Tag Archives: heraclitus
Sacraments
I am serious about my religion. I don’t take its sacraments lightly. They may cause you discomfort: A long walk, a trusted companion, an open fire. I cannot imagine a relic, a book, or a doctrine more sacred. Perhaps you doubt them. Perhaps I doubt yours. A walk through a wood A walk through a [...]
The Hungriness of Stuff
We previously reflected upon the intimate, multifaceted relationship between ancient man and fire, and considered how easy it would have been for a man such as Heraclitus to conceive of the idea that fire is the fundamental constituent of all matter. Heraclitus was, after all, a subject of the Persian Empire, a land of fire [...]
The Burning Bush
When God spoke to Moses, God took the form of a burning bush. Why did an ancient Israelite think that God would take the form of a self-immolating bush? It might be natural enough to think that fire consumes a bush, but there’s another way to see it—the way that many ancients saw it: the [...]
The Cradle of Ethical Metaphysics
If we turn to the Gathas to determine the geographic origins of Zoroastrianism, it seems reasonable to conclude—or guess—that Zoroastrianism originated somewhere in or around Bactria-Margiana. Recent discoveries of what appear to be ancient, pre-Zoroastrian fire temples in the Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex (BMAC), appear to confirm this line of reasoning. But we cannot necessarily conclude [...]
Good, Evil, and Plutarch
Henry David Thoreau, an obscure 19th Century classicist and journalist who earned a reputation as a decent translator of Greek works, once reflected on the profound presence of Evil in the world: Are there not two powers? —Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Jan 9, 1853 Among the Greek classics which Thoreau is known to have [...]
Zarathustra the Yes Man.
There is perhaps no message more essential to Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra than the whole-hearted affirmation of life as an individual experience. I am a blesser and a Yea-sayer, … into all abysses I carry my blessing Yea-saying. —Thus Spoke Zarathustra 3.4, Before Sunrise This affirmation of life as a whole appears to be the [...]
Also Sprach Herakleitos
Nietzsche’s choice of the Iranian (not necessarily Persian) prophet Zarathustra was far from arbitrary, and Nietzsche wanted us to know this. “I have not been asked, as I should have been asked, what the name of Zarathustra means in precisely my mouth, …” — Ecce Homo Though taking the title “the first immoralist,” Nietzsche did [...]
Gods of Wisdom
The wise (sophos) is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus. —Heraclitus Zarathashtra worshiped something he called “Lord Wisdom” (Mazda). He called his religion Mazdayasna, which translates to “worship of wisdom.” Heraclitus might have been the first Greek to advocate philos-sophia, or “love of wisdom.” Heraclitus and [...]
Haunted by Heraclitus
Heraclitus is not merely turning in his grave, he’s haunting his inspirations. It appears that an image of a painting that was inspired by Heraclitus’ aphorism the way up is the way down somehow underwent a vertical flip somewhere out on the aether, such that the way up is quite literally the way down: The [...]
Ethos as Destiny
This is a continuation of our reflections on character as destiny. We left this discussion having stripped down the self to nothing but her choices, but that was not where I wished to leave her. I would sooner clothe her in all the particulars of the universe than leave her a naked abstraction. Charles H. [...]