Allegory of the Cave by Athena
Imagine a group of prisoners chained inside a cave—left to stare at shadows on the wall born from the firelight behind them. A bridge also exists between the prisoners and the fire. Items that pass on the bridge catch the firelight and shadows dance on the wall before them. They cannot turn round and have no knowledge of the source casting the shadows, but they decide to name the shadows on the wall as things. The sounds they hear when each item appears, the prisoners associate with the shadow it forms.
As they sit and stare, many things pass and disappear. The prisoners compete for the title of who can spot each thing and that, and they predict what will come next or next to the appearance of another thing. The game quickly becomes a source of pride for the prisoners, and those who best play it are envied.
One soul is yanked up from her position on the floor. She has been released and lays eyes on the source of the shadows for the first time. Each item is a puzzling sight, and the brilliance of the firelight causes her to turn away. Still, the shadows remain more ‘real’ than the items before her used to shape them. Now she is forced to ascend the passage up to the light, and she resists in distress each moment she rises to the top.
The light outside the cave is such a blinding white that ‘surreal’ is this new world and ‘real’ remains the shadows. When her eyes no longer ache from the exposure of what is bright, the visible world begins to take shape. The shadows are easiest for her to observe then the images of things reflected upon the water. Finally, she discovers each thing itself and quickly becomes entranced by what is now ‘real’.
Rather than absorb everything under the Sun, she prefers to examine the heavens by night and begins to fix her gaze at the Moon and the starlight; until finally the sunrise, and she sees it is the Sun—and then the light—it also must be the Sun. She recognizes that this Sun touches all that is real, and this light is the source of all that she saw.
When she is made to return to her former seat within the cave, she finds difficulty in focusing on the shadows once more. The other prisoners notice her struggle with each blink and laugh as they declare, “your eyesight is shot!” They see only danger in ascending to the light, and instead pass the time predicting shadows on the wall. She seems almost threatening with her strange new sight, and they consider her demise might put them at ease.
In time, they fear the one who will snatch them from the floor and drag them from the shadows that dance upon the cave. Still, she remembers what she discovered in the light. She must adjust again to the world of the shadows. Yet this time enriched with knowledge unbeknownst to the awareness of the prisoners—those who have always dwelled beneath the light. Now she understands what it is that she predicts and triumphs over the others with her new found insight.
–Allegory of the Cave is a parable taken from the dialogue within Plato’s The Republic. It reveals an ancient symbolism behind the impact of education, its effects and the consequences that result from the lack of it in society. Its themes remain timeless as an ode to blissful ignorance and the effects of fear on human perception. This version of Allegory of the Cave is found within Cosmic Astrology: The Book of Answers.
✧Click One to Preview Cosmic Astrology: The Book of Answers✧
Preview The Book of Answers in full with the First Page per Chapter sneak peek!
Also check out Chapter III. The Significance of Angles & Aspects from The Book of Answers now available for download at The Oracle’s Library Online Store. Full ebook format with various illustrations of sacred geometry. Vitruvian Woman fully revealed within!
Cosmic Astrology: The Book of Answers
