Vermillion Thread

Imagine a time when the world’s greatest living mathematician was a woman, indeed a physically beautiful woman, who was simultaneously the world’s leading astronomer.

“Was not Hypatia the greatest philosopher of Alexandria, and a true martyr to the old values of learning? She was torn to pieces… because her learning was so profound, her skills at dialectic so extensive that she reduced all who queried her to embarrassed silence. They could not argue with her, so they murdered her.” ~ Iain Pears, in his novel The Dream of Scipio

“There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in coming to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more. Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop.

Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Cæsareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles.  After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least opprobrium, not only upon Cyril,  but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril’s episcopate, under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius.” ~ Socrates of Constantinople, Ecclesiastical History

“To fully comprehend the precious contributions of Hypatia, we have to understand that ancient mathematics was primarily divided into four branches: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. And Hypatia excelled in the first three of these avenues – as is evident from her teaching career that mainly dabbled with arithmetic, geometry and (possibly) astronomy. In fact, some ancient (surviving) letters written by Synesius, one of Hypatia’s students, talk about how Hypatia invented astrolabe, a device used in studying astronomy. But other sources place this invention at least a century later.

Now according to the Suda Lexicon, a massive 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, Hypatia primarily authored (or made revisions) to three written specimens – an entire work called the The Astronomical Canon (possibly based on her father’s commentary), a commentary on The Conics of Apollonius (thus leading to the notions of hyperbolas, parabolas and ellipses) and a commentary on Diophantus. She had also probably wrote and edited a few mathematical texts that survive till the present day. One example would pertain to the Book III of the Almagest, in which Theon himself alluded to the contribution (edits and improvements) made by his daughter. The subsequent chapters do showcase a far more efficient manner of doing long divisions (in Greek numericals), thus suggesting Hypatia’s crucial input. Furthermore, the female mathematician could have also authored other related books that are now ‘lost’ to history.

Till now we had talked about the mathematics side of affairs; but what about Hypatia, the female philosopher? Well harking back to Socrates Scholasticus, Hypatia did don the proverbial philosopher’s cloak in a quite literal way, and confidently walked through the town center while fluently delivering discourses on the works of Plato, Aristotle and other renowned philosophers. One of her famous quotes does allude to the profoundness of her thought – “Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” And as we mentioned before, in spite of the competition in the city of Alexandria, Hypatia went on to become the head of the Neoplatonist school (espousing rationalist thinking) in around 400 AD. It should also be noted that Synesius (the student who credited her with the invention of astrolabe) went on to become a bishop in the Christian church and assimilated some Neoplatonic ideals into the doctrine of the Trinity.”

“Synesius was a student of philosophy, particularly Hypatia’s Neoplatonism. He had studied with her for several years and he would later continue to correspond with her for the rest of his life. Eventually, Synesius married and settled in Cyrene. It is believed that perhaps he had professed Christianity. But if so there’s little evidence of it before his election as bishop of Ptolemais. It seems he had not sought the office. And in fact Synesius laid out strong conditions for his accepting consecration to that office. He had no intention of separating from his wife. He refused to endorse the doctrines of the resurrection. And he challenged increasingly conventional Christian view of the idea of end times. He also had complicated feelings about the idea of the soul. This all had to be okay with those to whom he would answer as a bishop. What he did do was that if they knew this and accepted his conditions, he promised to be decorous about his departures from Christian orthodoxy in public venues, and faithful in service to the people. The conditions were accepted and Synesius became bishop of Ptolemais. He served in that office until his death, probably not long before Hypatia’s horrid murder. Apparently with distinction.

I think about Synesius, this person who bridged two worlds, pagan antiquity and the dawning of the Christian ascendancy. His own thinking, well, it was a form of syncretism. But not something willy nilly, not “mere” syncretism. Rather it strikes me he had something that guided him, a thread if you will that he followed, and which allowed him to choose not out of appetite so much as out of insight. He could see the gold and the dross and he accepted the gold wherever it was found…What I do know is that he found much to love in both traditions, and he seemed unconcerned with surface contradictions. Synesius followed a thread of the wise heart… There’s a koan. “Why does Guanyin follow the vermillion thread?” Which is usually understood as why does the archetype of compassion follow the cycles of life and death?..

For me the great secret of all religions is two fold. On the one hand we are created out of a multiplicity of events, nothing is permanent, all is in motion. On the other hand each moment is the center of a universe that is infinite. Finding these things not as philosophy but as the discovery of our own hearts opens the way of the wise heart. Morality, love, justice, all tumble out of our attending to this treasure trove – once it has been opened.

Or, we can see it as a vermillion thread. Stretching from the unknown to the unknown. Each moment on that thread complete. And the great not knowing is revealed as our very heart.
I think of our times. And I think of that invitation. The wisdom of the Zen Buddhist way has given me a thread to follow through the storm of my own life and the world that is collapsing all around. But, there are so many things that come with my natal traditions, deep wisdoms buried within Christianity and humanism, and particularly the scientific paradigm. And I see gold. But, now tempered.

I look to Synesius, not as a hard model, but as someone pointing in a direction I can walk. And, as I pass him by, following that vermillion thread which guides me through the colliding worlds, I see they point in the same direction. Many bows.” ~ James Ford