The Peculiar Forms of memory

The Elephant Speaks, Part III

St. Augustine says that in the highest part of the soul which is called mens or mind, God created together with the soul's essence a power which the masters call a vessel or shrine of mental forms or formed images. This power makes God like the soul in His outflowing Godhead, from which He has poured forth the whole treasure of His divine essence into the Son and the Holy Ghost (in distinction of persons), just as the soul's memory pours out its treasury of images into the powers of the soul.

—Meister Eckhart, Sermon 96

I use the word "peculiar" to describe the forms of memory, because the word is derived from the Latin "peculium” which is in its turn derived from the Latin word pecu. This word means cattle; cattle being private property in ancient times. But as you may see, the word is wonderful for describing memory, because we collect and raise “herds” of memories in us, and they are indeed a form of nourishment, just as cattle are.

The stewardship of memory thus bears a strange conceptual relationship to animal husbandry very deep within. This association may offer us some clues as to the esoteric meanings in the worship of Mithras. The association of the God with time and seasonal change is entirely appropriate to the question of memory. And in what is perhaps an exquisite irony, a large portion of what worship of this God represented has been…

forgotten.

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