The Ascent to the Beautiful

An occult investigation of the meaning and essence of Beauty and the beautiful

Guest article by Paul G. Vaughan

Proem by Occult Mysteries

We are delighted to publish another thoughtful article by guest writer, Paul G. Vaughan. In this contribution he explores the meaning and essence of Beauty with especial reference to the teachings of Plato and Plotinus. Beauty, as the author tells us as he develops his theme, is not what most people think it is. Indeed, it is fair to say very few know what Beauty is, whence it comes and how it manifests, both on Earth and in the Higher Realms of being, nor how to ascend to it. Occult Science affirms that Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty—but—who knows what this really means? That we hope to learn from this meticulously researched investigation into a subject of vital importance to all occultists and mystics, and—dare we say—even the ordinary man or woman who is sincerely searching for Truth—and Beauty!

Introduction

There is little doubt in my mind that had it not been for what we call Beauty our lives on this troubled planet would have been utterly intolerable, bereft of any loveliness, cruel and barbarous. For we associate beauty with a certain elevating and ennobling power, which brings refinement to our lives, sprinkles them with colour and joy and excites us to enthusiasm even when all else around us conspires to depress and degrade us. "If it were not for beauty and true love, which is the Light of the Three Worlds, all humanity would be submerged in utter darkness and death," as we may read in J Michaud's The Quest of Ruru. But beauty can have a manifold effect on the mind of man. At times the contemplation of beauty can raise our consciousness above all earthly concerns, even unto the ecstasy of spirit, a state from which can flow the highest form of inspiration, leading to creation of the works of artistic genius. Conversely, when the perception of beauty excites our lower desires, it can compel the best of us to lose our wits in the pursuit of the beautiful object with senseless abandon...aye, even to the edge of our doom (to paraphrase Shakespeare)!

But what does this mean? Is beauty itself then manifold? Is there one beauty, or are there many beauties, or is there one and many? Is beauty purely subjective, as the well-known proverb seems to suggest, pronouncing sagely that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Or is there such a thing as original or archetypal Beauty, as some philosophers of the past have hinted? In other words, an objective reality quite independent of its subjective manifestations. And if there is such a thing, can we hope to attain to its perception while we are still embedded in the flesh?

These were some of the questions that occupied my tired mind when, having paid my due obeisances at a local temple of commerce, better known as a shopping centre—for we all need to clothe our bodies from time to time, whether to hide our shame, or to augment their irresistible charms, etc.,—I suddenly realised that the shopping bag containing my spoils boldly proclaimed: "There is NO BEAUTY, only BEAUTIES." I was stunned. It dawned on me that, unwittingly, I had become a walking advert of post-modern revelation, which radiated from my shopping bag with such cool and arrogant assurance. Such a daring statement may sound very profound and deep, especially when it's rendered in an elegant white script set against a rich magenta background, but is it true? Do we now live in a new Golden Age of Philosophy where even clothing brands offer us deep insights into the nature of reality, or is it an age of presumptuous vanity where no one is safe from the half-instructed talk and savage surplusage of ignorance, dressed up as wisdom, even when we're out buying socks? With Philosophy as our guide, and some of her good servants as our lamp-bearers, let us seek for the answers to these questions, in the hope that we can dispel the gloom of erroneous conceptions, and bring ourselves closer to the appreciation of true beauty if, indeed, there is such a thing.

Joseph Parker — Island Sunset — oil on canvas, 1964

What is Beauty?

As is often the custom of the authors of this website, let us turn first to the dictionary to find out what the popular definition of beauty is. A quick search tells us that beauty is "a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Also: a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect." Immediately we see that beauty has a lot to do with form, pleasure, and the senses. But it is also suggested that it can be appreciated intellectually, in other words: by the mind. What is common to both definitions is the notion that beauty is a combination of qualities, rather than one thing in itself. This seems to imply that it's something adventitious, arising when a certain concord of shape, colour or form is perceived as pleasing by the observer, such as when we behold a painting and find it agreeable to our senses. This is confirmed by Wikipedia, which states: "Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art." No one would disagree that this interesting list of things often appear beautiful to us, but to suggest that beauty is simply a 'feature of objects', and not something in and of itself, seems to me a bit like putting the cart before the horse. If certain things appear to be beautiful, what is it that confers this beauty on them, and how do we judge them thus to be beautiful? So far it is anyone's guess. But there is more to be found in the dictionary, and a second definition dispels any lingering doubts: "2. Beauty: A beautiful woman."

Eureka! Who could possibly argue with this? If beauty is a beautiful woman, we may as well agree with the elegant orator Plato portrayed in one of his dialogues, the Greater Hippias. Herein we find Socrates, attempting, with his usual modesty and undeterred diligence, to extract from the famous sophist an answer to a simple question: what is the beautiful? To which Hippias answers: "I apprehend you honest friend. And to that question, What is the beautiful? I shall give an answer, such a one as can never be confuted. For be assured Socrates, if the truth must be told, a beautiful maiden is the thing beautiful." Socrates' reply is replete with consummate irony: "An excellent answer, by the dog, Hippias; and such a one as cannot fail of being applauded." We can almost see the puffed-up Hippias smiling smugly to himself. Indeed, he is so satisfied with his definition, that he qualifies it as 'irrefutable.' and caps this with as being "the opinion of all the world; and the truth of which all who hear [it] will attest." Mark Anthony, who lost an Empire in his obsession with Cleopatra, would have agreed with Hippias. Beautiful women have been and, in all likelihood, will continue to be the cause of the utter ruin of nations and heroes alike, or the cause of transcendent ecstasy, or both at once, depending on the circumstances, for "human nature does not change...and wine and women are ancient snares," to quote one whose beauty had no match among mortals: the mysterious Ayesha, She-who-must-be-obeyed, first described by H. Rider Haggard in his famous novel She. Let us have a taste of her glory:

"Fragrant was Ayesha's breath as roses, the odour of roses clung to her lovely hair; her sweet body gleamed like some white sea-pearl; a faint but palpable radiance crowned her head; no sculptor ever fashioned such a marvel as the arm with which she held her veil about her; no stars in heaven ever shone more purely bright than did her calm, entranced eyes...At length she spoke and her voice sounded like silver bells heard over water in a great calm. It was low and sweet, oh! so sweet that at its first notes for a moment my senses seemed to swoon and my pulse to stop..." Rider Haggard goes on to tell us that Ayesha's beauty was so extraordinary that she had to veil herself in the presence of men, lest she would drive them into a mad frenzy of desire. Even Rider Haggard's seasoned adventurer, Allan Quatermain, a sober and principled Victorian gentleman who was no stranger to exquisite feminine charms, was unable to resist Ayesha: "Oh, how beautiful she seemed...how beautiful beyond imagining! My heart melted as I studied her; I could think of nothing else except her surpassing charm and glory." Whereupon his companion, the fierce Zulu warrior Umslopogaas remarks with awe: "this chieftainess is not one woman, but all women." She was the beautiful, just as Hippias claimed—beauty itself!

Although a work of fiction, the superhuman beauty of Ayesha has its parallels in the myths and legends of all times and climes wherein we may find Woman depicted as something astonishing, glorious and almost dangerous to behold, on account of her intense, almost supernatural beauty. I suggest that you pick up Rider Haggard's novels, such as She, The Return of She, or She and Allan, and find out for yourself, just what a fascinating Femme fatale Ayesha was. But there is a simple way in which we can test Hippias' hypothesis. If we assume something to be the beautiful in itself, it will have to appear always, and to every person and in every place, the most beautiful, lovely and desirable thing in the world. Perhaps a woman such as Ayesha with her spellbinding and supernatural charms would pass the test so far as men are concerned, but would she have the same effect on women who are by Nature attracted to the opposite sex? For it is clear from Socrates' reply that Hippias' definition did not satisfy the Athenian sage in the least. If there is such a thing as the beautiful itself, Socrates argued, (much to the dismay of the sophist), then we must conclude that "a beautiful maiden is that beautiful, to whose presence those other things owe their beauty." Needless to say, this is a highly problematic hypothesis, and very easily disproved, since most of us can think of a number of things which are beautiful, and have nothing to do with women, such us a glorious sunset, dazzling jewel or radiant flower. In a desperate attempt to save his face, Hippias offers a string of further propositions, among them that the beautiful is nothing else but gold. Again, a statement many would agree with, then and now, since it is well known—as Hippias would have Socrates believe—that if anything is invested with or ornamented with gold, it will appear beautiful, even if it was sordid before. At which point most of us would decide that the juice is not worth the squeeze! But not Socrates, who squeezed Hippias to the last drop, as you may read for yourself, preferably in the unparalleled translation of Thomas Taylor, and so discover whether they managed to agree on what the beautiful itself truly is.

Socrates and Plato both believed that if there is such a thing as the beautiful itself, then it must be a thing by which every other thing is ornamented, and which invests all things with beauty by mere virtue of its presence. As such it cannot be a maiden, gold, or any other particular form. Rather, it must be something superior and anterior to form. Something more universal, possessing a stable and uniform essence, in which all forms can participate, without diminishing it, in the same way as a candle flame possesses a stable and uniform essence (fire), in which all forms can participate, without diminishing it in any way. In other words, we must overturn the fallacious 'wisdom' of the shopping bag, and admit that if there are beauties, then there must be an archetypal and singular beauty, or the beautiful itself, which causes them to appear beautiful. If there is no beauty, there will be no beauties, because Hermes Trismegistus taught that particulars always follow from universals, just as effects follow from prior causes, and not the other way around. But one might be forgiven for not apprehending this simple truth when engrossed in the all-consuming ritual of shopping! So let us continue our investigation further, and see if we can find out what Beauty itself might be.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema — Detail from The Women of Amphissa — oil on canvas, 1887

Sensual Beauty

In our quest for the essence of Beauty, let us see what the 3rd century philosopher Plotinus had to say about it. Widely regarded by modern scholars as the founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus is best known as the primary expounder of the doctrines of Plato. His treatise Concerning the Beautiful translated into English by Thomas Taylor, is considered to be one of the jewels of Western philosophic tradition. The examples I gave earlier, from a sunset to a beautiful maiden, jewels and flowers, are all objects of sense perception. We apprehend them through the eyes, or through other sense organs, such us our ears if a beautiful woman also sings like an angel. If so, she entrances us not just with her looks, but also with her voice. But is sensual beauty the only kind of beauty we can think of? What about the beauty of virtue and kindness? Or the beauty of an inspired poem, a heavenly scent or a mathematical equation? All these can and do exert a stronger attraction over us than any material object. Just as we are wont to extol the beauty of certain concepts or ideas which can be enjoyed by the mind alone, we can also admire the inner beauty in certain human beings, regardless of the merits or demerits exhibited by their bodies. Indeed, Socrates' most ardent prayer was that God might make him beautiful within.

Thus there seem to be at least two types of beauty: that of bodies and forms, perceived externally through the senses of the lower self, and incorporeal beauty perceived internally by the Higher Self. But this does not explain how they both partake of the beautiful itself, nor what this essential or archetypal Beauty is.

We all know that certain bodies can appear beautiful to some, and indifferent or utterly repulsive to others. If beauty was merely a combination of qualities, as the popular dictionary definition quoted earlier would have us believe, we would have to admit that it is only through a certain suiting of parts to each other, and to the whole, that sensual beauty is generated. Plotinus argues that if this was so, it follows that only the compound, and not the simple, can be beautiful. Thus no simple part can be beautiful in itself, but only in combination with other parts. But what of a beautiful song? Must we not admit that for a song to be wholly beautiful, each note and each sound must also be beautiful in themselves? Or can we conceive of a beautiful tune in which not a single note can be judged beautiful on its own merit? Surely it would sound intolerable. Just as harmony cannot arise from disharmony, so a fair thing cannot rise out of the deformed. And what of a single ray of light, or a simple colour, which can appear dazzlingly beautiful, even though they are not made up of any observable combination of parts? So says Plotinus, and in this he is quite correct as you will readily agree.

He further argues that matter itself is destitute of reason and form. This is true, for until Spirit is infused into it, matter is lifeless and inert. When, under the impetus of Spirit, matter assumes harmonious forms, such as a simple cell, we may say that the result will be beautiful. Plotinus says further that bodies become beautiful through their communion with divine ideas, of which they are the outward expressions. As such, they posses only an image of beauty, but not the real thing itself. This is pure Occult Science and utterly overturns the popular definitions of beauty and their merit discussed earlier. But the question remains: how do we judge bodies to be beautiful? As Plotinus admirably explains, our knowledge in this case arises from our soul (Higher Mind) "accommodating its internal ray of beauty to form, and trusting this in its judgement; in the same manner as a rule is employed, in the decision of what is straight." Note the word ray, the significance of which will not be lost on the Occultists among my readers. Plotinus goes on to give us an example of an architect, who "pronounces the building beautiful by accommodating the external structure to the fabric in his soul." He conceived the indivisible form of the building within his Higher Mind, and this is the rule which he now employs in judging the beauty of the external manifestation of his thought. Everywhere we look, we see bodies, which is informed matter; that which informs matter is that which confers beauty on bodies, namely Spirit. Matter, left to its own devices, is shapeless, chaotic and indefinite, and no more able to yield anything beautiful than a slug is able to compose a symphony.

Intelligible Beauty

Having identified the meaning and nature of sensual beauty; that is, the beautiful perceived through the senses, let us examine the beautiful which can only be perceived by the inner eye of our Higher Mind, irradiated by the Divine Soul. This is a more real and substantial Beauty, not a mere spectacle of shades flowing into matter and investing its cavernous gloom with a momentary appearance of splendour. For that which flows into external form, departs from its own indivisible unity and loses the power and integrity of its nature; just as the beauty of a statue is inferior to the inspiration which gave expression to it in the mind of the sculptor. Moreover, the degree of beauty in any work of art depends primarily on the ideal which inspired the artist's conception, and secondarily on his skill, and the quality of the materials he uses. Images of evil beget evil, as we can read in the article on The Magic of Art published on this website. No amount of artistic skill can elevate art which merely reflects that which is corrupted, imperfect and degenerate and make it beautiful, except perhaps in the eyes of those whose aesthetic sensibilities are themselves corrupted, imperfect and degenerate.

There are some who are lovers of corporeal forms, disciples of Maya and slaves of Calypso, who pursue sensual beauty throughout their lives, staining their Higher Minds with a corporeal taint. There are others who are lovers of Wisdom and of Actuality, the domain of supernal beauty, such as resides in our very essence, pure, magnificent and wholly incorporeal. Such rise on high and attune with the celestial realms, which reflect the pristine beauty of the Minds of the Creators with far more sagacity than anything we can conceive of down here in the sublunary spheres. They admire virtue in others, because they are aware of its exemplar deep within themselves, and strive to unite themselves to it. This is not intended as a wholesale condemnation of sensual beauty which, when rightly regarded, can lead to a realisation and appreciation of the archetypal Beauty of which it is a reflection. To think so is to fall into the trap of the puritan for whom the appreciation of beautiful objects is an invitation to sin. Let us keep a sense of proportion and not mock those who, like the unfortunate Hippias mentioned earlier, are incapable of comprehending any higher Beauty than that to be found in material forms. The time will come when they too, will see what Socrates saw and understand what Socrates understood. Meanwhile, is it not better to believe that "a beautiful maiden is the thing beautiful," than nothing at all?

At the same time, let us not be blind to the dangers of giving ourselves up entirely to the contemplation of sensual beauty. What effect will this have on our Higher Minds? Attuning with the grossly material objects of our desire, we become heavy with corporeal concerns, gravitate away from their divine original, and like Narcissus, enraptured with the reflection of his own material aspect, fall into error and illusion. For this reason, it is important to always bear in mind that sensual beauty is only a springboard to higher and better conceptions, and our love of beauteous bodies, the means of ascent to the appreciation and contemplation of what Plotinus calls "intelligible beauty." The dictionary tells us that 'intelligible' means "apprehensible by the intellect only." This requires some explanation and clarification. What most people understand by the word 'intellect' is not what Plotinus understood by it. The editors of this website addressed this problem in a humorous way in their article on Intelligence which is worth quoting in full.

"Let us begin by considering 'Intellect'. What is it? Where do we keep it? Where does it come from? Where does it go to in the end? We ourselves have not the slightest idea what it looks like. It might be triangular, square, oblong, or even round—like a hollow circle! There seem to be slight indications that people do possess intellect sometimes, but these occasions are so rare that we often wonder if intellect exists permanently, or only appears through spontaneous generation in special instances of dire need for heavenly guidance. We know of many scholarly books in which science goes into lengthy explanations about intellect but none of them tell us what it really is. Is intellect caused by thinking, or does thinking bring about a state of intellect? Science does not have the answer!"

The dictionary comes close to the meaning Plotinus ascribed to intellect when it defines it as "the capacity for rational or intelligent thought especially when highly developed" (my emphasis). In other words, he is referring to the Higher Mind. But we have to be careful here, for sometimes he uses the word to refer to the lower mind, and at others, appears to mix both minds up indiscriminately. This suggests that, wise as he was, he did not know the full scheme of Man's seven principles as we find them described in The Golden Star, The Secret Doctrine and other occult books written by genuine Initiates. Nonetheless, in using the term 'Intelligible Beauty' it is clear that Plotinus meant the ability of the Higher Mind to recognise and contemplate what I have called substantial or archetypal Beauty. It is through practice of the virtues, such as we find enumerated in Occult Mysteries series of articles on the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, that we can attain this goal. Then, through continued and assiduous efforts, our Higher Mind becomes like unto a clear mirror of Wisdom, reflecting only the Light of Truth. Who could wish for a more splendid ornament than that? Wisdom, as the Bible tells us, is among the most beautiful of God's gifts to man, and all beauty is the object of love, as Diotima teaches Socrates in Plato's Symposium which I refer to in my afterword. As such, Beauty is inseparable from a purified Higher Mind, which partakes of it freely through loving union with its own Beloved, its shining essence or Augoeides, the Divine Soul. We may therefore repeat after Plotinus, that the Beauty and the good of our Higher Mind consists in its similitude to the Deity, for becoming God-like, we merge with our divine exemplar, and attune with the Mind of God. What greater beauty, and what blessing could we ever hope for than this?

It is the Mind of God, which the Platonists denote by Nous, or Divine Intellect, that we can justly call the First or Archetypal Beauty. In the Orphic myth, it was Phanes who was considered the first beauty, and Phanes means 'shining forth'. This deity stood in the Orphic mysteries for the first Intellect, shining forth from the ineffable Source as the Mind of Light, from which all secondary beauties flow, and in which they are established as in a permanent and everlasting foundation. Our very Soul derives its beauty from that Divine Intellect which created it, and in turn bestows beauty on everything below it according to its own forming powers, beginning with its negative half, the Higher Mind, and proceeding into sciences and arts, virtues and actions, until we arrive at bodies, which receive their portion of the beautiful from the many kinds of souls that form the rainbow-hued fabric of the manifested Universe, and extend the bounty of the Father unto all His creations.

Who, or what, is the Father of All? The Platonists describe it as the Ineffable, also the One, and the Good. The Ineffable, because nothing definite can be spoken about it, it transcends language and all human conceptions; the One, because it is the source of unity to all natures; and the Good, on account of the fact that it is the ultimate desire of all. All living beings desire good, and there can be no greater good than the solitary principle of the universe, from which all things depend, yea, even Intellect itself, and to which all intelligent natures look up as the source and the perfection of their being. Here we find ourselves immediately in the realm of intelligible beauty, and our ascent to the beautiful itself is consummated; for the good steps forward into form as the beautiful. No imagination can conceive it, and to attune with its flawless purity and transcendent sublimity, we must become like unto it, and similar to its nature, for reasons I shall explain in the next section. As the Platonic philosophers taught, we all carry within our deepest recesses the impression of the perfect excellence of the Father of All, the Fountain of Good. It is by retiring into ourselves, and entering into a condition of silence and stillness that we may find Him present within us.

All this is in perfect accord with the Ancient Wisdom that was hoary with age a thousand, ten thousand and a hundred thousand years ago. The Chinese Sage Li Wang Ho, who flourished in ancient China only a few hundred years before the time of Plotinus, echoes the elevated thoughts of the philosopher when he states: "The adoration of beauty leads the creature nearer to the Source of all he beholds. Then he will disregard life as it seems; for he will have merged in THAT from which all proceeds, and he will be ONE with the Essence of Divine Love—which is the highest God, and therefore IT is unknown." In The Quest of Ruru by J Michaud we find the selfsame truth stated in a way that even Hippias might have understood.

"Once there was a fierce demon, bent on destroying mankind by asking an unanswerable riddle. If the riddle was not solved, the man who failed was always annihilated. One day the demon met a simple peasant as he was tilling his field. He asked of the peasant his usual question: 'Who is the most beautiful woman in the land?'
'My wife,' the peasant replied.
'How can you prove that?' asked the demon again.
'Because I love her; and she who is beloved is always the most beautiful.'
'You are the only one who has ever solved my riddle,' said the demon, 'and henceforth I am your servant; command me.' "

Isn't it wonderful to find the same thoughts expressed all over the world and in different times and places? Wisdom knows no boundaries, and its everlasting power shines across the gloom of ages to cast radiant reflections even in the darkest periods of human history, such as the one we are living through presently. The Minds of Gods, cast their beauty on the mirror of Man's consciousness, and it is up to Man to keep his magic speculum bright and clear, and not rush to lower beauties, grasping at shadows, and exhaling hazy and dim speculations upon the surface of his mirror, while his inner vision darkens, and he is beset by phantoms. We should be grateful to all the God-like Messengers and Sons and Daughters of Wisdom, who help purify our mirrors from age to age with the true conceptions of the Gods, lest humanity, in its blindness, forgets the ageless Truths for ever and for aye.

Sir William Russell Flint — Calypso and Odysseus — oil on canvas, 1907

The Mode of Ascent

Let us return for a moment to Ayesha, that immortal daughter of Wisdom, half-human, and half-divine. In Ayesha: the Return of She, the sequel to She, we see this glorious woman reduced to utter ruin: "Yet, there she stood, and the fierce light of the heartless fires beat upon her, revealing every shame." For, having lost by the decree of Destiny the flame of everlasting life which had hitherto kept her body in the perfection of its first youth for thousands of years, that temple of the spirit fell into drab corruption as the burden of the ages wreaked its vengeance upon it. Yet still she speaks defiantly: "What of the vile vessel, rotted in the grave of time? What of the flesh that perishes? Look through the ruined lamp to the eternal light which burns within. Look through its covering carrion to the inextinguishable soul." How truly spoken! And how true was her lover who, stooping down, kissed her ugly shape, proving by that act of steadfastness and mercy that he was ready to love Ayesha for the beauty of her soul, and not just the former glory of her shape. The reward of his faithfulness was to behold a great transformation: "Oh! and there—a Glory covered with a single garment—stood a shape celestial," as Rider Haggard describes the spiritual self of Ayesha clothed in a dazzling light few mortal eyes have ever beheld.

What a beautiful and true metaphor this is; an age-old lesson, which it would be well for the great mass of humanity to learn once and for all. Beauty is one and the same in all beauteous bodies, but its holy essence is not to be found in transient and perishable forms. We must search above and beyond for its Source. Let us not forget either, the lessons to be learned from the woeful history of that intrepid hero, Odysseus, who traversed the stormy sea of earthly life, like each and every one of us does in our own way—precipitated from on high, lost in the tumultuous entanglements of the senses, and ever pining for Ithaca, his true home. Is this not the condition of every Higher Mind—a stranger in a strange land, parted from its kin, provided it is awake to its predicament? Did not Calypso, that siren mistress of enchantment, subject Odysseus to every conceivable sensory delight, causing him to forget his true condition for a time? He, the unwilling exile from his true kingdom, where dwelt his father, and where Penelope, emblem of Philosophy, awaited him with undiminished patience. There upon the shore of the enchanted isle—surely a metaphor for this world and all it's compelling attractions—sat poor Odysseus, scanning the horizon with longing eyes, and weeping, weeping, unhappy victim of the false illusions of corporeal beauty.

Nothing illusory, and by that I mean fleeting, temporary, and deprived of permanent essence, can give us lasting joy and satisfaction. So let us clean our interior mirrors, let us close our outward eyes to the lesser beauties of corporeal forms, and, appreciating them in their rightful place, use them as stepping stones to better things and a better world on high, such as we can read about in the Revelation of Peter quoted by Occult Mysteries. "And the Lord showed me a very great region outside this world exceeding bright with light, and the air of that place illuminated with the beams of the sun, and the earth of itself flowering with blossoms that fade not, and full of spices and plants, fair-flowering and incorruptible, and bearing blessed fruit. And so great was the blossom that the odour thereof was borne thence even unto us. And the dwellers in that place were clad with the raiment of shining angels, and their raiment was like unto their land in beauty and splendour."

However, "it is necessary," warns Plotinus, "that the perceiver and the thing perceived, should be similar to each other, before true vision can exist." This is a simple, but profound exhortation for us to become divine, and of god-like beauty, before we can behold the beautiful itself, so that our inner eye is accustomed to such splendour, having attuned itself with its ineffable Light by degrees. Like the prisoner described in Plato's Republic, who, upon leaving the allegorical cave, in which he only perceived the shadow-play of forms by the slender light of the fire, first needed to adjust his eyes by studying the light of the stars and the moon in the night sky, before he could look directly at the light of the sun.

Conclusion

This then is Beauty and the way to ascend to it. And the higher our ascent, the more Beauty we shall find until we arrive at the Source of Beauty which is the secret of the Father of All. If this investigation has helped you to discover what Beauty is, where it is and whence it comes, the considerable labour entailed in researching and writing it will be amply repaid. Finally, if you search for the word 'Beauty' on this website you will find more than 140 results, proving, if proof were needed, the importance the authors of Occult Mysteries attach to it and the prominent place it has in the teachings of the truly great philosophers of the past.

Editors' note

Paul G. Vaughan develops and extends the ideas he discusses in this article in The Wings of Eros published in September 2022. In this further investigation he explores the Platonic conception of Eros, or Love, and its relation to Beauty, Immortality and Wisdom. He also discusses the nature of the Greek idea of the Holy Daemon, or tutelary genius, and analyses the fable of Cupid & Psyche.

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Beauty unveiled

Afterword by the Author

I have discussed beauty and the beautiful at some length in my article, and yet I cannot help but wonder how much has been left unsaid. To fully understand this sublime mystery is to lift the veil which shrouds the ineffable sanctuary of the Father of All. Yet it may not be amiss to augment my discourse with a selection of thoughts from the Platonic and other traditions, so that in linking together the threads of Philosophy, Mysticism and Poetry, we might glimpse more of the beautiful pattern which underlies them all.

Let me begin with a most remarkable fragment from the Symposium of Plato. Here we find Socrates at a sumptuous banquet dedicated to Eros, the God of Love, at which he recounts the speech of Diotima, the wise prophetess and priestess who, in his youth, initiated him into the arcane mysteries of Love. It is towards the end of her discourse, having just described the ascent to the beautiful by the right way of Love, that she pauses for a while, before inviting Socrates to contemplate the beautiful itself:

"But now try," continued she, "to give me all the attention you are master of. Whoever then is advanced thus far in the mysteries of Love by a right and regular progress of contemplation, approaching new to perfect intuition, suddenly he will discover, bursting into view, a beauty astonishingly admirable; that very beauty, to the gaining a sight of which the aim of all his preceding studies and labours had been directed: a beauty, whose peculiar characters are these: In the first place, it never had a beginning, nor will ever have an end, but always is, and always flourishes in perfection, unsusceptible of growth or of decay.

"In the next place, it is not beautiful only when looked at one way, or seen in one light; at the same time that, viewed another way, or seen in some other light, it is far from being beautiful: it is not beautiful only at certain times, or with reference only to certain circumstances of things; being at other times, or when things are otherwise circumstanced, quite the contrary: nor is it beautiful only in some places, or as it appears to some persons; whilst in other places, and to other persons, its appearance is the reverse of beautiful.

"Nor can this beauty, which is indeed no other than the beautiful itself, ever be the object of imagination; as if it had some face or hands of its own, or any other parts belonging to body: nor is it some particular reason nor some particular science. It resides not in any other being, not in any animal, for instance; nor in the earth, nor in the heavens, nor in any other part of the universe: but, simple and separate from other things, it subsists alone with itself, and possesses an essence eternally uniform. All other forms which are beauteous participate of this; but in such a manner they participate, that by their generation or destruction this suffers no diminution, receives no addition, nor undergoes any kind of alteration. When from those lower beauties, reascending by the right way of Love, a man begins to gain a sight of this supreme beauty, he must have almost attained somewhat of his end.

"Now to go, or to be led by another, along the right way of Love, is this: beginning from those beauties of lower rank, to proceed in a continual ascent, all the way proposing this highest beauty as the end; and using the rest but as so many steps in the ascent; to proceed from one to two, from two to all beauteous bodies; from the beauty of bodies to that of souls; from the beauty of souls to that of arts; from the beauty of arts to that of disciplines; until at length from the disciplines he arrives at that discipline which is the discipline of no other thing than of that supreme beauty; and thus finally attains to know what is the beautiful itself.

"Here is to be found, dear Socrates," said the stranger-prophetess, "here if anywhere, the happy life, the ultimate object of desire to man: it is to live in beholding this consummate beauty; the sight of which if ever you attain, it will appear not to be in gold, nor in magnificent attire, nor in beautiful youths or damsels: with such, however, at present, many of you are so entirely taken up, and with the sight of them so absolutely charmed, that you would rejoice to spend your whole lives, were it possible, in the presence of those enchanting objects, without any thoughts of eating or drinking, but feasting your eyes only with their beauty, and living always in the bare sight of it.

"If this be so, what effect, think you, would the sight of beauty itself have upon a man, were he to see it pure and genuine, not corrupted and stained all over with the mixture of flesh, and colours, and much more of like perishing and fading trash; but were able to view that divine essence, the beautiful itself, in its own simplicity of form? Think you that the life of such a man would be contemptible or mean; of the man who always directed his eye toward the right object, who looked always at real beauty, and was conversant with it continually? Perceive you not that in beholding the beautiful with that eye, with which alone it is possible to behold it, thus, and thus only, could a man ever attain to generate, not the images or semblances of virtue, as not having his intimate commerce with an image or a semblance; but virtue true, real, and substantial, from the converse and embraces of that which is real and true. Thus begetting true virtue, and bringing her up till she is grown mature, he would become a favourite of the Gods; and at length would be, if any man ever be, himself one of the immortals."

Such is the right way of Love according to Diotima, leading us upward on the ladder of beauty to the beautiful itself, upon which, if we but fix our mark steadfastly, we shall develop true and mature virtue. And just as virtue untried cannot be trusted, true and mature virtue is the perfection of the Higher Mind, which in turn bequeaths Wisdom and Inner Peace, opening before us the very gates of Paradise where dwells the race of immortals, who are the Lords of Light and Life and Love.

As I said in my article, Platonic philosophers taught that the good steps forward into form as the beautiful. It is from the good, or the ineffable principle of the universe, that truth, intellect and beauty are unfolded. The Good, the Wise and the Beautiful constitute in Platonic philosophy one of the most important triads, and can be regarded as aspects of the same superessential principle.

This was known and understood by some inspired artists and poets even in more recent times, among them the symbolist painter Jean Delville (1867 - 1953), who said: "The Beautiful, taken in its classical sense, is not an illusion. The Beautiful is the True manifested by the Idea in form. This is the highest goal that the artist must seek to attain...When the artist causes light to spring forth from darkness, beauty from ugliness, the pure from the impure, he reveals Truth to humanity, he reveals God. The Beautiful, the True, the Good are synonyms. It is the glory of Art to be able to make perceptible to human eyes the three mysteries which form a single one!" The poet Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) echoed the selfsame occult truth in her poem I Died for Beauty:

"I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
'For beauty,' I replied.
'And I for truth—the two are one;
We brethren are,' he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms.
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names."

But what of the relation of beauty to our human condition? How can we partake of the beautiful, and draw inspiration from it to elevate our own minds and enrich the lives and minds of our fellow travellers on the way? How can we emulate the inspired artists, messengers, poets, philosophers, priests and mystics who, each in their different ways, brought Beauty down to earth and raised earthly beauties up to Heaven? Or, how can we become one of them?

In his Commentary on Plato's First Alcibiades, the philosopher Proclus writes: "All things are excited, revive and flourish, through the influx of the beautiful. But the souls of such men as receive an inspiration of this kind, and are naturally allied to the God, assiduously move about beauty, and fall into the realms of generation, for the purpose of benefiting more imperfect souls, and providing for those natures which require to be saved. The Gods indeed and the attendants on the Gods, abiding in their proper habits, benefit all following natures, and convert them to themselves: but the souls of men descending, and touching on the coast of generation, imitate the beneficent providence of the Gods."

Here we have another glimpse behind the veil that shrouds the Mysteries of God and the work of His Holy Messengers who come to earth in selfless service to enlighten us through teaching, art, literature and music. Inspired by the vision of the beautiful, they imitate the providence of the Gods and return to comfort and elevate others, becoming channels of divine inspiration, each according to their own particular genius. Proclus continues:

"As, therefore, souls established according to some other God descend with purity into the regions of mortality, and benefit souls that revolve in it; and some indeed benefit more imperfect souls by prophecy, others by mystic ceremonies, and others by divine medicinal skill: so likewise souls that choose an amatory life are moved about the deity who presides over beautiful natures, for the purpose of taking care of well-born souls. But from apparent beauty they are led back to divine beauty, and together with themselves elevate those who are the objects of their love.

"And this also divine Love primarily effects in intelligibles: for he unites himself to the object of love, extends to it the participants of his power, and inserts in all things one bond, and one indissoluble friendship with each other, and with the beautiful itself. Souls, therefore, possessed with love, and participating the inspiration thence derived, in consequence of using an undefiled vehicle, are led from apparent to intelligible beauty, and make this the end of their energy. Likewise enkindling a light in more imperfect souls, they also lead these back to a divine nature, and are divinely agitated together with them about the fountain of all-perfect beauty."

Any sincere lover of wisdom may aspire to become an amatory soul of this kind, who, 'divinely agitated about the fountain of all-perfect beauty', helps to enlighten mankind, to lead those who long for light out of the gloom of material existence, from apparent to divine beauty. Such is the work of a true Philosopher or Occultist, and he or she who sets their course on True Beauty, and exerts their virtues in good words and good deeds, seeking neither reward or praise, becomes beautiful in turn—until even the angels take notice, as Hildegard of Bingen, tells us: "All the angels are amazed at humans, who through their holy works appear clothed with an incredibly beautiful garment. For the angel without the work of the flesh is simply praise; but the humans with their corporeal works are a glorification! Therefore the angels praise humans' work."

Philosophy, rightly understood, is the love of Wisdom and the wisdom of Love, as the authors of Occult Mysteries explain in the first of their series of articles on Esoteric Philosophy published in 2018. It is this kind of philosophy which provides the discipline and the means to the attainment of true Beauty. To quote Demophilus: "The intellect derived from philosophy is similar to a charioteer; for it is present with our desires, and always conducts them to the beautiful." In other words, rather than extinguishing desires, which provide a motive power for all human endeavours, and thus cannot and should not be entirely extinguished, we should subject our desires to the dominion of reason, or Logos, which, purified through philosophy, is the defining quality of our Higher Mind, and reflects the wisdom inherent in the Soul.

But what of those who are consumed by their passion for sensual beauty? Proclus has the answer: "But such souls as from a perverse education fall from the gift which is thence derived, but are allotted an amatory nature, these, through their ignorance of true beauty, are busily employed about that which is material and divisible, at which also they are astonished in consequence of not knowing the passion which they suffer. Hence they abandon every thing divine, and gradually decline into impiety and the darkness of matter. They appear indeed to hasten to a union with the beautiful, in the same manner as perfectly amatory souls; but they are ignorant of the union, and tend to a dissipated condition of life, and to the sea of dissimilitude."

Ah, the sea of dissimilitude! Which of us hasn't sailed its restless waters at some time or other? Tossed about from one phantom form to another, sea sick and pining for some firm ground to plant our tired feet upon. Such distracted souls—or Higher Minds rather—resemble Damætas, as described by Lord Byron in his famous poem of that name:

In law an infant, and in years a boy,
In mind a slave to every vicious joy;
From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd;
In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend;
Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child;
Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;
Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;
Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;
Damætas ran through all the maze of sin,
And found the goal when others just begin:
Even still conflicting passions shake his soul,
And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure's bowl;
But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,
And what was once his bliss appears his bane.

Among much good advice, Byron tells us that if we cannot or will not find Beauty within ourselves, we will never find it without. What was once our 'bliss'—our inheritance from the Father of All—becomes our 'bane' the further we depart from Him and His Divine ordinances. This was famously echoed by the American essayist and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote: "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." For "no eye ever saw the sun without becoming sun-like, nor can a soul see beauty without becoming beautiful," to paraphrase Plotinus once more. The Chinese Sage Li Wang Ho, whose teachings I quoted in my article, sums up all I have tried to convey about Beauty in a few paragraphs.

"True beauty," he continued, "lies not in the outward appearance of a thing, or a living being. The real beauty of an object of Art, a Figure, a Painting, or a building, for instance, lies in the hidden ecstasy which inspired their creators. It lies in the Message they receive from the Higher Beings, and in their ability to receive that Message and give it shape; just as the ability of the beholder to see in every detail that same beauty is an equal gift from the Heavenly Ones.

"As there are numberless grades of artistic ability to execute the messages of the Gods and give them form, so there exists a similar number of states of inspired attunement which will enable the beholders or listeners to receive that message too—by means of reflections from their own minds—and interpret it to a greater or lesser extent. Some will receive the Message in full and attain to a state of ecstasy equal to the original inspiration; others will be able to reflect less; some will reflect nothing of the beauty but will feel antagonistic towards it; and upon the grade of antagonism will depend the strength of their aversion, which, in their case, may turn a thing of beauty into one of ugliness.

"Can a crude Barbarian appreciate the elevated state of a highly civilized Race? No! He will only be able to rejoice in things of brutal strength, and adore Idols, which to a civilized person seem hideous.

"But are such things really hideous? Again no! For within their seeming ugliness lies hidden an ideal; no matter how unevolved and wrong this ideal may seem to be to others of a different temperament or state of evolution.

"But . . . if that which a Barbarian, an unevolved person, or a decadent one admires evinces lust, cruelty, or hatred: then there is true ugliness in both the manifestation itself (and therefore in the mind of its maker, and in the source whence he received his inspiration) and in the mind of the admirer.

"Real beauty lies hidden within the material shape or expression (whether in animate or inanimate objects), and can only be perceived with the eye of the spirit; for it is always of a material nature and sent to console Man for all the unpleasant things that come to pass from time to time during his span of material existence. Therefore, the material eye or mind knows not what real beauty or real ugliness is; and man cannot judge it in this way, but must wait until he has learned to overcome and see through the webs of illusion which surround him on all sides, so that he can penetrate spiritually into the inner regions of beauty."

Finally, let us repeat with the English poet John Keats:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Ode to a Grecian Urn

occult mysteries