[Hello everyone, and sorry about all the war talk recently. Try to keep a stiff upper lip and enjoy life in the meantime.]
The Four Stages of Enlightenment: Comparing the Beliefs of Two Scholars from Different Times
Zeno of Citius and Carl Jung of Switzerland
note: Zeno and Carl Jung grew up somewhat similarly, in that Cyprus and Switzerland respectively are very isolated. They were at the same time inundated in the completeness of life and yet left with an insatiable desire to discover the rest of the world.
I was surprised today while reading Wikipedia's entry on Zeno of Citius, a preeminent Cyprian scholar born a few hundred years before Christ. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of thinking, which is hereby defined:
Toward the bottom, the article describes some of Zeno's teachings -- I was struck by a particular line, which I will quote here:Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of Virtue in accordance with Nature.
Zeno in the above passages defines four stages:Zeno said that there were four stages in the process leading to true knowledge, which he illustrated with the example of the flat, extended hand, and the gradual closing of the fist:
Zeno stretched out his fingers, and showed the palm of his hand, – "Perception," – he said, – "is a thing like this."- Then, when he had closed his fingers a little, – "Assent is like this." – Afterwards, when he had completely closed his hand, and showed his fist, that, he said, was Comprehension. From which simile he also gave that state a new name, calling it katalepsis (κατάληψις). But when he brought his left hand against his right, and with it took a firm and tight hold of his fist: – "Knowledge" – he said, was of that character; and that was what none but a wise person possessed.[33]
Now, most of you know who Carl Jung is (or was!): a preeminent Swiss scholar and doctor who went on to establish his own school of thought, Jungian Psychology. He was hugely influenced by the knowledge of the ancient alchemists -- both those who lived prior to Zeno and those who came later in Europe -- which led to his popularization of the "4 Colors of Alchemy", a metaphor similar to that used by Zeno.Perception
Assent
Comprehension
Knowledge
Carl Jung ascribed to an ancient system describing the four stages of enlightenment according to the following colors:
___________________________________________________________According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed.[38] The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are.
"...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form."
Main article: Magnum opus (alchemy)
The Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of four stages represented by colors.
nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
albedo, a whitening or leucosis
citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis[113]
I do enjoy the alchemical version a lot, and you should read Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "the Lady of Shalot" in this context, but I think I prefer Zeno's visual explanation of the evolution of the human mind.
I hope you guys enjoy the above and excuse the brevity of this post. My damned husband decided to turn on the TV lol.