The One-Barrel-Fits-All Concoction

This is the sixth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

It’s a beautiful Sunday, sunny and pleasantly warm. No cloud disturbs the sky. After the past few days of grey, overcast skies, of wind and rain, today’s weather comes as a relief. Waking up this morning, the sun shining onto your face in bed, all the dreariness of the past few days seemed to be gone in an instant. Full of joy and energy, you jumped out of bed to make the most of this day.

And now, outside, you’re raising your face to the sun and are enjoying its warm rays on your skin. How wonderful! You certainly couldn’t have picked a better day for this hike, could you?

You amble along the path in a comfortable speed, enjoying the sunny day and the warmth, admiring the dance of the golden rays on the ground. Pondering how it takes just a few minutes of sun to raise your mood, you set out to tackle the path before you.

A few hours later, though, your mood has soured considerably. You’re still on the same path, and unfortunately, it will be dredging on for a quite a while before you reach civilization again. Which wouldn’t be a problem, of course, if you hadn’t been such a clumsy oaf during your last break, and hadn’t knocked over your water bottle. By the time you got hold of it again, most of the water had watered the ground.

The sun is still shining mercilessly, and the heat is pressing in on you from all sides. There is not only no cloud in sight, but also no shade. You’re sweating profusely (just how can one human body contain that much water?), and the skin on your arms and face is burning suspiciously. In fact, you’re sure your face is badly burned already, and it isn’t bound to get any better. If only you hadn’t forgotten to take a hat!

Parched from the heat, you berate yourself for being such an idiot, and then mutter some choice words about the sun, longing for the clouds and rain you were so sick of just yesterday…

Isn’t it amazing how much of a difference a bit of sunshine can make? 😉

And it’s not just the difference in your own life, mind you. The plants, the animals, the weather, the earth itself – they all thrive under the sun just like you do, and they also suffer from the sun just like you do.

Of course, by now, you’ve got a good idea where this story is leading…

And yep, you are right: In the past few paragraphs, we’ve been experiencing (well, sort of) some of the vices and virtues of the Sun. And yep, we will of course discuss them in more detail – a bit later, that is. 😉

But first, let’s have another look at the story above. In a somewhat abstract way, it represents two different ways of viewing the world. And these two worldviews have been a bone of contention in the reception of Hermeticism for quite a while, and might even have been for as long as there’ve been Hermetic texts and teachings.

You might have encountered them in other contexts, too, though. The worldviews I’m talking about are monism and dualism, and you may have come across them in a variety of ways:

For example, the distinction between monism and dualism marks one of the big divides between different philosophical schools.

Some assume that mind and body (i.e. the invisible and the material world) are very much distinct, whereas others assume that both are essentially of the same substance. Plato’s allegory of the cave distinguishes between the world of everyday experience and the invisible, for example, as did Descartes in his dualistic philosophy which sharply separates mind from body.

A form of monism, in contrast, is so entrenched into our society’s worldview that you’re bound to encounter it every day, probably without even noticing:

The materialistic worldview at the basis of modern scientific understanding is essentially a monistic view. In this worldview, there is only one underlying substance, namely matter, which can be scientifically measured and dealt with, and all other phenomena like spiritiual experiences are just manifestations of sorts of this physical matter.

But there is also the oppositve take on monism which assumes everything is fundamentally spiritual, and the “physical world” as we perceive it is just a manifestation of the “real” spiritual world.

This is just the very short Cliffs Notes version of the monistic and dualistic worldview – but as you can imagine, this topic lends itself extremely well to philosophical discussions. 😉 We’ll spare ourselves the details (you can easily look them up elsewhere), and instead focus on the aspect which is relevant for our understanding of Hermeticism, and especially for our inner work with the planets:

What are the spiritual and religious implications of a monistic or dualistic worldview?

You might have heard about one well-known example, namely the scholarly consensus about the dualistic worldview of gnosticism.

As you might be aware, there were a lot of different gnostic sects and schools back in the day, roughly around the time when Hermeticism (in the form passed down to us) developed, and when the Hermetic texts were written down.

And for quite a while, scholars used to dump all of these gnostic traditions into one big barrel, stirred a bit, and then declared the resulting gnostic concoction to be firmly, negatively dualistic.

What they meant by this label was that the early gnosticists distinguished sharply between the world of matter, and the world of spirit or the divine.

According to this gnostic worldview (or rather: according to the view these scholars assigned to all gnosticists in their one-barrel-fits-all concoction), the world of matter is ruled by the “demiurge” or other beings whose attitude towards us humans isn’t necessarily beneficial, to put it mildly. Hence life on earth is a life of suffering, hardships and evil – and it’s best to overcome this life as soon as possible, in order to move on to more beneficial (and more pleasant) things.

The world of spirit, however, is ruled by the divine, and up there things are quite different. In this stereotypical gnostic worldview, once a human leaves material incarnation behind and instead reaches the level of the divine, they have also left earthly suffering behind. Instead, in this other realm, life is all sunshine and roses.

(Obviously, I’m simplifying here, and there are a lot more details to it. Still, you get the basic idea.)

Of course, scholarly consensus being what it is, it has changed quite a bit over time… Nowadays scholars are much more willing to treat the different gnostic traditions and schools as, well, different, and to grant them the variety of opinion and worldview which is present in their texts.

Still, this outdated and much oversimplified scholarly understanding of gnosticism is a nice example of a dualistic worldview applied to the spiritual and religious dimension of life:

If the divine and the material world are strictly separate, and the former is all Good, Beauty and Truth, all divine glory – then of course the latter must, in contrast, be the opposite: a world of suffering, hardship, of temptation to be withstood, a world of negative things or of “evil” which is to be left behind at the earliest possible occasion.

You might have encountered similar ideas in certain areas of Christianity, btw, where life on earth is seen as the earthly vale of tears, full of suffering, which the faithful aim to leave behind through their belief and/or their deeds.

In a monistic spiritual or religious worldview, in contrast, the physical world around us is a direct extension of the divine, and is filled and fueled by the divine and the grace of god (or the gods).

Yes, there is suffering in material life. But it’s not caused by malevolent divine powers – and it’s very emphatically not the most important thing there is on earth! Instead, life in itself is wonderful, a divine grace. It’s to be enjoyed, and to be rejoiced in, even if certain things in life can be hard.

(Of course, as is often the case with such a binary, most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes, and religious beliefs can certainly have elements of both, even if they are predominantly in the camp of dualism or of monism.)

So… What is Hermeticism’s take on the world? 🙂

Did the ancient Hermeticists have a negative dualistic view, and perceived the material world as full of suffering and hardship, bereft of the divine, to be left behind at the earliest opportunity by moving on to the divine side of things?

Or did they have a life-affirming monistic view on things, and assume that the divine is in everything, that life in material incarnation is a beautiful gift to be treasured, and that we are already in the divine, as the divine is very much present here on earth?

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise if I tell you that the scholarly consensus on this question has been flip-flopping quite a bit as well. 😉

Of course, it also didn’t help that for quite a while, scholars simply also dumped Hermeticism into the same stereotypical gnostic barrel, together with all the gnostic traditions, and assumed it would share the same pessimistic, dualistic worldview as gnosticis.

(After all, there is considerable overlap between the concepts and terminology of Hermeticism and gnosticism, and their texts are roughly the same age… Thus if one takes all the gnostic schools to be the same despite their sometimes significant differences, lumping Hermeticsm into the same broad barrel kinda suggests itself.)

Thus for quite a while, scholars simply assumed Hermeticism is all negative dualism. And lo and behold, it so happens that this assumption is underlined by some of the Hermetica which share a rather negative, dualistic outlook on the physical world, and on material incarnation.

On the other hand, some of the other Hermetica express a very positive, monistic outlook on life. (Which had been conveniently ignored or discussed away by these earlier researchers, as so often is the case, in order to not endanger the precious scholarly consensus…)

Over time, though, and especially with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and the Hermetic scriptures within them, the academic view on Hermeticism has changed. Of course, incorporating both the pessimistic dualistic Hermetica and the optimistc monistic Hermetica into one coherent concept of Hermeticism turned out to be somewhat challenging.

(At least if one insists that Hermeticism is one monolithic block – which scholars mostly tend to do, and which is kinda funny, isn’t it, considering that they have moved to a much more nuanced look on gnosticism and its various schools…

But since we don’t know enough about the practice of Hermeticism, it’s admittedly a bit hard to tell whether there were distinct Hermetic schools with different philosophical underpinnings or not, as seems to be the case for the range of traditions labelled as “gnostic”.)

In order to incorporate all of the Hermetica into one stringent spiritual worldview, more recent scholars have chosen a very elegant solution: They assume that there is a so-called “Way of Hermes”, i.e. a clearly outlined Hermetic path for the development of the practitioner.

One of the first to come up with this idea was Garth Fowden, who assumed that Hermetic teachers would lead their students first through a monistic phase, where the students should recognize the divine in all its beauty in the world of creation, only to then transition into a dualistic phase where they’d reject their own attachments to this worldy life and reach the divine.

Of course, there is always more than one way to skin a cat… 😉

Consequently, other scholars, like Christian Bull or Wouter Hanegraaff, instead identified a different “Way of Hermes” in the Hermetica, diametrally opposed, in which the practitioners start out in pessimistic dualism, and after having shed their wordly attachments in this first phase, they’d then graduate to monism and recognize that the divine was around them all the time.

(Admittedly, I’m over-simplifying here again, but you get the idea. If you want to read up on all this in more detail, The Digital Ambler has a helpful and very accessible overview. He also proposes yet another Way of Hermes, incorporating the other two into one, by going monism – dualism – monism again.)

So… how does it matter to you whether Hermeticism is monistic, dualistic, or any combination thereof? I mean, why are we even discussing all this (instead of finally getting on to what you’ve been waiting for, namely the vices and virtues of the Sun)?

Let’s hop back to the story at the beginning for a second.

I’m sure you’ve experienced similar situations. Maybe not in the form of such a hike, granted, but you’ve certainly had your share of moments when life was difficult, painful, maybe even unbearable, when it felt as if somebody was out to get (or hurt) you – and I should very much hope you’ve also had your share of joyful moments, when life was perfect and beautiful, and maybe you even felt in touch with the divine within creation.

Or, in other words, you’ve most likely experienced your share of pessimistic dualism – and of optimistic monism.

So… which one is it for you? 🙂

Is life evil and painful, and the sooner you get out of here to the other side, the better? Or is life joyful and beautiful, despite all its difficulties, and you can perceive the divine behind everything?

Or have you gone through a development, starting out at one end and working through it in order to then be able to take on the other view – your own personal Way of Hermes?

Whether the ancient Hermeticists believed in one or the other is only relevant if you’re a scholar, or aim to become a traditional Hermeticist. But how you perceive your life, that’s what matters, isn’t it? 🙂

Just for the records, my personal take isn’t that one of these views is “right” and the other is “wrong” – quite the contrary. I’m fairly sure that for most of us, both are necessary to some extent: enjoying life here as divine gift, but also letting go of some of our attachments.

(And as you might have noticed, both are part of what we are working towards with this essay series… 😉 )

I also don’t assume that us humans are meant to stick to just one of these worldviews throughout our lives. In fact, I’m rather fond of the idea of a “Way of Hermes”. It’s just that this Way of Hermes doesn’t necessarily have to be the same for all of us, and that it also doesn’t have to be as clear-cut as some of the academic theories on Hermeticism suggest.

Rather, I think that both the monistic and the dualistic worldview have something to offer to all of us in our inner work:

We all have times (and areas of our lives) where we’d be well advised to enjoy life a bit more, to recognize and connect with the divine in all things (and all beings – and yep, that very much includes our fellow humans!).

But much as I have my issues with a purely pessimistic-dualistic outlook on the world as vale of tears or as the creation of a malevolent being just out to cause us pain, we all have times (and areas of our lives) where we’d be well advised to let go of our attachments to material things a bit more, to orient ourselves towards something more than merely physical existence.

And note that these things are not only not mutually exclusive, they can also both be present in your life at the same time – in different areas, or maybe even in the same area of your life.

Life in material incarnation is usually messy, and rarely clear-cut – and thus your personal “Way of Hermes” might be equally messy, and not as clear-cut as it looks like in books (or in Hermetic texts). Where you are right now, and what you most need, is something only you can figure out for yourself – and I hope you’ll take the time to think about it, and do attempt to figure it out!

Where in your life would you profit from a monistic outlook, and where from a dualistic? And how can you actually apply these insights in your life?

Well. We’ve covered a lot of ground, but one question is still unanswered: Why are discussing all of this here, in an essay about the Sun, of all things?

This is an excellent question, which (not accidentally…) ties in with the Sun’s vices and virtues!

But since this essay is already running on the long side as it is (and, very pragmatically, since it’s early evening on Sunday as I’m writing this and it should have been published hours ago 😉 ), we’ll discuss this in the next essay in about two weeks – where we will also, finally, at last!, talk about the vices and virtues of the Sun.

Until then, I hope you will take the time to ponder this essay a bit, and especially any implications these worldviews might have on your life.

I’m looking forward to your comments, questions, … below! 🙂

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Image: Mike Petrucci on Unsplash