The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (46 page)

Purification … consists in separating the soul as much as possible from the body, and accustoming it to withdraw from all contact with the body and concentrate itself by itself, and to have its dwelling, so far as it can, both now and in the future, alone by itself, freed from the shackles of the body.258

“Therefore Socrates reminds us,

True philosophers make dying their profession.259

“Purification begins by concentrating your spiritual energy inward and upward,

making your soul more like The One and lifting her toward it. You do this by turning your attention toward the spiritual and away from the body and everyday affairs, so

that these will not distract your soul.

“Therefore, the first step is to calm the lower parts of your soul, which are in contact with the body. Let minor disturbances pass away by continuing your inward focus.

Pleasures and pains are both distracting, so you should avoid them when possible, and when they occur, attach no more significance to them than as signals of the condition of your body, which you cannot ignore entirely. Therefore, to avoid these disturbances you should try to live healthily, with proper diet, sleep, and exercise.

“Many of the Epicurean and Stoic practices are useful here, for controlling appe-

tites, emotions, sensations, etc. to achieve a state of tranquility. Suffering should not be allowed to affect your soul above its lowest levels; its higher part should remain in-the path of love 225

violate, autonomous, and calm: an inner acropolis. This is facilitated by premeditation of possible future good and bad fortune, so that you are prepared to respond appropriately to whatever may happen. With these preparations, you can focus on Beauty at the level of Soul, ascending there by the ray of Love. This is how it works.

“As I’ve explained, the soul is the dynamic process that generates the body and

gives it movement. Therefore the beloved’s soul is the source of his beauty and grace.

Thus love draws the philosopher upward in order to approach and embrace its source,

her beloved’s soul. My dear disciple Synesius finishes one of his hymns thus:

Stretch forth Thy hand, draw me, and call

My suppliant soul from nature’s thrall.260

“Furthermore, the lover’s principal love is for the soul of her beloved, not for his body, since her love continues and even grows in spite of his body’s aging. In fact, as the beloved’s body ages, his soul’s beauty may shine through it more clearly, perhaps because physical appearance is less of a distraction. But how can we see the soul’s

beauty more directly?”

The students can’t answer, so Hypatia continues, “Remember that the row of three

in the Tetractys symbolizes the soul, which exists in time: past, present, and future.

Therefore, the faculty of reason—the ability to form consecutive connected images or thoughts—resides in the soul. You apply this in the Purification stage by constructing, through the soul’s powers, an image, the ideal of human beauty, perfect in all respects.

In this way we abstract away from the inherent imperfections of matter and space,

and by the soul’s sequential operations create a moving pageant of images. Since the soul provides the elements of beauty from which this perfected human Form is created, the soul must be honored even more highly than this ideal human form, for you

should admire and love the creator more than its creation. Thus you turn inward to

learn to love the soul, which is the fountainhead of this ideal beauty. I will now lead you through this exercise.”

226 the path of love

The Ideal Beloved:
Sit in a comfortable position. You may do the preceding exercises,
Observed Beauty
and
Imagined Beauty
to begin to turn your soul away from your body. With closed eyes, imagine an ideal beloved, perhaps a god or goddess, a saint, a hero or chivalrous knight, a wise and clever maiden—whatever

your vision is of the perfect beloved. Do not try too hard to construct this ideal

according to your preconceived ideas about what the perfect beloved
ought
to be. Rather, let your imagination follow its own course, for you want an image

that will fire your love, not an intellectual abstraction. In this way you will ac-

tivate the complex in your psyche that has formed around the anima/animus

archetype. That is, you will become acquainted with the daimon engendered

by the Ideal Beloved in the Cosmic Nous. Begin to shift your attention from

the perfect beloved’s physical attributes to the characteristics of his or her soul; that is, let your imagination reveal how your spiritual beloved thinks and acts.

See him or her in action.

Hypatia concludes the exercise and explains, “Don’t worry that this imaginative

activity is disloyal to your worldly beloved. In fact, it’s a disservice to project such perfection onto a mortal. On the contrary, this exercise will help you to avoid confusing your real beloved and your imaginary beloved.

“Just as you try to make yourself attractive for the sake of your real beloved, mak-

ing yourself beautiful in appearance but also graceful in behavior, so in the Ascent by Love you strive to make your soul more beautiful for the sake of the image of the Ideal Beloved in your soul. Remember that, as Diotima said, love seeks union in order to

beget in beauty. In this part of the ascent, the union is of souls, and so your soul should beautify herself as she goes to meet her bridegroom.” Therefore Ficino prays,

Grant, O God, that my soul may be beautiful

and that those things that pertain to my body

may not impair the beauty of my soul,

and that I may think only the wise are rich.261

the path of love 227

Wisdom

Illumination

Clarity of Mind

Knowledge

Reflection

Contemplative Life

Prudence

Justice

Purification

Warmth of Heart

Fortitude

Practice

Active Life

Moderation

The Wings of the Soul

The lover purifies her soul by practice of two kinds of virtues, which Ficino likens to the two wings by which the soul ascends back to heaven. In the first stage the soul is purified through three
moral virtues
:
moderation
, which makes us tranquil,
fortitude
, which gives the strength and courage to live philosophically, and
justice
, by which we treat others fairly; we may put them all under the name Justice. These virtues, which govern our
active lives
, are acquired through practice and habit and lead to warmth of the heart. You should have acquired them in the first two degrees of wisdom—the philosophies of the Garden and the Porch—but there is always room for improvement.

The other wing of virtue, which builds upon the moral virtues as foundation, compris-es the
intellectual
(or
noetic
)
virtues
, also called
reflective virtues
, because they are acquired through reflection in a contemplative life. These are
prudence
(
practical wisdom
), which illuminates human matters,
knowledge
, which illuminates natural (scientific) matters, and
wisdom
, which illuminates divine matters; we may class them as Wisdom. As Justice (the