The Sight Beyond Sight: A Journey From Carrot to Carrotness
A carrot can be seen; the idea of a carrot cannot.
What is curious about Platonic ideas is that Plato uses the Greek word for “idea” (εἴδω, eidō), which literally means “to see,” to describe something that cannot be seen. For Plato, the idea of a thing is its invisible essence. A carrot can be seen; the idea of a carrot cannot. “Carrotness” is invisible.
And yet, Plato uses the word εἴδω, which relates to sight, to point toward the invisible. Why? How do you “see” what cannot be seen? For Plato, a thing doesn’t simply exist or not exist. It can be in a wide range of states—depending on how far it is from its Idea. The closer a thing is to its Idea, the more it “exists.”
That’s why Plato uses the term “anamnesis,” which means re-collection, to suggest that learning is essentially the soul’s act of remembering something that it has always known from its existence in the realm of Ideas. The soul comes from that realm. It recognizes the perfect Ideas behind the world of shadows — or it doesn’t.
That’s why human consciousness is symbolic by nature. Whatever it observes, it tries to “see” (εἴδω)—or rather “see through.” Its question is, “Do I recognize what lies behind this thing?” For the soul all things are symbolic. It strives to perceive the primal creative Logos (the perfect Idea) behind all things.
When it doesn’t, it feels restless—the soul abides in the realm of shadows and longs to see beyond. When it does, it’s overjoyed because it recognizes its homeland. The soul thrives when it reads the pure poesis off of creation. As Hebrews 8:5 says about priests:
“They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’”
When the soul creates, it always re-creates. It strives to remember what it saw in heaven before creating something on earth. It’s desire is to create things that “truly exist.” The more symbolic meaning it pours into what it creates, the more it points us back to heaven.
“Creation happens when the conscious mind allows the deeper, unconscious forces to emerge and manifest in the form of symbols.” Carl Jung
Incidentally, C.S. Lewis says in The Four Loves, “The most important thing a mother can do for her child is to show him that he does not need her.”
The highest form of parenting is to gradually redirect the child’s gaze from shadows (the earthly mother) to reality (Motherness). The role of the mother and father is to show the child that they are not their ultimate mother and father. The child has another Mother and Father.
Human parenting is at its best when the child’s gaze is not tied to the earthly symbols of origin but penetrates the shadows—catching a glimpse of their ultimate Parent.
A shadow is only good when it points beyond itself—and harmful when it obscures the view of heaven. We think we live among things, but we live among symbols. When we fail to see them as such, something inside us begins to die. But when we recognize the world as symbolic, our souls awaken. Our eyes begin to sparkle.
We recognize the primordial poesis—the making—behind the world of shadows. In that moment, our soul feels at home.
...human consciousness is symbolic by nature✔️
"It strives to remember what it saw in heaven," calls to my mind the poem "Beasts," the final two stanzas:
Meantime, at high windows
Far from thicket and pad-fall, suitors of excellence
Sigh and turn from their work to construe again the painful
Beauty of heaven, the lucid moon
And the risen hunter,
Making such dreams for men
As told will break their hearts as always, bringing
Monsters into the city, crows on the public statues,
Navies fed to the fish in the dark
Unbridled waters.
– RICHARD WILBUR
This poem, and your post today, Eugene, remind me of this "painful beauty of heaven"