Module 1: Cosmos and Consciousness
Tutor: Angela Voss
"There is a dimension of human experience that is not external to us in the sense that it can be directly and tangibly grasped. Rather, it is within us, but the word 'within' must be understood metaphorically. It reflects a depth in us as human beings and also a depth of the universe. Perceiving one, we perceive the other." (Ira Progoff, Jung and Synchronicity)
Module content
This module will address the theme of spiritual or cosmic intelligence and human beings' interaction with it, through a phenomenological and historical approach to source material. In Western culture the term 'cosmology' can be understood in two distinct but complementary ways, according to pre- or post-enlightenment perspectives. Firstly, it denotes a finite, harmonious structure created by (and/or filled with) divine intelligence, and secondly, an infinite, impersonal chasm filled with space, gases and matter. Both perspectives comprise an observable system of relationships which can be studied through the application of human reason and observation. However, allied to the former perspective we also find the possibility of human interaction with the macrocosm in an imaginal or metaphoric sense, in order to gain a knowledge which transcends sense perception and may be termed psychological, transpersonal or spiritual depending on the frame of reference. This microcosm-macrocosm relationship brings us to the question of revelatory knowledge acquired through both direct cognition (i.e. contemplative or telepathic) and through symbolic interpretation (i.e.divinatory practices), and therefore to the heart of the religious traditions - both exoteric and esoteric - in the West.
Both cosmological and epistemological perspectives were transmitted through the dialogues of Plato, and therefore the creation myth in the Timaeus together with the allegory of the cave in the Republic will be studied as key texts. The interaction between the human being and the transpersonal 'other' or divine agency will then be explored via texts and traditions from antiquity to the present day concerned with the engagement of human consciousness with an intelligent cosmos, which may take the form of ritual magic, divination, prayer, direct revelation from or communion with God or the gods, or contemporary forms of active imagination, ASC, hypnosis therapy and mediumship. We will begin and end with the underlying theme of initiation; for central to the Mystery rituals in ancient Greece were encounters with spirit beings who assured participants of their immortality, and in the modern therapist's chair, similar experiences arise, raising the question of whether a universal, 'objective' knowledge of transpersonal dimensions accessible through altered states of consciousness can be identified. In between, we will examine the neoplatonic model of the cosmos and the four levels of knowledge, the Hermetic revelatory texts, Iamblichus and the 'divinisation' rituals of theurgy, magical discourse and its opponents in the middle ages, the revival of Platonic magic and astrology in the Renaissance, the angelic conversations of John Dee and Emanuel Swedenborg, the mundus imaginalis of the Sufi mystics as conveyed to the West by Henry Corbin, Jung's theory of active imagination, and the phenomena of spirit invocation and manifestation in ritual magic, spiritual science, spiritualism and contemporary life between life therapy.
An important consideration throughout the module will be the question of the 'reality' of spiritual or cosmic intelligence and appropriate methods for studying it, assessing the pros and cons of contemporary scientific, archetypal and psychological models of expanded awareness and the possibilities of reconciling sacred and secular modes of perceiving the world in the 21st century.
Module aims
1. To familiarise students with the principles of Western esoteric traditions through primary and secondary texts, focussing on cosmological principles and the human relationship with transpersonal reality.
2. To investigate the mode of knowledge implicit in such encounters and consider how it may be understood in relation to post-enlightenment attitudes to 'truth'.
3. To raise the question of appropriate methods of study in relation to transpersonal or spiritual phenomena.
4. To locate contemporary and 'new-age' holistic practices within a philosophical and metaphysical framework and evaluate the significance of such a framework for the modern world.
Students will be expected to submit a 5,000 word essay on a designated essay topic, and to complete weekly online assignments on the reading material. Key texts will be available online, and will be supplemented by powerpoint presentations, handouts, supplementary notes and short assignments.
Essential texts
Tom Cheetham, The World Turned Inisde Out (New Orleans: Spring Pubs. 1993)
N. Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions (Oxford UP, 2008
C.G. Jung, ed. Roderick Main, Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal (London: Routledge, 1997)
C.G. Jung, ed. Joan Chodorow Jung on Active Imagination (London: Routledge, 1997)
Joseph Milne, Metaphysics and the Cosmic Order (London: Temenos Academy, 2008)Jeremy Naydler, The Future of the Ancient World: essays on the history of consciousness (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2009)
Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1993)
Angela Voss, Marsilio Ficino (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2006
Module units
1. Ancient mysteries: the question of initiation
Online texts
M. Eliade, 'Patterns of Initiation in Higher Religions' in Rites and Symbols of Initiation (NY: Harper and Row, 1958), 103-135
K. Kerenyi, 'The Secret of Eleusis' in Eleusis (Princeton UP, repr.1991) 67-102
R. Otto, 'The Meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries' in The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks (repr. Princeton UP, 1955), 14-29
Rudolf Steiner, 'Knowledge of Higher Worlds' in Occult Science - an Outline (London:Rudolf Steiner Press, repr. 1979), ch.5
2. Knowledge of divine things: Plato's Timaeus and Cave Allegory
sample powerpoint
Online texts
Maggie Hyde, ''Cosmology for Modern Time: Recreating the One World' (unpublished paper)
Joseph Milne, 'Cosmos as Divine Enchantment' in Metaphysics and the Cosmic Order (London: Temenos, 2008), ch. 2
Jeremy Naydler, Plato, Aristotle and the Union of Opposites (Oxford: Abzu Press, 2007)
Plato, Timaeus, Republic excerpts
A. Wilson Nightingale, 'Timaeus: Visible gods' in Theoria: Spectacles of Truth in Ancient Greek Philosophy (Cambridge UP, 2004), 168-180
3. The neoplatonic cosmos: the four levels of knowledge
Online texts
A.H. Armstrong, 'Platonic Mirrors' in Hellenic and Christian Studies (Aldershot: Variorum, 1990), 147-181
H. Flanders Dunbar, 'The Fourfold Method' in Symbolism in Medieval thought and its consummation in the Divine Comedy (Yale UP, 1929), 263-282
Margaret Miles, 'Choice and Chance: Soul as Pivot of the Universe' in Plotinus in Body and Beauty (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) ch. 3
Angela Voss, 'From Allegory to Anagoge: the question of symbolic perception in a literal world', in Astrology and the Academy eds. N. Campion, P. Curry & M. York (Bristol: Cinnabar Books, 2004), 1-9
4. Hermes Trismegistus and the revelatory dialogue
Online texts
Corpus Hermeticum I and XIII in The Way of Hermes eds. C. Salaman, D. van Oyen & W. Wharton (London: Duckworth, 1999)
Asclepius (excerpts), ed. C. Salaman (London: Duckworth, 2007)
Peter Kingsley, 'Apollo', in In the Dark Places of Wisdom (California: Golden Sufi Centre, 1999), 87-105
Peter Kingsley, 'Poimandres: The Etymology of the Name and the Origins of the Hermetica' in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes no.56 (1993) 1-24
5. Invoking the gods: theurgic ritual in Iamblichus' De mysteriis
Online texts
Iamblichus, On the Mysteries (extracts) in trans. E. Clarke, J. Dillon & J.Herschbell (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003)
Porphyry, 'Letter to Anebo' in Iamblichus On the Mysteries trans. T. Taylor (Frome: Prometheus Trust, 1999)
Proclus, 'On the Sacred Art' trans. S. Ronan (online)
Gregory Shaw, 'Introduction' to Theurgy and the Soul (Pennsylvania UP, 1995), 1-17
Gregory Shaw 'Containing Ecstasy: The Strategies of Iamblichean Theurgy' in Dionysius vol. XXI, Dec. 2003, 53-88
Peter Struck, 'Moonstones and Men that Glow' in Birth of the Symbol (Princeton UP, 2007) ch. 7
6. Magic in the Middle Ages
Online texts
Valerie Flint, 'The Magic that was needed: rescued means of magical intervention' in The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), ch.6
S. Lewis, 'The Heavens' in The Discarded Image (Cambridge UP, 1964), ch.5Thomas Aquinas 'Is Divination a Sin?' (Summa Theologiae art.1, qu.9 & 10)
Augustine, 'Concerning Theurgy' in City of God ch.10
7. Marsilio Ficino and the daimon of Orpheus
Online texts
Michael J.B.Allen, 'Ficino, Smoke and the Strangled Chickens' in Plato's Third Eye (Aldershot: Variorum, 1995),
Orphic Hymns (excerpts) trans. T. Taylor
Angela Voss, 'Introduction' and 'Letter to Cosimo' in Marsilio Ficino (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2006)
John Warden, 'Orpheus and Ficino' in Orpheus: the Metamorphosis of a Myth (University of Toronto, 1982), 85-110
8. Astral magic in Ficino's Liber de vita
Online texts
Marsilio Ficino, 'On Fitting your Life to the Heavens', Book 3 from Three Books on life eds. C. Kaske & J. Clark (Binghamton: Renaissance Studies and Texts, 1989)
G. Pico della Mirandola, 900 Conclusions (excerpts) in Syncretisim in the West ed. A Farmer (Tempe, Arizona: MRTS Press, 1998)
Angela Voss, 'Father Time and Orpheus' in The Imaginal Cosmos eds. A. Voss & J. Hinson Lall (Canterbury: University of Kent, 2007)
9. Talking with Angels: John Dee and Emanuel Swedenborg
Online texts
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 'Emanuel Swedenborg' in The Western Esoteric Traditions (Oxford UP, 2008,) ch. 8
Deborah Harkness, Climbing Jacob's Ladder: Angelology as Natural Philosophy in John Dee's Conversations with Angels (Cambridge UP, 1999), ch.3
Gerald Suster, John Dee (excerpts) (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003)
Emanuel Swedenborg, 'Angelic Nature' in Emanuel Swedenborg ed. Michael Stanley (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003), ch.8
10. The mundus imaginalis of Henry Corbin
Online texts
Tom Cheetham 'The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the Soul of the World' in Temenos Academy Review, 2005,14-33
Henry Corbin, Mundus imaginalis (Ipswich: Golgonooza Press, 1976)
Henry Corbin, 'Theophanic Imagination and the Creativity of the Heart' in Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn'Arabi (Princeton UP, 1969, repr. Mythos Press, 1997), ch.IV
Angela Voss 'On Being an Angel' (unpublished paper, 2008)
11. Active imagination and archetypal psychology
Online texts
J. Hillman, 'Heaven retains in its Sphere half of all Bodies and Maladies' at www.springpub.com/astro.htm
J. Hillman, 'The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World' (excerpt), Spring publications 1997, 1-37
C.G. Jung, excerpts from Jung on Active Imagination ed. J. Chodorow (London: Routledge, 1997)
C.G. Jung, excerpts from Memories, Dreams, Reflections (London: Fontana, 1987)
Ira Progoff, 'Archetypes and the Patterning of Time' in Jung, Synchronicity and Human Destiny (New York: Julian Press, 1973 ) ch.7
Leon Schlamm, 'Active Imagination in Answer to Job', in L. Huskinson (ed.), Dreaming the Myth Onwards: New Directions in Jungian Therapy and Thought (London: Routledge, 2008) 109-121
12. Modern mysteries: spiritual science, Life between life therapy and spirit manifestation
Online texts
Michael Newton, chaps. 1 and 6 from Destiny of Souls (Llewellyn Publications, 2006)
Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 22
Rudolf Steiner, 'Knowledge of Higher Worlds' in Occult Science - An Outline (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, repr. 1979), ch. V
Grant and Jane Solomon, 'Spiritual Philosophy' in The Scole Experiments (London: Piatkus, 1999), ch. 10
Angela Voss 'The Descent of Orpheus' (unpublished paper, 2008)
Further reading
Charles Burnett (ed.), Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996)
Noel Cobb Archetypal Imagination (Edinburgh: Floris Books,1992)
Clare Fanger, (ed.) Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic (Penn State Press, 1998)
Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino 7 vols. (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1975-2003)
Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes (Cambridge UP, 1988)
Joscelyn Godwin, The Mystery Religions (London: Thames & Hudson, 1981)
Ivor Grattan Guinness (ed.), Psychical Research: A Guide to its History, Principles and Practices (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 982)
Susan Greenwood, The Nature of Magic: an anthropology of consciousness (Oxford: Berg, 2005)
Deborah Harkness, John Dee's Conversations with Angels (University of Southern California, 2006)
Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld (Ravendale, WA: Pine Winds Press, 2003)
James Hillman, Archetypal Psychology (repr. Putnam, Conn.: Spring, 2004)
J.Hillman, 'A Cosmology for Soul' in Sphinx vol.2 (1989)
C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (London: Fontana, 1987)
C.G. Jung, The Red Book ed. Sonu Shamdasani (New York: Norton, 2009)
Peter Kingsley, In the Dark Places of Wisdom (California: Golden Sufi Center, 1999)
C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image (Cambridge UP, 1964)
Zeke Mazur, 'Unio Magica' part I: 'On the Magical Origins of Plotinus' Mysticism' (Dionysus vol. XXI, Dec. 2003) and 'Unio Magica' part II: 'Plotinus, Theurgy and the Question of Ritual' (Dionysus vol. XXII, Dec. 2004)
Iris Murdoch, The Fire and the Sun: why Plato banished the Artists (Oxford UP, 1977)Mchael Newton, Journey of Souls (Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1994)
J.D. North, Stars, Minds and Fate: essays in ancient and medieval cosmology (Hambledon, 1989)
Jane Roberts, The Nature of Psyche (San Rafael: Amber Allen Publishing, 1995)
Michael W. Stanley, Swedenborg (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2003)
Peter Struck, Birth of the Symbol (Princeton UP, 2004)
Rudolf Steiner, Life Beyond Death (Forest Row: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003)
Rudolf Steiner, Occult Science - an Outline (Forest Row: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1962)
Grant and Jane Soloman, The Scole Experiments (London: Piatkus, 1999)
Gerald Suster John Dee (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003)
Richard Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche (New York: Viking, 2006)
J-P. Vernant, Mortals and Immortals ed. Froma Zeitlin (Princeton UP, 1991)
D.P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (repr. Pennsylvania UP, 2001)
W.B. Yeats, 'Swedenborg, Mediums and the Desolate Places' in A Vision and Related Writings ed. A. Norman Jeffares (London: Arena, 1989), 1-28
For an extensive bibliography for cosmology and divination click here
For a catalogue of papers available from AV click here