The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (45 page)

220 the path of love

Courtly Love (continued):
On the other hand,
separation
was common in courtly love because a mortal lover cannot enjoy the ecstasy of permanent union with the

immortal Beloved. Therefore, the lover might be separated from his beloved

for long periods; indeed, they might never have met in person. Through sepa-

ration you, as lover, prove your faithfulness. Moreover, desire feeds the flame.

You can also celebrate your beloved, as symbol of divine Beauty and Good-

ness, in poetry or song.

We turn our attention back to Hypatia’s imaginary lesson. “Union is achieved

through sight and hearing, but also through the mind. In the second phase of Awak-

ening the lover internalizes the image of the beloved in her imagination, so she may have it with her always. In this way his beauty is separated from matter, which can

reflect only imperfectly his true beauty. Thus the beloved’s immaterial beauty is kept safe in the lover’s heart; that is, the beloved is assimilated into the lover’s soul. As you all know, you can hold in your heart love for someone who is absent, or even who has died. In this way you take a first step away from the realm of Becoming, from the flux of ‘coming-to-be and passing-away’, toward immaterial and eternal Being.

“In this way you turn inward, shifting from exterior sensation to interior imagina-

tion. Your imagination of your beloved is also an invocation of archetypal Eros, who illuminates the image of your beloved in your soul. The goal of Awakening is to further inspire the lover to seek the source of this transcendent beauty. I will explain the technique.”

Imagined Beauty:
This exercise may be practiced as a continuation of
Observed
Beauty
by simply closing your eyes, or it can be practiced on its own in the absence of your beloved. The practice is simply to imagine your beloved and to

feel your overwhelming love for them. See them in your mind’s eye, imagine

their voice, recall graceful or endearing habits, their touch, their smell—every-

thing that will create a vivid representation of your beloved in your soul. Feel

your adoration for them and the power of your love.

the path of love 221

We get the word “narcissism” from the ancient myth of Narcissus, which Hypatia

uses as an allegory.252 “I’m sure you all remember the story of the beautiful youth, Narcissus, who was loved by both boys and girls, but rejected them all, most tragically the nymph called Echo. Therefore he was cursed by his heartless beauty. One day he

bent down to take a drink from an especially clear pool and saw his own reflection

in the water. He was completely enraptured by the beautiful boy that he saw, and he

unsuccessfully attempted to kiss and embrace him. Despite his frustration he kept

returning to the pool. At first, he didn’t realize it was his own reflection, but when he did, the impossibility of the situation drove him to despair. In Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
Narcissus cries,

It is my self I love, my self I see;

The gay delusion is a part of me.

I kindle up the fires by which I burn,

And my own beauties from the well return.253

“Yet he cannot tear himself away from the beautiful image, and eventually, through

neglect of himself for the sake of the reflection, he pines away and dies.

As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run,

And trickle into drops before the sun;

So melts the youth, and languishes away,

His beauty withers, and his limbs decay;

And none of those attractive charms remain,

To which the slighted
Echo
su’d in vain.254

“All that is left of him is ‘a yellow stalk, with yellow blossoms crown’d’, the narcissus.

“We philosophers interpret this myth allegorically.255 The pool of water represents

the material world, for water is a traditional symbol of materiality, continually in flux, always coming to be and flowing away. Therefore Heraclitus said you cannot step in

the same river twice, for it is ever changing, ever different. Narcissus represents the soul and his reflection represents the imperfect image of the beauty of the soul in the physical body.

“The word
narcissus
is related to the word
narcê
(numbness), which refers to sleep and death, which is why we plant these flowers on graves. But it also suggests rebirth, which is why the narcissus is used in the initiations of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Its 222 the path of love

straight yellow stalk and blossoms, reaching toward the sun, show us the way upward, the path to the Flower of the Soul. The narcissus reminds us to wake up—from our

numbness, from our sleep, from death.

“The Ascent by Love begins with the beauty of the body, for even this beauty is

divine in origin. The danger is that the soul is so easily seduced by the beauty of the body, as Narcissus was seduced by his own reflection in the fluid depths. He loved the beautiful image and lost sight of its source.

What kindled in thee this unpity’d love?

Thy own warm blush within the water glows,

With thee the colour’d shadow comes and goes,

Its empty being on thyself relies;

Step thou aside, and the frail charmer dies.256

“It is the soul that animates the corporeal image, that brings it warmth and life.

When the soul forgets itself out of love for the body, and when the soul neglects its own well being out of fascination with the body, then it withers and loses its beauty, as Narcissus did. ‘As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run’, the soul flows away into materiality.

“In summary, the Ascent by Love begins with Awakening, the conscious recogni-

tion that physical beauty is impermanent, that no mortal, embodied beauty can be

perfect, for each person is beautiful in some respects but not in others, and that physical beauty has a source outside the body. Thus we seek a more perfect beauty than is possible in any body. Awakened, we can proceed to the ascent itself, which has three stages, Purification, Illumination, and Perfection, but let’s take a break before discussing them.”

Interlude—Gaius’ Story

This is a good opportunity to tell a memorable story about Hypatia and how she

awakened one student so he could see the beauty that transcends superficial beau-

ty. He had requested a private meeting with his teacher, which was not unusual, for

Hypatia’s disciples often met alone with her to discuss their personal problems and to seek private philosophical advice. Hypatia is sitting in a divan in a private room when a servant leads Gaius through the door.

“Good afternoon, Gaius,” she says as the servant departs. “What did you want to

discuss?”

the path of love 223

The young man is obviously flustered, and after stammering a few words of greet-

ing, falls to his knees, clutches the hem of her gown, and speaks in a rush. “Dear mirror of Athena, Athena’s other self, dear Aphrodite next after Aphrodite, who in your excellence outshines all other mortal women, daughter of divine Zeus, god above all gods!

Blessed your father, blessed she who bore such spotless charms! Blessed the womb

that nurtured you and offered you to the sun’s light! Hear my prayer and pity my de-

sire! You, who teach the Mysteries of Love and Beauty, heed the law of Eros and Aphrodite, and their Mysteries—darkly sealed to maidenhood—will be revealed! Yield then

to love and the marriage bed! Revere the sweet divine law of the heart-winning gods

and accept me as your worshipper and, if you will, as your husband, for although Athena led me here, Love has slain me with his arrows for Aphrodite’s sake. Lady, forgive my boldness!”

Hypatia is not surprised. She has noticed him staring at her during the lessons,

and when she has looked at him and smiled, he has blushed and looked quickly away.

Now she holds up a hand to stop his protestations of love, and silently hands him the shallow, covered basket from the table beside her. Perplexed, he takes it, and she says,

“Open it.”

Gaius looks inside, and his expression quickly changes from surprise to shock and

revulsion, for the basket contains a menstrual napkin, brown with dried blood.

“Dear God, my lady, why have you shown me this?”

“Because,” Hypatia answers quietly, “this is what you actually desire, my young

friend, but it’s not so beautiful, is it?”

Gaius mutters, “It’s disgusting,” and buries his head in his hands in shame.

“No,” says Hypatia, “it’s the mystery of female fertility, and a sign that I have chosen not to be a wife and mother, for I am dedicated to the virgin goddess of wisdom, Athena. My path is to reproduce through the fecundity of my soul rather than that of my body.”

“I am so ashamed, my lady.”

“Don’t be,” she says, stroking his head, “for you have learned a valuable lesson.

What is it?”

Gaius looks up, thinks a moment and replies, “That bodily beauty is much inferior

to the beauty of the soul, but I have confused the two. And that I should seek the higher beauty and shun the foul and false beauty of this world.”

224 the path of love

“There is nothing false in the beauty of this world,” says Hypatia, “but it is imperfect and impermanent, so you should be careful never to mistake it for the Beauty that is the ultimate desire of philosophers. The one can lead us to the other.”

As a result of Hypatia’s instruction, Gaius is awakened, and experiences a complete

change of mind and heart.257

Purification—The Soul

Later in the afternoon, Hypatia resumes her lesson. “The ascent proper begins

when you rise above the level of the body to that of the soul, or equivalently, when you turn inward toward the psyche, for the way
up
is also the way
in
. The stage is conventionally called
Purification
, since it begins the separation of the soul from the body: dying before you die. In Plato’s
Phaedo
, Socrates explains: