Your Spiritual Connection Centers: Occult Philosophy and Platonic Ideals

What follows is a regular installment in the "Spiritual Connection Centers" series in which I talk about the energetic and psycho-spiritual health of the body. In this installment I'm talking about Western approaches to spiritual healing with a special emphasis on Platonic ideals as well as the person who can arguably be called the father of Western occult philosophy: Henry Cornelius Agrippa.

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Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

Whatever name you prefer to give to Reiki – Gaia, Bioplasma, the Holy Spirit, Prana, Chi, Qi, Ki, Orgone, or spiritual connection centers – I believe that it is the same Spirit only differentiated by the ways in which it is described. I propose that many have known of and sought this Spirit and that many more have written of it. One of the authors who has most profoundly affected my study and comprehension of the nature and variety of occult sciences was a German born more than five hundred years ago. This man’s name was Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, or as he is commonly named in present history, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, or just Agrippa. Agrippa was born on September 14th, 1486, in Cologne, Germany and is believed to have died on February 18th, 1535, in Grenoble, France.

Agrippa, being the son of minor nobility, enjoyed great privilege, though with his natural intelligence it seems that he would have gone far no matter how much money or how many connections his parents had. Agrippa was a devout Catholic and an insatiable collector of occult knowledge. Not counting his occult studies, he learned to speak French, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, and also received college degrees in the arts, church canon, civil law, theology, and advanced mathematics. Agrippa, though a talented physician of much renown and sometimes compared to Paracelsus, is not known to have ever actually received a degree or manner of formal recognition from a medical institute or school of medicine.

Agrippa traveled extensively between Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and England, and was engaged in controversial affairs wherever he went. In his lifetime, he served royalty in varying capacities: astrologer, alchemist, theologian, physician, orator, soldier, diplomat, spy, and others. His talents were many and he wrote prolifically. In 1515, Agrippa delivered a popular and well-received presentation on Hermes Trismegistus in Dole, France. We’ll return to Hermes momentarily, but I bring this specific point to your attention to show that Agrippa was acutely aware and highly knowledgeable of one of history’s most profound figures, the man from whom was taken the name for Hermetic philosophy: Hermes.

Agrippa’s written works were abundant and sadly not all survive to present day; however, his keystone text and the one which concerns us most is what is now known as the foundation book of Western occultism: Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy. In the 11th Chapter of the First Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa speaks of the manner in which occult virtues are given to lesser bodies, or in other words, how heavenly bodies transmit the qualities, nature, and Spirit of the divine to mortal bodies: 

Platonists say that all inferior bodies are exemplified by the superior Ideas. Now, they define an Idea to be a form, above bodies, souls, minds, and to be but one, simple, pure, immutable, indivisible, incorporeal, and eternal: and that the nature of all Ideas is the same. Now, they place Ideas in the first place in very goodness itself i.e. God, by way of cause; and that they are distinguished amongst themselves by some relative considerations only, lest whatsoever is in the world, should be but one thing without any variety, and that they agree in essence, lest God should be a compound substance.1

The “Idea” described by Agrippa is the Platonic Ideal which teaches that there is only one perfect form of every thing which we know. Imagine, for a moment, all the different breeds and varieties of horses in existence today. Each one is different from the other and has been deliberately differentiated through breeding to form varieties, certain traits, and attributes. Now, suppose that when you look at a horse – any horse, it’s not important – you’re not really seeing a horse. What you see is something which resembles a horse. That is because, outside of mortal existence there exists a perfect form, archetype, original pattern, or Perfect Ideal of a horse. This perfect form is the thought, concept, pattern, or ideal from which all other forms on Earth which we call horses are made. This original or perfect form of the horse, which exists outside of man’s knowledge or comprehension, resides in the Mind of God. The perfect ideal of the horse never changes and what we perceive in the finite world is only a shadow of the greater truth. Your spiritual connection centers inside your body operate in the same way, and they are the infinite source of spiritual energy that move your being.

Now, physicists will define energy as something which can never be created or destroyed, always has been, always will be, and moves in and out of form. Theologians, when asked to define God, will say that God can never be created or destroyed, always has been, always will be, and moves in and out of form. The Mind of God is perfect, infinite, and unchangeable to the will of man. Because God can never be destroyed, lessened, reduced, altered, changed, or otherwise made different, the Original or Perfect Ideal must therefore remain in the Mind of God. This is an important point, so I’m going to be very careful with this: an original form or perfect pattern must exist transcendentally (outside of and beyond manifest reality). This form exists outside of manifest reality because if the Perfect Ideal was capable of being changed by man or circumstance, then it wouldn’t be the Perfect ideal – it would be something less.

Agrippa continues in the 13th chapter to detail the transmission of divine Spirit to manifest reality. Specifically, he mentions how this Spirit is distributed by officers and authorities, chiefly, the stars, constellations, moons, and planets of the Solar System:

Therefore, Plato, and his scholars attribute these virtues to Ideas, the formers of things. But Avicen reduceth these kinds of operations to intelligences, Hermes to the stars, Albertus to the specifical forms of things. And although these authors seem to thwart one the other, yet none of them, if they be rightly understood, goes beside the truth: since all their sayings are the same in effect in most things. For God in the first place is the end, and beginning of all virtues, he gives the seal of the Ideas to his servants the intelligences; who as faithful officers sign all things entrusted to them with an ideal virtue, the heavens, and stars, as instruments, disposing the matter in the meanwhile for the receiving of those forms which reside in Divine Majesty (as saith Plato in Timæus) and to be conveyed by stars; and the Giver of Forms distributes them by the ministry of his intelligences, which he hath set as rulers, and controllers over his works, to whom such a power is entrusted in things committed to them, that so all virtue of stones, herbs, metals, and all other things may come from the intelligences, the governers.2

Thus we see the development and point of Agrippa’s view: God or the divine as we believe it to be is transcendent and outside of manifest reality; further, all things exist in an original form in the Mind of God and that all of these Perfect Ideals are transmitted from the Mind of God to their designated place in manifest reality according to the power and authority of designated officers and authorities. In the 14th chapter Agrippa explains the truth of the matter which most concerns what I wish to present: the interaction and union of the animating Spirit of the divine with the base elements:

Now seeing the soul is the first thing that is moveable, and as they say, is moved of itself; but the body, or the matter is of itself unable, and unfit for motion, and doth much degenerate from the soul, therefore they say there is need of a more excellent medium, viz. such a one that may be as it were no body, but as it were a soul. ... Now they conceive such a medium to be the Spirit of the World, viz. that which we call the quintessence: because it is not from the four elements, but a certain fifth thing, having its being above, and besides them. ... There is therefore such a kind of Spirit required to be, as it were the medium, whereby celestial souls are joined to gross bodies, and bestow upon them wonderful gifts. This Spirit is after the same manner in the body of the world, as ours is in the body of man. ... now, this Spirit is received or taken in by the rays of the stars... through the Sun, Moon, planets and through stars higher than the planets.3

As I have done before with respect to Dr. Usui, Dr. Hayashi, and Hawayo Takata, I believe it is important to note how Agrippa’s background as an astrologer directed his interpretation of the divine. In his position as an astrologer, he noted with precision the passing of the planets in their orbits and their sway on mortal bodies and the affairs of men. What Agrippa named the quintessence (fifth element) and the Spirit of the World is also known by other names: Gaia, Chi, Bioplasma, the Holy Spirit, your spiritual connection centers, and - as I know it - Reiki. Agrippa recognized that spiritual connection centers balanced themselves according to the same principles which balanced the heavenly bodies: just as Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto move in their orbit around the Sun and through the Solar System in proper balance, the spiritual connections which animate our bodies exist in similar balance.

In approximately 5 CE, the Roman astrologer Manilius corresponded each planet and sign of the Zodiac with a part of the human body. It is unclear if he was the first to do so, but history seems to have remembered his name over others. The signs of the Zodiac number twelve and form four groups of three, one group for each element. Each group of three (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, etc.) is called a triplicity. Additionally, the planets were also assigned rulership over the body: together, the signs and planets form the Balances of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth which are in turn animated by the Spirit which inhabits the body of man. In the 22nd chapter, Agrippa writes:

The several signs of the Zodiac take care of their members. ... And as the triplicities of these signs answer one the other, and agree in celestials, so also they agree in the members, which is sufficiently manifest by experience, because with the coldness of the feet, the belly, and breast are affected, which members answer the same triplicity; whence it is, if a medicine be applied to the one, it helps the other, as by the warming of the feet, the pain of the belly ceaseth.4

What Agrippa is saying here is that the body is a microcosm of the Solar System. Just as the Solar System is a living, moving, animated body with independent members who perform a variety of functions and fill a variety of roles, so also is the human body. It is important that you understand this difference, so I’ll be very specific: in the system which I am presenting to you, the relative position of the planets is of no importance. The signs of the Zodiac and planets of the Solar System correspond to the organs, glands, bones, structures, and processes of the human body: their role and function are analogous to the role and function of their corresponding portion of the body. What is important to note is that Agrippa is describing a balance of Spirit in the body. Three signs of a triplicity (Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo) spread over separate parts of the body are not separate. They are all the Balance of Earth and when one is affected so too will the others be affected. Agrippa taught what we now recognize as holistic medicine: the body is not separate parts but an integrated whole. Even things which appear separate do in fact share a connection through your spiritual connection centers. This is important because of the famous figure I mentioned earlier in the text: Hermes Trismegistus.

To be continued

1. [Agrippa, H., Freake, J., & Tyson, D. (1993). Three Books of Occult Philosophy: The Foundation of Western Occultism. Woodbury: Llewellyn. pp. 35.]
2. [Agrippa, H., Freake, J., & Tyson, D. (1993). Three Books of Occult Philosophy: The Foundation of Western Occultism. Woodbury: Llewellyn. pp. 38-39.]
3. [Agrippa, H., Freake, J., & Tyson, D. (1993). Three Books of Occult Philosophy: The Foundation of Western Occultism. Woodbury: Llewellyn. pp. 44.]
4. [Agrippa, H., Freake, J., & Tyson, D. (1993). Three Books of Occult Philosophy: The Foundation of Western Occultism. Woodbury: Llewellyn. pp. 72-73.]