The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) · 35 of 49 · tr. L. Williams
Third Dialogueg
The eyes, when they move (the heart), are dry, because they perform the office of a looking-glass, and of a representer; when they are moved, however, they become troubled and perturbed, because they perform the office of a diligent executer, seeing that with the speculating intellect, the beautiful and the good is first seen, then the will desires it; and later the industrious intellect procures it, follows it, and seeks it.
Tearful eyes signify the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from, the wisher, the which in order that it should not pall, nor disgust, presents itself as an infinite longing (studio) which ever has, and ever seeks; seeing that the delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking, not to having tasted ambrosia, and to the continual enjoyment of food and drink, and not in being satiated and without desire for them.
Hence they have satiety as it were in movement and apprehension, not in quiet and comprehension; they are not satiated without appetite, nor are they in a state of desire, without being in a certain way satiated.
[AA] "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal witnesses to this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," this trinity including, and being the cause of every phenomenon in Nature.—("The Secret Doctrine.") Lao.
Esuries satiata, satietas esuriens.
Lib.
Precisely so.
Lao: From this I can comprehend how, without blame, but with great truth and understanding, it has been said that Divine love weeps with indescribable groans, because having all it loves all, and loving all has all.
Lib.
But many comments would be necessary if we would understand that Divine love which is deity itself; and one easily understands Divine love, so far as it is to be found in its effects and in the inferior nature.
I do not say that which from the divinity is diffused into things, but that of things which aspires to the divinity.
Lao.
Now of this and of other matters we will discourse more at our ease presently.
Let us go.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
Divine love is described as weeping with indescribable groans, attributing human emotion to the divine.
Ecstatic, non-rational receptivity to the divine figured as drunkenness — Plato's symposium wine, Rumi's sukr, Eckhart's 'sober drunkenness'; the passive/receptive metaphor for divine encounter, distinct from divine_madness's active possessing rapture.
The delight of the gods is ascribed to drinking and continual enjoyment rather than satiation.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Tearful eyes signify the difficulty of separating the thing wished for from the wisher.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The aspiration of things to divinity implies a transformation or participation in the divine nature.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
[auto] The description of perturbed eyes and divine love weeping with groans aligns with the concept of ecstatic rapture transcending ordinary reason.
Bruno's eroici furori — a passionate, ennobling spiritual ardor that drives the soul toward divine wisdom; distinguished from base or animal passions by its orientation to infinite truth.
[auto] The passage is from Bruno's work defining this concept, describing perturbed eyes, infinite longing, and divine love's groans as ennobling spiritual ardor.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
[auto] The text outlines the progression from seeing the beautiful/good to desiring it and then procuring it, mirroring the scala amoris.