Cracking Plato's Code

According to the theory developed in this essay, the Platonic dialogues contain the teachings of an overarching Greek mysticism that is far more deeply concealed than the individual mystical communities known to us. The dialogues nevertheless reveal the training route—or the “Circle Ladder”—leading to the mystic clearly enough to allow its reconstruction. The ensuing Circle-Ladder Reality must be gradually discovered by the students, and it consists of five successive Circle Types: Public Circles, Misleading Circles, Academic Circles, Philosophers' Circles, and Heavenly Circles. Combined with three interpretive systems—the Public System, the Word System, and the Circle System—this yields seven interpretive levels that each provide new, higher interpretations of the same codewords such as soul, jurisdiction, and warfare. After discovering and examining the Circle System in depth within the Misleading Circles, the student must return to the Public System in order to ascend further into the Academic Circles. To be admitted to the Philosophers' Circles, the student must likely undergo a near-death experience. This essay also presents more than eighty Platonic codewords and their translations across the six interpretive levels accessible to human beings.