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Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved

Written by

Anthony R. Perlas

in

3 min read

Not for what you believed. For what you never became.

Plato said the soul has wings and bad habits clip them. Cicero said a place in the sky is kept for those who serve. The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas put it in one line: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you."

Seven habits forfeit the ascent: forgetting who you are, living for appetite, borrowed virtue, the unexamined life, greed, lying, and burying your gift. Gilgamesh lost immortality to sleep and a snake; Virgil promised the Virgin returns when we are fit for her. Seven disciplines earn it back, ending with the oldest Roman answer to death: build what outlasts you.

Which habit is the hardest to drop? Tell us below.

The full read

1. Classical ideas of the soul’s ascent and failure

  • Plato, Phaedrus 246a–249d: soul as charioteer with two horses; souls that behold truth keep their wings, those nourished on opinion lose them and fall to earth. (paraphrase)
  • Plato, Phaedo 81b–d: a soul “polluted” by attachment to bodily pleasure is weighed down and dragged back to the visible realm. (paraphrase)
  • Plato, Republic X 614b–621d (Myth of Er): 619b–d, the first chooser picks a tyrant’s life; he had been virtuous by habit, without philosophy. 621a: souls drink from the River of Unmindfulness (Ameles/Lethe); those not saved by wisdom drink more than the measure. (paraphrase)
  • Plato, Apology 29d–e (care for wealth/reputation vs. the soul) and 38a: “the unexamined life is not worth living” (standard translation).
  • Cicero, De Re Publica VI (Somnium Scipionis) 13: a definite place in heaven for those who preserved/aided the fatherland; 29: souls given to bodily pleasures roll about the earth and return only after many ages. (paraphrase)

2. Gnostic / Hermetic ideas

  • Corpus Hermeticum I (Poimandres) 24–26: ascent through the seven planetary zones; at each the soul surrenders an energy/vice (increase-decrease, evil machination, deceit of desire, arrogance of rule, impious daring, evil striving for wealth, lying). (paraphrase)
  • Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.7.5: Valentinian three kinds of humanity — hylic, psychic, pneumatic. (report of their teaching)
  • Gospel of Thomas, Saying 70 (Lambdin trans., Nag Hammadi Codex II): “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
  • Gospel of Thomas, Saying 3: knowing yourself vs. dwelling in poverty. (paraphrase)

3. Habits that forfeit it (synthesis)

1 forgetting (Lethe, Rep. 621a) · 2 appetite (Phaedo 81b) · 3 borrowed virtue (Rep. 619c–d) · 4 unexamined life (Apol. 38a) · 5 greed (CH I.25) · 6 lying (CH I.25) · 7 burying the gift (Thomas 70).

4. How to earn it: conduct and legacy

  • Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.17: “Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years… While you live, while it is in your power, be good.” (Long trans.)
  • Seneca, Letters 1.1: “Vindica te tibi” — claim yourself for yourself; guard time. On Anger 3.36: nightly self-review. (paraphrase)
  • Horace, Odes 3.30.1, 6: “Exegi monumentum aere perennius … non omnis moriar.”
  • Disciplines: remember · nightly review · serve · shed one vice at a time · choose by wisdom · bring forth your gift · build what outlasts you.

Art (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Bosch, Ascent of the Blessed · Feuerbach, Plato’s Symposium · Raphael, Vision of a Knight · Doré, Paradiso Canto 31 · Thomas Cole, Course of Empire: Desolation; Voyage of Life: Old Age · J.-L. David, Death of Socrates · Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (photo reused from astrea-1103/art/marcus.jpg; license not re-verified).

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The carousel, slide by slide

Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 1
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 2
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 3
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 4
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 5
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 6
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 7
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 8
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 9
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 10
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 11
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 12
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 13
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 14
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 15
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 16
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 17
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 18
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 19
Not for What You Believed. For What You Never Became: Why You Might Not Be Saved, slide 20

First published as a carousel on Instagram @lillithmagic.

Credits

  • Research, text and slide design: Anthony Perlas / Nightlife Report · original work
  • Art: Bosch, Ascent of the Blessed; Feuerbach, Plato’s Symposium; Raphael, Vision of a Knight; Doré, Paradiso Canto 31; Thomas Cole, Course of Empire: Desolation and Voyage of Life: Old Age; J.-L. David, Death of Socrates · Wikimedia Commons · public domain. Marcus Aurelius statue photo: Wikimedia Commons (license not re-verified)
  • Texts: Plato, Cicero, Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil, Ovid, Corpus Hermeticum, Irenaeus, Gospel of Thomas (Lambdin trans.), Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Horace

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Nightlife Report is an independent LA desk. Publisher's note: Anthony Perlas's personal long-term mission, a spacefaring future so life can outlast Earth's roughly billion-year habitable window, never decides what we cover or how.