The Collective Mind, Pt. 8

Plato came up with quite a few very interesting points. I may stray a bit off the topic of explaining the symbols you have and are encountering, but this is only to give you a greater understanding of the world you have been accessing.

One of his most prestigious and famous theories is that of dualistic metaphysics. The perceived world is actually a derivation of the world of perfect forms, and imperfect copies at that. His metaphor of The Sun 'shines light' on this world of perfect forms through processes of the mind that utilize neither sense perception or imagination - in other words, thought, reason, and intellectual activities. The Sun also represents the omnipotent 'Good' form which, according to him, created both the world of perfect forms and the imperfect copy we perceive.

In short, Plato's metaphor of The Sun is essentially Jung's Superman archetype - this is the part of our brain that can access the world of perfect forms. Pretty simple when stated that way, right? I'm going to skip a lot of Plato's theories on the form of the Good (a part of The Sun, which both 'shines light' on the world of perfect forms and created it) being God and all that, because that's where Plato kind of trails off into nonsensical ramblings and confuses people.

Plato's Divided Line is even more vague and obscure, but the general gist is pretty easy to follow. Essentially, 'things' of this world, ideas, items, and ideals, are all spread across a line, and this line is divided disproportionately - by how 'big' these 'things' are. In the smallest section of the line sits the shadows and mirror images of 'things', then the next slightly larger section are the material 'things' we can see and perceive. These two sections compose slightly less than half of the line. The rest of the line are 'things' not perceived, the smaller first section being 'things' in the world of perfect forms, and the largest section of it all contains the form of Good, and other 'things' that we do not need to see in order to know they are there.

The reasoning behind the size of the sections is where it becomes confusing. Smaller sections hold more reality, clarity, and fact, while larger portions relate to more obscurity and opinion. In essence, the Divided Line represents what we must think about, as opposed to seeing it. Lines as symbolism may represent a need to think more on the subject, or that you're not quite seeing the whole truth.

In sum, when you look at the world around you, you're not seeing everything. In fact, you're only seeing an imperfect copy of what the world truly is. Think about that, think about the implications. Would it then mean that when we visit this other plane, that we are actually seeing an imperfect copy of Plato's form of the Good? Or maybe we are finally seeing the world of perfect forms? Personally I haven't been able to solve this dilemma - so other thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Tomorrow we visit the Tarot - and here is where we will find the greatest repository of symbolism known to man. 78 cards of imagery, perfectly translated in every adept mind, is certainly a force to be reckoned with!