Author: Dykes, Benjamin

Lecture 9: The Milesians: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
What does everything come from? Learn three strange and intriguing answers: water, the Indefinite, air; a link to Qabalism and theology. Existence itself as a condition of injustice and making reparations. The Babylonian and Egyptian links to the original philosophers; astrology and astronomy as marks of a philosopher; the destruction and renewal of the world by fire and water in Firmicus Maternus.

Lecture 10: Heraclitus - Fire and Strife
Heraclitus claims there is a Cosmic Logos, and that the universe is Fire and Strife. Are you awake and recognize the Logos, or are you asleep? Learn about the unity of opposites, unity in diversity, how there could be stability in change. The astrological quadruplicities as expressing metaphysical principles; astrology as reading the signs given by the Logos, and a Golden Dawn prayer about Nature as a text written by God.

Lecture 11: Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists
For Empedocles the world is full of immutable particles combined by Love and Strife; the world is in a state of Strife, but we will achieve total love when we are destroyed. The early Greek notion of health as elemental balance. Anaxagoras says the world is ruled by Mind (Nous), but can he explain how? The beginning of the cosmos as a whirling motion. The atomists think that oddly-shapen atoms swarm around until they get stuck together, but where does motion come from? Democritus's early view of moderation of desires.

Lecture 12: Parmenides & the Eleatics Part 1
The goddess Justice shows Parmenides and his followers that only Being is, and that Non-being does not exist--and neither does change or motion. Most of us do not understand this because we follow the path of mere mortal opinion. The world is really a perfect uniform sphere, and nothing can come to be or pass away. Can even a flower come to be or pass away? And how are thought and being the same?

Lecture 13: Parmenides & the Eleatics Part 2
We look at the prologue to Parmenides's poem: is he being taken into the 9th house by a team of solar horses? Is there a relation to the Thema Mundi in his poem, and what does that mean for the early days of Greek astrology? A gnostic message in Parmenides. His follower Melissus. Zeno tries to prove that motion is impossible, and Aristotle solves the puzzle by actualizing space with his mind.

Lecture 14: Intro to Pythagoras Part 1
The discoveries and philosophy of Pythagoras are still with us today. Learn about the life of his community: healing through music, vegetarianism, reincarnation--sounds like most of my friends! This lecture reviews his primary doctrines about number, music, and some of his cosmology; the Golden Dawn Zelator Ritual and the Book of Revelation, and more.

Lecture 15: Intro to Pythagoras Part 2
Conclusion of the introduction to Pythagoras: assigning elemental qualities to the seasons, the four causes below the sphere of the Moon (God, Fate, Choice, Fortune), and their relation to other philosophers; the air is full of souls and daimons; ethical teachings hidden in cryptic "symbols"; musical therapy, reincarnation; how knowledge is like the number 3, the composite chart and trines; educational system and the quadrivium; treating animals justly, rejecting greed and materialism, the spiritual value of eating properly, the danger of pleasure; courage and friendship; how you rate on a scale of human types.

Lecture 16: Pythagorean Number Part 1
An in-depth look at Pythagoras's theory of metaphysical principles and number: number as qualitative; the table of opposites based on the Limit and Unlimited; triangular, square, oblong and other figural numbers; gnomonic, perfect, and friendly numbers; side-diagonal numbers, the square root of 2 and other irrational numbers; the particular numbers 1 (the Monad) and 2 (the Dyad) and some relations to other philosophers and esoteric thought.

Lecture 17: Pythagorean Number Part 2
A continuation of particular numbers in Pythagoreanism, according to Iamblichus and other authors: 4, 6, and 10. A possible connection between the Pythagorean 6 and some basic definitions in Hellenistic astrology (and the Goddess Hecate).

Lecture 18: Pythagorean Music and the Tetraktys
An in-depth look at Pythagoras's musical theory and how the central Pythagorean image, the Tetraktys, encodes principles of harmony and geometry. The music of the spheres and Plato's Lambda. Links to the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

Lecture 19: Sacred Geometry Part 1
The Tetraktys, Qabalism, and divisions of the zodiacal signs. What is Sacred Geometry? The Zero and One. How to understand and construct sacred geometrical diagrams of important irrational numbers in nature: the square roots of 2, 3, and 5. The Vesica Piscis and Christ symbolism, the Golden Dawn Altar, and the reciprocal paths on the Tree of Life. (Ruler and compass recommended)

Lecture 20: Sacred Geometry Part 2
The irrational number Phi and the Golden Section or Golden Rectangle, and the Pentagon. Complete thought as a kind of proportion, from Aristotle's logic. Phi as an expression of the Christian Trinity. Fibonacci numbers and other roles of Phi in nature. Why the pentagram is a symbol for the human being and the Microcosm. Side-Diagonal numbers and Aristotle's ethical notion of "the mean." (Ruler and compass recommended)

Lecture 21: Geometry and the Aspects
How to construct the astrological aspects using Pythagorean principles; other links between Pythagoreanism, astrology, and music. The meaning of the kentra or "angles" in the chart.