Lapis Magazine

Eros and the Circle of Divine Love by David Fideler

Today's view of eros is much diminished from its ancient glories. The power of love as a cosmic force was deeply understood from Plato to Marcilio Ficino, and in Botticelli's Primavera, set in the garden of Aphrodite, we see its true beauty portrayed.

Love is more than a merely human emotion. In the Greek tradition, the power of Eros was seen as the underlying force which moves the heavenly spheres and animates all of existence. Love is the magnetic pull which binds all of creation together into a seamless unity. When we speak of Eros today, ideas of sexual desire immediately come to mind. But our modern conception excludes the ancient understanding that sexual love is just one aspect of a much larger cosmic force. In the traditional view, it is the magnetic pull of Eros which inspires the electron to desire the proton, lovers to desire conjugal union, and the soul of the mystic to desire union with the ineffable source of creation.

The idea of love as a cosmic force first appears in the creation myth of Orphism, a Greek mystical movement named after Orpheus, the legendary musician and theologian. In the Orphic creation story, black-winged Night was impregnated by the Wind, and laid a silver egg in the heart of darkness. From the cosmic egg hatched the primordial, winged Eros, who was also known as Protogonos (First-born) and Phanes (Manifestor of Light). In the Orphic myth, radiant Eros is the first-born source of the entire universe. Heaven and Earth are his offspring, as are the Gods and humanity. In Orphism, as in the later teachings of Christianity, the source of creation is defined as Love.

Aristotle pictured the source of the universe not as Love itself, but as the simple First Cause-the Unmoved Mover-toward which all things aspire through love. In the same way that a moth is drawn toward a flame, the planets and celestial spheres are pulled toward the perfection of the First Cause, and through this desire they are moved to participate in a circular dance. When Dante speaks of "The Love which moves the sun and the other stars" in the final line of The Divine Comedy, he is referring to Aristotle's idea that cosmic desire for the First Cause energizes the motion of the entire universe.

Eros, Recollection, and Initiation

In his influential dialogues on the nature of love, Plato (427-347BC) describes how the path of Eros leads to the soul's awakening.

In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates presents a myth to explain the divine madness of love. Before birth, each human soul possessed wings and followed in the train of the gods. There, in the winged, cosmic procession, each soul glimpsed beauty and true knowledge to varying degrees, feeding upon the vision like ambrosia and nectar. Due to forgetfulness, however, the soul grows heavy; it loses its wings and sinks down toward the earth in a state of amnesia. We are all thus born in varying states of forgetfulness.

When we fall in love, the vision of the beloved held in the imagination incites a form of divine madness. Eros is the desire to possess the beauty of the beloved, and in this condition "the whole soul throbs and palpitates". The effluence of beauty moistens the hard, atrophied roots of the soul's feathers, which again begin to swell and sprout. This causes an itching and feverish sensation like the cutting of teeth. When the beloved is near, the sensation of beauty moistens the follicles of the feathers; this soothes the discomfort and fills the soul with joy. But when separated from the beloved, the follicles start to harden and close up; they prick the soul, and throb painfully like pulsating arteries.

We long to recover our essential nature, but, in the experience of love, often do not see what is really happening. There is a well-known tendency to fall down and worship the beloved as the ultimate source of the lover's experience, rather than see the beloved as a catalyst of transformation; and in the misplaced concreteness of this perception, there exists the danger of not viewing the soul's awakening within a larger context. The suggestion is that an individual love, while beautiful in itself, can also awaken us to greater realities. Love is a noble end in itself, but also the means to greater ends.

Eros leads beyond itself, but it also leads to a potentially deeper understanding of our own inner nature. For Plato, the experience of love is the beginning of the soul's awakening and education; it reminds us of what we truly are, and of our intimate connection with the beauty of the cosmos. Ultimately, there is no distinction between the beauty pursued externally and the beauty which resides within the soul. Eros demands that we go beyond our limited views of self and reality so that we can arrive at a deeper experience of our innate connection with the greater soul of the world.

In the Symposium, Socrates describes how he was initiated into the mysteries of love by Diotima, a wise and prophetic priestess. In the famous "ladder of love" speech, Socrates relates her teachings. In the philosopher's erotic awakening, he first falls in love with a particular person. Next, he realizes that beauty is not limited to one particular form, but belongs to many. From the beauty of bodies he advances to gaze upon the beauty of the soul and the fair order of human conduct. The philosopher is next led to contemplate the beauty of knowledge and scientific understanding, and from this he is led to the ultimate vision and "final secret", the vision of pure Beauty-in-itself. This Beauty is "the final object of all those previous toils" and is "ever-existent and neither comes to be nor perishes". In coming to know the very essence of beauty (reflected in all levels of existence), "a man finds it truly worthwhile to live". Thus the path of Eros leads from the outer vision of physical beauty toward the inner vision of expanded, contemplative insight.

In the Symposium, Eros himself is described as a great daimon, a mediating spirit between the mortal and immortal levels of being. Love is described as the offspring of Fullness (Poros) and Poverty (Peneia), and consequently partakes of both. Love possesses a fullness and richness of being, but is simultaneously a desire for that which it lacks. The lover, painfully aware of his emptiness, desires to possess the beauty of the beloved; the philosopher, keenly aware of his lack of wisdom, desires the wisdom that eludes him. Love and philosophy are seen as an identical movement toward knowledge, wisdom, and the experience of Being. In this sense, says Diotima, even Eros is a philosopher, "a lover of wisdom", because he too exists between wisdom and ignorance. Love and philosophy are revealed not as the idealized destinations of one's quest, but as the arduous journey itself. Philosophy is revealed as the practice of eros: the desire for the Good, or that which is best.

The Circle of Divine Love

For the philosopher and mystic Plotinus (205-270AD), the Platonic themes of beauty, vision, and desire are tightly interwoven and taken to even higher cosmic levels. Plotinus describes the universe as a series of levels reaching from the ultimate simplicity of the infinite One to the more complex, finely-articulated structures of the manifest universe. As the first level of reality emerges from the One, it turns its vision back toward the One in a movement of contemplative desire. And as soon as the first level of reality looks back at the One, it spontaneously takes on form, because it is "informed" through the act of contemplation. Similarly, when the World Soul looks back toward the higher levels of being, "there is a strenuous activity of contemplation in the Soul…and Eros is born, the Love which is an eye filled with its vision, a seeing that bears its image with it." For Plotinus, desire and contemplation are productive activities; he even argues that all of nature is productive because, at their own level, all things are engaged in contemplation. At the human level, we need only consider all of the beautiful, visionary creations inspired out of longing for the beloved. Because Eros is a transcendental force, it can lift an individual out of him- or herself to experience levels of creativity that are otherwise hidden.

In the thought of the later Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus (410-485AD), the entire universe, reaching from the highest to the lowest levels, is united in one magnificent circuit, animated by the motive power of love. All beings aspire toward higher levels of reality through the power of returning love, while they love things on their own level through the power of communal love. Superior things take care of inferior things through providential love, and everything loves itself through the instinct of self preservation or self love. While Aristotle described Eros as a one-way street leading back to higher levels, for Proclus love is a radiant power flowing in every direction. In the circle of divine love, all levels of reality are engaged in a threefold process of remaining, proceeding, and returning to their source.

Because all levels of the Neoplatonic universe are bound together through hidden sympathies, marvelous feats of "natural magic" become possible through cultivation of desire and the imagination, which are themselves aspects of the larger cosmic life. By arousing the imagination and the inner sense of vision, Eros entices external situations into being. After all, before we act, we imagine, and the quality of desire usually affects the quality of the situation that is brought into being. In this sense, religious liturgy and the best types of art have often served a magical function by helping to maintain harmony between humanity and the greater life of the cosmos. In traditional cultures, both art and liturgy are ritualized expressions of the refined imagination, and both serve to focus attention on cultural ideals that are worth embodying.

Aphrodite's Companions: The Dance of the Graces and the Circle of Eros

Love is the perpetual knot and link of the universe. -Marsilio Ficin

In the Renaissance, the vision of cosmic love returned in full flower to inspire the circle surrounding Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the philosopher and cleric commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici to translate the newly discovered Platonic writings. Deeply influenced by the ancient tradition which depicted profound ideas through symbolic images or "hieroglyphs", Ficino explained how the dance of the three Graces-the handmaidens of Aphrodite-symbolizes the circle of divine love. In the circle of divine love, there is a threefold process. In simple terms, the circle of love flows from God, through the world, and back to God again. In Ficino's philosophical vocabulary, the divine source enters the world through emanation (procession); it inspires a form of "rapture" or turning back (conversion); finally, love flows back to its source (return). Ficino identified this process with the three Graces, whom he called Beauty (Pulchritudo), Love (Amor), and Pleasure (Voluptas), and explained the divine circle of love by reference to their three names.

Inasmuch as it begins in God and attracts to him, it is called Beauty; inasmuch as emanating to the world and captivates it, it is called Love; inasmuch as returning to its author it joins its work to him, it is called Pleasure. Love, therefore, beginning from Beauty ends in Pleasure. (On Love 2.2)

Or, in the words of another Renaissance writer, "the circle of love which originates in God, pervades the universe and descends to matter and chaos, but returns in human eros to its source.

Ficino's account of the circle of divine love influenced Botticelli's Primavera, a Neoplatonic allegory that was commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, a close friend and student of Ficino's. As art historian Edgar Wind has demonstrated convincingly, the Primavera is a visual talisman that encapsulates the Neoplatonic theory of divine Eros.

Botticelli's masterpiece is set in the Garden of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, and pleasure. Centered in the midst and surrounded by a halo of vegetation, Aphrodite or Venus watches over the timeless, symbolic process which is unfolding before our eyes.

On the right, the spring wind Zephyr is intently pursuing the chaste earth-nymph Chloris. As the Wind embraces the Earth, flowers start to stream forth from the nymph's mouth. Anticipating Hollywood special effects by several centuries, she is suddenly transformed into Flora, the fertile flower goddess of spring, a metamorphosis that had also been described by the poet Ovid. As Edgar Wind explains, "The awkwardness of the shy and primitive creature, caught against her will by the 'gale of passion,' is transformed into the swift poise of victorious Beauty.

Another transformation is occurring in the dance of the Graces. Right of the group stands the fair figure of the Grace Beauty. On the left stands the figure of Pleasure, whose expression, while not wanton, displays an attitude of energetic and intense engagement. In the center, with her backed turned toward the viewer, stands the central figure of Purity or Chastity (Castitas).

In many ways the Primavera tells the story of Chastity's initiation into the mysteries of love. Like the earth nymph Chloris, Chastity displays a certain awkwardness. Contrasted with the vital engagement of Pleasure and the energy reflected in her streaming hair, Chastity is far more restrained in both her posture and facial expression. If Pleasure embodies surrender, Chastity embodies restraint; the tension between the two is noticeable, but mediated by the figure of Beauty.

Chastity, however, is coming undone. Hovering above Aphrodite is the winged figure of Eros. While Eros is blindfolded, he is nonetheless taking perfect aim at Chastity with his flaming arrow of irresistible desire. Under the spell of Eros, she is starting to come to life; her hair is beginning to unfold, and the veil has fallen from her left shoulder. Under the influence of Eros and the guidance of her sisters, the neophyte is beginning to awaken and participate more fully in the dance and passion of life.

Chastity's eyes fall on the figure of Mercury, "the leader of the Graces", standing to the left, and her gaze directs the energy of the dance in his direction. Mercury, who in the words of Ficino "calls the mind back to heavenly things through the power of reason", seems somewhat detached from the activity in the garden. While it is difficult to make out the details without viewing an enlargement, clouds have gathered in the upper left hand corner of the painting. Mercury is playfully poking at them with his magic wand — the caduceus — to disperse the formation.

Taken as a whole, the Primavera clearly illustrates the circle of divine love. On the right, spirit, the wind Zephyr, impregnates the earth, the nymph Chloris. Out of the union of spirit and matter emerges Flora, the creative, fertile beauty of the natural world. The elemental beauty of nature is further refined when exposed to the transformative influence of Love and the Graces, which leads to a profound awakening. As in things". In the Primavera, the philosophical spirit that has been aroused by love is symbolized by Mercury.

From this perspective, it is easy to see how the Primavera embodies Ficino's threefold schema of emanation, rapture, and return. Flora is the emanation and embodiment of beauty in the physical universe. The dance of the Graces represents the rapture of initiation into the mysteries of love and culture. Finally, Mercury represents the return of the human spirit to the source of being.

In the Primavera, beauty and love enters the world from an unseen and intangible source, to which it is drawn on the path of return. Botticelli's masterpiece expresses with amazing subtlety the initiatory path of love, and initiates its admirers into the deepest mysteries of life.