Plato, in the Phaedo, informs us that we live in hollows on the face of the earth, filled with water, mist, and the lower air. This is in contradiction to the commonly-held belief that we live, of course, on its surface. Plato (through his vehicle of Socrates who, however, most say was likely a real person) further reveals that our experienced earth is only the sediment of the true earth gathered, and that this true earth is a more fair and pure place. Indeed, he says we are like creatures at the bottom of the sea, fancying that we are on the surface of the water, but too feeble and sluggish to lift our heads and behold the true upper world.
I not only agree but find this revelation a perhaps strange comfort. For I am in decrepit decaying basements, underground tunnels, watery underworlds, in my dreams. And little wonder, when the scenes all around us are of war, violence, destruction, general depravity. At least for me, these are only stories in the news, not lived experiences. Living at this time, and maybe at all times, can often mean overwhelming sadness and suffering, the product of which is the feeble sluggish state we find ourselves in and that prevents us from reaching the upper world that Plato speaks of. One might speculate that this is by design. I won't go down that route here. What I would like to do is to throw some lights onto signposts marking the path to the upper world.
I have at various times in my life had an experience most frequently of hearing a song, or watching a scene, and recognizing a quality therein of something transcendent, surpassing the sensorially known
world. This feeling defies description but I can attempt to compare it to a resonance, like the needle of a record player running along the grooves of the soul. It is as if, if not in fact, these songs, images, scenes have captured a fragment of the Divine, of the eternal Universal Principles that at most times remain unseen. Perhaps the physical manifestation of the Divine is what art is.Also in the Phaedo, Plato describes the physical material world as an inferior one, consisting of things that are but images or representations of the absolute essences of those things, which are truly existent. The upper world is of the unchanging unseen, the immortal, and ours is of the changing seen, the mortal. It is only with the soul that the upper world can be apprehended, as it is the place from which she descended.
I believe the soul, upon beholding a physical manifestation of the Divine, recognizes the absolute Beauty that partakes in certain of created works in this material world, because she once beheld and now recollects absolute Beauty in the upper world. And Plato, in the Symposium, tells us the way back to there (as conveyed by Diotima of Mantineia to Socrates). The path to true vision is through the visitation and recognition of beautiful forms: first those outwardly beautiful, then those beautiful of the mind, then those of institutions, and finally understanding the science of beauty everywhere. Beauty absolute is the final destination. And it is love, love of the good and the beautiful, that draws us forth.
May you behold a beautiful form, Heaven-sent, here:
'In Your Eyes' is one of my very special special favorite songs from that time a while back now... When it came out it had such a magical feeling to it. Still does. So appropriate to what Plato was saying.
Last night I was lying awake in bed wondering about cups and bowls and how they can maybe be similar to writing on paper or other surfaces. "Cups and bowls are concave, paper flat." "But being concave has maybe something to do with potential energy?" I thought Are the "The low places" the zones of lower energy.
It was probably 2019, New York City, I was in a bar drinking a gin and seltzer, alone, as I often did then. A few feet from the precipice of a chasm, but I did not know it yet. Or maybe I did. When "Higher Love", sung by Steve Winwood and Chaka Khan, came on the bluetooth speaker. It was not the first time I had heard it, but it was the first time in a long time, and the feeling was one I hadn't felt in a long time. Like a stream of fresh clear air on the radio waves, piercing the heavy stale haze of the bar. It was a reminder of the existence of something pure and true, beyond what my world had become, an ideal captured. In the coming years, as things got worse, and then better, it would continue to serve as a reminder of the world above. A buoy in the rough sea. But how was this song conceived of, what was Winwood channeling? What is Love, and will he fly as soon as we try to pin him down? The dialogue that is perhaps of most relevance to this question is Plato's S...
Truth can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of places, in a children’s film, a comic book, a video game. The Dark Crystal is the 1982 Jim Henson film that introduces us to the world of Thra, its inhabitants, the native Gelfling, and its usurpers, the Skeksis. It is achingly beautiful and chillingly familiar. Not really a children’s film or maybe what children’s films used to be, unsanitized stories that had messages and told the truth about about life, even the darker parts. The story goes that the idea for the Dark Crystal came to Jim Henson when looking at an illustration made by Leonard Lubin for Lewis Carroll’s “The Pig-Tale”, depicting two “fancy crocodiles”, one bathing and one toweling off in a Victorian bathroom. Crocodiles. A few years later, Henson met Brian Froud and the two decided to partner to bring the world of the Dark Crystal to life, with Wendy Midener (Froud) joining as creature design supervisor for the Gelfling. The Frouds, Brian and Wendy, of course are fame...
'In Your Eyes' is one of my very special special favorite songs from that time a while back now... When it came out it had such a magical feeling to it. Still does. So appropriate to what Plato was saying.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder where it came from!
DeleteLast night I was lying awake in bed wondering about cups and bowls and how they can maybe be similar to writing on paper or other surfaces. "Cups and bowls are concave, paper flat." "But being concave has maybe something to do with potential energy?" I thought Are the "The low places" the zones of lower energy.
ReplyDeleteYea, I think some of us are picking up each others’ thoughts here and there. Or picking up the same ones out there.
DeleteReminds me of Songs of Earth and Power. Nice insights.
ReplyDelete