Empedocles: Cosmologist and Magician
It’s interesting to look back in history some 2500 years and see how far we haven’t come. Empedocles was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 492 BCE to 432 BCE. He was a Pre-Socratic philosopher, the group of Greek philosophers who preceded Socrates.
The Story of the Cosmos and the Soul
Empedocles came up with not only a story of the cosmos but also a story of the soul and intertwined the two. As a significant Pre-Socratic philosopher, modern academic philosophers and scholars take his story of the cosmos seriously, but move his story of the soul to the fringes.
They were shortsighted to do that. Empedocles’ story of the soul is still relevant today. His purpose was not only to teach cosmology but also to save people’s souls by returning them to their divine natures. They could only do that when they saw through the illusions that ran their lives.
Empedocles’ Message: Change!
As Professor Peter Kingsley, an internationally renowned expert on the philosophical and mystical roots of the Western tradition, explained in his book Reality,
“And yet the whole point of Empedocles’ teaching is that outside our little world, something else is waiting for the one decisive moment when we not only realize the futility of whatever we have attached value to in the past, but also become so tired of its futility we can no longer go on living the way we had before.”
Empedocles counsels us some 2500 years later that if we want to free ourselves from our time’s strife, division, and hatred we have to change ourselves.
Combining Science and Spirituality
It’s why some of us today believe we need a New Story. By that, we mean a new universe or cosmology story that not only gives the science behind its evolution, but also adds something modern academicians and scientists loathe, a spiritual element. In other words, we believe that there is an intelligent intention underlying this 13.8 billion-year evolutionary journey.
Empedocles would agree with this. He is combining his cosmology with spirituality. While modern academicians dismiss the spiritual side of Empedocles, during his own time it was quite popular.
Who was Empedocles?
Linda Johnson, who has a master’s degree in Eastern studies and has done post-graduate work in the history of religion, said this about Empedocles in her book, The Lost Philosophers: Rediscovering the Mysticism of the Ancient Greek Philosophers,
“Empedocles was probably the most popular loved Greek sage of his time. He was such an inspiring lecturer the Greeks called him ‘the father of public speaking.’ His generous spirit and remarkable healing ability helped cinch his reputation.”
She also said he was a “passionate democrat” standing up for the working man against the wealthy. When he saw the wealthy bullying the poor, he took them to court and had them prosecuted.
Empedocles was an Ardent Vegetarian
He was also an ardent vegetarian, believing eating meat was the greatest abomination. Johnson explains,
“Like the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was a vegetarian. The sage was as much concerned for the welfare of animals as he was for that of his fellow human beings.”
Empedocles believed that not only did humans have a divine nature, but animals and plants did also. He thought everything has a role to play in this cosmic dance. Johnson continues,
“He spoke of eating flesh as ‘pure cruelty,’ a crime tantamount to cannibalism because animals are our kin. He ardently denounced the animal sacrifices of his time.”
Empedocles referred to eating animals as cannibalism because, as a believer in reincarnation, he claimed when we eat a piece of meat, we could be consuming a former family member or friend.
Johnson describes another incident where,
“Empedocles revived a woman who had been in a deep coma for a month. Word spread that he had raised a dead woman (good stories get even better the more they’re repeated). As a healer, the ‘miracle worker’ had his work cut out for him.”
Empedocles’ Impact
Kingsley described Empedocles this way,
“Here is a man who would make a unique, unparalleled contribution to the intellectual development of the Western world. He was to play a major role in forming what were soon to become known as the distinct learned disciplines of philosophy, rhetoric, medicine, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology, psychology, and religion.”
Then, Kingsley adds this, which creates a slight problem for the modern world,
“He was a magician. . . And just to make things worse, he said he was immortal. He explained that he had realized his divinity. He announced he was a god.”
And therein lies the problem for modern historians and philosophers. They realize Empedocles’ importance in the beginnings of Western philosophy, but they have a hard time with the “magician,” “immortal,” and “god” parts.
Kingsley elaborates on Empedocles’ powers,
“He was someone who had the ability to bring back the power of healing from another world. But his main concern was not just to free people from illness. It was to free them from themselves. He wanted to heal them from their illusions about time and life and death. And yet there was one pre-condition for receiving his help.
You had to be prepared to leave all your ideas about yourself behind.”
Empedocles’ Poems
Empedocles wrote two poems totaling about 5,000 lines, of which only 550 have survived. Modern historians and philosophers interpreted Empedocles as giving us a materialistic account of the universe. But Kingsley points out,
“But what they have managed to avoid, and wisely so, is noticing the bigger picture [the soul part]. For if they were to catch a glimpse of it, they would realize Empedocles has nothing to do with any of our modern notions about philosophy.”
He also counsels that if we want to hear Empedocles message,
“We have to approach it in the right way, and that means approaching it on Empedocles’ own terms—not ours.”
Empedocles’ Story of the Cosmos
Now on to Empedocles’ cosmology. Remember, he wrote his poems 2500 years ago, so he lacked the vast amount of information we have since discovered.
He believed that reality is composed of six components: four basic “roots” and two basic motions. The roots are earth, air, fire, and water and they are eternal. Different combinations of these roots create humans and other creatures. The two basic motions are Love, which unites everything, and Strife, which breaks it all apart, taking them down to their essential elements.
So his cosmic story goes like this: In the beginning, Love reigns, organizing and harmonizing the four basic elements. Eventually, Strife takes over and completely separates the four roots into their own domains, leaving no interaction between them.
During this period, everything falls apart, and there is hate, fighting, and hostility, but Love eventually reemerges and brings all things back together, starting the cycle over again. This cycle of uniting, dividing, and uniting again is all that happens or will ever happen in the cosmos.
The most intriguing aspect of Empedocles’s cosmology is that its primary intent was to save people’s souls. He uses the term daemon for the soul. In the ancient Greek language of his time, the word still meant “divine being.” Christianity then turned this term into demon, no doubt caused by suppressing our natural instincts, leading them to metastasize into something uglier.
Empedocles’ Story of the Soul
Briefly, the story of the soul goes like this: Love unites all the daemons or souls in heaven, Then the unity breaks down, and Strife enters the picture separating and dividing not only all the elements but the daemons also. As these daemons are sucked deeper into the smaller world of their own individuality, they lose touch with the divinity within them.
That is why Empedocles believes it is his task to help people rediscover their divinity, but to do that, people must completely change themselves. If they don’t, they will sink more deeply into hatred, division, and war, not unlike what we are experiencing today.
Most people believe that Strife forced people out of their divinity and love brought them back. Strangely that is not what Empedocles thought. He thought it was Love that drove people out of heaven and Strife that brought them back.
There is not enough space to go into that now, so I’ll cover that and give more detail on Empedocles’ story of the soul in the next article.
To learn more about the Intelligence and Magic of the Universe: Click this link: The Magical Universe
