Rhys
Well-known member
We all know who Ben Dykes is, right? He’s the traditional astrologer who has been translating all of those Bonatti books from Latin and also works by Masha’Allah and Sahl bin Bishr from Arabic. THAT Ben Dykes!
Well, it turns out that his academic background is in traditional philosophy; he received his doctorate and taught at the University of Illinois. This is in addition to having studied traditional astrology with Robert Zoller and being a long-time member of the current incarnation of the Golden Dawn, so he really sounded like my kinda guy…
I’ve taken courses from him in the past with titles like “Primary Directions without Tears”, and “Distribution and Directing Through the Bounds”. And happily, I’ve come away from his courses really learning something rather than being more confused than when I came in!
Anyway, I recently discovered Doctor Dykes has a course on traditional philosophy for astrologers, so I decided to take it. I’ve been enjoying it, he’s a really good teacher. Very clear with no hocus-pocus, so to speak. 😉. He also has a warm way of speaking, in a midwestern kind of way.
I’ve already taken his introductory lectures, which was essentially a history of philosophy and the occult as it relates to astrology from prehistory up to the renaissance. I’m currently on his second series of lectures, which covers the Pre-Socratic philosophers. I thought it might be interesting to share what I’ve been studying, as it seems relevant to this list.
Some of the earliest Pre-Socratic philosophers were of the mind that everything in the universe could be reduced to a single principle. Thales (c. 624-545 BCE) argued that this principle was water, Anaximenes (c.580-500 BCE) thought it was air, Heraclitus (c. 535 -475 BCE) argued that it must be fire. By the fifth century BCE, Empedocles outlined a theory that said there were four of these principles, which he called “roots”: earth, air, water and fire (Warren, Pre-Socratics).
So what are we to think of Thales, who believed that everything could be reduced to water? Are we to pity him because obviously he didn’t have access to all the modern information that we have today? Why did he think everything could be reduced to water? Was it because he didn’t know any better? What exactly did he believe, anyway?
Well, we don’t know exactly what he believed, because much of the work of the pre-Socratic philosophers exists in fragments. But when we piece together the fragments that we do have, as well as references to his work from later philosophers, it seems his beliefs came down to two basic ideas:
1) All things are from water.
2) All things are full of gods.
Hmm, that seems about as clear as mud, doesn’t it?
So I’ve been thinking about what Thales believed in, maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye…
I’ll be back on this tomorrow, in the meantime, if anyone cares to share their thoughts on Thales, please by all means do so!
Kind regards - Rhys
Well, it turns out that his academic background is in traditional philosophy; he received his doctorate and taught at the University of Illinois. This is in addition to having studied traditional astrology with Robert Zoller and being a long-time member of the current incarnation of the Golden Dawn, so he really sounded like my kinda guy…
I’ve taken courses from him in the past with titles like “Primary Directions without Tears”, and “Distribution and Directing Through the Bounds”. And happily, I’ve come away from his courses really learning something rather than being more confused than when I came in!
Anyway, I recently discovered Doctor Dykes has a course on traditional philosophy for astrologers, so I decided to take it. I’ve been enjoying it, he’s a really good teacher. Very clear with no hocus-pocus, so to speak. 😉. He also has a warm way of speaking, in a midwestern kind of way.
I’ve already taken his introductory lectures, which was essentially a history of philosophy and the occult as it relates to astrology from prehistory up to the renaissance. I’m currently on his second series of lectures, which covers the Pre-Socratic philosophers. I thought it might be interesting to share what I’ve been studying, as it seems relevant to this list.
Some of the earliest Pre-Socratic philosophers were of the mind that everything in the universe could be reduced to a single principle. Thales (c. 624-545 BCE) argued that this principle was water, Anaximenes (c.580-500 BCE) thought it was air, Heraclitus (c. 535 -475 BCE) argued that it must be fire. By the fifth century BCE, Empedocles outlined a theory that said there were four of these principles, which he called “roots”: earth, air, water and fire (Warren, Pre-Socratics).
So what are we to think of Thales, who believed that everything could be reduced to water? Are we to pity him because obviously he didn’t have access to all the modern information that we have today? Why did he think everything could be reduced to water? Was it because he didn’t know any better? What exactly did he believe, anyway?
Well, we don’t know exactly what he believed, because much of the work of the pre-Socratic philosophers exists in fragments. But when we piece together the fragments that we do have, as well as references to his work from later philosophers, it seems his beliefs came down to two basic ideas:
1) All things are from water.
2) All things are full of gods.
Hmm, that seems about as clear as mud, doesn’t it?
So I’ve been thinking about what Thales believed in, maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye…
I’ll be back on this tomorrow, in the meantime, if anyone cares to share their thoughts on Thales, please by all means do so!
Kind regards - Rhys