Diotima of Mantinea

Diotima of Mantinea

In Plato's Symposium, Socrates relates how Diotima of Mantinea, a wise woman, a seer, a mystic, a priestess, taught him the Mysteries of Eros. Socrates explains how these Mysteries shatter the philosophy of Dualism. Diotima taught him that love, and life, cannot be experienced in an either-or situation. Life is more than that. Life is the experience of Be-ing some Thing other than mortal or immortal, base or divine, physical or spirit. It is the realization of a flourishing reality that is much more than a simplistic and naively mistaken paradigm of dualities. It is the realization of the infinite possibilities between polar opposites. More than that, it is the realization that the poles can never be experienced, only the ever-blossoming spectrum of experiences between the poles. Denying the abundant realm between opposites suffocates our humanity, utterly corrupts our morals, and ultimately dooms us to failure in every endeavor.

Almost 2,500 years ago Diotima revealed to Socrates that humans live wholly between the end points on every scale, and we are still chasing shadows on the cave wall instead of living life and loving the beauty of it all.