Podcast episode
We explore Iamblichus' extraordinary âesoteric-literalistâ approach to the Platonic corpus and the upper reaches of his complex metaphysics, the realms of the One(s) and the noetic-noeric levels of reality. Featuring special guest-star the Noeric Hebdomad.
Podcast episode
Professor Aron Reppmann introduces the life, thought, and esotericism of Origen of Alexandria, one of the greatest church-fathers, Platonist theologian par excellence, and revolutionary scriptural exegete.
Podcast episode
We return to the many theories â some ancient, some modern â as to the true identity of the writer known as Dionysios the Areopagite. Things get very esoteric.
Podcast episode
Into the divine darkness of a hyper-non-existent god walks the Pseudo-Dionysios. In this episode we join many esoteric currents from the antique and late-antique past into a new synthesis which will forever shape western esotericism going forward.
Podcast episode
We discuss the One and the Henads in Proclus with Edward Butler. Henology meets henadology on a metaphysical terrain where gods are the primary unities.
Podcast episode
We explore the rich seam of late-antique esoteric lore that is Macrobius' Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. We discuss who Macrobius was, what he wrote, what he wrote about, and introduce who read him later on. He emerges as a crucial transmitter of astrologised, arithmologically-informed Platonism to the Latin west in the middle ages.
Podcast episode
In Part II of our discussion with Joel Kalvesmaki we explore the philosophy and mysticism of the Kephalaia GnĆstika, Evagrius' masterwork of mind-bending metaphysical aphorisms.
Podcast episode
In a special episode, we ask MichĂŠl Motia some more questions about Gregory of Nyssa. Come for the apophatic theology, stay for the apophatic anthropology.
Podcast episode
In Part II with Father Sergey, we explore the Platonist âmysticalâ themes, esoteric imagery of divine darkness, and the limits of human knowledge in the Cappadocians. Đ„ŃĐžŃŃĐŸŃ ĐČĐŸŃĐșŃĐ”Ń!
Podcast episode
We discuss the rich strata of the esoteric in the work of the sage of Chalcis. Starting from the evidence for socially-esoteric teaching within Iamblichus' school, we move on to discuss his constructions of esoteric wisdom lineages â notably the tradition of âthe theurgistsâ â his employment of tropes of hiding and revealing, and the parameters of the Iamblichean âineffableâ.
Podcast episode
We introduce an enigmatic text, the anonymous commentary on Plato's Parmenides, and discuss why it, and its noetic triad of hyparxis, noÄsis, and zĆÄ, have so many scholars of Platonism and Platonistic religious currents arguing and causing a fuss.
Podcast episode
We explore Plotinus' One and the (human) self's encounter with the One. âNaked with stillness, on the edge of dawn she stays.â
Podcast episode
We discuss the ineffable in Plotinus: how it is deployed, how it is esoteric, how scholars have tried to deal with it, and how not least among its paradoxical functions is to call us to the highest initiation.
Podcast episode
Plotinus' universe is uniquely full of the human self, which extends all the way from the sucking mud of matter's non-existence to the ultimate profundity of the One's non-existence, and all the existent bits in-between. We discuss some of the ways in which this human metaphysical terrain is explored in the Enneads.
Podcast episode
We continue reading, with C.H. VI-X posing all manner of baffling interpretive questions, as well as some of the most inspiring and gorgeous religious ideas from antiquity. Come for god as the hyperessential good, stay for the noetic garments of fire.
Podcast episode
In this special episode we delve into the Corpus Hermeticum, seeking commonalities, differences, and the elusive threads which might help us figure out what is special about the theoretical Hermetic tradition in antiquity.
Podcast episode
Professor Reppmann delves into Origen's self-castration (yes, really), anathematisation, and reappearance as the quintessential Christian esotericist.
Podcast episode
We explore the difficulties inherent in interpreting apophatic language if we take it really seriously. Expect roughly half an hour of complete silence.
Podcast episode
We explore the esoteric writing methodologies of Clement's Stromateis â the innovative âpublic secrecyâ, the reasons for Clement's esotericism, and the evocation of the mysteries and of the ineffable as aspects of esoteric rhetoric.
Podcast episode
We introduce the life and thought of Orthodox Christianity's favourite in-house Gnostic, the great Clement of Alexandria. Come for the philosophical, esoteric Christianity, stay for the progressive postmortem deification.
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