces.”[2] Yet, after the inception of Hellenistic astrology and the transition to a tropical …
Sect (αἵρεσις) is a crucial concept in Hellenistic astrology, forging a fundamental contrast between two groups of planets. One group, the diurnal, is led by the Sun and contains Jupiter as a benefic and Saturn as a malefic. The other, the nocturnal, is led by the Moon and contains Venus and Mars respectively as its …
Plato’s Symposium is a philosophical exploration of the nature and function of erotic love. Apropos the subject matter, the dialogue begins in confusion. The dialogue proper occurs between Apollodorus, someone so obsessed with Socrates that he has been given the nickname “the maniac” (173d), and an unnamed friend of his. Apollodorus recounts a story he …
The Timaeus is one of Plato’s most historically influential dialogues, because it, unlike the others, was translated into Latin1 and preserved in the medieval world. Yet it is also one of the hardest to understand. The bulk of this “dialogue” consists of a monologue by Timaeus, a Pythagorean philosopher from Locri, who tells an imaginative …
“No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre… not because the former is no hero, but because the latter is a valet.”—Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History. The concept of the Ascendant is pivotal to Western Astrology, representing the Eastern horizon over which planets and stars step forth into visibility. It marks the boundary …
This essay explores Books 6-7 of The Republic and explains Plato’s theory of the forms through his famous analogies of the sun, the divided line, and the cave. Plato’s theory of forms is an extension of the older Pythagorean view that the visible world is grounded in an unseen world of number. One villager, for …
In this essay, I conclude our analysis of Book II of The Republic by examining Plato’s theological critique of religion and contrasting it with contemporary accounts of so-called religious trauma. After establishing the need for a guardian class, Socrates now enquires into their education (376c). As we noted last time, guardians must be both upright …
Pythagoras on the Purpose of Philosophy In this essay, I’d like to turn from investigating Pythagorean doctrine to examining Pythagorean practice. For Pythagoras identified philosophy not with a set of abstract doctrines to be grasped by the understanding alone, but with a way of life that purified and strengthened the soul. Porphyry, for instance, describes …
In today’s essay I would like to continue our investigation of examination of the core doctrines of Pythagoreanism. Specifically, this essay will explore the Pythagorean theory of number, harmony, and cosmos. That number would play an important role in Pythagoreanism should probably not surprise us, given the famous theorem bearing the Pythagorean name and the …
Pythagorean Myths: Classical and Contemporary Pythagoras is one of the most elusive and intriguing figures in the history of Western philosophy. He is the rumored source of many of the core doctrines of Platonism such as the idea that the soul is immortal and reincarnates after death, that our empirical world constitutes a harmonious cosmos …