Augustine and homecoming I

Cavafy, Ithaka

The story of Odysseus who, after much wandering is coming back home, is a theme which returns regularly in literature. This subject interests me, because I believe that this is something archetypal and lies at the root of our existence. In my reflections on Augustine about life as a journey, I saw the possibility to continue on this theme. Now, the reading of the poem Ithaka by Cavafy, gives me an occasion to come back to it. Cavafy advises to make the way back home as long as possible, because homecoming is important as destination, but has not much to offer in life. What counts is the journey and to experience of life as much as possible.

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithaka's mean.

C.P. Cavafy
(Translated by Edmund Keeley / Philip Sherrard.)

You can read the journey of Odysseus as a metaphor of our existence on earth.

Taking the story of Odysseus to the letter, Cavafy is right in his advice to make the journey as long as possible. Don’t expect too much of coming home. You never return to the home you left, because yourself has changed, but also the people and the environment you have left. Who would recognize you anymore? Perhaps your dog. It could be a disappointment if you fix all your life to that moment and have omitted to engage you thoroughly with what life has to offer. Hence Cavafy suggests that Ithaka may be poor and does not give you any wealth.

But as you take the story as a metaphor of our total existence, home may be different. Nothing excludes that homecoming is not so poor as you expected to be. It can indeed be a revelation. For that reason I want to explore the concept of homecoming.

Augustine, On the happy life

I want to go back to Augustine. A few years ago I read his philosophical dialogue De Beata Vita (About the happy life) in a new Dutch translation. The text begins with the image of people who are sailing on a turbulent sea and try to find their way to the haven and the mainland of the happy life. Philosophy, as the science to find a good life, would be an important help to pilot them in the safe harbor.

Augustine distinguishes three types of travelers: The first group is sensible and keeps the homeland from the beginning in mind. Therefore they don’t venture far at sea, so that they arrive without many detours in the safe harbor

The second group however does not mind their final destination, and therefore have little interest in philosophy. They are ven turing, drawn by the deceptive appearance of the sea and carried by the wind far from the homeland, gradually they forget it. There must be headwinds and storms to force them to go back home.

Augustine counts himself to a group that is in between them. These are people who are concerned with philosophy and are looking for the homeland, but they are confused by many false lights, so that they only after many long wanderings arrive in the safe haven of the happy life.

The latter group lives in a certain way according to the wise advice given by Cavafy. They return not too soon to their home port, but keep at the same time their goal firmly in mind.

In this metaphoric story are several archetypal themes included: There is the metaphor of life as a wandering and as a quest of happiness, life as a rough sea, full of dangers and adventures. There is also the image of the homeland as an place of origin and destination and the safe haven as a symbol of happiness.

Apart from this you have also the philosophy as a tool in the pursuit of happiness. It has the function to wake in our awareness the memory of the homeland.

Augustine asks in his dialogue whether the happiness can be fully appreciated in this life. The answer is negative, because human desire is too great to be entirely fulfilled in this life. The proper homeland is consequently more than this life.

In this he differs from Cavafy, who emphasizes that the journey is the happy life, the destination has not much to offer. There are according to Cavafy in life several Ithaka’s, depending on the goal one has set for. For Augustine, there is in the search for wisdom and happiness but one ultimate goal, that is to take part in the wisdom of God, enjoying God as he concludes at the end of the dialogue. I will examine later to what extent both views are excluding or including each other. 

Archetypes

I must explain what I mean by archetypal. Archetypes are in my view original images which are so to speak already present in human consciousness and find there their origin. These images are not entered in consciousness from outside. They are not arbitrarily invented by this or that writer or thinker. In that regard, they are not personal or accidental, but in principle as universal and necessary images present in our consciousness, though of course their presence may be latent.

To deal with these images, as far as they have general validity, is a form of science, but not in the way of natural sciences. It is not based on experience of the outside world, but of the inner world. It is certainly a form of experience, but an experience based on introspection. Philosophy, psychology, religious studies should be concerned with these archetypal notions, because they are at the origin of human stories and literature. Art and literature are concerned with these archetypes, although they obviously don’t treat them in their generality, but give a particular form to them.

I might give the impression there would be plenty of these archetypes in our consciousness. But my intuition tells me that their number cannot be large, or at least can be reduced to some notions or perhaps a single idea.

Homecoming

The archetype to which many of these images can be reduced is homecoming, a name I once heard mention by Roger Scruton. Maybe he took the term rather literally, more than I am inclined to do, or in a quite specific meaning as building a permanent place in your life where you can wohnen in Heideggerian sense.

But in the concept of homecoming you find of course many psychological and spiritual aspects too, such as coming to yourself, finding meaning, purpose and destination in your life. If there is question of finding your destination, then homecoming is in essence finding your original destination. This finding is again the result of a quest for something you cannot entirely realize yourself, but is already given in origin. In that case, are origin and destination closely connected.

Finding a direction

You may object that such notions as origin and destination are taught by upbringing and education. Then they are a matter of culture that I abusively confuse with notions which are naturally given.

Of course, our immediate experience is – to use the image of Augustine - that we are sailing on sea without a clear notion from where and where to. Or - to speak with Heidegger-a experience of geworfen sein, finding yourself in a situation you never asked for and without knowing the means to save yourself.

But this initial experience could imply a sense of direction and does not in any case exclude it. Life as wandering about and drifting, in the sense of a lack of direction, presupposes that some direction should be.

The role of philosophy

According to Augustine, it is the philosophy which could develop that awareness of direction and goal. The philosophy must primarily develop the capacity of introspection and consulting yourself, prior to being guided by others in determining your direction. The compass which should indicate our destination has to be in ourselves and not outside. In other words: the archetype that gives us the sense of our origin and destiny must be present in our consciousness and we can only communicate with others about it as far as we discovered it already in ourselves.

The reach of the concept of homecoming

What is the knowledge in this archetypal field of homecoming which lies before consciousness and we can only reach by introspection? At first there is a notion which Augustine has developed and which is closely related to the concept of conversion. It is a longing to return to one’s inner origin. A return that does not take place immediately, but after a long way of struggle and inner awareness. One has to get, so to speak far from home. A long journey. in which one felt more or less lost, has to precede homecoming.

Therefore, the first group of sailors that Augustine mentions in his De Beata Vita is not a real option. Hardly set sail from home or they return again, that is not life. Hence the advice of Cavafy to let the trip to Ithaca last as long as possible, because the journey matters. It is a return home, but it is in a certain way not the same person who is returning. The person is certainly identical, but there passed a whole life through him. He returns back, like Cavafy says, rich in experience. In Augustine’s more biblical approach, you could think of evangelical image of the prodigal son, who is more celebrated than his brother who stayed home. Furthermore, there is the recollection of the lost paradise which has to be found in a lifetime full of trouble and pain.

It is not only biblical images to which Augustine refers. His Confessions are interlarded with Neo-platonic metaphors, influenced by reading the writings of Plotinus. Roughly speaking the philosophy of Plotinus comes down to the idea that we all stem from a common origin, the One, and that it is our destiny to return to this origin. Our staying in this physical world, determined by time and place, gives our life the character of multiplicity and distraction. His philosophy teaches us to bring our lives back from the multiplicity to unity and to participate in the One.

The Neo-platonic philosophy sees life as a life in a strange country, far from the homeland. It is a state of alienation from the origin and thus of your deepest self. Coming home is a circular movement in which the destination is in a way similar to the origin. It is to come to your inner self, when you have long lived outside. Ultimately it is the way of life from birth to death itself, the course of a original unity you vaguely know to a new unity, the merging of the individual awareness into the awareness of the All. You cannot say much about this, but saying nothing seems even less useful.

The vision of Cavafy and Augustine

I was asking myself how the vision of St. Augustine and Cavafy on homecoming would cover each other. Cavafy emphasizes that the journey is important and that this world is a rich world, in which you have much to gain. The Neo-platonic metaphors of Augustine make the journey to home much more subordinate to the goal. Still, it would not be correct to conclude that he judges this life in the material world as something negative from which we should withdraw us as soon and much as possible. The metaphor of staying in a foreign country refers much more to the psychological fact of alienation from ourselves. Again we need just the journey through this world to come to ourselves.

Coming to your inner self

When death can be seen as the fulfilling of an inner desire to go back to one’s origin, as the final homecoming, as the coming to a total awareness, in other words as participation in the Being itself, then any form of awareness is a step towards this ultimate goal. Homecoming is a spiritual process in which the goal just lights up every time we come to ourselves. I mean that in some privileged moments one is able to penetrate in the deeper layers of himself or rather the deeper self breaks through the surface of one’s daily consciousness and reveals itself. The experience of homecoming manifests itself in a feeling of deep emotion, of recognition, a knowing of so is it and so was it and so will it always be. That experience is a mixture of joy and sadness, of nostalgic knowing.

Homecoming as fulfillment of the Eros

When we talk about the experience of nostalgia, or of homesickness, then implies this feeling the notion of homecoming, although it is experienced in the form of a loss. The moments of happiness are often mixed with nostalgia, as if the entire homecoming is still pending. That mixture of desire and partial fulfillment of that desire is what drives people and sustains them. A reason why the theme of homecoming fascinates me is that it touches the Eros, the human desire. The meaning of Eros is here not restricted to sexual desire, but to the overall longing for fulfillment of our existence. Talking about the role of philosophy in homecoming, is not in the first place about a desire for knowledge and understanding, but about the desire for happiness. That desire does include the element of knowledge, but is wider. It is not only focused on what is true, but also on what is good and beautiful. It satisfies not only the brain but also the heart.

Eros and philosophy

I am aware that with this enlarging of philosophy to its original meaning, I am opposing against the current sober philosophical beliefs. It's almost a taboo and you would be ashamed to speak still about the reasons of the heart in a philosophical discussion. The philosophy of Plato seems in any case obsolete, at least if I would believe an epilogue on a Dutch translation of Plato's Symposium, fashionably translated as Feast. Here a certain Piet Gerbrandy states that, although Plato’s philosophy cannot inspire us today, this dialogue can still be interesting as literary fiction. Such a statement gives the impression of being enlightened, but is a fashionable opinion which covers a lot of philosophical ignorance, as if Plato's vision of Eros would be only an interesting literary fiction

Eros and desire for happiness

Next to our desire for knowledge and understanding the desire for happiness remains the driving force of our actions. But today the latter has received a romantic, somewhat faint aftertaste, as if this is something improper and not essential for human existence. However, the question of happiness was central in classic philosophy. Perhaps the premature answer this question found in Christian belief was responsible for that. Postulating God as the ready answer on this question made that the question and with it the answer hardly needed to be explored.

Yet no one can talk me out of my mind that the essence of philosophy lies in the Eros and the demand for happiness has to be exploited. I am aware that happiness is not a notion that you can define exactly, just as the notions of truth, goodness and beauty. Any sense of it is in fact obtained by introspection. But my experience is that especially in the question of happiness a part of the answer is given, in the same way as in the Eros as human desire a part of the fulfillment is given. I know this is not a rational argument, but that it is nevertheless based on those experiences in which the joy of fulfillment and the sadness of loss are mixed. Hence my plea not to limit philosophy to Ratio, but to take Eros as a starting point. That does not mean that I am leaving the norm of the critical reason and rely on pure feeling.

The nature of the archetypes

To avoid misunderstandings, I have to explain more of the nature of archetypes. I would not suggest that these are basic elements of human existence of which the content is already fixed. I want to be more in line with the definition that Jung has already given. He stresses that archetypes have no specific content, but are only formally determined. For me too, archetypes have a formal structure, but that form is empty. I stated that already with regards to the Eros, which is formally defined as desire, as a lack of fulfillment to which Eros formally is directed. Archetypes are basic forms, designs, which are still to be realized in life. Therefore, their content is not uniform, but is realized in an infinite individual way in each person. Applied to homecoming, this archetype offers strictly speaking little substantial information, except that it is a transcendent property of human desire, that transcends and must transcend every realization. However, this form has to be realized in life. Hence the advice of Cavafy to make the journey as long and intensively as possible. The intensity of life determines the nature of homecoming. But in that case you have to keep Ithaka always in your mind. This means that you must live according to this transcendental consciousness. In terms of Cavafy: keep your thoughts raised high.