HG WELLS (1897): THE CRYSTAL EGG (21.11.2022)

There was, until a year ago, a little and very grimy-looking shop near Seven Dials, over which, in weather-worn yellow lettering, the name of “C. Cave, Naturalist and Dealer in Antiquities,” was inscribed. The contents of its window were curiously variegated. They comprised some elephant tusks and an imperfect set of chessmen, beads and weapons, a box of eyes, two skulls of tigers and one human, several moth-eaten stuffed monkeys (one holding a lamp), an old-fashioned cabinet, a flyblown ostrich egg or so, some fishing-tackle, and an extraordinarily dirty, empty glass fish-tank. There was also, at the moment the story begins, a mass of crystal, worked into the shape of an egg and brilliantly polished. And at that two people, who stood outside the window, were looking, one of them a tall, thin clergyman, the other a black-bearded young man of dusky complexion and unobtrusive costume. The dusky young man spoke with eager gesticulation, and seemed anxious for his companion to purchase the article.

Plotinus: The Concept of ‘Time’ Reconsidered! (21.9.2022)

The Christians then further added to this confusion (entirely of their own making) by superimposing the Germanic term ‘Soul’ over their misinterpretation of the Greek philosophical term ‘Psyche’! Plotinus (and most genuine Greek philosophers) never used or even knew of the Christian conflation of ‘Psyche-Soul’. Certainly, Plotinus NEVER used the Christian term ‘Soul’, but he did continuously use the Greek philosophical term ‘Psyche’, which refers to the ‘breath of life’, ‘the animating principle of existence’ – or that ‘spark’ which sets in motion all the conditions that grant psychological (thought) and physical (existence)! Plato’s 4th Century BCE text entitled ‘Definitions’ a manual of philosophical terms (translated by DS Hutchinson, 1996) used within his ‘Academy’ School of Philosophical Study – defines the Greek term ‘Psyche’ to mean the following:

a) That which moves itself.

b) The cause of vital processes in living creatures.

I would argue that the Greek term ‘Psyche’ implies so much more than the narrow Christian term ‘Soul’, and even if there are elements of the Greek ‘Psyche’ which overlap with the Christian ‘Soul’ – this in no way validates (or accepts) the Christian doctrine of being true anymore than it invalidates the Greek philosophical message!

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