Neoplatonism: An Introduction
f you live in the Western world today Neoplatonists synthesized the approaches or have been influenced by it, you of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and others, I may be more of a Neoplatonist than addressing the individual yearning for you realize. As the mathematician and salvation from a philosophical viewpoint. philosopher Alfred North Whitehead stated, Neoplatonism posits a single source (the the general characterization of the Western One) from which all existence emanates philosophical tradition “consists of a series of and with which an individual soul can be footnotes to Plato.”1 mystically united. This philosophical school Neoplatonism is a relatively modern provided ways that the individual could term that mid-nineteenth century scholars ascend the ladder of being through theoria – created to distinguish the ideas of later contemplation of the Divine. Greek and Roman Platonists from those of Many widely accepted Neoplatonic Plato himself. Plotinus (ca. 204 – 270 CE) concepts have been perpetuated in the West is considered the first main proponent of by such diverse sources as Christianity, Neoplatonism. His intent was to use Plato’s Sufism, Kabbalah, the art and philosophy of thought as an intellectual basis for a rational the Renaissance, the Cambridge Platonists, and humane life.2 the American Transcendentalists, and others.
Rosicrucian Digest No. 1 Plato (428 BCE – 348 BCE). 2012 Page 2 Neoplatonic approaches continue to be of • Contemplating the harmony tremendous importance in Jewish, Christian, and transcendental nature of the and Islamic mysticism, as well as the Beautiful and the Good elevates us esoteric schools, including Rosicrucianism. in consciousness. Neoplatonism exerted a great influence • After completing its spiritual on the Western esoteric tradition through evolution, the soul of each human the work of Marsilio Ficino, a devout being reintegrates with the Universal Neoplatonist, translator, and humanist Soul in all purity and lives in philosopher of the fifteenth century. the Divine Immanence in full The following Rosicrucian tenets consciousness. resonate with Neoplatonism: Remarkable individuals such as Plotinus, • All of Creation is permeated by a Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Augustine Universal Soul. of Hippo (Saint Augustine), Hypatia, • The ultimate goal of life is to achieve Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Avicenna, mystical union with the Divine (the Paracelsus, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della One). Mirandola, Raphael, Henry More, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Taylor, and Ralph • Knowing oneself is essential to Waldo Emerson have all been associated with achieving this goal. Neoplatonism or Neoplatonic thought. • This can be accomplished without This issue of the Rosicrucian Digest an intermediary person. introduces us to some of their lives and • Mystical contemplation is a means to ideas, and the Neoplatonic tradition over the achieve union with the Divine. millennia.
As for the Rosicrucian conception of spirituality, it is based, on the one hand, upon the conviction that the Divine exists as an Absolute Intelligence having created the universe and everything therein; and, on the other hand, on the assurance that each human being possesses a soul which emanates from the Divine.
—From the Rosicrucian Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis (2001)
ENDNOTES 1 Alfred North Whitehead. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, (New York: Free Press, 1979), 39. 2 PBS, “Neoplatonism,” http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/neoplat-body.html.
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