Henosis
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- Henosis is also a synonym of Bulbophyllum, a genus of orchid.
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Within the realm of Neoplatonic philosophy, the Mystery Religions[1] and the Hermes Trismegistus henosis (Greek ἕνωσις "unity, oneness") is the goal of union with the Monad, Source, force or the One. As part of henology and potentially part of the modern term Henotheism.
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[edit] Divine Work
To get closest to the One, each individual must engage in divine work (theurgy) according to Iamblichus of Chalcis. This divine work can be defined as each individual dedicating their lives to making the created world and mankind's relationship to it, and one another, better. This is done by living a virtuous life seeking after one's Magnum opus. Under the teachings of Iamblichus (see the Egyptian Mysteries), one goes through a series of theurgy or rituals that unites the initiate to the Monad. These rituals mimic the ordering of the chaos of the Universe into the material world or cosmos. They also mimic the actions of the demiurge as the creator of the material world. Iamblichus' starting with a panentheistic Monad in contrast to Plotinus' pantheistic Monad, one or source.
[edit] The cosmos and order
Each individual as a microcosm reflects the gradual ordering of the universe referred to as the macrocosm. In mimicking the demiurge (divine mind), one unites with The One or Monad. Thus the process of unification, of "The Being", and "The One", is called Henosis. The culmination of Henosis is deification. Deification here making each man a God by replacing the concept of God as creator with themselves as creators of their lives. The divine unity here is modalistic emination in Monad, Dyad, Triad and etc.
[edit] Fate and Destiny
As is specified in the writings of Plotinus,[2][3] the highest stage of deification is tabula rasa, or a blank state where the individual may grasp or merge with The Source (or The One, this process being henosis or unity). Here within Plotinus the monad can be referred to as the Good above the demiurge. [4] In the writings of Plotinus called the Enneads the monad or dunamis (force) is of one singular expression all is contained in the Monad and the Monad is all (pantheism). Any division, the last being duality (dyad), is completely missing from the Monad, Source or One (see monism). It is the demiurge that is the nous in Plotinus. It is the demiurge (creator, action, energy) or nous that "perceives" and therefore causes the force (potential or One) to manifest as energy, or the dyad called the material world. Nous as being, being and perception (intellect) manifest what is called soul (World Soul).[5]
[edit] Modalism
Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via meditation (in the Western mind to uncontemplate) toward no thought (Nous or demiurge) and no division (dyad) within the individual (being). Plotinus words his teachings to reconcile not only Plato with Aristotle but also various World religions that he had personal contact with during his various travels. Plotinus' works have an ascetic character in the reject matter as an illusion (none existent). Matter was strictly treated as immanent, with matter having no true or transcendent character. This approach is called philosophical Idealism.[6]
[edit] Divine unity by return
At the point of unity individuals become energy, and are further then reduced to force (once they are stripped of their person, nous); the energy of individuals is then returned to the infinite non-sentient force -- the Source or One -- and reamalgamated back into the Universe.[7] The process then starts again and brings another part of the universe into line with the Monad (see Pantheism). [8][9] Hence the demiurge as an intrinsic (immanence) concept (creator is the mind and therefore not outside the mind) does not exist (per se) as anything but energy in force or a reflective duality that in the process of perpetual recurrence is man himself. As force is the irrational or indeterminite vitality (non-sentient) that in its rich infintiness reflected back on itself causing the dyad as a reflection or consciousness.[10]
Within the works of Iamblichus, The One and reconciliation of division can be obtained through the process of theurgy. By mimicking the demiurge, the individual is returned to the cosmos to implement the will of the divine mind. Iamblichus used the rituals of the mystery religions to perform rituals on the individual to unite their outer and inner person. Thus one without conflict internal or external is united with The One.
Neoplatonism here taking the concept of primordial unity (henosis) as rational and deterministic against indeterminism as the absences of order or good, to the level of religion. Since, now unity (henosis) is no longer strictly rationalization (reconcillation) of man with being and becoming (ontology) but in the works of Neoplatonist considered also, salvation (Soteriology).
[edit] See also
- Posidonius
- Porphyry
- Proclus
- Julian the Apostate
- Theosis
- Anamnesis
- Neutral monism
- Monolatrism
- Eudaimonia
- Eudaimonism
- Nicomachean Ethics
- Virtue ethics
- Fellowship of Reason
- Humanism
- Summum bonum
- Prognostication
- Taiyi Zhenren
- Store consciousness
- Apotheosis
- Neidan
[edit] Notes
- ^ pg 52 The Mystery religions: A Study in the Religious Background of Early Christianity By Samuel Angus Published by Courier Dover Publications, 1975 ISBN 0486231240, 9780486231242 [1]
- ^ Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul .To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One. [6.9.7]
- ^ If he remembers who he became when he merged with the One, he will bear its image in himself. He was himself one, with no diversity in himself or his outward relations; for no movement was in him, no passion, no desire for another, once the ascent was accomplished. Nor indeed was there any reason or though, nor, if we dare say it, any trace of himself. [6.9.11.]
- ^ Neoplatonism and Gnosticism By Richard T. Wallis, Jay Bregman, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies[2]
- ^ Neoplatonism and Gnosticism By Richard T. Wallis, Jay Bregman, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies [3]
- ^ Schopenhauer wrote of this Neoplatonist philosopher: "With Plotinus there even appears, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, idealism that had long been current in the East even at that time, for it taught (Enneads, iii, lib. vii, c.10) that the soul has made the world by stepping from eternity into time, with the explanation: 'For there is for this universe no other place than the soul or mind' (neque est alter hujus universi locus quam anima), indeed the ideality of time is expressed in the words: 'We should not accept time outside the soul or mind' (oportet autem nequaquam extra animam tempus accipere)." (Parerga and Paralipomena, Volume I, "Fragments for the History of Philosophy," § 7)
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=WSbrLPup7wYC&pg=PA173&dq=plotinus+energeia&sig=_pNuhvtMY4HEJWulC7-WTIWGDTA
- ^ Neoplatonism and Gnosticism By Richard T. Wallis, Jay Bregman, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies [4]
- ^ Enneads VI 9.6
- ^ Ennead III, 8 [30] 9, 29-40 A. H. Armstrong's translation.
[edit] External links
- http://www.theurgia.org - Site primarily devoted to the late antique hieratic praxis of Theurgy.
- http://www.theandros.com/iamblichus.html Theurgy, Iamblichus and henosis.
- http://www.goddess-athena.org/Encyclopedia/Friends/Iamblichus/index.htm
- On the Mysteries Online edition of Thomas Taylor's translation at theurgia.org
- http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/iambl_th.htm - Online copy of On the Egyptian Mysteries (not public domain).
