"The One"

[bgruagach]

Originally Posted by Therapon

The One is if I'm understanding Plotinus correctly the essential transcendent unity of all gods and all beings, the only truly existant reality. This is pure Monism, the underlying philosophy of Polytheism.

While it is true that there are polytheist philosophies (such as that of Plotinus and the others you mentioned) which reduce to monism, it is a mistake to assume that this is true for all polytheists.

Polytheism is not a single uniform philosophy or religion but a rather generic term for religions that acknowledge more than just one deity. There is a huge amount of variety and often radical disagreement between polytheist religions and philosophies. And that includes variety with respect to the concept of monism.

; )

Ben Gruagach

[Therapon]

[quote=bgruagach]While it is true that there are polytheist philosophies (such as that of Plotinus and the others you mentioned) which reduce to monism, it is a mistake to assume that this is true for all polytheists.quote]

Absolutely! However few polytheistic religions other than Classical Paganism or Hinduism actualy articulate a philosophical position. Within Hinduism Monism (Advaita) is the perspective that is given more attention but Dualism, as in Vaisnava tradition, is also present. Even so the One is still recognised.

Classical Paganism had by the time of Plotinus rejected dualistic thinking and Neoplatonism is distinguished from earlier philosophies precisely over this point.

It is from this tradition that contemporary Neopaganism has developed and both Wicca and Druidry have inherited their monistic perspecitive.

[sedated_angel]

True and not true. (From my personal point of view.) As I understand it, from a Wiccan standpoint this is. There is a deity higher than the god and the goddes, in a technical sense. This deity however did not create the god and goddes, but humans, yes humans, created them as a way of relating to the higher deity. "The one" as it was phrased is the creator of all things. And Wicca, along with every other religion, is our way of relating to something which is otherwise unfathomable. We anthropomorphize this higher deity into something more like ourselves, in order to understand it. So, to be technical, when christians say that "God created us in his image" Technically they have it all bass ackwards, they created god in their image.

[BeckyThatch]

I just finished reading Ken Wilber's "Sex, Ecology and Spirituality". He's a very enthusiastic advocate of Plotinus and what he refers to as the "Divine ground". I think this is the same as "The One".

Socrates essentially said that it can't be put into words. If that's the case, what are we talking about?

[bgruagach]

Originally Posted by BeckyThatch

I just finished reading Ken Wilber's "Sex, Ecology and Spirituality". He's a very enthusiastic advocate of Plotinus and what he refers to as the "Divine ground". I think this is the same as "The One".

Socrates essentially said that it can't be put into words. If that's the case, what are we talking about?

I often thought that the claim we can't put something into words was a cop-out. Sure, we can express it through words, music, dance, visual arts!

However I do think it's true that the One, the Divine, or whatever you want to call It is so vast that it is impossible for us to know It in Its totality. All our attempts to express our understanding of It are by definition limited parts of It. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try! It's through expressing our understanding of It and learning from each other that we are able to expand our understanding of It.

[reedshimmer]

Ben your encyclopeadic knowledge has astonished me all day today you are amazing.

I have ME and tried really hard to read and understand this positively highbrow and very intellectual discussion as the subject is of great interest to me.

On a lighter note, if that is allowed; a post by Chalice wherein he/she discussed the similarity between the gnostic 'scattering of light' and the jewish kabbalah 'shattering of glass' made me think that perhaps the former was the bardic knowledge of 'the big bang' creation of the universe handed onto the jewish people and encompassed within their faith as so many religions are wont to do - use someone else's knowledge and practices to further their own cause. Is this possible? after all the god's would have been the entities around wouldn't they?

Respect and regards

Reedshimmer