The Rediscovery of Byzantine Orthodox Mysti- Cism: an Introduction to the Medieval Hesychasts’ Theory of Humanity’S Deification Nicolas Laos

Fall 2019

The Rediscovery of Byzantine Orthodox Mysti- cism: An Introduction to the Medieval Hesychasts’ Theory of Humanity’s Deification Nicolas Laos

Abstract “canonical”) theology. The term “nepsis” comes from the New Testament (1 Peter 5:8), n the present essay, I investigate and eluci- and it means to be vigilant and of sober mind. I date the principles of the Byzantine Ortho- Nepsis is a state of watchfulness and sobriety dox mystics’ theory of humanity’s deification acquired after a period of inner cleansing. The in a way that helps one to understand the dif- term “hesychasm” (Greek: ἡσυχασμός) comes ference between a propositional and a mystical from the New Testament (Matthew 6:6), and it approach to Christianity, as well as to contem- is a process of retiring inward by quieting plate the significant yet elusive relationship (cleansing) the body and the mind in order, between “Orthodoxy” and “Gnosticism.” The ultimately, to achieve an experiential Byzantine tradition of “hesychasm” is the fo- knowledge of God. The emphasis that the hes- cus of this essay. In particular, I use the term ychasts, or Neptic Fathers, place on inner “Orthodoxy” in order to refer to a canonical cleansing as a precondition of true theology theological system, namely, a theological sys- and for seeing God is a clear Platonic influ- tem approved by a theologically legitimate ence,3 and it resonates with Gnostic epistemol- Church Council. I interpret hesychasm not ogy and Gnostic mystical quests for illumina- merely as a medieval monastic practice but as tion.4 In the eighteenth century, the monk, the- a system of spirituality that can be endorsed by ologian, and philosopher Nikodemos of the any person who appreciates hesychasm’s Holy Mountain and Makarios of Corinth teachings about the deification of humanity (Bishop of Corinth and theologian) compiled and inner illumination and as a system of phil- the works of the hesychasts, written between osophical anthropology focused on and under- the fourth and the fifteenth centuries, into a pinned by the thesis that the human being is a collection that is called The Philokalia.5 potential god. In addition, I use the term “Gnosticism” in order to refer to the following ______three things: firstly, a language (not a particu- About the Author lar religion or sect) that enables people to communicate with each other regarding that Dr. Nicolas Laos is a philosopher, religious vision- which transcends words and concepts by using ary, mathematician, and noopolitics expert and con- symbols and allegories; secondly, a poetic ap- sultant, and he has taught courses in political philosophy and international relations theory at the proach to the transcendent; and, thirdly, an University of Indianapolis (Dept. of International attitude towards religion whose purpose is the Relations). He is also a Freemason (regularly in- spiritualization of the material world (accord- stalled Grand Hierophant–97ο of the Ancient and ing to Armunn Righ’s “The Gospel of the Liv- Primitive Rite of Memphis–Misraim), and the ing,”1 and Miguel Conner’s “A Summary of Founder and Grand Master of the Scholarly and Gnosticism Both Aeons and Archons Agree Political Order of the Ur-Illuminati (SPOUI). He is On”2). the author of several scholarly books, including The Meaning of Being Illuminati (Cambridge Scholars The Meaning of Hesychasm Publishing, 2019), in which he elucidates his research program of “Ur-Illuminism.” His corre- esychasm, or “nepsis” (Greek: νῆψις), is spondence address is: Nicolas Laos, P.O. Box 9316, Hthe hallmark of sanctity, according to the Athens 10032, Greece. He can also be contacted via medieval Byzantines’ Christian Orthodox (or the following email: [email protected].

It is important to understand that hesychasm is and Life of Theoria is included in the fifth vol- not merely a medieval monastic practice, nor is ume of the Philokalia, exposes and elucidates it merely confined to the life of Byzantine the hesychasts’ conception of the deification monks. On the contrary, I interpret hesychasm (Greek: “theosis”) of humanity and the hesy- as a system of mystical theology and especially chasts’ theses about the operation of the mind as a system of philosophical anthropology that (Greek: “nous”). In the aforementioned trea- highlights and elucidates the potential divinity tise, Katafygiotis argues that all beings (includ- of the human being and the manner in which ing the mind) have received their movement the human being can actualize humanity’s di- and their natural characteristics from the divine vine potential. Therefore, I interpret hesy- Logos, who has created them, and that the chasm in the context of my attempt to endow movement of the mind, in particular, has as its humanism with ontological underpinnings. In characteristic the “for ever,” which is infinite particular, my conception of humanism is un- and unlimited. Therefore, Katafygiotis main- derpinned by a creative reinterpretation and tains, it would have been beneath the nature “rediscovery” of Platonism, medieval Christian and the value of the mind if it moved in a finite mystics’ and scholars’ writings, and various and limited way, namely, if it had its move- “illuminist” systems, from the Orphic mystical ment in finite and limited things. According to cult to the European Enlightenment and thence Katafygiotis, due to the mind’s logos and na- to the eighteenth-century Illuminati fraternities ture, the perpetual movement of the mind and beyond (including such schools of mysti- needs to move towards something eternal and cal belief as Hermeticism, the Kabbalah, al- unlimited, and nothing is really (that is, by its chemy, the Rosicrucian movement, and Free- nature) infinite and unlimited but God, who by masonry).6 nature is One. Hence, the mind must gaze at and move towards the infinite One, God. Evagrius Ponticus (345–399 A.D.), Maximus the Confessor (ca. 580–662 A.D.), and In the aforementioned treatise, Katafygiotis Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022 argues that there are only three ways in which A.D.), three of the most influential Greek hes- the mind ascends to the “theoria” (vision) of ychasts, understood hesychasm as a practice of God: the self-mobilized way (Greek: “autoki- psychic cleansing and inner prayer aimed at netos”), the other-mobilized way (Greek: “het- achieving union with God in a way that trans- erokinetos”), and the mixed way. The self- cends images, concepts, and language (Philo- mobilized way is performed with the mind’s kalia, vols. 1, 2, and 4). However, Gregory of own will accompanied by imagination, and its Sinai (ca.1260s–1346), another prominent conclusion is the “theoria” of things related to Greek hesychast, pointed out that, even though God (namely, an indirect and imperfect images and thoughts are to be excluded, hesy- knowledge of God). The other-mobilized way chasm does not reject all feelings. He asserts is performed only with the will and illumina- that, rightly practised, inner Christocentric tion of God, and, therefore, it is supernatural; prayer leads to a sense of joyful sorrow and to in such a state, the entire mind is found under a feeling of spiritual warmth, which, the hesy- divine possession, and it is caught in divine chasts maintain, make the aspirant capable of revelations. The mixed way consists partly of experiencing the divine illumination that three both the self-mobilized way and the other- Apostles, namely Peter, James, son of Zebe- mobilized way: as long as one works with dee, and John, experienced at the Transfigura- one’s own will and imagination, one is in tion of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor (Matthew agreement with the self-mobilized way, 17: 1–9; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36; 2 Peter whereas one partakes of the other-mobilized 1:16–18). The hesychasts emphasize that the way as long as one unites with oneself by light that shined at the Transfiguration of Jesus means of the divine illumination, and sees God Christ is the uncreated light of God’s Glory.7 ineffably, beyond the mental union with oneself. Moreover, in the same treatise, Katafygio- Kallistos Katafygiotis,8 a fourteenth-century tis makes the following remarks about faith, hesychast whose treatise On Union with God

divine illumination, and union with God: when tivated by and oriented towards the knowledge the mind uses its imagination in order to con- of and one’s connection with God, namely, the template the ineffable, it is guided by faith; source of the significance of the beings and when the mind receives the divine illumination things that exist in the world. Searching for the of God’s grace, it is assured with hope; and, ultimate and transcendent Logos of the world, when the divine light takes hold of it, the mind namely, for the effective and the final cause of becomes a repository of love towards humani- the world, the religious personality is unsatis- ty and much more so towards God. Thus, the fied with beholding this life bound by space triune alignment and movement of the mind, and time, and seeks mystically to transcend the with faith, hope, and love, becomes perfect and limits of the created, material universe. This is deifying. the “religious human being.” In Nikiphoros the Hesychast’s treatise On From the perspective of mysticism, as opposed Watchfulness and the Guarding of the Heart to propositional religion, the religious human (which is included in the fourth volume of the being is primarily motivated by the desire to Philokalia) and in Symeon the New Theologi- know God, and is oriented to seeking to realize an’s treatises The Three Methods of Prayer and union with God. Hence, in the context of mys- 153 Practical and Theological Texts (which ticism, the religious human being’s thoughts are also included in the fourth volume of the and actions are directed at knowing God. As Philokalia), the following physical hesychastic the renowned fifth-century A.D. hesychast techniques are exposed: the aspirant should sit Mark the Ascetic maintains in his book On the with his head bowed, with his gaze fixed on Spiritual Law (paragraph 54), “to journey the place of the heart or on his navel, he should without direction is wasted effort.” slow his breathing rhythm, and, at the same Mystical experience is the sense of the pres- time, he should search inwardly for the place ence of the supreme reality (specifically, the of the heart. Moreover, in that prescribed state, deity) all around and within us as well as a de- the aspirant should recite the “Jesus Prayer,” sire to hold communion with this supreme real- whose standard form is: “Lord Jesus Christ, ity and, in this way, understand who we really Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or are and what the world really is. To understand “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, illuminate my this, we must begin with the question of the darkness.” The significance of the Jesus Prayer relation between being and personal identity. has been emphasized by Gregory of Sinai and “Personhood” is not a quality added to the hu- Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), two of the man being, but it has an ontological weight. most influential hesychasts, whose treatises are Inherent to “personhood” is the claim of abso- included in the fifth volume of the Philokalia. lute being, namely, a metaphysical claim. The hesychastically observant Christian Mysticism is a form of awareness of one’s per- emerges from a critical and creative synthesis sonhood. Specifically, let us consider the ques- of the best qualities of two human prototypes: tion: “Who am I?” This question includes three “cognitive human being” and “religious human elements, namely: being.” On the one hand, there is the intellectual and scientifically aware human being who, (i) “Who”: the “who” element calls for in one’s quest to explain and master the uni- some sort of definition, and it expresses verse cognitively as well as to understand the a desire to articulate knowledge. In meaning of “explaining” and “mastering” the mysticism, the “who” question is a call universe cognitively, orders one’s existence on of consciousness, and it leads to higher the basis of reason, reflection (careful exami- levels of consciousness. In mysticism, nation and assessment of life), and the empiri- the “who” question arises from an cal knowledge resulting from the autonomous awareness that we are faced with a giv- investigation of the world. This is the “cogni- en world which obliges us to develop tive human being.” On the other hand, there is our identity through comparison with the religious personality, who is primarily mo- other beings that already exist in this

world. Thus, in mysticism, self- ads in Defense of the Sacred Hesychasts, assertion always is identified with a which was probably written between 1338 and tendency to transcend ourselves, specif- 1341, is comprised of nine treatises in the form ically, depart from the confines of our of questions and answers. After a period of own entity or ego, in order to meet oth- fierce theological controversies, on August 15, er beings and, through our communica- 1351, a decree of a Church Council at Con- tion with them, to become aware of stantinople made the hesychastic theological ourselves. In the context of hesychastic doctrines the exclusive “binding truth for the mysticism, in particular, that significant whole Orthodox Church,” and, in 1368, the Other Being, whose presence and Patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheos, con- whose interaction with us underpins our vened a new council on hesychasm, which self-knowledge is the Absolute, or the proclaimed Gregory Palamas, the major de- good-in-itself, and the place of encoun- fender of hesychasm against its critics, a saint. ter with the Absolute is the human The fact that, before its vindication by the mind, whose seat is the heart. Empha- Church Councils of Constantinople in 1347 sizing the importance of the Absolute and 1351, hesychasm was attacked and as the existential mirror in which one deemed to be heretical by several members of can really recognize, assess, and con- the Byzantine Orthodox intelligentsia and by template oneself, the seventh-century Western (Roman Catholic) scholastics (the A.D. Greek hesychast and leading Or- latter continued to treat hesychasm as a heresy thodox theologian Maximus the Con- even after its vindication by the Church Coun- fessor, in his Ambiguum 10 (Patrologia cils of Constantinople in 1347 and 1351) has Graeca, vol. 91, 1113 BC), writes that urged me to try to restore the conceptual vir- “God and man are examples of each ginity of the term “heresy”―which is derived other,” and that “God makes himself from the Greek verb “herō” (“αἱρῶ”), meaning man out of love for men as much as to receive, to conquer (e.g., to grasp the inner man deifies himself out of love for meaning of something), and to be courageous God.” and bold enough to defend one’s theses and (ii) “Am”: the “am” element―which, by spiritual discoveries―by articulating and pro- the way, is the central issue and the posing an “Orthodox Heresy,” which is under- spiritual core of Heidegger’s philoso- pinned by the research program of “Ur- phy of existence―calls for security, in Illuminism,” which I articulate and elucidate in the sense that one inquires into one’s my book The Meaning of Being Illuminati being in the face of the facts that one (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019).9 From has not always been here, and one will my perspective, “orthodoxy” means (or should not always remain here. mean) sensitivity to and pursuit of the real (iii) “I”: the “I” element calls for particu- truth, and “heresy” means (or should mean) the larity, or otherness, and, therefore, it erection of an illumined mind that is deter- expresses some sort of uniqueness. mined and bold enough to communicate its A Historical Notice awarenesses and spiritual discoveries to the rest of humanity. esychasm was called into question and Hchallenged during the decade 1337–47, in The zenith of hesychasm in medieval Byzanti- what is known as the hesychastic controversy. um was followed by the fall of Byzantium to The attack on hesychasm was launched by a the Ottomans in 1453. Thus, the hesychastic learned Greek from southern Italy, Barlaam the renaissance that took place in Byzantium dur- Calabrian (ca. 1290–1348), who was influ- ing the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, enced by the fourteenth-century rationalist primarily due to Gregory Palamas, was vio- schools of Western Europe. Barlaam was an- lently interrupted by the Ottoman empire. The swered by a learned monk from Mount Athos, Ottoman rule inhibited the development of the Gregory Palamas. Palamas’s famous book Tri- hesychastic spirituality in the Greek East for

approximately four centuries. However, after Alaska Brotherhood. The six volumes of the the liberation of the Greeks from the Ottoman previous book are devoted to the following rule in the 1830s, the development of the hesy- Russian hesychasts: Vol. 1: Seraphim of Sa- chastic spirituality was inhibited due to various rov; Vol. 2: Abbott Nazarius of Valaam; Vol. historical and societal reasons pertaining to the 3: Herman of Alaska; Vol. 4: Paisius Veli- modern Greek State (political instability, cul- chkovsky; Vol. 5: Elder Theodore of Sanaxor; tural and social underdevelopment, underquali- and Vol. 6: Elder Zosima of Siberia. fied ruling elites, etc.) and However, in the Middle due to the flaws of the neo- It is important to under- Ages, Slavic peoples, hellenic theological estab- including Russians, lishment, which have been stand that hesychasm is adopted Byzantine Or- thoroughly analyzed by the not merely a medieval mo- thodox Christianity distinguished Greek histori- nastic practice, nor is it without having previ- an and theologian Panag- ously become partakers iotes Chrestou.10 In particu- merely confined to the life of Greek philosophy, on lar, as Chrestou has argued, of Byzantine monks. On which the Greek Church the heart of the neohellenic Fathers had been based theology was rooted in the the contrary, I interpret in order to form Ortho- Eastern Orthodox tradition, hesychasm as a system of dox Christian theology. but the neohellenic theology mystical theology and es- The fact that many Slav- was intellectually fed and ic peoples, including conditioned by Protestant- pecially as a system of Russians, adopted Byz- ism (especially Puritanism philosophical anthropolo- antine Orthodox Christi- and Pietism), and its argu- gy that highlights and elu- anity, specifically, the mentation derived from me- theology of the Greek dieval scholasticism (ration- cidates the potential divini- Church Fathers, without alist rhetoric).11 Thus, from ty of the human being. having assimilated the the beginning of the nine- genuine content of clas- teenth century until the beginning of the twen- sical Greek philosophy, which played a key ty-first century, on several occasions, in the role in the formation of Byzantine Orthodox modern Greek State, the defense and the Christianity, did not allow the medieval Rus- preservation of hesychasm was either formalis- sian Orthodox to articulate a Russian philo- tic or subconscious (on the part of simple, in- sophical and social discourse that would be in sufficiently educated people). It often reflected agreement with Byzantine Orthodox Christian- a spiritually puny kind of traditionalism, and it ity, especially with hesychasm, and would was commonly used as a rhetorical fig leaf in provide a philosophically rigorous and attrac- order to conceal the spiritual incompetence of tive alternative to rationalist theological sys- several members of the Greek Orthodox cler- tems (such as scholasticism) and legalistic and gy. formalistic religious attitudes (such as Puritan- Even though the Ottoman rule in Byzantium ism and Pietism). marked the end of the hesychastic renaissance In general, the Russian civilization is marked in the Greek East, and even though hesychasm by an inner, psychic conflict between the fol- could not be easily transplanted in Western soil lowing three spiritual forces: (i) the Byzantine due to the hesychasts’ opposition to scholasti- Orthodox religious identity and heritage of the cism and Western rationalism, hesychasm Russian people, (ii) particular, medieval and found fertile land in Russia, and it blossomed modern Western “schools” of thought that there after the fall of Byzantium. The Russian have influenced the development of philoso- hesychastic tradition is contained in the six phy and political thought in Russia and conflict volumes of the Little Russian Philokalia, with the spiritual core of Russia’s Byzantine which has been published by the St. Herman of Orthodox religious identity and heritage, and

(iii) Eurasian Pagan mystical traditions. In the mon and what is particular, for example, be- nineteenth century, through his novels, Fyodor tween animal and a certain man.” In summary, M. Dostoevsky indirectly yet clearly pointed the Cappadocian Fathers developed the follow- out that the Russian people (“narod”) still had ing conceptual correspondences: not made its final, conscious choice for the Essence = common = species (according to orthodox Christ and that it, therefore, still was Aristotle’s terminology: universal or secondary capable of “throwing itself―while staying and substance) seeking for its [historical destiny]―into the most monstrous deviations and experimenta- Hypostasis = proper = individual (according to tions.”12 In modern, pre-Soviet Russia, the ma- Aristotle’s terminology: primary substance). jor center of hesychastic theology was the According to hesychasm, God’s essence is to- Optina Hermitage (or Pustinia). Paisius Veli- tally transcendent, totally inconceivable, and chkovsky (1722–94) was very influential in totally unknowable. Many hesychasts used to reviving hesychasm in Russia, and his hesy- refer to God’s essence as the “inconceivable chastic work found in Optina Monastery a nothing,” in the sense that, from the perspec- “headquarters” from which hesychasm spread tive of the human mind, God’s essence is the throughout Russia. positive void from which the ultimate signifi- The Three Levels of God’s cance of every being and thing in the world derives. However, God’s essence exists hypo- Existence statically (specifically, as a communion of n the era of the early Church Councils, there three persons), and manifests itself through its I was much confusion concerning the mean- uncreated energies. ing of the Trinitarian formula. The Cappadoci- In order to understand God’s hypostatic way of an Fathers―namely, Basil the Great (330– existence (that is, the Trinitarian doctrine), let 379), who was Bishop of Caesarea, Gregory of us consider the poet T. S. Eliot. The poetry of Nyssa (ca. 332–395), who was Bishop of T. S. Eliot is his “logos,” or word, it is begot- Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus (329–389), ten from Eliot’s “nous” (mind), and it provides who became Patriarch of Constantino- those who read it with Eliot’s “spirit,” specifi- ple―made major contributions to the defini- cally, with a special culture and a special feel- tion of the Holy Trinity finalized at the Second ing of participation in Eliot’s personal world. Ecumenical Council (convened in Constanti- Eliot’s spirit remains with the readers of Eli- nople, in 381 A.D.). In the final version of the ot’s poetry (his “logos”) even when they do Nicene Creed, finalized there, they clarified not have his poems in front of them. By analo- the three levels of God’s existence, namely: gy, God the Father is the Nous (Mind) of God, God’s uncreated essence, God’s uncreated hy- God the Son is the Logos (Word) of God, and postases (Holy Trinity), and God’s uncreated the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. However, energies (e.g., God’s omnipresence, omnisci- in the case of the Holy Trinity, the Nous of ence, omnipotence, goodness, provision, crea- God (Father), the Logos of God (Son), and the tivity, etc.). Holy Spirit are not attributes or functions of a Gregory of Nyssa emphasized the difference being, but they are distinct Persons (hyposta- between the terms “ousia” (essence) and “hy- ses) of the same divine nature/essence. There- postasis.” The distinction between essence and fore, God is a communion of three hypostases. hypostasis corresponds to the distinction be- According to the Nicene Creed, the relation- tween what is common (Greek: “koinon”) and ship between the Father and the Son is called what is particular and proper (Greek: “idion”). begotteness/generation: the Logos (God the Essence is related to hypostasis as the common Son) of God is begotten from the divine Nous is to the particular. Following the same reason- (God the Father) “before all ages,” that is, being, in his Epistle 236, Basil the Great writes fore creation, before the commencement of that “there is the same difference between es- time, in an eternally timeless existence without sence and hypostasis as between what is com-

beginning or end. Moreover, according to the ual characteristics of the subject, but also ex- Nicene Creed, the relationship between the ists in itself, whereas nature does not exist in Father and the Holy Spirit is called procession. itself, but is to be found in hypostasis. Through Gregory of Nazianzus is the first to use the the distinction between hypostasis and na- idea of procession to describe the relationship ture/essence, the Church Fathers managed to between the Holy Spirit and the Fa- explain how God can assume the human nature ther/Godhead. In his Fifth Theological Ora- without losing or degrading His divinity. In tion, Gregory of Nazianzus writes that “the particular, in the case of Jesus Christ, the same Holy Spirit is truly Spirit, coming forth from hypostasis of the Logos (Word) became the the Father indeed but not after the manner of hypostasis of divine and human natures. the Son, for it is not by generation but by pro- The early Greek Church Fathers, such as the cession, since I must coin a word for the sake Cappadocian Fathers, emphasize the ontology of clearness.” of particularity and freedom. The hypostatic John of Damascus (ca. 675/676–749), a Syrian way of God’s existence implies that God is not monk and priest, and one of the most influen- constrained by His nature, and that God’s tial Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, in mode of being is freedom. In the second book his essay entitled The Exact Exposition of the of his Answer to Eunomius, Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Faith, defines “nature” as the princi- wrote that “God has created everything by His ple of motion and repose, and, on this ground, will and without any difficulty and pain the he identifies “nature” with “substance.” How- divine will became nature” (Patrologia Grae- ever, he endorses the Aristotelian distinction ca, vol. 46, 124B). In other words, God’s ac- between primary substance and secondary sub- tion does not admit any mediation, and the on- stance. The distinction (central to Aristotle’s ly “raw material” that God used in order to Categories) between primary and secondary create the world was His own free will. Hence, substances is reformulated by John of Damas- God is free from every logical determination, cus with the help of the non-Aristotelian con- and the cosmos is an actualization of God’s cept of “hypostasis.” His originality with re- will, and not an emanation of God’s nature (the gard to Gregory of Nyssa lies in the priority nature of the cosmos is created, whereas God’s given to the “hypostasis.” John of Damascus nature is uncreated). The aforementioned the- reinterprets the Cappadocian Fathers’ distinc- sis has been systematically elucidated by Max- tion between essence and hypostasis from the imus the Confessor.13 perspective of the priority of primary sub- In his Ambiguum 7, Maximus the Confessor stances in Aristotle’s Categories. In other writes that the act of bringing being out of non- words, according to John of Damascus, reality being, which only a sovereign God can do, can is fundamentally hypostatic: everything exists only be understood in terms of a common as, or in relation to, hypostases. “arche” (beginning) and a common “telos” Hypostasis signifies an existential otherness (end) of being in God, and, therefore, as the (and, hence, individuality), and John of Da- source and the ultimate purpose of all being, mascus defines individuality as numerical dif- the divine Logos is in the particular logoi of ference. He defines hypostasis and, hence, in- His creation (“logoi” is the plural form of dividuality by following Porphyry’s Isagoge “logos”). Moreover, in his Ad Thalassium 64, (7, 19– 27), according to which one individual Maximus the Confessor adds that both creation is distinct from other individuals of the same and Scripture contain the fullness of the Logos species due to one’s unique bundle of proper- in their logoi, and, therefore, they function to- ties; these properties are not essential, and, gether, and they are mirror images of one an- thus, John of Damascus calls them “acci- other (ibid, 167). However, in his Ambiguum 7, dental.” Maximus makes an important clarification: the particular logos of a creature is not a sub- John of Damascus emphasizes that hypostasis stance, and, therefore, it does not subsist in not only possesses common as well as individ- itself, but it only exists potentially in the crea-

tive divine Logos as a yet unmanifested possi- history. Therefore, apart from Jesus Christ, bility. Furthermore, in his Ambiguum 7, fol- human beings cannot be united with God at the lowing Dionysius the Areopagite,14 Maximus level of God’s hypostases, either. However, the Confessor names the logoi (of the beings each human being can participate in God’s and things that exist in the world) divine uncreated energies since, according to hesy- “wills” (Greek: “thelemata,” which is the plu- chasm, the human mind is the repository of ral form of “thelema”). Hence, God knows and God’s uncreated energies, and the Incarnation treats the beings and things in the world as ac- of the divine Logos restored human nature’s tualizations of His will, and He relates to them ability to carry the uncreated grace of the Holy through love, and not according to any logi- Spirit, sent by the divine Nous in the name of cal/natural necessity (since God’s mode of be- the divine Logos (John 14:26). Therefore, ac- ing is freedom). cording to the hesychasts’ theory of humanity’s deification, the human being can be dei- According to Maximus the Confessor, the in- fied without negating one’s humanity (human carnation of the divine Logos in Jesus Christ essence) since the union between humanity reveals the “telos,” namely, the ultimate scope, and deity takes place at the level of God’s un- of the cosmos. In his Ad Thalassium 60, Max- created energies (without calling for the nega- imus the Confessor argues that “the Logos, by tion of the human essence). In addition, ac- essence God, became a messenger of this plan cording to the hesychasts, humanity’s partici- when he became a man and . . . established pation in God’s uncreated energies, that is, the himself as the innermost depth of the Father’s union between humanity and deity at the level goodness while also displaying in himself the of God’s uncreated energies, is the essence of very goal for which his creatures manifestly pure theology and the kind of theoria that the received the beginning of their existence” Greek philosophers had been seeking before (ibid, 125). Moreover, in his Ambiguum 7, Christ. Maximus the Confessor writes that the Logos of God, who is God, wills always and in all The Distinctions between His creatures to accomplish the mystery of His “Essence” and “Energies” and embodiment (ibid, 60). between the “Mind” and the According to the Greek Church Fathers, apart from the levels of His divine essence and His “Intellect” according to divine hypostases, God exists also at the level Hesychasm of His divine energies, which disclose His he Greek Church Fathers in general and mode of being. In other words, the will of God T the hesychasts in particular emphasize that is manifested through the energies of God. God alone is uncreated, and everything else, From the aforementioned perspective, the un- including the human soul, is created. In chap- created energies of God should be differentiat- ters 5 and 6 of his Dialogue with Trypho, Jus- ed from God’s creatures, or acts, which are tin Philosopher and Martyr puts forward the created results of God’s uncreated energies. following arguments: “if the world is begotten, Since the essence of the human being is creat- souls also are necessarily begotten,” and, if the ed, the human being cannot be united with God soul were life, “it would cause something else, at the level of God’s essence (in other words, and not itself, to live, even as motion would the “essential union” between deity and hu- move something else than itself”; even though manity is ontologically impossible). The union the soul lives, “it lives not as being life, but as between humanity and God at the level of the partaker of life . . . the soul partakes of life, God’s hypostases (namely, the “hypostatic un- since God wills it to live.” According to hesy- ion” between the divine and the human na- chasm, the human soul and the body are united tures) took place only once, that is, in the case into a psycho-somatic nexus, and the soul of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Logos of God, should be understood as the hypostatic (“per- who is the incarnate channel of God’s love in sonal”) carrier of the impersonal life-force,

namely, it is what makes a human being a hy- er hand, a soul that is submerged in the lower postasis (or “person”). and the animalistic nature cannot reach immor- tality, but it will instead perish with the ani- In the first triad of his treatises In Defense of malistic part, as it is written in Ecclesiastes the Holy Hesychasts, Gregory Palamas15 ar- (3:19); this is the meaning of “spiritual death” gues that the heart is the essence of the mind, (Romans 6:23; Colossians 2:13; Ephesians and the mind is a power of the heart: “the heart 2:1–3, 5:8; 1 John 5:12). is the secret chamber of the mind and the prime physical organ of mental power.” Addi- Gregory Palamas argues that, through the soul, tionally, in the same triad, he attacks the idea God’s grace is extended throughout the body, that the human being must drive one’s mind and that God’s gifts to humanity are actualized out of one’s body in order to attain spiritual through the body. According to Gregory Pala- visions as an erroneous belief, and he argues as mas, apathy does not consist in the deadening follows: “We who carry as in vessels of clay, of the passionate part of the soul, but it con- that is in our bodies, the light of the Father, in sists in the re-orientation of the passionate part the person of Jesus Christ, in which we know of the soul from evil to good. Instead of con- the glory of the Holy Spirit―how can it dis- demning and rejecting the passionate part of honor our mind to duel in the inner sanctuary the soul, Gregory Palamas points out that we of the body?” Furthermore, in the second triad love through the passionate part of the soul, of his treatises In Defense of the Holy Hesy- and, therefore, if we deaden the passionate part chasts, Gregory Palamas adds the following: of the soul, we are unable to fulfill Christ’s “When spiritual joy comes to the body from Law, which is to love God and one’s fellow the mind, it suffers no diminution by this humans (Mark 12:28–31). communion with the body, but rather transfig- It is very important to clarify that, for the hes- ures the body, spiritualizing it. For then, reject- ychasts, the three aspects of the human soul, ing all evil desires of the flesh, it no longer which are mentioned in the fourth book of Pla- weighs down the soul that rises up with it, the to’s Republic―namely, the appetitive aspect whole man becoming spirit.” of the soul (which is responsible for the human Hesychasm does not fight against the body, but being’s base desires), the high-spirited, or hot- it aims at liberating the body from the law of blooded, aspect of the soul (namely, the part of sin (specifically, from impersonal, uncon- us that loves to face and overcome great chal- trolled impulses and instincts and from selfish- lenges, and that loves victory, winning, chal- ness), and at establishing there the mind as an lenge, and honor), and the rational aspect of overseer. The hesychasts lay down laws for the soul―are not organic, or essential parts of every power of the soul and for every member the soul, but they are only consequences of the of the body: they dictate to the senses what human being’s exercise of free will. Thus, ac- they have to receive and in what measure, thus cording to hesychasm, the human being is re- achieving self-mastery; they purify the desiring sponsible for one’s psychological contents and part of the soul through love; and they improve states, and the essence of “psychological ill- the intellectual part of the soul by eliminating ness” consists in the dispersion of humanity’s everything that prevents the mind from soaring mental energy upon sensibilia (the sensible to God, thus achieving “nepsis.” realm) and in an injury to the sociality of the human soul (which underpins the communion According to hesychasm, through its participa- between humanity and God). From the per- tion in the uncreated energies of God, the hu- spective of hesychasm, the phrase “sociality of man soul can be deified, and, thus, it can be the human soul” refers to the soul’s receptive- existentially fulfilled and filled with the uncre- ness to God’s uncreated grace and the soul’s ated light of God’s glory. In the language of openness to one’s fellow humans. Therefore, ancient mystics, a soul that is a partaker of as I explain in my book The Meaning of Being God’s uncreated energies is called a standing Illuminati, hesychastic psychotherapy is inex- soul. Such a soul is truly immortal. On the oth- tricably linked to a radical and, indeed, liberat-

ing form of unselfishness and mental nobility. ous system. The mind can be united with the In my aforementioned book, I maintain that, supra-rational, absolute good only if it is “by losing the link between God’s Spirit and the cleansed from the passions of the senses, and human mind, that is, by losing the power of partici- this can be achieved through repentance, pating in God, human life and human behavior are namely, through the return of the mind to the determined by the egocentric powers of self- heart. By being detached from the world of the gratification and self-vindication, whose nature senses and by returning to the heart, where it may be either rational or emotional,” and I explain remains exclusively oriented towards the di- why neither emotion nor reason (“ratio”) has the vine Logos, the mind experiences God’s free- power of communion.16 dom, because then it is capable of making pas- Hesychasm emphasizes that the mind does not sionless choices, namely, choices that are in- have any organs, but it is an image of God, dependent from natural determinism. and, therefore, it is not essentially determined to succumb to corporeal passions, nor is it es- Conclusion sentially attracted to the sensible realm. his study has examined a mystical aspect Whereas the intellect (the rational faculty of T and tradition of Orthodox Christianity. In the soul), desire, and passion are powers of the particular, this study has provided a synopsis soul, and are natural channels of knowledge, of the spiritual content of hesychasm. In this the mind is the inner region of supra-natural way, it paves a new way for a spiritually fruit- wisdom. ful and significant rediscovery of the relation- According to the hesychasts, the intellect is ship between “Orthodoxy” and “Gnosticism,” naturally oriented towards and concerned with and even between “Orthodoxy” and “Heresy,” the world of the senses, and it organizes sense- through and within the context of a new re- data into a rational whole, whereas the mind is search program of humanity’s illumination, naturally oriented towards and concerned with which I have articulated and called “Ur- the divine Logos. Hence, the mind should not Illuminism.” I have coined the term “Ur- be mingled with the intellect. As a result of the Illuminati” in order to refer to an ontologically hesychasts’ distinction between the mind and grounded conception of illumination, specifi- the intellect, it is the mind, and not the intel- cally, to one that is underpinned by Plato’s lect, that must be detached from the world of theory of ideas and the hesychasts’ teachings the senses. The intellect cannot function with- about humanity’s real (that is, ontological) dei- out processing sense-data, and, therefore, if the fication. Thus, in order to distinguish my con- intellect is detached from the world of the ception of illumination/Illuminism from other senses, it enters into a sleep state, such as the conceptions of illumination/illuminism, I have yogic sleep, which is irrelevant to the hesy- used the term “Ur,” which denotes that some- chasts’ notion of mental stillness. According to thing/someone embodies the basic or essential- the terminology of hesychasm, the intellect is ly deepest qualities of a particular class or the rational faculty (“power”) of the human type. As I have argued in this study, the essen- soul, whereas the mind (Greek: “nous”) is the tially deepest quality of humanity’s illumina- vessel or repository of God’s uncreated ener- tion is humanity’s participation in God’s un- gies (uncreated grace) within the human being. created energies, namely, humanity’s deification. The intellect, being concerned with sense-data and their rational organization, does not have free will. The mind alone has free will, since it 1 Armunn Righ, “The Gospel of the Living,” loves and seeks the supra-rational, absolute The Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio; online at: good (the good-in-itself), namely, it seeks to https://thegodabovegod.cp,/the-gospeal-of- participate in the deity. It is exactly due to the the-living (Last accessed June 9, 2019). distinction between the mind and the intellect 2 Miguel Conner, “A Summary of Gnosticism that hesychasm leads to the conclusion that the Both Aeons and Archons Agree On,” The Ae- human soul is something more than the nerv- on Byte Gnostic Radio; online at:

https://thegodabovegod.com/a-summary-of- 10 Panagiotes K. Chrestou, “Neohellenic Theol- gnosticism-both-aeons-and-archons-agree-on/ ogy at the Crossroads,” The Greek Orthodox (Last accessed July 24, 2018). Theological Review, vol. XXVIII, 1983, 39– 3 In his Republic (443d–e), Plato writes that the 54. just person has cured one’s soul by keeping 11 Ibid, p. 51. the three elements (namely, reason, the emo- 12 Quoted in: Irene Masing-Delic, Exotic Mos- tions, and the appetites) that make up one’s cow under Western Eyes (Boston: Academic inward self “in tune, like the notes of a scale,” Studies Press, 2009), 99; Dostoevsky as quot- by setting one’s house to rights, by attaining ed in: Boris Vysheslavtsev, “Russkaia stikhiia “self-mastery and order,” and by living “on u Dostoevskogo,” in F. M. Dostoevskii 1881– good terms with oneself,” thus bounding 100–1981 (London: Overseas Publications In- “these elements into a disciplined and harmo- terchange Limited, 1981), 119. nious whole.” Moreover, in his Phaedo (67b), 13 Initially, Maximus the Confessor was an aide Plato argues that psychic cleansing is a key to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. Howev- presupposition of our transformation into the er, he gave up his career as a senior civil serv- real good, because “it cannot be that the im- ant in order to become a monk. He moved to pure attain the pure.” Hence, according to Pla- Carthage, where he studied Greek philosophy to, the knowledge of the real good presuppos- and especially Neoplatonism, and he became a es not only the ability to give an account, but prominent author also a psychic cleansing or cure. 14 Dionysius the Areopagite was a judge of the 4 See: Miguel Conner, Voices of Gnosticism, Areopagus who, as related in the Acts of the Dublin: Bardic Press, 2011; Miguel Conner, Apostles (17:34), was converted to Christiani- Other Voices of Gnosticism, Dublin: Bardic ty by the preaching of the Apostle Paul during Press, 2016. the Areopagus Sermon. According to Diony- 5 In Greek, the word “philokalia” means love of sius of Corinth (Bishop of Corinth; died in the beautiful and good. 171 A.D.), quoted by the Roman historian and 6 Nicolas Laos, Interview by Miguel Conner, exegete Eusebius of Caesarea, Dionysius the The Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio; online: Areopagite then became the first Bishop of https://thegodabovegod.com/the-quest-for- Athens. In the early sixth century A.D., a se- inner-illumination/ (Last accessed August 26, ries of famous writings, employing Neopla- 2019). tonic and Gnostic language to elucidate Chris- 7 See: Nicolas Laos, The Meaning of Being Il- tian theology, was ascribed to Dionysius the luminati (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Areopagite Scholars Publishing, 2019), 2.2.2. 15 For a systematic study of Gregory Palamas’s 8 “Kallistos Katafygiotis” is the pen name of an theology and anthropology, see: Nicolas Laos, anonymous hesychast. Upon ordination, many The Meaning of Being Illuminati (Newcastle hesychasts were given the name “Kallistos.” upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 9 Nicolas Laos, Interview by Ryan Burns, HE- 2019), 2.2. ROparanormal podcast; online at: 16 Laos, The Meaning of Being Illuminati, 95. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP0hLwF e1Yg (Last accessed August 23, 2019).