refulgence:
shining brightly; radiant; gleaming

​

Alchemy:

ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical & proto-scientific tradition, practiced throughout Europe, Africa & Asia, originating in Greco-Roman Egypt (Alexandria) in the first centuries AD.  Guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology & religion, aimed to purify, mature & perfect certain objects, most commonly: the transmutation of "base metals" (lead) into "noble metals" (gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease; the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent.  Perfection of the human body & soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus &, in the Hellenistic and Western mystery tradition, the achievement of gnosis.  In Europe, the philosopher's stone was connected with all of these projects.

 

Kabbala:

an esoteric method, discipline & school of thought of Judaism, to explain the relationship between God (the unchanging, eternal & mysterious "The Infinite") and the mortal & finite universe (God's creation).  Emerged 12th- 13th-century following earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, in S. France & Spain; reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance of 16th-century Ottoman Palestine.  It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism.  They originally developed their own transmission of sacred texts within Jewish tradition, but also often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain & demonstrate its mystical teachings. These teachings define the inner meaning of both the Hebrew Bible & traditional rabbinic literature as well as their concealed transmitted dimension; it also tries to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances.  

 

the Philosophers' Stone:

legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold  or silver; also called the elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation & achieving immortality; for many centuries, it was the main goal in alchemy.  It was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss. Efforts to discover the philosopher's stone were known as the Magnum Opus ("Great Work").

 

Holy Scriptures:

collection of sacred texts, published as a book consisting of a number of sub-books; accumulated over 1,300 years; the sub books are not chronologically ordered & lack firm evidence of authorship; made up of a miscellany of genres: story, history, law, prophecy, song, poetry & letters.  For Christians there are 2 groups, an Old Testament (OT), original texts Hebrew, and a New Testament (NT), original texts Greek. The first 5 OT books are the Torah (instruction, law), traditionally ascribed to Moses. The first 7 make up the Heptateuch (7 scrolls). The oldest translation of OT writings into Greek, including the Apocrypha & is known as the Septuagint, made by Hellenistic Jews from Alexandria (250 AD).  The term testament (Latin for a witnessed contract) reflects the Christian belief that God made 2 covenants with humanity, first with the Hebrews as a chosen people, second with the followers of Jesus.  In the 4th century AD, St Jerome translated OT Hebrew and NT Greek into one language, Latin; these Christian scriptures acquired a linguistic homogeneity that strengthened perceptions of the Bible as a single text providing an unbroken account of events and prophecies.   

 

Arabesque:

See Chapter II, page 72, Chapter IV page 128 and above page 223

 

"Thousand and One Nights" (inner form): * see Endnote <A>

series of anonymous stories in Arabic,  unknown origins but thought to be native to Persia or one of the Arabic-speaking countries; includes stories from many different countries, some in India; collected over many centuries beginning 1000 AD, by various authors, translators & scholars across West, Central & South Asia & North Africa.  Many tales were originally folk stories from Abbasid & Mamluk eras; others (the frame story), are drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hezār Afsān.  Some trace their roots back to ancient & medieval Arabic, Persian, Greek, Indian, Jewish & Turkish folklore & literature.  Its present form was compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age.  Spengler considers it a literary artefact of the Magian Culture.

 

Plotinus:

205-270 AD, followed in Philo’s footsteps & borrowed a great deal; considered father of the Neo-Platonist school. He developed a theory connecting a Divine One with the material world.  Both the ideal “form” and the material world were divine creations.  He articulated the concept of emanation.  Reality emanates from the One (God, a creative artistic God).  To reach the One we can use art or meditation, but we need to go beyond our unique & individual existence, character, away from particularity towards universality.  Knowledge depends on the mystical apprehension of the transcendent One. Mysticism was a common element of Neo-Platonism, religion and magic at this time in the late Roman Empire.  It remained an important element in the Medieval age.  Mysticism is the idea that man can have direct experience of God (dreams, visions, art or transcendence); with it we can achieve unity with God.  To achieve mysticism we side step reality, we break the connection with reality in our minds. 

And see Chapter II pages 56, 72, 81, Chapter III, page 111,  Chapter VI pages  213, 214

 

the Gnostics:

see Chapter I pages 18, 20

 

paradoxical:

having the nature of a paradox; self-contradictory.

 

hieratic:

relating to priests or the priesthood; sacerdotal; priestly

 

Neo-Pythagoreans (nature of bodies): * see Endnote <B>

Hellenistic school of philosophy revived Pythagorean doctrines; influenced by Middle Platonism & influenced Neo-Platonism; originated 1st century BC, flourished 1st & 2nd centuries AD.  Contributed to idea of monotheism during Late Antiquity & influenced early Christianity.  Central to its thought was the concept of a soul and its inherent desire for a mystical union with the divine.

 

Neo-Platonists (nature of bodies):

Bodies in effect have 2 potentialities.  Material reality is an imperfect reflection of a higher mystic oneness.  It is generated by the World-Soul, as such it can be in perfect harmony and when it is we see beauty & splendour.  So too the individual soul, can through contemplation escape the limits of his finite body & obtain consciousness of the Soul.  So long as idea governs matter, or the soul governs the body, the world is fair and good, an image (though a shadowy image) of the upper world.  However often in the phenomenal world harmony is displaced by strife resulting in conflict.  This discord occurs because bodies rest on a substratum of matter.  Matter is the indeterminate: that with no qualities.  If destitute of form and idea, it is evil; as capable of form, it is neutral.

And see Chapter II page 72

 

school of Baghdad:

aka The House of Wisdom, major Abbasid public academy & intellectual centre in Baghdad, also a large private library belonging to the Abbasid Caliphs during the Islamic Golden Age; founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century & later turned into a public academy during the reign of Al-Ma'mun, or may have been a private collection created by Al-Mansur (reign 754–775) to house rare books and collections of poetry in Arabic & Persian.  It was a part of the major Translation Movement in the Abbasid Era, translating works from Greek and Syriac to Arabic; probably 1 centre of many (other centres existed in Cairo and Damascus).  This translation movement lent momentum to a great deal of original research in the Islamic world, with access to texts from Greek, Persian & Indian sources.  Baghdad, capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, received a consistent flow of Arab, Persian, and other scholars of the Islamic world.  A large number of scholars studied there between the 8th- 13th centuries, such as Al-Jahiz, Al-Kindi, and Al-Ghazali, all contributed to a vibrant academic community, producing many notable works. The fields to which scholars associated with the House of Wisdom contributed include philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and optics.

And see Chapter II page 73

 

school of Basra:

aka The Grammarians of Basrah, composed of grammarians & language scholars in the Islamic Golden Age (8-14th centuries), who laid down the rules of grammar & literary style, whose teachings & writings became the canon of the Arabic language.  Soon after its foundation, a rival school was established in Kufa (the Grammarians of Kufa).  The book Kitab al-Fihrist by the 10th century author, Ibn Ishaq al-Warraq, known as "al-Nadim", provides biographical details of the leading figures and is the principal source for early accounts of these schools which represent the main branches in the development of Arabic grammar & punctuation, linguistics, philology, Quranic exegesis and recital, Hadith, poetry and literature.

 

Suhrawardi (extension the primary existence of the body):

aka Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardī, 1154-91, Islamic Persian philosopher & founder of the Iranian philosophy of Illuminationism, it drew upon Zoroastrian & Platonic ideas.  The "light" in his philosophy of Illumination is a divine, a metaphysical source of knowledge.  His magnum opus "The Philosophy of Illumination" was meant to revive the ancient tradition of Persian wisdom.  He has an emanationist cosmology- all creation is a successive outflow from the original Supreme Light of Lights.  The core of his philosophy is pure immaterial light, where nothing is manifest, and which unfolds from the Light of Lights in a descending order of ever-diminishing intensity, through complex interaction, gives rise to a "horizontal" array of lights (similar in conception to Platonic forms), that governs mundane reality.  The universe & all levels of existence are but varying degrees of light, light & darkness.  In his division of bodies, he categorizes objects in terms of their reception or non-reception of light.

 

NazzAm (on the corporeal substantiality & space-filling character of the atom):

782-840, early Mu˓tazilite thinker, lived & trained in Basra, moved to Baghdad early 820s, where he received the support of the Abbasid caliphs.  He taught many Mu˓tazilite scholars of the 9th century, most famous being his follower al-Jahiz.  In addition to his skills as a poet, Nazzam was interested in Greek philosophy & ancient Iranian culture.  Most of his work was directed against Christians, Jews, dualists, and naturalists. He wrote many books (39), all lost, relating to scientific or philosophical issues, including a refutation of Aristotelian logic.  Nazzam disagreed with Abu 'l-Hudayl's atomist theory of physics.  He rejected the existence of isolated particles within the created bodies, and their change through accidents.  Instead he posited that changes occur in bodies, with the appearance of hidden interior components by a leap of motions.  Acting bodies are subjected to infinite divisions by their created nature, though not all motions are perceptible.

 

Philo (metaphysics): * see endnote <C>

20 BC-50 AD Jewish philosopher from Alexandria; he fused Plato’s idea with Judaism seeing a connection between Plato’s aim of apprehending the ideal form of the Good, and the Jewish desire to have a mystical connect with God.  He said the ideal Good and God were the same thing.  Logic & faith point in the same direction thereby allowing their co-existence.  God, the ideal of Good, is a unity that is in all things.  We can see this thru religious faith as well as thru philosophical meditation. 

 

Paul (metaphysics):

It is clear that Paul knew Greek philosophy & uses it in his epistles.  We find nuances of both Plato & Aristotle.  Plato’s theory of forms is easily incorporated by Paul as it is consistent with the Biblical worldview.  In Egypt Plato became acquainted with the ideas of the eternal soul, resurrection of the body & the belief that the patterns of earth reflect the eternal patterns of heaven.  Paul's training in Greek philosophy is seen in Corinthians 15 and Romans 5, which reflect a Platonic approach to Christology. The first man, Adam, is imperfect but the second Man, Jesus Christ, is the perfect & true Form of humanity.  In Platonism, types are imperfect reflections of the true eternal & immutable Forms.  In Paul’s epistles the outworking of divine purpose & power is called energeia, a term first used by Aristotle. For Aristotle, the term had various applications: energy, active, operation or effectiveness.  Paul links this to another Aristotelian concept, telos: the realization of an entity's end purpose; the actualization of potential.  Without the divine energy & divine power at work , men can accomplish nothing of value.  Paul echoes Jesus' own words: "Apart from Me, you can do nothing."

 

Islamic philosophy: * see EndNote< D>

Here Spengler refers to the "the last great names of the Islamic philosophy".  In his TABLE I. "CONTEMPORARY" SPIRITUAL EPOCHS under the Arabian column, Autumn period, he refers to the THE GREAT CONCLUSIVE SYSTEMS and lists 2 philosophers:  Alfarabi and Avicenna

 

Councils (on the substantiality of Christ): * see endnote<E>

The early Church spent much time debating the nature of Christ.  It studied the humanity and divinity Jesus Christ's, and the relation between these two aspects.  From the 2nd to the 5th century, these debates were a major focus of the church and at the first 7 ecumenical councils. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 issued a formulation of the hypostatic union of the 2 natures.  The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 interpreted the decrees of Chalcedon, and further explained the relationship of the 2 natures of Jesus. The Third Council of Constantinople in 681 declared that Christ has 2 wills of his 2 natures, human and divine, contrary to the teachings of the Monothelites, the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will.  The Second Council of Nicaea was called by Empress Regent Irene of Athens in 787.  It supported veneration of icons while forbidding their worship. 

 

tapestry backgrounds (depth of space was covered up): * see endnote<F>

The Apocalypse Tapestry, large medieval French set, commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou; in the late 1370s he instructed Jean Bondol, a Flemish artist, to draw the sketches that would form the model for the tapestry, which was then woven in Paris between 1377 and 1380 by Nicholas Bataille.  It depicts the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation in colourful images, spread over a number of sections that originally totalled 90 scenes.  It is the oldest French medieval tapestry to have survived.

 

sacrament of Contrition:

aka Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, 1 of 7 sacraments of the Catholic & Eastern Orthodox Churches; the faithful obtain absolution for the sins, are reconciled with the Church & are freed from sins committed after baptism.  Beginnings of practising the sacrament of penance with individual confession (bringing confession & reconciliation together), dates to the 11th century.  In 1215, the Fourth Council of the Lateran (canon 21) confirmed earlier legislation and custom; it required every Christian having reached the age of discretion, to confess all their sins at least once a year to their own priest.  Penance in the primitive Church differed signally from this.  Publicly known sins were confessed openly in church.  Penance was done before absolution (rather than after absolution).  Penances were often much more arduous (e.g. it would not have been unusual for someone to receive a 10-year penance).  As well penitents had no access to Eucharistic communion until the bishop reconciled him with the Church.  The Medieval Church placed much greater emphasis on the Church's ability to expiate temporal effects of sin (by prayer, sacraments, indulgences, the sacrifice of the Mass), therefore penances were much mitigated.