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Tim Addey
For more than one thousand years, the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophers of antiquity visited and revisited their primeval mythological heritage which was the living heart of their pagan religion, art and science. In earliest antiquity the inner truths of myth were held to be suitable only for those who had undergone the initiations and training of mystery cults and academies of philosophy, and were communicated in secret and guarded language; in later antiquity, circumstances forced their interpreters to become more open and commit their insights to writing. It is these writings upon which Tim Addey draws in order to present to the non-specialist reader a philosophic interpretation of the beautiful and powerful myths of the Greeks
The Seven Myths of the Soul is based on a passage from Damascius, the last head of Plato's Academy in Athens:
The Soul descends into generation, after the manner of Kore;
She is scattered by generation, after the manner of Dionysus ;
Like Prometheus and the Titans, she is bound to body.
She frees herself by exercising the strength of Heracles ;
Gathers herself together through the help of Apollo
And the Saviour Athene, by truly purifying philosophy;
And she elevates herself to the causes of her being with Demeter .
In the stories of Persephone (Kore), Dionysus, Prometheus, Heracles, Apollo, Athene and Demeter the trials, initiations and ultimate triumph of each human soul are outlined in mystical symbols. For those seeking soul wisdom this book provides the starting point for a cycle of profound meditations.
This paperback edition includes eight colour plates illustrating the various myths and many diagrams outlining the basic relationship between the various conditions through which the soul passes.
Chapter headings are: 1 An outline of Platonic philosophy 2 The journey of the Soul 3 Persephone 4 Dionysus 5 Prometheus 6 Heracles 7 Athene 8 Apollo 9 Demeter (ch.3-9 are subdivided into The Myth and Interpretation) 10 Some Conclusions 11 Plato's Symposium and Myth 12 A defence of the worship of the Gods
270 pp, 8 colour prints, index. Paperback £12.95 ISBN 978-1898910-374 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
Know Thyself - Plato's First Alcibiades and Commentary
Translated by Floyer Sydenham and Thomas Taylor
The Prometheus Trust publishes a number of books under the general title of ‘Students’ Edition Series’ - these are designed to act as introductions to various aspects of Platonism. This is the first of the Series.
Plato's First Alcibiades was the recognised introduction to the dialogues of Plato in late antiquity, because it addresses the important question of the nature of the self. Only by discovering this can we understand the perspective from which we view the rest of reality. It was also considered as a necessary 
first step in our pursuit of happiness, for unless we know what we are we cannot know what will bring about our fulfilment - and without the fulfilment of our true nature we cannot be happy. As a key to human understanding and happiness, the dialogue is as important today as it was in antiquity. Approximate Stephanus pagination accompanies the text.
Added to this dialogue, in the form of additional notes and an introduction, is much of Proclus' Commentary written on the understanding that "it will be found by those who are deeply skilled in the philosophy of Plato, that each of his dialogues contains that which the universe contains." The Commentary reveals to the thoughtful student the depths of this important dialogue, its universal form, and its living heart - which is the quickening of the soul by the touch of divine vision.
In this second edition, published in 2011, the treatise by Plotinus, On the Descent of the Soul (En IV, viii) has been added.
Three modern essays, written with the newcomer in mind, accompany the text and commentary: A Survey of the Soul and Socrates as the Symbolic Daemon of the Alcibiades by Tim Addey, and Possibilities of Self by Guy Wyndham-Jones.
176pp Paperback £9.95 ISBN 978-1898910-961
Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.The Unfolding Wings
The Way of Perfection in the Platonic Tradition
Tim Addey
The ancient philosophic tradition of Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Proclus and many others was a living yoga of enlightenment. This book attempts to present to both the newcomer and th
ose who have already studied aspects of the tradition the means for pursuing its truth and beauty as a way of perfection.
The author uses a wide range of extracts from the sages of true philosophy to illustrate the many aspects of the path: chapters on Dialectic Meditation, Contemplation, Theurgy, Initiation, the Guardian Daemon, Mythology, Virtue and Love demonstrate the richness hidden within this long-neglected yoga of the ancient west.
The book offers to the reader a starting point for a lifelong discipline which leads to the discovery within his or her own soul of the most profound wisdom, the broadest understanding of the self and the cosmos, the highest happiness, and, ultimately, a friendship with divinity. It does not, however, suggest any shortcuts - as Plato wrote in this Seventh Epistle: "For a thing of this kind cannot be expressed by words like other disciplines, but by long familiarity, and living in conjunction with the thing itself, a light as it were leaping from a fire will on a sudden be enkindled in the soul, and there itself nourish itself." The book is for those who are prepared to live the life, and for those who prize above all mere possessions the light enkindled in the soul. New edition published in 2011.
192pp Paperback £9.95 ISBN 978-1898910-947 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
Beyond the Shadows
The Metaphysics of the Platonic Tradition
Tim Addey & Guy Wyndham-Jones
This volume presents an outline of the metaphysics of the Platonic traditio
n which the authors hold as having its roots in the mythic writings of Homer and Hesiod, having been developed through the Pythagorean and Orphic schools, scientifically unfolded by Plato, and received its finest written flowering in late antiquity in the works of Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus and many others.
The book is divided into two sections: in the first, introduced by Guy Wyndham-Jones, extracts from the works of ancient philosophers concerning The One and the Gods unfold the divine summit of the Platonic metaphysics. This section especially demands more than ordinary study: each piece acts as a starting point for the deepest meditation, and calls upon the readers' deepest faculties.
The second section, by Tim Addey, aims to give the new student a framework from which to begin the serious study of the subject. It shows how the orthodox understanding of Plato, based on the division of reality into abstract form and material manifestation is inadequate for the proper understanding of the tradition. Instead a more subtle six-fold division of the universe is delineated as the way in which the divine sources of the universe unfold in progressive stages to the furthest extremity of things. It explains how the universe is understood in this tradition to be a single entity, which not only proceeds outwards in an ordered way, but also returns to its source in a similar manner. New edition published in 2011
192pp Paperback £9.95 ISBN 978-1898910-954 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
The Philosophy of Proclus, L J Rosan 
The Seven Myths of the Soul, T Addey 
Know Thyself, Plato’s First Alcibiades, translated F Sydenham and T Taylor 
The Unfolding Wings - The Way of Perfection in the Platonic Tradition, T Addey 
Beyond the Shadows - The Metaphysics of the Platonic Tradition,
T Addey & Guy Wyndham-Jones 
Plato’s Symposium, translated F Sydenham and T Taylor 
The Sophist, Plato, translated by T Taylor 
Release Thyself - Three Philosophic Dialogues, Guy Wyndham-Jones 
A Casting of Light by the Platonic Tradition
The Song of Proclus 
Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth - From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism, A Uzdavinys 
Platonism and the World Crisis - John M Dillon, Brendan O’Byrne, Tim Addey 
Towards the Noosphere; Futures Singular and Plural - John M Dillon, Stephen R L Clark
From My Reading to Yours An Index to Plato 
The Eternal Law - Ancient Greek Philosophy, Modern Physics and Ultimate Reality - John H Spencer - click here
Translated by Floyer Sydenham and Thomas Taylor
Another Platonic dialogue presented in the Students’ Edition Series, this dialogue 
is one of the literary masterpieces of the world and a philosophic treatise which has few equals. In this translation by Floyer Sydenham and extensively revised by Thomas Taylor the profundities of Plato's mystical system are faithfully transmitted to the reader. The student will find a treasury of notes concerning the background to the dialogue as well as the mystical symbolism hidden within it. Approximate Stephanus line numbering accompanies the text.
No translator so deeply imbibed the spirit of Plato as did Thomas Taylor, and his beautiful Poetical Paraphrase of Diotima's Speech is included here. Plotinus' Ennead (III, 5) On Love, translated by Stephen Mackenna is included, as are four modern essays which it is hoped will throw further light upon this all important dialogue: Tim Addey contributes Diotima's Continuum of Love, Socrates the Lover and The Place of the Symposium in the Writings of Plato, while Guy Wyndham-Jones contributes The Beauty of Truth.
208pp Paperback £9.95 ISBN 978-1898910-978
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Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth:
From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism
Algis Uzdavinys
Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth challenges our understanding of philosophy - indeed it challenges many centuries of assumptions which have reduced othodox philosophy to a shadow o
f its original. Algis Uzdavinys returns to the very roots of philosophy in Ancient Egypt, and shows why the Greeks revered that land of pyramids and priest-kings as the source of divine wisdom. Bringing his understanding of many great traditions of philosophy - Indian, Islamic, Greek, and others - he presents the case for considering philosophy as a human participation in a theophany, or divine drama
Casting aside the unnatural limitations of modern philosophy, as well as the grave misunderstandings of Egyptologists, radical and exciting possibilities emerge for the serious philosopher. These possibilities will certainly change our view of the universe in general, but most particularly our view of ourselves. The Rebirth of the title is one that implies an expansion of consciousness both upwards towards the divine heights of reality, and outwards to embrace the whole of creation as a living image of the gods. The exercises of philosophy thus move from the rational to the intuitive, onward to pure contemplation and, ultimately, to a god-like energy in the divine drama.
Dr Uzdavinys has recently been a research fellow at at La Trobe University in Bendigo, Australia and an associate professor at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts (Kaunas Department). He is a published author in English, French and Lithuanian and translator into Russian and Lithuanian.
368pp Hardback £18 ISBN 978-1-898910-35-0 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
A Subject Index using Stephanus pagination
This subject index is an invaluable aid to the study of Plato's writings and will be of use both to those who are familiar with his works and those who are coming anew to them. The index refers to the Stephanus pagination so that it can be used with any translation that includes this standard numbering.
The main part of the index is a reproduction of the one that was compiled for the Jowett five volume work, The Dialogues of Plato, the third edition of which was published in 1891. A number of additional entries have been made to this, and a small index to the Epistles of Plato (I to XII) is also included.
192pp Hardback £9 ISBN: 978-1898910-343 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
rsThis beautiful and inspirational book was put together by "PMHB" - a friend of the Prometheus Trust - after ninety years of thoughtful reading from a wide range of philosophical and devotional literature. Drawing from the universal tradition, its one hundred pages of profound quotes include several delicate line drawings from Jill Symonds.
100pp £6 ISBN 978-1898910-367
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Platonism and the World Crisis
John M Dillon
with accompanying essays from Brendan O’Byrne & Tim Addey
Humanity faces a number of pressing problems – ecological, religious and political. In 2006, as the inaugural lecture of a continuing series at the Dublin Centre for the Study of the Platonic Tradition given under the general title of ‘Platonism and the World Crisis’, John M Dillon put forward a number of bold and radical solutions to these problems, drawn from the Platonic tradition. This book pr
esents an essay based on that lecture, together with two further essays – The Urgency of Platonism: the Philosophical Background to the World Crisis by Brendan O’Byrne, and Towards a Philosophic Democracy by Tim Addey. Together the three essays question the assumptions and goals of modernism, offering the reader intelligent alternatives to the seemingly unstoppable march of humanity towards the destruction of itself and its environment.
In a world in which an increasing number of thinkers are urgently looking for new solutions to emerging problems, here is evidence that the best answers have been waiting quietly for at least two and a half thousand years – waiting for us to notice the continuing relevance of the profound wisdom of the Platonic tradition.
80pp Paperback £6 ISBN: 978-1898910-558
Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.The Philosophy of Proclus, the Final Phase of Ancient Thought
Laurence J Rosan
Laurence Jay Rosan's The Philosophy of Proclus, subtitled The Final Phase of Ancient Thought, has long been considered one of the finest overviews of late Platonic teaching: first published in 1949 it helped bring about a re-evaluation of Proclus and his work by modern scholars. Its clear and sympathetic approach to its subject allows the reader to follow, in the words of Rosan, "one of the most fascinating dialectics the human mind has conceived."
The philosophy of Proclus, built as it was on over a thousand years of vigorous development by a series of profound philosophers and theologians, represents the last age in the West in which the highest human endeavours in philosophy, religion, science and art, were still united and integrated. In Proclus we find philosophy as inner discipline - as a path to enlightenment - and his writings represent a fruition of a tradition which can be traced back though Iamblichus, Plotinus, Aristotle, Plato, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Homer, and, ultimately to its most ancient stirrings in Egypt. Proclus draws from ancient mystery celebrations, mythological dramas, inspired oracles, as well as from the truly scientific philosophy of Plato, in order to present to the meditative student a system at once full of truth and profoundly beautiful. To this comprehensive philosophy Rosan displays no small skill in finding a way to provide his readers with a framework for its initial consideration.
Laurence Jay Rosan was an Instructor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State College. The work formed the basis of his award of a Doctorate from the department of Philosophy at Columbia University.
This new edition benefits from a revised bibliography kindly provided by Christoph Helmig and Sabrina Lange of Humboldt-Universitat Berlin.
308pp Hardback £19.00 ISBN 978-1898910-442 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
The Sophist - Plato
Translated by Thomas Taylor
In Plato’s time, as today, there were many who offered – for a price – clever theories and systems which purported to be deep insights into reality: the men who did so were known as ‘the wise’ – sophists. In the whirl of theorising which was especially the mark of classical Athens, it was easy to see Socrates, Plato’s teacher, as just another sophist. This dialogue examines more carefully this misconception, and asks important questions – how can false opinions exist? What is the nature of images? Can there be degrees of reality? What exactly do sophists do? What is the difference between ‘the wise’ and ‘those who love wisdom’ (in other words between clever sophists and truth-honouring philosophers)? Such questions are as relevant today as they were two and half thousand years ago.
Plato’s Sophist is a dialogue which is key to the understanding of Platonic metaphysics and dialectics: its traditional subtitle is ‘On Being.’ Thomas Taylor's translation was first published in 1804 as part of his Works of Plato – the first ever complete translation of Plato into English.
This Students’ Edition volume has extensive notes to help those coming anew to the Sophist to grasp some of the important concepts which stand behind the dialogue. Also added is an extract from Proclus On Forms, Reasons and Dialectic (from his Commentary on the Parmenides); a dissertation, On Ideas, by Thomas Taylor; and two modern essays which the Trust hopes will further the understanding of the newcomer to Plato and his tradition.
176 pp Paperback £9.95 ISBN 978-1898910-930
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Release Thyself
Three Philosophic Dialogues
Guy Wyndham-Jones
The Therapon * The Alphaeus * The Platon
Being a tribute to, and a celebration of, Socrates, Plato and the golden Platonic Tradition
This volume of dialogues in the Platonic style is an offering of thanks by the author to those great heroes of the Platonic tradition who have set before the human race living images of
wisdom. The dialogues are centred around Socrates and Plato, and as the author writes, "I have merely attempted to imagine certain occasions that may or may not have happened, and certain subjects of conversation that may or may not have been examined and rigorously explored."
Three dialogues - The Therapon, The Alphaeus and The Platon - are written in the Platonic style. The Therapon is an imagined exchange of ideas between Socrates and his jailer during Socrates' last night on Earth: it is sub-titled On the Nature of Ideas. The Alphaeus starts with a wealthy and self-satisfied man attacking Socrates and his philosophical ways soon after he has been charged to appear before the court of Athens - but ends with dramatic changes: it is sub-titled Concerning Human Happiness. The Platon explores what might have passed between Socrates and Plato during their last meeting together: it is sub-titled On Soul.
The Platonic tradition is both old and young but the vital subjects to which it addresses itself are those of perpetual importance to rational beings such as ourselves – the nature of the human self, of the good life, of the great universe in which we find ourselves, and of its source. In these three new dialogues we find these subjects discussed in earnest: the self as the soul, the happiness we seek, and the divine ideas that underlie the manifested universe are all examined with a view to how the Platonic tradition might answer some of the viewpoints adopted by modern thinkers. Answers are offered but in such a way as to stimulate the reader’s own thoughts about these matters – and this is the key to the tradition: for unless questions are genuinely thought through by the reader, any answers suggested by the author are merely another set of opinions.
160 pp Paperback £10 ISBN 978-1898910-565
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A Casting of Light
by the Platonic Tradition
Adapted by Guy Wyndham-Jones
Sometimes it is necessary to cut back in order to strengthen life. We live in a world already saturated with the printed word, and beginning a second inundation of the electronic word: we are in danger of allowing the mind to become servant to the tongue, the pen and the keyboard. Here is a small book which hopes to reverse the tide: here is a little crystal cup dipped into the great flood of words, and in its measure of bright delight, it offers refreshment and music to the soul.
The best writers in the Platonic tradition have been sensitive to the pulse and rhythm of the universe and their works resonate with it: they knew the processions which emerged from the still and silent centre, and the reversions of all things back to that centre which is the Good. The adaptor writes, "The following work illustrates the music of philosophy, to be found within the prose of the philosophers of the Platonic tradition. It is a little book of beauty and of truth; and the pieces it contains are as I heard them, while I listened to their various voices over an extended period of time. Each piece is a meditation in itself. The intention of this book is to inspire . . ."
The Beautiful Essence
Where can there be any thing beautiful,
Deprived of being?
And where again can essence abide,
If it wants the presence of beauty?
For while beauty is taken away,
Essence is destroyed.
On this account being itself is desirable,
Because being, and beauty are the same:
And the beautiful is lovely;
Because it is being.
120pp Hardback £10 ISBN: 978-1898910-572 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.
Towards the Noosphere
Futures Singular and Plural
John M Dillon
Stephen R L Clark
This paperback continues the explorations begun in the Prometheus Trust's small paperback Platonism and the World Crisis. The two essays contained in this new book address the broad question, "What is to be done?" In the first, Towards the Noosphere, Professor John M Dillon explores the writings of Plotinus, Origen, and Teilhard de Chardin in order to consider the nature of the universe in which we live - and from their insights to consider the goals towards which we strive. In the second, Futures Singular and Plural, Professor Stephen R L Clark examines further speculations upon these matters from more recent theorists writing in disciplines of philosophy, science and science fiction.
80pp Paperback £6 ISBN: 978-1898910-602 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada
The Song of Proclus
Adapted by Guy Wyndham-Jones
Like A Casting of Light, this little book presents a number of passages from Proclus arranged in verse form: the effect is both striking and inspiring. The voice is our native instrument of music, whether the vocal or the written word; both, when genuine, are the song of soul, and together they voice the soul’s music. The numerous offerings in this little book will present you with a flavour of both the nature and scope of the beautiful vision of Proclus, the extraordinary lover of wisdom; and they will illustrate the music of philosophy, to be found within the prose of the philosophers of the Platonic tradition. Together they represent the Song of Proclus; and each piece is a meditation in itself.
Radical Summits
As trees by their summits
Are rooted in the earth,
And are earthly according to these,
After the same manner,
Divine natures are by their summits
Rooted in The One,
And each of them is a henad
And one,
Through unconfused union with The One.
120pp Hardback £10 ISBN: 978-1898910-626 Please ensure you have selected the appropriate postage/discount from the button’s accompanying drop down menu. Please note we do not ship to the US or Canada.