Thursday Seeds | Logos Segue
Introduction of Marcus Aurelius’ meditations by Gregory Hayes page xxi
But the logos is not simply an impersonal power that governs and directs the world. It is also an actual substance that provides that world, not in metaphorical sense, but in a form as concrete as oxygen or carbon. In its physical embodiment, the logos exists as pneuma, a substance imagined by the earliest Stoics as pure fire, and by Chrysippus as a mixture of fire and air. Pneuma is the power -the vital breath-that animates animals and humans. It is, and Dylan Thomas‘s phrase, ”the force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” and is present even in lifeless materials like stone or metal as the energy that holds the object together-the internal tension that makes a stone a stone. All objects are thus a compound of life-less substance and vital force. When Marcus [Aurelius] refers, as he does, on a number of occasions, to “cause and material” He means the two elements of these two compounds-inert substance and animating Pneuma-which are united so long as the object itself exists. When the object perishes, the pneuma, that animated, it is re-absorbed into the logos as a whole. This process of destruction and reintegration happens to individual objects at every moment. It also happens on a larger scale to the entire universe, which at vast intervals is entirely consumed by fire (a process known as ekpyrosis), and then regenerated.
When I think of Logos, I think of logic as a greek word and it being about practical ideas that are rooted in foundations of science and higher thinking.
Positive and negative ions, units such as leptons, quarks, are not what we thought during the time of Einstein. There was one electron charged negative for each atom. Now we come to understand that protons while cumulatively to positive, have quarks and leptons of both charges. The Standard model might not be completely accurate but it’s the best understanding of particle physics that we currently have.
This changes our mindset on how things would behave the same every time. We aren’t even measuring what could change and does dynamically change, without us willing it, controlling it, or even knowing it.
It’s like the reveal of context in a mystery novel where the reader is learning the back story with the idea in their head, “I wish I had known that before.” Because assumptions made would have been different. Decisions made would have been different.
So now we know. And our approach to the same ideas is different than before. Risks taken before might be averted and new directions sought out that didn’t seem necessary until this new info.
pneuma is the concept of the “breath of life,” a mixture of the elements air (in motion) and fire (as warmth). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneuma. And this breath can apply to living things but also something like a stone or metal piece. A sea shell?
Logos however, is only a portion of pneuma, not the whole enchilada. It is the part that connects into earth and water to make an individual. Once the individual expires in life, the body becomes only earth and water again. (Dust to dust as described in the Bible.) What happens to the divine reason or Logos, the soul? It goes back to the Cosmos.
What are those elements again? Oh yeah, fire, air, water, and earth.
Why does it matter? When I read this first section of at the top in the Meditations Introduction, I was seeing images in my mind. What were they of? Something that was a cross between sacred geometry and a remedy for the amount of data our poor brains are subjected to these days. Let me find something that fits it….
If we can see our current version of this image as if we are at the center, it might look different. Maybe distorted? Needing some adjusting like you would a hat that is crooked? Is that too simplistic? It’s a better description than the terms we use like: “I need a reset.” “I’m out of balance.”
Yes! And how do you make those adjustments needed without this mirror picture of what you look like in light form? Who has the tools for that? #futuretools
AI would help us if we let it. But the real help is more intuitive than that.
NATURE.
These elements. Fire, air, earth, and water. Which are you most drawn to? Do you even know? That would be a start. For me, it’s always water. Let’s get adjusted.
References:
Book: Marcus Aurelius Meditations – translation and introduction by Gregory Hays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneuma
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ekpyrosis
https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/p7gjdd/difference_between_pneuma_and_logos/
You May Also Like
Thursday Seeds | Math is the Way
Thursday Seeds | Cry Fowl and Greet the Cheers
