Believe it or not, Marcus Tullius Cicero’s ‘Somnium Scipionis’ or ‘The Dream of Scipio’ is one of Western Esotericism’s most foundational documents. Drawn from Book VI of Cicero’s Republic, it describes the famous night journey and astral ascent of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, two years before he oversaw the sack of Carthage in 146 BC. Modeled on Plato’s ‘Myth of Er’ and emulated during the Middle Ages by such visionary works as Dante’s Divine Comedy, this ancient text provides us with a vivid vision of Stoic-inspired soul-travel by ancient Rome’s single most eloquent rhetorician.
Translated and annotated by James A. Kleist
Read by Dan Attrell
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Please like, share, and leave an "Excelsior!" in the comments.
Nice. Thankz from Brazil.
Excelsior!
Thanks ! Great stuff
I needed to listen to this as I go through my journey. You are emitting great vibes into the universe. I sincerely thank you for this video.
You are doing God's work. Thank you so much for this.
I hadn't made it to book VI, my goodness what a treasure to wake up to. Thank you 🙏
Ah this was so good! Excelsior!
Excelsior diligent hermeticist! It is your voice.
Excelsior!
Another fantastic drop, Dan- keep up the great work 👏
Antique dream interpretation is a fascination of mine. Love to thumb through Artemidorus in quiet moments.
Beautiful work. The old and the new.
So close and yet a single thing can deflect your entire idea.
I believe the mistake with this idea was believing that the individual is an individual soul or spirit, it’s like a single cell in your body thinking it’s the body, or a drop of water thinking it’s not the ocean.
Ta Dan wonderful x
So the ancients did know about pluto? 🤔
Thank you for posting this. I can’t imagine that anyone else has, but for a man with a family and demanding job, this means that I can study a classic text whilst going about my day. Cheers!
@4:48, are they both called africanus? I might have missed something, I thought Africanus was the one speaking here
Excelsior!
I first learned of this work by way of Iain Pears' novel of the same name. Thank you for recording Cicero's original text! You have an excellent reading voice.
As always, thanks so much for this! Excelsior!
This comes at an opportune moment, actually…it's been many years (decades, even!) since I looked at or read this text carefully, though I have had occasion to think about it over the past fifteen years a few times. I read it my senior year of undergraduate, and used it in a project I did in relation to Chaucer's "Parlement of Fowles" (an under-appreciated text if ever there was one!).
However, today I was at the funeral of one of my students from my final in-person class at the college where I was teaching, and this particular student committed suicide. It's a long story, and a very sad one, unfortunately, but suffice it to say, hearing this now was something of a comfort, even if an uneasy one at points.
⬆️🔼📈to the tippy top…and just above that🤭
Good stuff Dan
Im new to your channel…. definitely thank you for uploading these and also perfect voice and reading!!! Much gratitude 🙏 ✨️
Your work is amazing man. There are so few channels that really delve into the lesser known texts. You're very erudite and I appreciate it very much. I want to say though, knowing as much Latin as I do(not a great amount honestly, but I do know that there are no soft "c"'s in Latin, also the letter V is pronounced like a W. This is admittedly a semi-recent finding, but I think its worthwhile to bring back the original pronunciations if for no other reason to connect more accurately with the authors of the texts
Excelsior!! Thanks be to you blessed scribe!