Time and Orpheus (attributed to Giorgione).

Greetings! My name is Leonard George. You've arrived at an evolving site, so please plan to revisit as it develops.

The aim of this site is to encourage us toward a vision of beauty. It's easy to see ugliness nowadays, easy to get lost in it and forget that there's more to this world than that. Greed, hatred, delusion - these ugly things are real. But kindness, wisdom, beauty - these are also real. I believe we need to experience the beauty, because from it comes the only wise response to the ugliness. (Of course I'm not referring merely to the commodified sorts of beauty that are used to make us feel inadequate in order to sell us things.) Similarly, we must experience the ugliness to relate maturely to the beauty. The ancient philosopher Plotinus hinted how to do this:

Those who do not see the Whole only acknowledge the surface of things. But those who are drunk with this wine and filled with this nectar, the beauty permeating their entire souls, are not mere spectators. For there is no longer one viewing and one viewed outside of each other, but the clear-sighted hold what they see inside themselves. Usually they do not know that the object is within, but look as if it were external and seen by an act of will. But all that they view as a spectacle is outside of them. They must bring what they see within, and know it as they know themselves. When a person is possessed by a deity, they no longer look around for a divine vision if they have the power to see the inner god.

------------------ Ennead V.8.10 (my translation)

It may not be easy to understand such a thing, much less to live it. But it's worth a try.

I invite you to browse the menu below. Perhaps you'll find something of interest. In particular, check the 'Calendar' link for announcements of events you might wish to attend. This site, like me, is incomplete and under development. Thanks for your patience.

"The Gods are the real doctors,
though people do not think so."

~~ Hippocrates

~ ~ GUIDE TO THE LAIR ~ ~

Calendar of Events

Link of the Month

Soul

Imagination

Poems

Iamblichus and Theurgy

Hymn to Eros

Heretics and Heresies

Books

On Tom Harpur's 'The Pagan Christ'

Range of the Strange

Visiting the Goddess

Aphorisms of Raven Trismegistus

Matters Musical

Gallery of the Planets

Wedding of the Worlds

Wandering Wombs and Shrieking Mandrakes

After September 11

Bear Witness

Me Here Now

Here's Where You Come In

"The universe itself can be called a myth,
since bodies and material objects are apparent in it,
while souls and minds are concealed."

~~ Sallustius

Email me if you wish, but PLEASE NOTE:
delete the 'z' in the email address listed below (it's only there to mislead spambots).

zlgeorge@interchange.ubc.ca

All good things,

Leonard

"In the world as it is, the richness of the outer
stirs us all to the wonder of the inner,
whose greatness is displayed in acts so splendid."

~~ Plotinus

Photo Credit: Mom

Photo Credit: Barry Duncan

Photo Credit: Vivian Alie

Photo Credit: Barbara Bell

Photo Credit: Randall Cosco

"A life in which the gods are not invited isn't worth living.
It will be quieter, but there won't be any stories. And you could suppose that these dangerous invitations were in fact contrived by the gods themselves, because the gods get bored with men who have no stories."

~~ Roberto Calasso

Last site revision: 8/3/09.

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