Mnemonics

Thoughts, notes, and reflections on ancient philosophy, the esoteric, and the cultivation of inner peace.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Plato asserts that sensory experiences are distorted. True knowledge means escaping the illusion in order to grasp the unchanging realm of the forms that lies beyond sensory perception.

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Philosophy Plato

Plato’s Idealism

Plato argues that knowledge requires an immutable foundation. The sensory world changes constantly and contradicts itself, so true knowledge must exist in a separate realm to provide metaphysical stability.

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Philosophy Plato

Plato’s Timaeus

In his Timaeus, Plato describes a transcendent creator of the universe who forms human souls and incorporates them into the cosmic order. A righteous life enables them to return after death to their cosmic source.

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Philosophy Neoplatonism

Plotinus’ Hypostases

Plotinus proposed four hypostases: the one, the nous, the psyche, and sensory matter. Each of these arises from above through abundance, and each strives for a return to the source through desire and deficiency.

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Philosophy Neoplatonism

Henosis

Plotinus taught that the soul can achieve union with the one through contemplation, Iamblichus considered contemplation alone insufficient and that theurgy is necessary, and Proclus united both as complementary paths.

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Philosophy Neoplatonism

Theurgy

Early Platonists believed that the soul never left the intelligible realm, Iamblichus argued that the soul descended fully into the sensory realm, and Proclus systematized theurgy as the consummation of philosophy.

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Origins Alchemy

Origins of Alchemy

Empedocles identified four primordial substances of matter, Plato gave them a geometric structure, and Aristotle explained how opposites combine to form physical matter, making alchemical transmutation possible.

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Practice Wellness

Stress Management

Our bodies have evolved to withstand short-term stress, but the demands of modern life require constant vigilance: chronic stressors never completely disappear, leaving no time for genuine rest.

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Practice Wellness

Deep Breathing Exercises

Eleven curated deep breathing exercises, designed to release tension and calm body and mind. The techniques range from seated breathing exercises to light standing stretches, for daily relaxation or stress reduction.

Read→

Philosophy Plato

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

A relatively well-known idea of Plato is his allegory of the cave, which appears in his work Republic. In this allegory, Plato describes people who have spent their entire lives in a cave, chained by their necks and ankles to an inner wall, facing the empty outer wall.

They observe the shadows projected onto the outer wall by objects carried behind the inner wall by people invisible to the chained prisoners, who walk along the inner wall with a fire behind them, creating the shadows on the outer wall for the prisoners. The object bearers speak the names of the objects, the sounds of which are echoed near the shadows and are understood by the prisoners as if they were coming from the shadows themselves.

Only the shadows and sounds are the prisoners’ reality, which aren’t accurate representations of the true reality. The shadows represent distorted and blurred copies of the reality that we can perceive with our senses. The goal, then, is to free oneself from the cave by realizing that the shadows on the outer wall aren’t the true reality, but merely a reflection or interpretation.

What Hides Beyond the Veil

The allegory is related to Plato’s theory of forms, according to which forms (and not the reality we know through our senses) possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. According to this theory, the forms are the nonphysical, timeless, absolute, and unchangeable essences of all things, which objects and matter in the sensory world merely imitate, resemble, or participate in.

The forms are perfect and unchanging representations of objects and qualities. For example: the idea of plant-being. We can all picture in our minds an image of a plant. However, this image is far from perfect. It’s only through the intelligibility of the form that we know that this image is a plant, because this idea is perfect and unchanging.

These forms are the essence of various objects and qualities. They’re that without which a thing wouldn’t be the kind of thing it is. For example: there are innumerable plants in the world, but the form of plant-being is the core, it’s the essence of them all. Plato claimed that the realm of forms (or: intelligible realm) is the essential basis of true reality and transcendent of our reality: the sensible realm.

Furthermore, he believed that true knowledge and intelligence is the ability to grasp the realm of the forms with one’s mind. Thus, studying reality itself is like peering through the bars of a prison.

Philosophy Plato

Plato’s Idealism

The main argument Plato offers for the existence of the forms (the unchanging foundations of knowledge) is based on the conditions he believes are necessary for any knowledge to exist at all. He argues that the sensory world (the sensible realm) can’t be known, because it’s fluctuating, changing, and subject to different individual perspectives, whereas knowledge requires stable objects.

This changing and subjective realm can, therefore, only be the object of opinion, not of knowledge. Plato insists that genuine knowledge must be anchored in objects that don’t admit contradiction, since what changes can never be grasped with certainty.

It follows that if knowledge is to exist at all, it must be of a different realm, separate from this one. This realm is the intelligible realm of the perfect, eternal, and unchanging forms. Without the forms, our judgments would collapse into mere shifting impressions, leaving no foundation for science, mathematics, or ethical reasoning. In this Plato is mainly influenced by two earlier philosophers: Heraclitus (through Cratylus) and Parmenides.

Heraclitus and Cratylus

Heraclitus held that everything is in a state of becoming: that everything flows like a river, and that you, therefore, can’t step into the same river twice, as the waters are constantly changing. If all things are perpetually in motion, then the mind can never secure a fixed point from which to judge reality.

According to Aristotle, the young Plato adopted this view from a student of Heraclitus, called Cratylus, and never abandoned it. Aristotle states that Cratylus held that you couldn’t step into the same river even once, as in a constantly fluctuating world, nothing would remain stable enough for names to refer to. Such a view precludes the very possibility of knowledge. The argument that each person decides on what’s true for them would swiftly lead to solipsism, and the impossibility of any shared reality.

Parmenides

Parmenides, in contrast, held that, contrary to appearances, there’s only one thing: unchanging, eternal being. Plato’s solution was to develop a theory which contains elements of both. The reality we see around us is the world of Heraclitus: a reality of many different objects that are constantly changing, and which appear differently to different people at different times or from different perspectives.

However, the reality we see around us isn’t all there is: to discover what’s eternal and unchanging we need to turn to the intelligible realm of the forms, which individually possess the stable qualities of Parmenides. The forms thus serve as the metaphysical anchors that allow the sensible realm to be understood without collapsing into chaos or illusion.

Philosophy Plato

Plato’s Timaeus

Timaeus is the book in which Plato most fully sets out his metaphysical worldview. In it, he discusses how the cosmos originated, how it’s structured, and what principles determine its order. The dialogue brings together ideas from his earlier works and presents them as a single coherent philosophy.

The Elements and the World Soul

According to Timaeus, the universe was created by a transcendent god called the demiurge (direct translation: craftsman). He gave the universe a body in the form of a sphere by fashioning it from four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. The visible and tangible body of the universe was made possible by binding these four elements together in the right proportions.

The demiurge also created the world soul to provide movement for the universe. The world soul was created from three parts: sameness, difference, and existence, which were bound together in exact proportions. Two strips of the world soul’s substance were formed into rings that crossed each other in the shape of an ‘X’, representing the celestial equator and the ecliptic plane.

The Planets and Human Souls

Within these rings, the demiurge created seven planetary rings (or: spheres), whose distance from the Earth depended on their apparent speed of motion. The Moon was closest, followed by the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These planets became the heavenly gods, subordinate to the demiurge.

In creating the planets, the demiurge also created time itself, since the planets control the days, months, and seasons. The traditional gods, Plato supposed, were created by the planetary gods, whose existence is more certain since they could actually be seen.

The demiurge also created the human souls from the same ingredients used for the world soul (though in a diluted form). These souls are implanted into bodies according to the dictates of necessity, and if a person lives a righteous life by controlling the passions that have been imposed upon him, his soul is ultimately led back to its source within the cosmic order, rather than remaining bound to the sensible realm. This provides a framework in which the soul’s fate can be understood as an ascent to the intelligible realm.

Transcendence

Since the demiurge could only create perfect, immortal things, the bodies of human mortals had to be made by the planetary deities, who were also tasked with governing and guiding humanity. The mortal body is then formed by the gods who borrow from the elements for this purpose. This loan must be repaid when the person dies.

Plato’s demiurge is a benevolent being who made the cosmos good by endowing it with soul and reason, thus the entire cosmos functions according to the demiurge’s foresight, called providence. The only allowance for evil is that human souls are implanted in bodies that have to overcome various earthly influences in order to live righteously.

Philosophy Neoplatonism

Plotinus’ Hypostases

In late antiquity, Platonism found itself at a turning point. Centuries of commentary and reinterpretation had enriched Plato’s legacy, but at the same time had splintered it into competing directions. Philosophers struggled to formulate a framework that could unify ethics, cosmology, and metaphysics.

Plotinus, a student of the mysterious Ammonius Saccas, expanded on the works of the Platonists before him and integrated it with Aristotle’s philosophy to redefine Platonism, developing a metaphysical system that influenced almost all Platonists after him.

The One

According to Plotinus, it all began with what he called the one. Totally transcendent, containing no division, multiplicity, or distinction. Beyond all categories of being and non-being. The one is the source of the universe, but not through any act of creation, but through emanation.

Imagine a ray radiating from a light source, heat spreading from fire, cold issuing from snow, or a scent wafting from an odorous substance. The one is like a spring from which water eternally gushes out. The one remains in itself, in its perfection, yet, from it, from this overflowing perfection, something else proceeds. The one overflows, and its superabundance makes something other than itself. Just like a fire, for instance, from whose inner activity (burning), the activity of warming the surrounding environment necessarily derives.

This procession finds its counterpart in a movement of return towards the source and cause. According to Plotinus, the true cause is always the final one. It’s by reuniting with its cause that that which issues from it, and which is, as it is, deficient, can truly realize its own nature. And it’s this desire to realize one’s own nature that leads to this reuniting.

Given that this movement of return springs from a desire and sense of deficiency, the thing generated must somehow be aware of its separation, and acknowledge itself as distinct from its source. And at the moment of return, the thing generated thus produces its own interpretation of the generating cause. It’s at this stage that a new order of reality is produced.

The Nous

Out of the overflowing potential of the one comes something, which becomes the nous (direct translation: intellect). The one doesn’t generate the nous. The one gives birth to something undifferentiated, which therefore isn’t the nous yet, but will become it. Not by virtue or arbitrary activity, but because it constitutes itself as the nous through a movement of return to its own origin.

The nous fragments the original simplicity into the multiplicity of the forms. The multiplicity of the forms that constitute the nous (and which forms the model for physical reality), isn’t something inherent in the one, but something that’s produced by the act of the nous to return to its source.

The Psyche

In relation to the nous, the hypostasis of the psyche (direct translation: soul) marks a further descent into multiplicity and fragmentation. As something intelligible, the psyche remains immaterial, unextended, and free from spatial conditioning. However, its activity unfolds in the realm of matter.

The psyche therefore forms the link between the intelligible realm of the forms and the sensible realm. It’s the expression of the intelligible realm that brings the sensible realm into being and holds it together in unity. Therefore, we shouldn’t think that the soul is locked up in bodies, for it’s the bodies that are locked up in the soul.

The Sensible Realm

After the psyche comes the sensible realm, the lowest point in Plotinus’ system. The physical universe, however, is still produced by the psyche, and its agency makes the physical universe something harmonious and partaker of a higher beauty. However imperfect, the physical universe is still an image of the divine realm. It remains a reflection of higher realities.

Philosophy Neoplatonism

Henosis

Platonists created advanced systems of metaphysics and cosmology, and these weren’t merely abstract exercises: their goal was to explore how the soul could ascend from the sensory world, to reunite with that from which all things emanate: the one.

One of the defining ideas of Platonism is henosis (direct translation: union, or oneness), it describes the return of the soul to (and its union with) the one.

Plotinus

According to Plotinus, all of reality emanates from the one, the first principle beyond description and beyond being. And since the soul has its origin in the one, it naturally longs to return to its source. For Plotinus, this return can be accomplished through contemplation. As the soul withdraws from the distractions and desires of the material world, it turns inward and towards its own divinity.

Philosophy is a purification process for Plotinus. Contemplation leads the soul beyond the sensible realm to the eternal intelligibility of the nous, but this isn’t where its journey ends. Since the one surpasses thought itself, the soul must ultimately go beyond knowledge and even go beyond self-awareness.

Plotinus describes henosis as the soul existing in perfect unity with the one, in which every distinction between the soul and the one vanishes. This union can’t be expressed in words, but rather, it’s an experience that transcends all thinking.

Iamblichus

Iamblichus argued that contemplation alone was insufficient to achieve henosis. According to him, if henosis depended solely upon philosophical contemplation, the soul would remain confined to the sensible realm. Humans, he argued, are finite beings who can’t bridge the immense distance between themselves and the divine.

Iamblichus therefore placed theurgy at the center of his philosophy. Theurgy consists of sacred rites that make use of sacred symbols, prayers, hymns, and rituals. These practices weren’t intended to command or manipulate the gods, but to align the soul with the cosmic order.

The symbols used in theurgy have power because they come from the gods, and by participating in these sacred acts, the soul becomes able to receive their illumination. Henosis, therefore, isn’t achieved through mere human effort, it’s ultimately a gift bestowed by the gods.

Proclus

Proclus inherited both traditions and united them. A central doctrine of his philosophy is the triad of remaining, procession, and return: everything remains rooted in its source, proceeds into multiplicity, and naturally strives to return to its origin. For Proclus, henosis is the consummation of this movement.

Philosophy purifies the soul and leads it to intelligible truth, while theurgy perfects the soul’s participation in the divine, and enables a unity that transcends all thinking. Contemplation alone can’t complete the ascent, but ritual without philosophical understanding is likewise incomplete, it’s together that they guide the soul back to its source.

Philosophy Neoplatonism

Theurgy

Since the days of Plato, Platonists have considered matter to be imperfect in some way, and humans to exist at the intersection of the intelligible realm (the good, accessible through the soul), and the sensible realm (the inferior, accessible through the body).

At the heart of Platonism lies a system by which the soul can reorient itself to the intelligible realm, perhaps briefly in this life, but certainly after the separation of the body and the soul. However, Platonists themselves were divided on a crucial question: does the immortal soul remain in the intelligible realm, or had it fully descended into the sensible realm?

Most early Platonists maintained that the soul never truly left the intelligible realm, and that the task of the philosopher is to simply realize this fact through profound intellectual reflection, the primary activity of the soul itself.

Iamblichus

However, from Iamblichus onward, a new perspective emerged: he argued that the soul had fully descended into the sensible realm, and was therefore fully entangled in embodiment. This created a dilemma: one can’t simply think oneself out of this state.

The soul, fully immersed into the sensible realm, was incapable of achieving salvation through contemplation (or any other purely philosophical means) alone. Help from higher beings was necessary, beings whose nature lies closer to the intelligible realm. In short, the soul needed the help of the gods to lead it back to its origin.

But how does one attract the attention, grace, and assistance of the gods while fully immersed in the sensible realm? According to Iamblichus, one must turn to theurgy: the practice of the sacred rituals. Through pious acts and sacred rites one may become able to invoke divine aid. Iamblichus therefore considered it necessary to unite Platonism with the sacred practices of late antiquity.

Proclus

Proclus later developed this vision into a comprehensive metaphysical system. He argued that theurgy works because the gods are present at every level of reality, and that theurgy aligns the soul with this cosmic order.

For Proclus, theurgy wasn’t a supplement to philosophy but its consummation: the practical means by which the soul participates in the divine through the gods. For him, the final achievement of the theurgist is union with the one through participation in the divine.

Ultimately, later Platonists followed Iamblichus, even over Plotinus, and as a result, the mysteries and mystery-adjacent texts such as the Chaldean Oracles and the Orphic Hymns were incorporated into the Platonic curriculum.

Origins Alchemy

Origins of Alchemy

Empedocles, an older contemporary of Socrates, made a fundamental contribution to the formation of the alchemical theory of matter. This philosopher is said to have been the first to explain that the natural world was composed of four primordial substances: fire, earth, water, and air, associated respectively with the properties: hot, cold, moist, and dry.

Empedocles referred to the four fundamental substances as roots (he never used the term elements, which seems to have been first used by Plato), borrowing a botanical metaphor to describe the basic constituents of matter.

Plato’s Elements

It was Plato who proposed underlying structure to the elements. According to Plato’s theory of solids, the structures of the four elements must be geometric: polyhedra with well-defined shapes. Fire consists of tetrahedra, earth of hexahedra, water of icosahedra, and air of octahedra.

Plato was already considering what his student Aristotle ultimately proposed, that there was a fifth element: aether, the material from which the heavens were made (which medieval alchemists later reinterpreted as quintessence, the most refined and potent distillation of matter, a cosmic substance they believed could reveal the hidden architecture of the universe).

Plato’s theory of solids offered a mathematical model for representing the building blocks of the cosmos, and Euclid later made it possible to visually calculate and artistically represent the surfaces of the material world, hence the name of his best known work: Elements.

Aristotle’s Mixtures

But how did the elements themselves combine to form physical matter? The elements are composed of four primary physical contraries: hot, cold, moist, and dry. According to Aristotle, the first two are active causes, and the latter two are the underlying matter. For example: fire is hot and dry, earth is cold and dry, water is cold and moist, and air is hot and moist. The elements are these contraries in the sense that it’s precisely the physical contraries themselves that we perceive in earth or water.

Here lies the core of the alchemical theory of matter. Manipulating the compositions is the key to mastering a substance and its idea, and thus the transmutation of matter. However, alchemists weren’t trying to violate nature, they believed they were assisting or accelerating natural processes. They were collaborating with nature inside their laboratories: speeding its workings up, slowing them down, or guiding them along a more perfect path.

Practice Wellness

Stress Management

When explaining stress or hyperventilation, the well-known comparison of a lion standing in front of a caveman is often used. Once the caveman notices the lion, his body will do everything it can to make him more alert, and to give him the physical ability to do what’s necessary to survive: to either kill the lion, or to run away. His heart rate increases and his breathing quickens. In other words: he’s hyperventilating, and the stressor, the cause, is the lion.

This comparison is used to explain why the body does what it does during stress or hyperventilation. After the incident with the lion, the caveman will need to rest and de-stress. He returns home and waits until the hyperventilation process subsides.

Modern-Day Lions

But what happens to a body when the lion doesn’t go away, but continues to chase the caveman and keeps him in constant tension? Resting is no longer an option and the stress becomes constant. Although the body is built to tolerate short periods of stress between long periods of rest, it’s not built to do the opposite.

This is what contemporary life consists of. Stress in modern life rarely stems from a single dramatic event, but rather from a continuous accumulation of responsibilities and expectations. Professional demands, academic pressure, financial insecurity, and the constant need to meet the standards of others create a tension that never entirely disappears. For many people, the only meaningful break from this cycle is a short annual vacation.

The body is no longer given the chance to rest, and this accumulated strain eventually forces it to shut down, often through a hyperventilation attack or a burnout. The art of surviving contemporary life is to prevent this accumulation of stress. To find peace, avoid the stressors, or simply remove them from daily life. Reducing chronic stress begins with making choices that protect one’s mental and physical health.

Important is creating intentional moments of rest: time spent walking, sleeping, reading, or simply being still. These moments aren’t luxuries, but necessities, allowing the body to recover from the constant demands of modern life.

Practice Wellness

Deep Breathing Exercises

These exercises are personally curated and tested by me. They’re designed to help release tension from both mind and body, whether you’re looking for a daily grounding ritual or a quick way to ease panic or stress.

One

Sit comfortably in a chair. Rest your hands on your belly, cupped together like a bowl. Inhale for five seconds, letting your belly expand and fill the bowl. Exhale for five seconds, letting your belly deflate. Repeat ten times.

Two

Sit with your hands on your knees. Inhale as you arch your back and gently lean backward. Exhale as you round your spine and lean forward. Repeat ten times.

Three

Sit with your hands on your knees. Inhale and shift your weight to your right sit bone. Exhale and shift your weight to your left sit bone. Repeat ten times.

Four

Sit on your right hand. With your left hand, gently guide your head toward your left shoulder. Hold for ten seconds. Switch sides, sit on your left hand and stretch to the right. Repeat five times per side.

Five

On hands and knees, inhale as you arch your back. Exhale as you round your spine. Repeat ten times.

Six

Sit in a chair. Shift your weight fully to your right sit bone. Inhale as you move your weight to the left, making a forward semicircle with your upper body. Exhale as you return to the right, completing the circle by moving backward. Repeat ten times.

Seven

Stand with feet hip-width apart. Shift your weight to your right leg, bend the knee slightly, and exhale. Shift to your left leg, straightening the right knee, and inhale. Repeat ten times.

Eight

Stand with feet slightly apart. Exhale as you rock forward onto your toes. Inhale as you rock back onto your heels. Repeat ten times.

Nine

Imagine picking apples from a tree above you. Reach up with alternating arms. Stretch tall with each reach. Repeat ten times.

Ten

Cross your arms over your chest. Look over your left shoulder and gently twist your torso to the left. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat on the right side. Do five rounds.

Eleven

Place your hands, fingers interlaced, behind your head. Gently press your head back into your hands while resisting with your arms. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat ten times.