Witchvox Article

Author: Cornelius Anatole [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: February 11th. 2007
Times Viewed: 5,386

Plethon's Nomos:

In the year 1452, a Byzantine philosopher named Plethon died at the age of 97. During his long and controversial life, he had been accused of heresy and even apostasy - the ultimate crime of abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Paganism. One of his students (named Juvenal) had been tried and convicted of heresy and sentenced to death: his tongue was cut out, his ears were cut off, his arms and legs were broken and then he was taken out to sea and thrown overboard alive.

After his death, it was discovered that Plethon had, in fact, been a Pagan. He left behind a kind of Pagan religious manifesto with the title Book of Laws. Plethon wrote in Greek and the word he used for "Laws" was "Nomoi", the plural of "Nomos", which is a cognate of the Sanskrit "Dharma." Plethon meant "Nomoi" not in the sense of laws that are enacted by groups of human beings, but rather cosmic laws that deal, in Plethon's words, with "matters of supreme importance", and, in particular, with matters of religion.

Plethon was also alluding to one of the last dialogs of the great Pagan philosopher, Plato, titled simply, Nomoi (The Laws) . (Plethon was such an admirer of Plato that he even changed his name from "Gemistos" to "Plethon".) Plethon's Book of Laws begins with the bold, and unambiguously Pagan, declaration: "The Gods really do exist."

A thousand years earlier, a Christian missionary named John traveled through Anatolia (modern day Turkey). John was horrified to find 1500 separate Pagan places of worship still operating, and these formed a network with one central head Temple. Once a year, representatives were sent to this head Temple "in order to receive the Nomos", according to John's eyewitness account. This was all taking place in the year 545 - at a time when Paganism was already supposed to be dead and buried.

Renaissance Paganism and Classical Paganism:

In 1438, Plethon took part in a delegation that traveled to the Italian city of Florence hoping to arrange an alliance between the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire, and the Latin Catholics to their West. The reason for this was that the Muslim Ottomans were busily chipping away at Byzantium's eastern frontier and would soon close in on Constantinople itself.

The negotiations were a military and political failure for the Byzantines, but Plethon took the opportunity to get to know the locals, including especially the de' Medici family and their circle. Plethon ended up giving lectures on Plato and Platonism to the cultural and artistic elites of the city that gave birth to the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, the influence of classical Paganism was everywhere. Cosimo de' Medici established a "Platonic Academy" in Florence and the scholar Marsilio Ficino was chosen as its head. Ficino wrote that Plethon, whom Ficino called “the second Plato”, inspired Cosimo’s idea for the Academy. One of Ficino's most important accomplishments was the translation of all of Plato's works into Latin.

Ficino also translated the works attributed to the legendary "Hermes Trismegistus" - as well as the works of Plotinus and the Orphic Hymns. In addition, Ficino wrote his own commentaries on three of Plato's dialogs, and produced two other major works: Three Books on Life, which covers astrological magic, and Platonic Theology, which was an attempt to present the spiritual teachings of Plato in a form that would not earn Ficino a death sentence at the hands of the Inquisition.

"Dissembling", outwardly pretending to be a follower of Church orthodoxy while secretly holding heretical or even Pagan beliefs, was a simple matter of practical survival at the time. Despite his caution, Ficino found himself charged with heresy in 1489 - but he avoided conviction.

Ficino's name is synonymous with "Renaissance Philosophy." The most brilliant minds of Europe followed Ficino's lead and soon the whole Continent was alive with talk not only of Plato and Hermes, but also of Kabbala and Magia, as well as Astrology and Alchemy.

However, it should not be thought that all Pagan learning had been utterly lost in the Latin West prior to the Renaissance. In fact, there were a number of important works of Pagan literature that had continued to be at the center of European culture even during the Dark Ages.

Virgil's Aeneid, for example, had been the most influential work of literature in Latin Christendom for over a thousand years. And its influence was not limited to the well-educated literati. "Vernacular" versions of the Aeneid were widespread, both in writing and also as part of the oral culture of the (illiterate) masses.

Virgil himself was a central figure in the popular culture of Medieval Europe. He was credited with being simultaneously a healer, a magician and a great Pagan holy man who had even prophesied the birth of Christ. This last detail helped to ensure that Virgil's works would not be consigned to the flames and perhaps this was even a clever ploy, if not by clandestine Pagans, then at least by quick-thinking fans of great literature.

The legendary hero Aeneas, whose mother is the Goddess Venus, is one of the survivors of the fall of Troy and he eventually founds the city of Rome. Along the way, he falls in love with the Carthaginian Queen, Dido - who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her to fulfill his destiny in Italy. Once in Italy, Aeneas must battle the Rutulian King Turnus and all of the forces that oppose the "Trojanization" of Latium. Aeneas' allies include the Etruscans and the mysterious King of the Arcadians, Evander (whose father is the God, Hermes).

The ensuing war takes nearly half the length of the whole book and before it's over the warrior Queen Camilla fights heroically and then dies tragically on the battlefield. Finally Aeneas and Turnus face off in single combat - but the outcome is predestined. Aeneas will win his prize; the young Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, and their marriage will establish the bloodline of Julius Caesar himself. Oh, and there's also a cool part right in the middle of the book where Aeneas, with the help of the Sibyl of Cumae, travels below the earth and talks to his dead father.

This is good stuff, and it served as raw material for romantic love tales, children's bedtime stories, ghost stories, etc. among all social classes from Britain to Spain to Italy. Remember - they didn't have cable back then.

In addition to the Aeneid (and Virgil's other poetry), there were other important Pagan works in Latin that had been in circulation continuously - like Macrobius' Saturnalia, in which Pan is celebrated as a Great God identified with the Sun; or Apuleius' Metamorphoses, in which the Great Goddess Isis reveals Herself as "Queen of Heaven" and "She of the Ten Thousand Names"; or Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, the famous scientific/philosophical poem, which, by the way, was dedicated to the Goddess Venus, who is praised by Lucretius as the Goddess of Life and Nature, and especially as the Goddess of Peace; and, of course, Ovid's masterpiece of mythological storytelling, The Metamorphoses (not to be confused with Apuleius' book of the same name) .

The impact of classical, and especially Roman, Paganism is indicated by the fact that of all the art, literature, architecture, philosophy and other output of the Renaissance - it is Botticelli's painting "La Primavera" that most immediately captures the essence of that period, and right in the center of that painting stands the Great Goddess Venus - Aeneas' mother, and the patron Goddess of Classical Rome. Botticelli, by the way, for those who aren't up on their who's-who of the Renaissance, lived and worked in Florence under the patronage of the de' Medici's, alongside Ficino.

Not long after Ficino, there comes a name well known both to dabblers and adepts in Ceremonial Magic - Cornelius Agrippa. Agrippa was suspected of heresy, or worse, throughout his adult life. He was imprisoned, excommunicated, forced into exile, and was sentenced to death at least once (although the sentence was not carried out). His magnum opus, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, is a treasure trove of both "natural magic" and also the spiritual wisdom of classical philosophy. It is not difficult to imagine Agrippa as a clandestine co-conspirator spreading Plethon's Pagan Nomos.

Giordano Bruno was either more reckless than Agrippa, or more unlucky. Bruno was charged with heresy primarily based on his dialog, Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, in which both Hermes and Isis play prominent roles. Bruno was convicted and publicly burned at the stake on February 17, 1600. Like Plethon's unfortunate student Juvenal, Bruno was in all likelihood not merely a "freethinker" and a heretic, but an active proponent of the Platonic Paganism that was the heart and soul of the Renaissance.

Bruno's grim fate was not an isolated incident. The Renaissance had sparked a backlash of intolerance, fundamentalism, and bloody religious wars. Even as the Reformation created, in theory, the possibility for a less monolithic Christianity, in practice each new sect tended to declare itself to be the "one, true" Christianity. If anything, the Calvinists, Lutherans and Anglicans were less tolerant than the Catholics had ever been.

So it's no surprise that secret societies were the preferred form of organization for Hermeticists, Kabbalists, ritual magicians, and anyone else who chose freedom of thought and belief over blind obedience in spiritual matters. The "Rosicrucians" were so secret that they probably did not exist at all! At least, at first. But as soon as the famous (and most likely fictitious) "manifestos" appeared, imitators instantly sprung up across Europe under the banner of the "Rosy Cross."

Julian and Paganism's Fight to Survive:

If the Renaissance saw a revival of Classical Paganism, then how was it that Classical Paganism came to be in need of reviving? The short answer is that the Pagan religions of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East had been brutally suppressed a thousand years earlier - first in the name of Christianity, and then also Islam. But Paganism didn't go quietly or without a fight.

In the year 312, Constantine ("the Great") had a dream and/or vision in which a cross appeared to him and from then on he commanded that his soldiers would fight with crosses painted on their shields. By 325, Constantine had killed off the last of his rivals and finally achieved his goal of becoming the sole Emperor of Rome (and the first Christian Emperor.) Prior to this, Constantine had made an effort to maintain at least some appearance of "fairness" in religious matters - but now he openly set out to wipe Paganism off the face of the earth.

Constantine's successors were also Christians - he saw to that, if you know what I mean. Whole families were slaughtered to remove any doubts about who would succeed whom. In one such family, a child named Julian was spared. Although raised in a Christian household, at some point Julian secretly apostatized and embraced what was already in the fourth century the Old Religion of Paganism.

Julian was basically a "geek." He was bookish and loved to study philosophy and history, and he loved the old myths with their heroes and their magic and their strange beasts. He also became a "teacher's pet" and was especially devoted to his classics tutor Mardonius. Eventually the Christian Emperor Constantius (Julian's cousin, and the murderer of Julian's mother and father and all but one of his siblings) decided that Julian needed to be neutralized - but instead of killing him outright, he gave the 24-year-old "philosopher" a military command in the province of Gaul.

Constantius was sure that Julian would either get himself killed or would, at the very least, suffer complete humiliation. Either way, Julian would be eliminated as a potential rival. Constantius even hand-picked Julian's subordinate officers, and made sure that these answered first to Constantius.

The province of Gaul had become a military quagmire for Rome in the fourth century, like Vietnam or Iraq for the United States, or like Afghanistan for the Soviet Union. But something very odd happened - Julian unexpectedly proved to be some kind of military genius. Or, at any rate, he met with brilliant successes on the battlefield. And then Constantius died of illness before he could arrange to have Julian assassinated. Suddenly, the empire's newest military hero was proclaimed Emperor.

Only now could Julian openly declare himself a Pagan. His reign proved to be brief (361 - 363), but as "the Apostate" Julian nevertheless managed to make quite a mark on history. Libanius was one of the most prominent Pagan intellectuals of this period, and here is how he characterized Julian in his "Funeral Oration":

"First of all, as I have said, he restored piety, as it were, from exile. Some Temples he built, others he restored, while he furnished others with statues. People who had built houses for themselves with stones of the Temples began to contribute money. You might have seen pillars carried by boat or by wagon for our plundered Gods. Everywhere there were altars, fire, blood offerings, fat and smoke: the mystic ritual was performed, seers were freed from fear, and on the mountain tops were pipings and processions, and the same ox served as worship for the Gods and a feast for men.

"But since it was not easy for the emperor to go from the palace to the Temples every day, and yet continued intercourse with the Gods is a matter of the greatest moment, a Temple to the God who governs the day was built in the middle of the palace, and he took part in His mysteries, initiated and in turn initiating. He also set up altars to all the Gods separately, and his first task on rising from bed was to associate with our Lords by means of sacrifice, in which he was more assiduous even than Nicias. So far did he extend the limits of the his zeal in this matter, since he desired first to restore the lost rituals once again to their original position, and secondly to add fresh ones to the traditional rites."

The eclectic and magical Paganism that Julian practiced blurred the false distinctions sometimes used to "divide and conquer" Paganism. Julian was strongly influenced not only by what could be called "traditional Hellenic religion", but also by the Theurgical Platonism of the philosopher Iamblichus, Egyptian Hermeticism, and the Chaldean Oracles.

This Paganism was a rich, spicy, and spiritually nutritious stew in which magic, rituals, divination, healing, "foreign" religions, mystical philosophy, worship of the Gods (up to and including ecstatic union with the Divine), and secret initiations were all combined with personal and social ethics, a reverential love of nature, respect for tradition, and a belief that all human beings are the children of the Divine. (Is it just me, or does this sound familiar to anyone else?)

The Big Question:

What is the relationship between the Paganism of today and the Paganism of Classical antiquity or that of the Renaissance? There are at least three possible answers to this question:

(1) Modern Paganism is completely unrelated to either Renaissance Paganism or Classical Paganism.

(2) Modern Paganism is exactly the same in every way as Classical Paganism and Renaissance Paganism.

(3) Modern, Renaissance and Classical Paganism have a comparable degree of relatedness as do modern, medieval and early Christianity.

Ronald Hutton has shown that what he calls "modern Pagan witchcraft" has deep roots in the Romantic Movement that swept Europe during the late 1700's. It is quite clear that the various magical/esoteric/occult currents of the Romantic period (the currents that eventually gave birth to "modern Pagan witchcraft") were a continuation of the Pagan revival of the Renaissance, although tracing this lineage properly has yet to be done in detail.

As previously mentioned, the Renaissance was able to build on already existing "Pagan survivals" found in popular culture and Latin literature, as well as the study of Alchemy and Astrology. Of course, it's difficult to determine to what extent admirers of Virgil or practitioners of Alchemy, for example, were or were not self-consciously Pagan.

One thing we know is that any explicit declaration of Pagan belief during the whole period in question would have swiftly resulted in imprisonment, torture and execution. Therefore, how much we can conclude simply from the absence of such declarations is far from straightforward.

At any rate, all those who studied Virgil, or retold romances based on ancient Pagan stories, as well as practitioners of such arts as Astrology and Alchemy, were keeping alive Pagan ideas and practices, even if they had to be dressed up in "Christianized" garb in order to avoid the stake.

But it wasn't just in the Latin West that Paganism had managed to find various means of survival. In fact, if we look at the roots of the philosophical Paganism that came to Florence from Byzantium, we find that Plethon was carrying on a centuries old tradition going back to the revival of Platonic philosophy initiated by the 11th century philosopher Michael Psellus.

Again, we find no "smoking gun" that proves that Psellus was a self-conscious Pagan, but if any such evidence had been discovered his school of Platonic philosophy would have been vigorously suppressed, and, therefore, would never have been able to contribute to the Renaissance.

In both the Latin West and the Greek East, the only possible way for Paganism to "survive" was to remain hidden - a genuine Catch-22 for anyone searching for a "continuous" tradition of Paganism.

On the face of it, though, it seems obvious that the magical and eclectic Paganism practiced in the time of the Emperor Julian bears a striking resemblance to the Paganism of today, just as it appears likely that the revival of Paganism in the Renaissance played a major role in this "family resemblance."

Footnotes:
Domenico Comparetti Virgil in the Middle Ages
Pierre Hadot What Is Ancient Philosophy?
Ramsay MacMullen Paganism in the Roman Empire
Joseph Hoffmann Julian's 'Against the Galileans'
Gregory Shaw Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
Frances Yates Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
Perez Zagorin How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West
John Monfasani Platonic Paganism in the Fifteenth Century
C.M. Woodhouse George Gemistos Plethon: Last of the Hellenes
Basil Tatakis Byzantine Philosophy

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