Danielle Layne (Gonzaga)
Like Neoplatonism, the philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism (represented by e.g., Abhinavagupta, (950-1020 ce; Utpaladeva 909-950 ce, and Kṣemarāja 975-1125 CE) is graced with a complex metaphysics, imbued with indigenous mythologies, and rooted in traditions (Platonism and Pythagoreanism, Vedanta, Tantra, and Advaita) that spiral backwards in time. Comparative approaches to the systems of Abhinavagupta and Platonism are exceedingly rare (Just, 2013; earlier Stahl worked on Advaita but not Shaivism). In this dialogue, we hope to approach the comparative task with a view to the importance of the divine feminine in the philosophies of Kashmri Shaivism and of Platonism(s). Both systems explore a universe of manifestation into multiplicity from the ineffable source, characterized by the Spanda, the vibration, or Kinesis, the movement, of power (Śakti, Dunamis) in its triple identity as being, life, and intellect or action, will, and knowledge, in the terms of an emanation (prohodos, nimeṣa) and reversion (epistrophe, unmeṣa) to the original source. In the opening verses of one of the central scriptures of Kashmiri Shaivism, the Spanda Karikas, (Singh, Delhi 1980), we read that “the venerated Shakti, energy wellspring, opens her eyes and the universe is reabsorbed in pure consciousness; she closes her eyes and the universe manifests in her.” This feminine principle of dynamic power is also characterized as limitless and formless, in the next verse: “The sacred tremor, the vibration, the very place of creation and return, is completely limitless because its nature is formless.” The Spanda, the inherent life of the universal consciousness as it reveals beings in their unlimited proliferation, is the nisus of Shaivite metaphysics: in other words, in its essence, reality is not at rest, but is best described as a pulse, as the heartbeat of the real.
Interestingly this dynamic feminine power can also be witnessed in the Platonic tradition beginning with Plato and still echoing in Proclus. For this talk we shall focus on the Spindle of Necessity and the appearance of the Fates both in the Republic but also in Proclus’ commentary. As shall be demonstrated both Plato and Proclus assign the role of movement and power to the queer feminine, i.e. a feminine that is always already both masculine and feminine as well as neither masculine nor feminine, but something altogether new and other. Throughout Plato’s corpus, there is a certain feminine power necessitating generation and destruction, the dynamism of Being and Becoming that nourishes and sustains all things, even that which tends toward what it is not. Interestingly, for both Plato and Proclus the Spindle of Necessity and the Fates, two very powerful images of the feminine, sow and sing songs that tie individuals souls to their lives, providing them with their unique measure and nourishment, always also stitching in their possible homecoming. Indeed, what will startling is the fact that for both Plato and Proclus, the individual cycle or birth and rebirth is constituted by the reverence of the infinitely and endless reproduction and return to that which connects souls to both their Being and not-Being, both the masculine and the feminine, the liminal queer space of erotically moving in the space between. In this Plato and Proclus show that like Shaivism that attempts to live a life of truth, compassion and playfulness, so too, the Platonic way of life is one that mediates the truth of unity and multiplicity, compassionately or providentially connecting all things no matter how disparate and finally learning to playful dance to the songs of the Sirens, hearing them pulsate their strange song in all that we say and do.