Daily Meditation: Sunday, December 1, 2024

Power - human beings’ power lies in possessing both principles

12/01/2024

In the dialogue ‘Symposium’, Plato recounts the myth of the primitive androgyne. In days long gone by, human creatures were said to have lived on earth who were both male and female: they were spherical in shape and had two faces, four arms, four legs, two genital organs, and so forth. These creatures had exceptional vigour and, conscious of their power, they undertook to attack the gods. Greatly concerned, the latter sought a way to weaken them and it was Zeus who found the answer: they would be cut in two! This was done and that is why, ever since then, these two halves of one divided being endlessly roam the world looking for each other in order to unite, and so regain their initial wholeness. In Plato’s myth, one detail is particularly significant: in order to weaken these creatures threatening the power of the gods, Zeus decided to split them in half. The conclusion that emerges from this fact is clear: the power of human beings lies in the possession of both principles. Human beings are akin to gods when they possess both the masculine and feminine principles.*