Archive for Thursday 11th July 2002 - The marraige of heaven and earth

Last week we heard the old philosophers’ story about the nature of our world. It is not the real world, they said, but a copy of it. That is why nothing in it is quite perfect. But it is a copy of an ideal model, the truly perfect world of the powers above us.

That higher world is remembered by our souls, and they are always yearning for it. So we are always looking for the ideal, even though it is not to be found on earth. The philosophers encouraged that search. They taught that, if you are making or planning something, you should imagine its ideal form and imitate that, rather than copying something already made.

And you should look to the divine element within you, rather than hero-worshipping fellow-mortals.

Say you are laying out a garden, hoping to attract peace and beauty. The technique is to imagine a corner of paradise and take that as the model for your design. Then, of course, you have to compromise, according to your situation. But there will always be some hint of paradise in anything you do or make with the ideal in mind.

From these simple observations, the ancient philosophers built up a science of ‘correspondences’ between the divine world and the copy of it in which we live. Its purpose was to unite the powers of heaven and earth and attract the favours of the gods. That science is now lost. But they say it always comes back eventually - when we need it and start looking for it.

John Michell