Hermetic Tradition

Either I zoned out and glazed over Yates' explanation of the Hermetic Tradition or I simply couldn't understand her explanation.  In the sections dedicated to Bruno I constantly read how he based his memory theater on this tradition and I kept realizing I had no Idea what that meant.  I wikied and was somewhat enlightened on the subject matter.

Hermes Trismegistus is a Greek and Egyptian creation.  It is thought that he is a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.  However, Hermes Trismegistus is thought to be an actual person contemporary to Moses.  Called Thrice the Great, Trismegistus was believed to be the greatest philosopher, greatest priest, and greatest king.  His is thought to be the author of Corpus Hermeticum and The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. In these works he explains the "three parts of wisdom of the whole universe." Alchemy, Astrology, and Theurgy.  Many of the worlds religions have Hermetic influences and a separate religion based on Hermeticism exists.  From what I understand the three parts of wisdom, Alchemy, Astrology, and Theurgy, work together to create an understanding beyond the common conceptions of science.  Through careful study of nature, physics, magic, and the universe, one can gain knowledge that far surpasses presupposed limitations.  

Its all a bit confusing. It seems somewhat in line with Plato's theory of forms in that limitless knowledge may be obtained through proper study.  One can understand all that is the universe through alchemy, astrology, and theurgy.

check out the wikis for a bit more clear description.  I think it will help decipher Yates' dealings with Bruno.

Hermeticism

Hermes Trismegistus

A glimpse into my paper

I wrote a large portion of my paper today.  I thought I would post what I have so far for some criticism.  I haven't edited anything yet or written a conclusion so its still pretty rough.

The Memory, Imagination, and Soul of Mythtelling

Sean Kane writes in his novel Wisdom of the Mythtellers “[…] myths were not merely flights of the imagination; they were flights of the spirit, with the narrative acting as the conduit of supernatural energies summoned and made present by story, and the mythteller acting as the conductor of the souls of the listeners” (104).  But why did mythtellers control such power?  Paraphrasing Aristotle, Francis Yates writes “memory…belongs to the same part of the soul as imagination; it is a collection of mental pictures form sense impressions but with a time element added, for the mental images of memory are not from perception of things present but of things past” (33).  In an oral tradition, storytellers held the key to personal development, morally, socially, and spiritually.  They molded the youth of the tribe.  They taught future leaders, future shamen, and future farmers the knowledge needed to survive in a threatening world.  Stories capture the imagination, and according to Aristotle, imagination connects with memory.  Both memory and imagination lie in the soul and as a result, the storytellers guiding the soul become the single greatest influence on the development of the mind.

  Myths teach people how to interact with the world.  “Exchange with the world is made at the mouth, nose, ears, eyes, anus, sexual organs, and the skin itself” (Kane 103).  Before print, myths were used to teach children about poisonous berries, the weather, planting crops, and medical uses for plants.  These myths appealed to the imagination as colorful characters acted as the guinea pigs of the natural world.  For example excess pride will cause downfall as in the story of Icarus.  Because memory coexists with imagination in the soul, myths remain in the collective consciousness of the tribe continuously teaching the important lessons of development.  Initially, these stories guide developing souls through imagination and memory however, the mythteller’s true gift extends beyond practical knowledge.  The storyteller and his myths play a crucial part in the development of knowledge.

Paraphrasing Plato, Yates writes:

The Phaedrus is a treatise on rhetoric in which rhetoric is regarded, not as an art of persuasion to be used for personal or political advantage, but as an art of speaking the truth and of persuading hearers to the truth.  The power to do this depends on a knowledge of the soul and the soul’s true knowledge consists in the recollection of the Ideas.  Memory is not a ‘section’ of this treatise as one part of the art of rhetoric; memory in the Platonic sense is the groundwork of the whole. (37)

 

Plato’s theory of forms states that all knowledge comes hardwired into the brain upon birth.  Accessing this information requires little more than the proper thought or more specifically, proper rememberence.  Truth depends on the knowledge of the soul and its two main aspects, memory and imagination.  If truth lies in the soul, then the person responsible for developing the soul holds the key to knowledge.  Enter the mythteller and his true purpose in mythtelling.  Because myths develop the memory and imagination, they offer the gateway to not just practical knowledge but all knowledge of the past, present, and still to come.  Cicero argues for the power of memory and imagination, “assuredly nothing can be apprehendend even in God of greater value than this … Therefore the soul is, as I say, divine, as Euripides dares say, God …” (Yates 47).  Thus, the power imparted by an oral mythteller through his stories surpasses the power of god.  Stories that teach what is, what was, and what will be empower a human with the divine, which explains why religion roots in myth and storytellers become demi-gods.  After Plato and Aristotle, figures appear scattered through history who realize the power in stories, soul, memory, and imagination like Camillo, Lull, and Bruno, however the mythteller tradition has faded in the modern era.  Yet, even today, residual orality and residual mythtelling remains.

The residual influence of the oral storytelling tradition, though not as formal and reveared, appears in childhood development today.  Countless studies indicate that exposing young children to aural stimulus aids development.  Reading fairytales, listening to classical music, and speaking other languages work in a similar fashion today as myths did thousands of years ago.  “Sound is thus a unifying sense,” writes Walter Ong in Orality and Literacy “[…] knowledge is ultimately not a fractioning but a unifying phenomenon, a striving for harmony.  Without harmony, an interior condition, the psyche is in bad health” (71-72). “Sound […] exists only when it’s going out of existence” (Ong 90). It is up to the imagination to comprehend something that only exists instantaneously.  The imagination must connect a sound to a concrete object or visualize a sound as an action.  While the imagination processes sound, memory stores it and the soul critiques the whole experience. Reasonably, exposure to aural stimulus begins the development of the “unifying phenomenon” called knowledge.  Knowledge, that is, according to Plato, a product of the workings of the imagination, the memory, and the soul.

Visiting my memory palace

Schweitzer Mountain Resort was one of the stops on this spring break's ski road trip and was the location of my Memory palace.  My friends and I spent two nights at Schwetizer and skied one day.  Other than fog and snow, I followed the exact path of my memory theater for the first run of the day.  Even through the soupy fog, I saw the many images of my fifty things and found myself running through the list of names as images like a squaw fish and a penny singing "itsy betsy spider" or a bottle of Jones soda and Willy Nelson making turns while yodeling.  The memory theater not only alters your internal perception and ability to remember but also the actual reality of the place used as a memory theater.  No longer is the top of the Beginner lift at Schweitzer simply an unload station but rather a man in Jeans with a cowboy hat in a wheel chair playing an Austrian long horn.  I wonder if the people responsible for developing these memory theaters saw the corporeal images or the actual places once they developed the memory systems.  I would love to know if anyone else experienced this phenomena?

The story of my Memory Theater

Format:  My corporeal images followed by (what they represent)

 Every winter weekend morning I leave my ski condo and walk outside to the garage there I see my friend Gretchen dressed as the Swiss Miss girl serving. (1948 St. Moritz, Switzerland Gretchen Frazer).  I walk up the driveway over to the access trail for the ski lift and strap into my skis next to a Mead Panther sitting in a viking war ship (1952 Oslo Norway Andrea Meade-Lawrence).  I ski down to the bottom of the first lift and in line is a penny and a squaw fish singing "The itsy Betsy spider" (1960 Squaw Valley, USA Penny Pitou, Betsy Snite).  I ride the first chair and as I get of the lift I pass a man in a wheelchair wearing a cowboy hat and jeans while playing an Austrian Horn (1964 Innsbruck, Austria Jimmy Heuga, Billy Kidd, Jean Saubert).  Then I ski to the bottom of the next lift and hop on the chair with my mom and my friends mom who are eating sushi (1972 Sapporro, Japan Susan Corrock, Barbara Cochran).  Half way up the lift I look off to the left and see a bottle of Jones Soda and Willie Nelson skiing down the run yoddleing (1976 Innsbruck Austria, Greg Jones, Cindy Nelson).  I get off the lift and see three ski patrolmen.  One is a giant alligator, one is Willie Nelson, and one is Dr. Phil. (1980 Lake Placid, Cindy Nelson, Phil Mahre).  I ski down the run to the next lift and en rout I see a massive crash involving, Slobodon Milosovic, Neil Armstrong, a barrel maker, a stock broker, and twin female horses. (1984 Sarajevo Yugoslavia, Debbie Armstrong, Christian Cooper, Bill Johnson, Phil Mahre and Steve Mahre).  I ride the next lift to the top of the mountain where I see my friend Albert taking the picture of Hillary Clinton and Princess Diana (1992 Albertville France Hillary Linde, Diann Roffe)  I ski down to the top of my favorite run at the mountain and I see a viking ship with a hammer painted on the side being rowed by Moe from the 3 stooges, Princess Diana, and a piece of asphalt (1994 Lillehammer Norway Tommy Moe, Diann Roffe, Picabo Street).  I take a few turns and stop on top of my favorite cliff I like to jump.  I hit the cliff and land on a piece of asphalt and squish a sushi roll (1998 Nagano, Japan Picabo Street).  I ski down towards the base of the mountain and pass below the Terrain Park.  I look up at a jump and see the Great Salt Lake and a bottle of Miller Lite hitting a jump (2002 Salt Lake City Bode Miller).  Finally I get back to the base and take my skis off and hand them to Julia Roberts.  I have X-Ray vision and can see her ligaments and that she ate spagetti for lunch (2006 Torino, Italy Julia Mancuso, Ted Ligity).

Camillo?

Up until the section on Camillo I followed the somewhat dense and confusing logic of Yates. Now I am at a bit stuck. I could relate to the memory theories used by the Latin and Middle Age scholars but the methods of the Renaissance confuse the heck out of me. Upon reading and examining the methods of Camillo I can see no method to remember everything, past, present, and future, through his theatre. I don't quite understand how the process works with the steps and levels. Does one create paths through the different levels or are you limited to the linear movements through the levels. I tried to read slowly and purposefully but I see no practical method to Camillo's theatre. Maybe because I can't see it in 3D in person. With so many other of Camillo's contemporaries praising his work, I seems that he developed an effective system of memory but unlike earlier memory systems, his seems a bit esoteric. Even now looking back over the drawing of Camillo's theater, I only interpret jiberish. Unlike the older ideas of using coporeal images in memory theaters, I dont find Camillo's method useful. Most likely its my ignorance and inablility to interpret Yeat's explination that causes such a difficult time with this. Hopefully I will figure it out a bit more in class or from other blog posts.