ANTHOLOGY 1 - SELF KNOWLEDGE

 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

 

 

An Outline of the History of ‘Know Thyself’[1]

 

The Seven Sages [588-548 B.C.E.] are credited with the saying which was on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. An enigma with both Moral and Mystical meanings. The first account we have in history of ‘Know Thyself’ comes from Herodotus [484-420 B.C.E.] when he discusses the Seven Sages and the inscription at Delphi.[2]

 

However, the most important source is Plato [427-347 B.C.E.]. He holds, with other mystics, that the soul ‘remembers’ knowledge which it knew in full before birth but has forgotten upon entering the body. This remembered knowledge is demonstrated in the dialogue ‘The Meno’, and is developed in the full sense in the ‘Alcibiades I’, where it is shown that to ‘Know Oneself’ is to know of the soul and its identification with God.

 

Proclus [410-485 C.E.] wrote extensive commentaries on the works of Plato. Belonging to the Neo-Platonist’s school of mystical interpretation, his commentaries are a gold-mine of information on religious thought coming up to the end of the reign of Greek philosophy.

 

Aristotle [384-322 B.C.] ignored the mystical side of self-knowledge and concentrated on the ethical and moral aspects. While these make good citizens it does not lead one to God. Although the moral attainment is essential in those who strive to become one with God through practice, the mystical experience of identity with God comes from knowing a higher ‘Self’, that of the God within.

 

Cicero [106-43 B.C.E.] besides being one of the foremost public figures of his troubled time was also a philosopher of note. His public life was full of world-shaking events. Political intrigues, coups, assassinations, and bloody civil wars. Yet he found time to contemplate the higher truths of the universe. His philosophy was both practical and speculative. In his philosophical works he was at pains to give the different major or philosophical schools a hearing. While not a very original thinker Cicero had a broad and thorough knowledge of humanity and our relationship with the gods. Many of the Church Fathers were profoundly influenced by his writings.

 

Philo Judaeus [20 B.C.- A.D. 50] understood the ‘Knowledge of Oneself’ as an essential step to the Knowledge of God. (On Dreams, I. 55-60; L.C.L. V. 5, PP. 325-7) The study of this way to God is divided into the study of the seven liberal arts, the Quadrivium: Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, and the Trivium: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric. These are the seven steps to earthly wisdom and knowledge. This way is known by the name of ‘Hagar’ while the mystical way to God which goes beyond the world is known as ‘Sara’ after the two women of Abraham, who ‘Knew Himself’ and went on to know God. [3]

 

Plutarch [46-120 A.D.] was a priest at Delphi. He wrote several essays, in his Moralia, on the Oracle at Delphi and an explanation of Egyptian Mystical Myths, (Isis and Osiris), which contain many hints of the nature of the Self one Knows in the mystical sense. He does not neglect the moral aspect, many of his most famous essays are on topics suited to the making of a good citizen.

 

Clement of Alexandria [160-215 A.D.] had read Philo, Plato, and many of the original sources which are no longer extant. He also was acquainted with much of the mystical literature of the Gnostic sects and probably the Hermetica, at least the earlier sections. To him to ‘Know-oneself’ was to Know God and only the true Christian ‘Gnostic’, One-Who-Knows, could Know God. He also saw the ‘Hagar’ of the liberal arts as a stepping-stone to the Higher Knowledge of the Self and God as the true end.

 

Plotinus [205-270] One of the greatest mystical writers was Plotinus, who came from the same Alexandria as Clement; the mixing-pot of religion and philosophy. He travelled to Rome and taught there for many years. He had many wealth patrons and was widely respected. His was a message of ‘Enlightened Intellect’;

“Yes, we must so know, if we are to know what ‘Self Knowledge’ in intellect means. A man has become Intellect when he lets all the rest which belongs to him go and looks at this with this, and himself with himself; that is as an Intellect he sees himself...”[4]