2023

 

223 = 2023 

The Hermetic Androgyne

Creation myths often evoke well-marked imagery reflecting a perception of the primordial union.

Moreover, we find the union of the complementary oppositions male and female represented in Androgynic depictions within different traditional forms as a complete enclosure of the union achieving perfection in the human state.

The androgyne encountered on all planes in the ancient esoteric philosophies is regarded superior to both sexes solely because it embodies wholeness and therefore perfection.

The term “Androgyne” is defined as: “An individual possessing the attributes of both Male and Female; a Hermaphrodite.” The term is derived from the combination of two Greek words, viz., “Andros,” meaning ” a man,” and “Gyne,” meaning “a woman.” It represents the symbol of the non-manifested being whose polarities are still integrated within its Unity and in another aspect, the being who has realized the reintegration of polarities within the primordial Unity.

In ancient esoteric and occult philosophies, the notion of bi-sexuality in the universal manifestation of the Being is encountered in different parts of the world. We can find depictions from China to India and from Chaldea to Greece perceiving in the androgynous myth not only an expression of the principle but also of the controlling spiritual energy and sublimated sexuality.

The initiatory dimension of the androgynous myth is also a significant aspect. The myth was transmitted among the initiates as a secret doctrine. This was the case in at least three mystical traditions: Judaic, Christian, and Islamic, likely having its origins in the first representation of Adam-Eve, before becoming Adam and Eve or as a mystical dimension alluding to the reunion of the individual soul with God.

This enclosure in elitist associations and centres of initiates protected its metaphysical meanings from vulgar and mundane interpretations.

In his Symposium, Plato recalls the tradition that the human body, or even just any living body, is like half a sphere; all our capacities and expressions being related to a lost centre – lost, but discovered again in sexual union symbolically and indirectly.

https://historiailliusitineris.com/the-hermetic-androgyne/