01. May 2021

The question of apophasis vs. cataphasis (that we have discussed in the last part) extends far beyond the scope of “methodic truth”, for just as deification commences in this life to be perfected in the next one, so there’s in both traditions an inner continuity between the way of spiritual ascent and the conception of its final End. We touch here on one of the main points of contention between Eastern and Western theology, namely the beatific vision. As is known, for the Latins “final...

18. April 2021

The theologies of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Gregory Palamas have often come to be seen as synthetically representing the intellectual tradition of the Western and Eastern Church respectively; and this for a good reason. Both Thomas and Gregory shed a unique light on the Christian revelatum which can indeed furnish many valuable insights into the distinct “spirit” that enlivens the Western and the Eastern tradition of Christianity. Nevertheless, among certain apologists (or rather...

21. March 2021

Having touched on quite a lot of numerical symbolism already here and there, we think it might be helpful to lay out the symbolism of the seven days of the week once in a short and concise manner, thereby effectively resuming a lot of what we have said so far. There are of course many angles from which one could approach this topic, but we for our part shall especially look at the symbolism of the seven days in terms of the creation week of Genesis (and the Torah more generally), as well as its...

14. March 2021

As we have seen in the previous essays, the divine Name YHWH is (under one of its aspects) often employed to refer to God’s revelation in history. Now the Name YHWH (from hayah, ‘to be’) is of course deeply connected to the “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh” (I AM that I AM) spoken to Moses from the burning bush and thus to the number 42 (Ehyeh-Ehyeh = 21+21), as well as to the unutterable ‘42-letter Name of God’ commonly referenced in Jewish tradition (the word “God”, Eloah, likewise...

11. March 2021

According to some traditions it is said that while Satan fell due to pride (Hoch-mut), Adam succumbed to ‘baseness’ (Nieder-tracht), i.e. to ‘gravity’ (in germ. “Erdanziehungskraft”, literally: the force that pulls us down to the ‘earth’ or to the ‘world’) and through him “the law of gravity came to rule over all of creation”. Gravity not only pulls us ‘down’, but it is also that which centers us in ourselves, it is ahamkâra (the ‘ego-maker’), the principium...

07. March 2021

[This essay can be read as an afterthought to some previous posts; cf. here and here] The mythos of the androgyne has taken on many different forms throughout the centuries. In the early Fathers (like Origen, St. Gregory, and St. Maximus) it is characterized by the spirit of a monastic asceticism resulting in what could be called a ‘denial of the feminine’ (following the “misei tên psychên heauton” of Lk. 14:26), the killing of the old man through strict observances and austere...

21. February 2021

The beginning of the liturgical year is dedicated to the idea of idea of ‘Epiphany’, i.e. revelation, a ‘tearing away of the veil’, and thus we want to shortly attempt to take a peak beyond this ‘veil’ to see what it is that Holy Mother Church gives us to contemplate. Of course the primal epiphany from which all the other feasts flow is the Nativity of the Lord itself; here the Divine Ray transpierces the horizontal and the divine Sun is born from the ‘waters’ (= maria), coming...

06. February 2021

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore; fecemi la divina podestate, la somma sapïenza e ’l primo amore Dante, Inferno From the gravity of hell we must infer the grandeur of man. Frithjof Schuon Having already on several occasions spoken about the Divine Mercy, or the ‘right Pillar’ of divine attributes more generally, we want to briefly turn our attention to the ‘left Pillar’, namely to that of ‘Severity’ or ‘Judgement’ (which according to Böhme even ‘precedes’ that of...

10. January 2021

There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders: insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24 When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything. G.K. Chesteron When we originally published our essay on the topic of Anthropic Realism, Böhme and Erigena, we received a comment asking us whether we had heard of Bernado Kastrup, an analytic philosopher and scientist, who...

03. January 2021

Der Schuster Jakob Böhme war ein großer Philosoph. Manche Philosophen von Ruf sind nur große Schuster Karl Marx As is well known Böhme starts his ‘theogonic’ vision with the Ungrund, the divine ‘Abyss’, which is the mysterium magnum in which all things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible are eternally contained (analogous to the ‘One’ of the platonici or the Ein Sof of the Kabbalists). In this divine Abyss there is from all eternity a bottomless, unoriginated Will,...