Thread by @GhorAngirasa

From Uždavinyz’s “Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth”

There are a few points worthy of note in this passage from Porphyry, which I had shared here before.

Upon re-reading the passage in Uždavinyz’s book, some further thoughts occurred to me, which I will be sharing below.

Our earlier thread on the excerpt from Porphyry:

Two new points that I had picked up when re-reading the same excerpt a few days ago:

1. The Egyptian priest is likened to a sacred animal; he himself is like a ritual object.

2. The priests philosophised at their temples, inter alia, about animals & their sacred connections.

Regarding the first point, we had expressed a similar point about Brāhmaṇas:

a.

b.

The 2nd point is, however, more interesting—That Egyptian priests philosophized about animals & their divine connections. This reminds us of the Brāhmaṇa texts of our own Veda, where the Brahmavādīs recorded their visions of correspondences between different devatas & animals.

One out of hundreds of such examples here:

Both the Brahmavādīs/Ṛṣiputras of the Brāhmaṇas & the Egyptian priests thus seem to have had very similar goals.

The ritualism of the Brāhmaṇa texts is indeed applied philosophy, which has unfortunately appeared dry & even “crude” to most scholars in modern academia, who find the Brāhmaṇa texts uninspired.

The ritual art of the Brāhmaṇa texts was a bold attempt to use the available resources of a seemingly profane world to establish deep & intimate connections with the Devas.

Since the translation by Keith is rather faithful, I will save time & put it up here.

See how a particular embodiment of a deity (Indra who is together with Maruts) is seen in an ox with dappled thighs.

Note how each relevant component of the animal represents the deity.

Here, I had made a point about the concept of ritual reality.

To my pleasant surprise, I realise that the great Proclus had stated as follows in the sublime work titled, “On the Hieratic Art”.

Those wanting to read the Greek original can read here. The portion in English above starts with:

“Ὅθεν οἱ τῆς ἱερατικῆς ἡγεμόνες ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς κειμένων τὴν…”practicaltheurgy.com/proclus-on-the…

*layer