AMMONIUS SACCUS  by Stefan Carey             

Why bother with someone like Ammonius Saccus from so long ago? Because it was his inspiration that began something of a fire in the minds of those in Alexandria at the time, where a smorgasbord of philosophy was to be had. Neo or the ‘New’ Platonism, was expounded by Porphyry in the third century AD, after being a student of Plotinus, a student of Ammonius Saccus. None of Ammonius’s students were supposed to reiterate the teachings. We can only guess if the Plotinus’s final exposition resembles the one given from the lips of Ammonius.  Was Ammonius a neo Platonist, a philosopher, a theosophist, or all of these? What is Neo Platonism, what was the world like in 300 AD in the Mediterranean region? Ammonius wrote nothing yet taught influential minds such as Plotinus, Origen, at  Alexandria. The only way we may study his ideas is through his students. Plotinus came to

Alexandria looking for inspiration from the many teachers available there. As he might be today, he was severely depressed at what he found. He left the public lectures saddened and discouraged. A friend to whom he opened his heart divined his temperamental craving and suggested Ammonius. He heard Ammonius Saccus speak and stayed with him for eleven years as his student. He must have absorbed a great deal, as Plotinus is credited with having reformed the philosophical and ethical thinking of the 3rd century.  As an historical backdrop, at this time Buddhism was being introduced into China, the first ‘hallelujahs’ were being sung, the first compass was being trialled in

China, Christians were finally given tolerance in the edict of Miolan, Pappus of Alexandria describes the machines in use at that time as, “the cogwheel, lever, screw, pulley and wedge”. Public gladiatorial battles were banned by

Constantine. The Christian teachings were waxing in their power as they took hold of popular imagination, casting aside the paganism probably by now degenerate and idolatrous, because of the appealing practical code of conduct for daily living they offered.   Let’s introduce Ammonius Saccas in the words of another author: “This philosophical system underwent some changes when Ammonius Saccas taught with the highest applause in the Alexandrian school about the conclusion of this century. This learned man was born of Christian parents, and never, perhaps, gave up entirely the outward profession of that divine religion, in which he had been educated. As his genius was vast and comprehensive, so were his projects bold and singular. For he attempted a general reconciliation of all sects, whether philosophical or religious, and taught a doctrine which he looked upon as proper to unite them all, the Christians not excepted, in the most perfect harmony. And herein lies the difference between this new sect and the eclectics, who had before this time, flourished in Egypt. The Eclectics held that, in every sect there was a mixture of good and bad, of truth and falsehood, and accordingly they chose and adopted out of each one of them, such tenets as seemed to them comfortable to reason and truth, and rejected such as they thought repugnant to both.   

Ammonius, on the contrary held that the great principles of all philosophical and religious truth were to be found equally, in all sects, that they differed from each other only in their method of expression, and some opinions of little or no importance; and that by a proper interpretation of their respective sentiments, they might easily be united into one body. It is further to be observed, Ammonius… maintained, that all the gentile religions, and even the Christians, were to be illustrated and explained by the principles of this universal philosophy; but that, in order the fables of the priests were to be removed from paganism, and the comments and interpretation of the disciples of Jews from Christianity. The central platform of Neo-Platonism, referred to by one author as “transcendental pantheism”, is that of a Platonic philosophy, with a “penetrating insight into first principles, into our own nature, bodily and spiritual, and the nature of the universe around us.”  Neo-Platonism not only seeks to give men clear knowledge, but also make them enter into a higher state of feeling, or ecstasy. This is achieved by “long exertion, application to philosophy, self purification and contemplation of the divine”. This is somewhat different from the approach taken by others in cultivating or knocking down the lower self. Reality according to the Neo-Platonists consists of three principles or dimensions: the One; the intellect or spirit, and the soul. The One encompasses all, and is a supreme sphere or range of being, beyond human comprehension, beyond differentiation, beyond thought and language, and the source of all the UNIVERSE. The One is also described as the infinite, the unconditioned, the absolute, the simple or just the Good. It is not even the first cause, “standing above this”. I will not bother to go any further with absolute or I’ll get absolutely lost and infinitely confused and embarrassed! He insisted that to describe it was to “point the mind towards it only, not to actually explain or describe it”. 

Second we have the intellectual principle, or the “universal intelligence”. In human terms it “is the highest principle knowable”, and it is suggested the word spirit can be used as a substitute. I quote from the Enneads: “the intellectual principle is the earliest form of life: it is the activity presiding over the out-flowing of the universal order – the outflow that is of the first moment, not that of the continuous process:..  “Imagine a spring that has no source outside itself: it gives itself to all the rivers, yet is never exhausted by what they take, but remains integrally as it was; the tides that proceed from it are at one within it before they run their several ways, yet all, in some sense, know beforehand down which channels they pour their streams”.“Or: think of the Life coursing throughout some mighty tree while yet is the stationary Principal of the whole, in no sense scattered over all that extent but, as it were, vested in the root: it is the giver of the entire and manifold life of the tree, but remains unmoved itself, not manifold but the principle intellectual principle in the most intoxicating way: “But possess yourself of it by the very elimination of being and you hold a marvel. Thrusting forward to this, attaining and resting in its content, seek to grasp it more and more understanding it by that intuitive thrust alone, by knowing its greatness by the beings that follow upon it and exist by its power”. Heady stuff indeed, with my instant recognition of Taoism: others here will see perhaps the inspirational strands of their favourite philosophy of religion being conveyed here. 

Third we have the All Soul or Universal Soul, as an emanation of the second principle we have just discussed and can also be described as the cause of movement and of form in the universe. i.e.: it creates, orders, and maintains the universe. People may ascend in spirit to the level of universal soul, become that whole they are potentially, and in soul, attain to become that whole they are potentially, and in soul, attain to Intellect, or they can isolate themselves on the lower, shutting themselves up in the experiences, desire and concerns of the lower nature. The conversion to a higher state of being and to the One can come only by turning away, by a tremendous intellectual and moral effort, from the life of the body, dominating and rising above its desires”. Note here the use of the word ‘dominating’. Through contemplation of the one, and going past the body, and the soul, man, as potentially divine, might get to taste mystical union. As Plotinus says, “waking to another way of seeing”. In the human being the soul can be described as the interpreter between the higher and lower worlds, or the worlds of intellect and sense. In defining Virtue he says of this relationship: “As speech is the echo in the thought of the soul, so thought in the soul is an echo from elsewhere: that is to say, as the uttered thought is an image of the soul thought, so the soul thought images a thought above itself and is the interpreter of the higher spheres”. 

The above levels of being Plotinus says are distinct but not separate, but interwoven and emanate from each other. As he says the aim of the method, or discipline, is to see the “final truth” of the nature and relation of all things, a final insight into reality behind the veil of the physical. The above three principles are strikingly similar to the three fundamental principles set out by HPB. Some examples of the other topics discussed by Plotinus in the Enneads are:On Virtue The Upward Way, On Beauty, On Happiness or the Authentic Good of Life, The Origin of Multiplicity, How Souls Take Bodies, Why The Supreme is a God, The Divine triad as a unity, The One, The Intellectual Principle, The All soul, Evil and Matter: and so on… 

Again, all of this paper defends by default I suppose, that Ammonius has said this or that, which can never be proven, so the work of a student has to be taken for what it is. Also, it may well be that there was a close knit inner group which never spoke of these matters to others: we can only speculate and take from it what may inspire us. I think the general message was to comprehend not only the world with reason, but to partake of the hidden side of nature with ecstasy as the by-product. This is also a Taoist ideal! But different I wonder in the way it is to be attained. This system appears to be a “take the kingdom of heaven by force” regime. Forcing and raising the consciousness past the intellect, a daily character modification. Mencius however, an ancient Chinese philosopher, would not agree, saying the grass seedlings are not made to grow faster by pulling at the shoots!  

Also, another criticism levelled at the Neo-Platonists was that their philosophy had no practical application in the affairs of daily life, it was too theoretical, and the dictum that one should retire into the inner sanctum of peace within, left many confused believing this was a state of laziness or withdrawal with no real results, some calling it a “slothful and indolent life”. But this was not the Neo-Platonist ideal: rather it was to combine with the Godhead as it were, by forcing the consciousness upward. Thus the Christians believed that this was reason for their success in the times, a popular, approachable system, no doubt watered down for the masses, with the more profound teachings kept quiet. So far so, that one author criticised the Neo-Platonists for making some ideas too obvious; saying that “the principle truths of Christianity that had been revealed with the utmost plainness, and were indeed obvious to the meanest capacity…” 

Another historian wrote of the “extravagant attempts of Ammonius did not cease here because he tried to reconcile the popular religions of different countries, and particularly the Christian: 1st: by turning into allegory the whole history of the gods, 2nd: that Christ’s only intention had been to purify the ancient religion, 3rd: that his followers had manifestly corrupted the doctrine of their master.             Extravagant attempts indeed!  Ammonius Saccus obviously was highly evolved, possibly a Master of Wisdom. He produced memorable influences on such towering minds as Origen, and Plotinus. His new brand of Platonism was extremely popular although too theoretical for some, with influences from many sources, some say even Buddhism, and the Chaldean Oracles. 

In concluding this paper, we note an important dictum of his school was, that truth was foremost – “his whole sect was required to keep in view that truth was to be pursued with the utmost liberty, and to be collected from all the systems in which it lay dispersed”. But there were some conventions which they all nonetheless appeared to hold, “the existence of God; as the foundation of all things, the eternity of the world, the dependence of matter on the supreme being, the nature of souls, the plurality of gods, the method of interpreting the popular superstitions, etc.”  In comparing the Neo-Platonists with the modern theosophy we find the reference in the entry of the Encyclopaedia Britannica under ‘Theosophy’ useful: first we find a reference to Plotinus among many others as a theosophist. Next we see in a definition of theosophy in its broadest sense that theosophy is an “ancient mystical tradition, an affirmation of a deeper spiritual reality, that can be attained by intuition, meditation, revelation; with the second understanding; that; there is a hidden meaning in the sacred texts and inner meaning in all the historical world religions, that occult phenomena are real, and that all reality is of one principle”. What this definition of Britannica does is confirm some of the similarities between Ammonius’s sect and our own modern interpretation of theosophy.  Does Neo-Platonism mention a Universal Brotherhood? If not specifically, then it does by inference, when the unitary nature of reality is explained. As Plotinus is said to have said: “…inner peace is to be found by any living thing”.

The above is the text of a lecture presented to the Theosophical Society Pasadena in Melbourne, Australia. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Theosophical Society Pasadena.

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