What more liberal and more fruitful provision could God have made in regard to Sacred Scriptures than that the same words may be understood in several senses, all of which are sanctioned by the concurring testimony of other passages equally divine. ~ St Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana

Now I a fourfold vision see,
And a fourfold vision is given to me;
‘Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And threefold in soft Beulah’s night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newton’s sleep! ~ William Blake, Letter to Butts

The ancient sources all recognized the multivalent interpretation of scriptures. That all changed with the Protestant Reformation. For example, Martin Luther sought the “single, simple, solid, and stable meaning” of Scripture. John Calvin seconded the idea: “the true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning.” This single vision also infected the liberal theologians with their fruitless, century long search for the “historical Jesus”.

The first level, usually incorrectly named the “literal interpretation”, is the material, historical space-time interpretation. The esoteric interpretation, on the other hand, deals with the experience in consciousness. Unlike some Gnostic or New Age systems, we don’t claim that the esoteric is the “real” interpretation. A fortiori, however, neither is the material space-time interpretation any more real.

Interiority

Do not go outside into yourself, the truth lives deep within. ~ St. Augustine

On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock shot up a concert from a hotel window, killing 58 people and wounding close to one thousand. Those are the facts, so the investigation could have ended right there. Yet, that is unsatisfying because the real questions are ignored: what was the man’s motive and what is the meaning of the event.

Hence the FBI took 16 months to conclude the investigation, inconclusively. Note, however, that the FBI did not try to explain the event in terms of the motions of atoms or Newton’s laws of force. Nor did they analyze his brain to determine which neurons were firing. Still less did they fabricate a genetic, evolutionary scenario.

Had they done so, everything would have been puzzled and assumed that the FBI was way off-track. Nevertheless “intelligent” men today insist that all explanations can be traced back to atoms, neurons, and genes. That is probably because few people bother with self-observation, so they fail to develop the ability to observe their interior life carefully and dispassionately.

The point is that the mere accumulation of facts does not achieve the quest for meaning. The first task is to describe the differences between events in consciousness and events in the world. Just as space and time are preconditions for any experience in the world, so, too, are they required in consciousness. However, the experience is quite different.

Mental space is determined by thoughts and images. Our dreamlife provides obvious examples of this. In a dream, we might envision a scene in a city, which then shifts to a beach scene. That is a change of space. In the material world, time is required to move from the city to the beach, whereas in the dream the change is nearly immediate.

However, in full consciousness, when one is attempting to deliberately shift from one thought to another, say in meditation or concentration exercises, there may be a significant inner time lag. Hence, inner time depends on the intensity of the desire to move from one thought to another.

Of course, this may be difficult to understand if you allow thoughts and images to spontaneously arise in consciousness, while making no effort to monitor and filter such thoughts and images.

Christ the King

As an example, we can consider the idea of Christ the King that implies that Christ has dominion over the world. Then, at the end of time, He will establish His Kingdom on earth. However, esoterically, this means that the birth of Christ in the soul will take domination interiorly rather the exteriorly. Ananda Coomaraswamy illustrates this point clearly:

The concept of Victory is of the utmost importance in the traditional theory of Kingship. Exoterically it is by an actual or implied victory over others that a King obtains the throne, but esoterically he is the true Victor who subdues his own passions, allying himself with the Self against himself. The heroism expected of the Knight, whether as King or as the Mortal Soul and Outer Man, is then no longer a matter of merely physical courage, but a symbol and evidence of self-conquest and self-knowledge; autonomy, as we have seen, being the outward tally of an inward Self-control. Whoever has thus found Himself is necessarily both fearless and invulnerable. ~ Ananda Coomaraswamy, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government

Augustine’s Ladder

In De Quantitate Animae, Augustine described seven stages in the ascent to the divine. What is striking is the similarity to the same stages in Hermetic teaching. Vladimir Solovyov, in Lectures on Divine Humanity, mentioned in passing the connection between the writings of Hermes Trismegistus and the Christian Fathers. Since he never fully developed that idea, it is our task to complete his unfinished work.

This relationship, therefore, is quite ancient, and did not suddenly arise in Renaissance Florence. Marsilio Ficino  identifies those ancient sources.

These are Augustine’s stages, followed by a commentary. It is important to keep in mind that the stages do not represent changes in consciousness of a stable I. On the contrary, each stage means that the sense of I is centred at that stage. The task, therefore, is to move the sense of I upward to higher stages.

1. Animation: The soul is life-force without consciousness, in common with the plants.
2. Sentience: in common with the animals
3. Rational: but not moral, i.e., worldly wisdom.
4. Virtue: divine wisdom purges the soul.
5. Ataraxia: complete trust in God
6. Intuition: Direct, unmediated experiences of higher truth
7. Union with God

This is a vertical ascent and thus is radically different from horizontal schemas like Ken Wilber’s colour system. Such schemas are arbitrary and tendentious.

Natural Life

The first three stages are aspects of the sublunar sphere. Clearly, they correspond to the three souls described by Aristotle and the Medieval Scholastics: the Nutritive soul (plants), the Sensitive soul (all animals), and the Rational, or intellectual, soul.

As such, they apply to human beings as they are born into the world. Although all people experience animation, sentience, and rationality, everyone tends to be primarily focused in one of the first three states.

Those centred in the first, or sensory stage, is dominated by instinct, movement, thrills, sensation-seeking, sex, food, or the physical body. The fundamental fault in such beings is concupiscence, i.e., excessive or disordered desire.

Those centred in the sentient stage are dominated by their emotions. Feelings guide their lives. When the feeling become negative, such as anger, fear, envy, jealousy, etc., the fundamental fault is malice.

Those centred in the rational or thinking centre are dominated by their intellectual life, in the sense of discursive thought. At its best, this leads to technological advance, starting from fire, the wheel, agriculture, husbandry, metallurgy, navigation, and so on. Its fundamental fault is ignorance.  Of course, ignorance is wide ranging and includes irrationality, logical fallacies, just for starters.

The world, such as it is, is dominated by humans at the first three levels. Although there is some natural goodness, concupiscence, malice, and ignorance foment strife and conflict. There is no way out.

Transitional State

In traditional societies, transcendent influences in the form of exoteric religions break into the natural world system. Those who are open to such transcendent influences may undergo a moral conversion. In this case, he tries to apply brakes against the natural impulses of the lower levels. This produces an inner conflict that is necessary to develop a strong and independent I.

Natural men and women, when exposed to transcendent influences, may resent that inner conflict, preferring instead to live unencumbered by any inner constraints. They may desire to pursue sexual excess or create intellectual systems totally independent of any transcendent influences. Hence, they assume that the source of the inner check is not transcendent, but rather are imposed by their enemies. That is why neopagans, who prefer to live in the moment, may believe that moral norms are Semitic plots.

The fundamental fault at this level is weakness. One may know what is right to do, yet fails due to a weak will.

Ataraxia

The state of Ataraxia is achieved when the lower emotions come under control, and the will gets purified. This is a state of perfect calm, tranquility, bodily relaxation, and the silencing in the mind of desires, anxiety, fear, vulgar images, obsessive thoughts. While natural men are plagued by lower and vulgar images, in this state the mind receives images from above in the form of symbols. Now a genuine symbol is not merely a representation of a higher thought, but is itself the thing symbolised. This is related to the art of high culture.

Intuition

When the mind is cleared of discursive thinking, it gains a direct, intuitive knowledge of spiritual things. This is beyond words and even the symbols of the state of Ataraxia.

Union with God

This is the state reached when the I totally submits to the Absolute I. This is knowledge of the Whole. It is the Beatific Vision, which perhaps can be reached in this life.