Category: Spirituality

The Neoplatonic Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite

State University of New York Press, 2008     Amazon.com

Back Cover:

The work of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite stands at a cusp in the history of thought: it is at once Hellenic and Christian, classical and medieval, philosophical and theological. Unlike the predominantly theological or text-historical studies which constitute much of the scholarly literature on Dionysius, Theophany is completely philosophical in nature, placing Dionysius within the tradition of ancient Greek philosophy and emphasizing, in a positive light, his continuity with the non-Christian Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus. Eric D. Perl offers clear expositions of the reasoning that underlies Neoplatonic philosophy and explains the argumentation that leads to and supports Neoplatonic doctrines. He includes extensive accounts of fundamental ideas in Plotinus and Proclus, as well as Dionysius himself, and provides an excellent philosophical defense of Neoplatonism in general.

“This is, in many ways, the book for which teachers in the field have been waiting: a book that clearly and fully sets out the philosophical logic in Dionysius in a way accessible to undergraduate students and yet tackles the most vexed and controverted questions so strongly as to make it a necessity for graduate students and scholars in the field. Eric Perl has produced a remarkable unification of philosophy and accurate historical scholarship, something very rare.”  Wayne J. Hankey, author of One Hundred Years of Neoplatonism in France: A Brief Philosophical History

“Dionysius is an extremely important Christian Platonist in his own right and also for the enormous impact he had on medieval philosophy. Getting his metaphysics right is essential, and Perl has done an outstanding job articulating his philosophical genius.”  John Bussanich, author of The One and Its Relation to Intellect in Plotinus: A Commentary on Selected Texts

Eric D. Perl is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.

The Dawn Horse Press, 1985

Back Cover:

Master Da Free John says The Dawn Horse Testament is a c onversation he is always having with everyone:

“In making this book I have been bediating everykone, contacting everyone, dealing with psychic forces everywhere, in all time. It is a living conversation with absolutely everyone, personally.”

In his Dawn Horse Testament, Master Da Free John’s revelation of the Way of the Heartfinds ecstatic expression. It is a Blessed Covenant, his personal Testament to each and every person who would hear him. He addresses his listener as “Beloved” and, speaking from the Heart, he announces perhaps the greatest commitment to the Liberation of living beings by any Divinely Inspired personage – “This Is The Final Truth. You Are God, In God, Of God. My Devotee Is The God I Have Come To Serve.”

Heart Master Da’s Dawn Horse Testament is the meeting place of human longing and Divine Grace. It is the universal Upanishad for the Common Era, a Master-Teaching, profound in its meaning, yet simple to comprehend, beautifully articulating in the midst of our modern madness the ancient Love-Yoga of Communion with the Divine Being.

Mankind is indeed fortunate to be the recipient in such generous measure of the Blessings of the Heart-Master of the Dawn Horse, whose Testament Reveals the Exalted Poet, Truth-Realizer, and Love-Master, the Heart-Friend speaking Secrets, his Heart yearning for the meeting, indeed the marriage and final reconciliation, of human longing and Divine Grace.

Within the pages of this mighty book the reader will surely find one of the greatest and most beautifully written scriptural revelations of any age or faith. In exstasy Heart Master Da spoke his Dawn H orse Message to gatherings of devotees, and in ecstasy he wrote The Dawn Horse Testament, the “Eternal Conversation” through which he continues to speak to every one.

The Dawn Horse Testament abounds with the Mysteries of the Heart, which, previous to the Incarnation of Master Da Free John, have never been fully Revealed on Earth. There is an essential Wisdom in this book that will be lauded for centuries to come, or as long as th e Fire of Truth remains burning in this world. Indeed, in spite of our troubled times, The Dawn Horse Testament and Master Da Free John, who created it, are that Eternal Fire, Burning Bright.

“This Testament is my Intention to Awaken the Transcendental Self of every being to the Real Divine Condition. To read and understand this Testament is to be released from the egoic vision. Let it be so.” – Da Free John

Blurb by Ken Wilber:

The Dawn Horse Testament is the most ecstatic, most profound, most complete, most radical, and most comprehensive single spiritual text ever to be penned and confessed by the Human-Transcendental Spirit.”

Bibliothèque L’Age d’Homme, 1991

Amazon.fr

Résumé de l’éditeur:

Initialement paru en 1934, traduit en allemand un an après, Révolte contre le monde moderne est considéré comme l’ouvrage le plus important de Julius Evola (1898-1974). Ce livre prouve que déjá à cette époque, les bases d’une révolte globale entre la civilisation contemporaine avaient été posées, révolte en comparaison de laquelle la “contestation” qui s’est exprimée à la fin des années soixante apparaît chaotique et invertébrée. Au-delà des derniers aspects du monde moderne – hypertrophie de la technique, société de consommation, conditionnement de masse, etc. -, ce livre remonte aux causes, analyse les processus qui, depuis des siècles, ont exercé une action destructrice sur toute valeur authentique et toute forme supérieure d’organisation de l’existence, ont soustrait le monde des hommes aux influences spirituelles pour le livrer à l’individualisme, au materialisme, à l’irréalisme et à sa rhétorique spectrale.

La première partie du livre, “Le monde de la Tradition”, définit, à travers une étude comparée embrassant les civilisations les plus variées, une doctrine des catégories fondamentales du monde raditionnel: la royauté sacrée, la paix et la justice, l’Etat et l’Empire, le rite, la contemplation et l’action, l’initiation et le sacre, la guerre, les “jeux”, le statut de l’homme et de la femme, etc. Ainsi sont indiquées les voies qui conduisaient parfois au-delà de la condition humaine, ou bienqui lui assuraient une stabilité inébranlable. A l’inverse, l’homme moderne apparaît comme un cas aberrant d’être non plus relié aux forces d’en haut et emporté par la “démonie” du collectif vers de nouvelles formes de barbarie.

La deuxième partie du livre, “Genèse et visage du monde moderne”, développe une “métaphysique de l’histoire”, à travers l’exposition de la doctrine traditionelle des cycles, des considérations sur le symbolisme du pôle, l’habitat hyperboréen originel, la “Lumière du Nord” et la “Lumière du Sud”, le matriarcat, etc. Elle se poursuit par l’analy se des cycles de la décadence, depuis les grandes cultures préchrétiennes jusqu’à la Russie et l’Amérique contemporaines, en passant par le monde gréco-romain et le Moyen Age.

En 1935, le poète Gottfried Benn salua ce livre comme “une oeuvre dont l’importance exceptionelle apparaîtra clairement dans les prochanes années” et écrivit qu’en la lisant “on regardera l’Europe d’une autre manière”.

Cette nouvelle traduction française intégrale et précédée d’une introduction du traducteur consacrée aux sources d’Evola (notamment le mythologue J. J. Bachofen) et suivie d’une bibliographie française de Julius Evola, établie par Alain de Benoist.

Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009 (1945)

Amazon.com

Book Description:

A marvelous gathering of selections from the world’s religions with a commentary by Huxley.

The perennial philosophy is defined by the author as “the metaphysic that identifies a divine Reality subtantial to the lives of world of things and lives and minds”. With great wit and stunning intellect, Aldous Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains them in terms that are personally meaningful.

“It is important to say that even an agnostic…can read this book with joy. It is the masterpiece of all anthologies. As Mr Huxley has proved before, he can find and frame rare beauty in literature, and here, long before Freud, writers are quoted who combine beauty with profound psychology.”  The New York Times 

“I am amazed at the range of the author’s knowledge…It is both an anthology and an interpretation of the supreme mystics, East and West. There are well-known books on Western mysticism. There are studies of  Oriental and Mohammedan mysticism, but this is the first time that anybody has adequately covered the entire field and showed an equal familiaqrity with all fields. It is a magnificent achievement.”  Rufus M. Jones

“Mr Huxley writes as well as ever, occasionally with brilliance and wit, but now and then, in his absorption and other-worldliness, he soars clean out of sight.”  The New Yorker

Wikipedia article on the book

JOB’s Comment:

Scholars, and other perennialists (especially in the traditionalist school), have later criticized aspects of this book, but its historical importance cannot be denied. In the late 1970s, it was still one of the most widely read books among those who entered upon the spiritual quest.

Perhaps I should not include so many blurbs in these references posts, however. The NYT one here, reprinted on the cover of all of Harper’s – the original American publisher – many editions, seems a little stupid. It is remarkable that Huxley has found writers who combined beauty with profound psychology long before Freud? Freud combined beauty with profound psychology?

The subtitle added in recent editions, which seems to be taken from Jones’s blurb – An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West – I cannot find in earlier ones.

It is, I think, important to note that Huxley showed an awareness of the spiritual reality, and at least the possible meaningfulness of reorienting one’s life towards it or in accordance with it, at least as early as the novel Those Barren Leaves (1925) – one of the novel’s main characters, Calamy, actually makes that choice. Many are unaware of this and think Huxley was at that time a social satirist only.

A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Harper Collins, 1992

Amazon.com

Front Flap:

The book for our troubled times – a path-breaking lifestyle handbook that shows how to add spirituality, depth, and meaning to modern day life by nurturing the soul. Care of the Soul offers a new way of thinking about everyday life – its problems and its creative opportunities. It proposes a therapeutic way of life that is not a self-improvement project. Instead, its focus is on looking more deeply into emotional problems and sensing sacredness in ordinary things. The ancient model of “care of the soul” was rooted in religion and provided a sacred context for viewing the ordinary moments of everyday life. This new books brings “care of the soul” into the twentieth century and promises to deepen and broaden the reader’s perspective on his or her own life experiences. The author draws on his own life as a therapist practicing “care of the soul”, his studies of the world’s religions, his teaching of Jungian psychology and art therapy, and his work in music and art to create this inspirational guide that examines the connections between spirituality and the problems of individuals and society.

Back Cover Blurbs:

“From time to time I’ve been jolted by an extraordinary book which stops my world. It forces me to look at reality in a diferent way – a more expansive and meaningful way. Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul is such a book. It has provided a missing piece for me. I soulfully recommend it without reservation.”  John Bradshaw, author of Homecoming

“This book just may help you give up the futile quest for salvation and get down to the possible task of taking care of your soul. A modest, and therefore marvelous, bokk about the life of the spirit.”  Sam Keen, author of Fire in the Belly

“Years pass; I get to read a lot of psychology but the sincerity, intelligence and style – so beautifully clean – of Tom Moore’s Care of the Soul truly moved me. The book’s got strength and class and soul, and I suspect it may last longer than psychology itself.”  James Hillman, author of Re-Visioning Psychology

“In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore reclaims the Soul for psychotherapy in a deeply moving way. He points out that our wounds offer not only a window that opens a view of our Soul, but also a door to enter its domain. Thomas Moore’s book is a brilliant, challenging and very encouraging voice in the psychotherapeutic world.”  Henri Nouwen, author of Making All Things New

Blurbs from the Harper Perennial edition, 1994:

“There is the depth and originality of Mr Moore’s observations…and a deeply consoling intelligence…that should draw many readers.”  Phyllis Theroux, New York Times Book Review

“Many thanks to Thomas Moore for these profound and timely insights…Genuinely inspirational.”  Kevin McCarthy, Bloomsbury Review

“Invigorating, demanding, and revolutionary.”  Publishers Weekly

“A wonderful book. It will do much to free the world of the medical model of psychotherapy and to help people treasure as individual poetry what they regarded as pathology.”  Polly Berrien Berend, author of Whole Child/Healthy Parent

“Care of the Soul moved me deeply, in ways I only partially understand. It forced me to contemplate my own soul – its likes and dislikes, its particularity.”  Shepherd Bliss, Yoga Journal

“This is an enthralling text. One feels good just reading it…This book makes no claims to perfection: it is just a peaceful little island of good sense in a world where such a commodity is in all-too-short supply.”  Richard Poliver, Bookpage

“Thoughtful, eloquent, inspiring.”  Alix Madrigal, San Francisco Chronicle

“All too seldom one encounters a book as rich and thought-provoking as Care of the Soul…Like Shakespeare or the writings of Joseph Campbell, almost every page reveals a treasure.”  Jerry Pope, Journeymen

“Thomas Moore is an authentic example of a new kind of therapist – a doctor of the soul – which in our century has been in short supply.”  Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Meaning and Medicine and Beyond Illness

Back Flap (About the Author):

Thomas Moore is a psychotherapist and writer who lives in New England. He has published many articles in the areas of archetypal and Jungian psychology, mythology, and the arts. His books include The Planets Within, Rituals of the Imagination, and Dark Eros. He also edited A Blue Fire (HarperCollins), an anthology of the writings of James Hillman. Moore lived as a monk in a Catholic religious order for twelve years. He has a Ph.D. in religious studies from Syracuse University, an M.A. in theology from the University of Windsor, an M.A. in musicology from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in music and philosophy from DePaul University. He is a leading lecturer and writer in North America and in Europe in the areas of archetypal psychology, mythology, and the arts.