/lit/ - Literature

bros.... I got memed by Guenon and am reading into tasawuf or "mystical" islam and besides the basic ritual, dhikr and notably interesting figures like ibn arabi (who is scorned by 99% of muslims as a heretic), as well as fascinating prophets like al-khidr, I keep coming back to looking at Vedic practises, which feels bad cuz the Quran has been telling me about 10 million times now how 'idolatry' is evil

in islam there is a still living civilization and spirit inherent within the 'ummah', that is practical and a true 'religion' as my western mind intuitively grasps, but regardless Vedic stuff still draws me. is it possible as a westerner to not-convert into the Tradition via some kind of initiation? to meld into Vedic society without being a LARPer? also what's the rundown on taking a particular deity as a patron (because you identify your born nature with it) in order to excel in the patron's aspect? how truly alien is Vedic doctrine as Guenon makes it out to be?

>>17500098
Be the change motherfucker

What is Truth, lit?

>>16472576
Zeus is the Mixed, the Harmonia, the fulcrum, the sustainer, the suspender of all being.
But it is Ananke, Tefnut, Fate, that spins the wheel, and to seek to escape the wheel and abandon all for your own egotistical salvation, is the greatest sin.


>Mother, highest of the gods, immortal Night, how, tell me this, how must I establish the stout-hearted rule of the immortals?
>Tell me, how can it be that all things are one and yet each is separate?
Night replies:
>Surround all things with unspeakable aither, and in the middle place the sky, and therein the boundless earth, and the sea, and therein all the constellations, which the sky has surrounded. But when you have stretched a firm bond over everything, suspend a golden chain from the aither.

You are right that he's an "All Consuming Fire", which can be witnessed in Semele's wish (which wasn't a bad event for her).
Also:
>There exists a fire (phlogmos) which has occupied a vessel above the heavens - a fire infinitely in motion, a boundless eternity. It is not within the grasp of the blessed Gods, unless the mighty Father should plan His purposes so that He Himself might be looked upon: in that place the ether does not bear the radiant stars; nor is the luminous moon raised up there. No God meets Him the Father, who is fire on His path, nor am I myself solar Apollo spread out so far as to reach Him, though I whirl through the ether in company with my light-rays. God is fire, a vast channel moving in a spinning motion with a whirring sound. But if someone touched that ethereal fire, he would not feel fear in his heart, for it has not power to burn. Through an unceasing care that derives from God Himself, eternity mingles with eternities. Self-begotten, untaught, without a mother, unshakeable, nameless, many-named, and dwelling in fire - that is God; we are messengers (angeloi), only a small part of God.”

>>16074820
>>16074849
>>16074895
Awakenings of Khnum; say:

Wake well in peace, wake well in peace,
Khnum-Amun, the ancient,
Issued from Nun,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, lord of fields,
Great Khnum,
Who makes his domain in the meadow,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, lord of gods and men,
Lord of the war cry,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, mighty planner,
Great power in Egypt,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, lord of life, Wooer of women,
To whom come gods and men as he bids,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, ram great of majesty,
Tall-plumed, sharp-horned ,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, great lion,
Slayer of rebels,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, crocodile-king,
Mighty victor,
Who conquers as he wishes,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, veiled-faced one,
Who shuts his eyes to his foes,
As he bears arms,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, leader of herdsmen,
Who grasps the stick,
Smites his attacker,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, great crocodile who says,
"Each of you shall slay his fellow,"
In peace awake, peaceably!

Wake, Shu, strong-armed,
His father's champion,
Slayer of rebels,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, fighting ram who chases his foes,
Herdsman of his followers,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, multiform one,
Who changes shape at will,
In peace, awake peaceably!

Wake, Khnum who fashions as he wishes,
Who sets every man in his place!

>>15940053
And a musical person would love such people most of all, but he wouldn’t love anyone who lacked harmony?
>No, he wouldn’t, at least not if the defect was in the soul, but if it was only in the body, he’d put up with it and be willing to embrace the boy who had it.
I gather that you love or have loved such a boy yourself, and I agree with you.Tell me this,however: Is excessive pleasure compatible with moderation?
>How can it be, since it drives one mad just as much as pain does?
What about with the rest of virtue?
>No.
Well, then, is it compatible with violence and licentiousness?
>Very much so.
Can you think of a greater or keener pleasure than sexual pleasure?
>I can’t—or a madder one either.
But the right kind of love is by nature the love of order and beauty that has been moderated by education in music and poetry?
>That’s right.
Therefore, the right kind of love has nothing mad or licentious about it?
>No, it hasn’t.
Then sexual pleasure MUSTN'T come into it, and the lover and the boy he LOVES have NO share in it, if they are to love and be loved in the right way?
>By god, no, Socrates, it mustn’t come into it.
It seems, then, that you’ll lay it down as a law in the city we’re establishing that if a lover can persuade a boy to let him, then he may kiss him, be with him, and touch him, AS A FATHER WOULD A SON, for the sake of what is fine and beautiful, but—turning to the other things—his association with the one he cares about must never seem to go any further than this, otherwise he will be reproached as untrained in music and poetry and lacking in appreciation for what is fine and beautiful.

THE DAWN

Discuss the Divine Plato and related works.

Recommendations:
>Homer
>Hesiod
>Presocratics and Sophists
>Plato
>Aristotle
>Origen
>Philo
>Plotinus
>Poryphry
>Iamblichus
>Proclus
>Macrobius
>Damascius
>Apuleius
>Chaldean Hymns of Zoroaster
>The Hermetic Corpus of Hermes
>Diogenes Laertius
>Uzdavinys

Extra:
>comfy neoplatonic waifu playlist to listen to and pine over lack of ecstatic union with the one:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmZtZLnIkU3vY6XkF_qZxwVLAZMBOZiFw

>>14931083
>>14931064
>>14931054
>>14931048
>>14931041
1. The One is all things, and is none of these things. The Principle of all things cannot be all things. It is all things only in the sense that all things coexist within it. But in it, they "are" not yet, but only "will be." How then could the manifoldness of all beings issue from the One, which is simple and identical, which contains no diversity or duality? It is just because nothing is contained within it, that everything can issue from it. In order that essence might exist, the One could not be (merely) essence, but had to be the 'father' of essence, and essence had to be its first-begotten. As the One is perfect, and acquires nothing, and has no need or desire, He has, so to speak, superabounded, and this superabundance has produced a different nature. This different nature of the One turned towards Him, and by its conversion, arrived at the fulness (of essence). Then it had the potentiality of contemplating itself, and thus determined itself as Intelligence. Therefore, by resting near the One, it became Essence; and by contemplating itself, became Intelligence. Then by fixing itself within itself to contemplate itself, it simultaneously became Essence-and-Intelligence.

>>14611660
Good. Now take the Platonism Pill...

Own The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Fascinating stuff. Lots of original fragments. What's the best secondary literature from ancient to contemporary on the Pythagoreans?

Thread to discuss and engage in dialectic regarding Presocratic, Pythagorean, Socratic, Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonic philosophies and their many medieval, modern, and post-modern heirs...

(((Abrahamics))) and ((perennialists)) are tolerated, though urged to stay on topic.

REMEMBER: "Pneumatics" are Daemons purposed to challenge the soul to impede the ascension of the yet unworthy (being punished for past lives), Gnosticism is a lie, every soul is chosen, just not every life.

If anyone can find out whomever that girl whose linked vid got hid, that'd be nice.

>BASED Pierre Grimes, truly a modern Isidore!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Bh7VoDVxo

>orientalisms and (neo)platonic revivals in occidental history:
https://youtu.be/s2HCOuY-EiE

>free platonic writings online:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Taylor%2C%20Thomas%2C%201758-1835

Thread to discuss and engage in dialectic regarding Presocratic, Pythagorean, Socratic, Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonic philosophies and their many medieval, modern, and post-modern heirs...

Abrahamics and perennialists are welcome though urged to stay on topic.

>thread inspo:
https://youtu.be/3ltsSfOZzJI

>east / west dialogue:
https://youtu.be/8HAiTfOSP_w

>orientalisms and (neo)platonic revivals in occidental history:
https://youtu.be/s2HCOuY-EiE

>free platonic writings online:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Taylor%2C%20Thomas%2C%201758-1835