THE ART of Memory

 

THE ART of Memory 

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes 

'An idiot-fool with a long memory is terribly dangerous, because he remembers his nonsense and those of others well'. 

(Gobin) 

The goddess of memory was seen in the waters of the river by Zeus and seeing her in her nakedness joins her for 9 nights. 

She is one of the Titanites and mother of the 9 Muses daughters of the union of Zeus and Mnemosina. 

To her -esoteric- belongs the lobe of the right ear and the thumb of the left hand. 

Cicero following the ancient tradition of the beautiful Mnemosine prepared his speeches by producing 'memory games'. 

He mentions in his memorable tour the parts of his speech associated with the areas of an imaginary temple, where each enclosure was visited. 

(Cicero, De Oratore) 

Statues, enclosures and gods would remind him of parts of the speech.

 'The Roman orators used a mnemonic which is described in the Ad Herennium and referred to by Cicero and Quintilian. It consisted in memorizing a series of places in a building, and attaching to these memorized places, images to remind of the points of the speech. The orator when delivering his speech, passed in imagination along the order of memorized places, plucking from them the images which were to remind of his notions'.1. 

In the honorable oral tradition of Kabbalah is recognized the secret and oral revelation = mnemonic work and tradition-, which was transmitted by the Art of memory and Myriad and Kabbalistic Word. 

Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, collects in Mexico from 1547, the stories and oral traditions that the Elders and Wise Men of Calmecac or Telpochcalli learned from 'memory'. 

It is the ancient memory of the 'Tlatolli and Tlatóllotl'=ancient word and discourse about the past' in pictograms, hieroglyphics and annotations in Nahuatl. 

Memory and Word-Remembrance; reminder of the past of the Tlatoloyan. 2. 

They are the oral traditions and ancient mythical-religious worldviews that through the learning of memory were of enormous ethnographic and historical value. 

Father Bartolomé de Las Casas laughs in his History of the Indies about the way in which the natives of Börinquen, when learning Christian doctrine, managed to memorize entire pages which then, to the surprise of friars, they recite from memory. Let's remember how the Mayans astonished the Franciscans for their enormous capacity for memorization and retention. 

The mind is able to 'see and reflect' visible objects, since there is a 'mirror of the mind' that empowers the initiate to enter the closed palace of the 'Art of Memory' and Theatre of the World. 

'... Metrodorus of Scepsis is said to have used the zodiac as the foundation of his memory-system. This classical Art, usually regarded as purely Mnemotechnical, had a long history in the Middle Ages and was recommended by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas' 

(Frances Yates) 

The Art of Memory is a rigorous and precise method-Art of the Beautiful Mnemosyne and Daughter of Heaven-, used by both Neoplatonists and Hermetics, to achieve recording archetypal ideas and images within a system of thought of cosmic order of memory = (arti mnemoniche). 

It is the substantial basis of the method of the master Ramon Llull and Leibniz of the reflection of the world and the universe in the mind as a mirror-reflector. Later worked on obsidian crystals by master John Dee and Edward Kelley or Mr. Talbot. 

In the work 'Phreno-Mnemonics' best known for 'The Art of Memory' written by Francis Fauvel Goura(published in New York in 1845), tells the anecdote that happened to Voltaire and King Frederick the Great of Prussia. It is said that the king made a joke to Voltaire in the following way: Voltaire was proud and cheerful to declaim his 'new poetry' before the king and his court. 

Frederick skillfully summons a young army officer who had been trained in the art of memorization, famous for his extraordinary memory. He hides it next to him, behind some curtains, so that he can listen to the poem without being seen. 

The officer had been trained to memorize texts and speeches heard for the first time. 

And I could do it in several languages! 

Indeed, Richter opined that 'Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled.3.

And for Schiller, 'An exercised memory is a more valuable guide than genius and sensitivity.4. 

But the brilliant Chateaubriand was of the opinion that 'memory is the attribute of fools'. 

Well, then Voltaire begins his reading of the poem with an excellent stage projection and mastery of the verb. 

But at the end, the king asks the poet if he was quite sure that the poem was his, was new and of his authentic creation. For the king shouts to the court that he had already heard it and several times... Annoying becomes Voltaire and uncomfortable.

 The king calls the young officer and asks if he had heard the poem recited earlier. 

He says yes and begins to declaim the poem exactly as its author had recited it. Annoyed Voltaire throws the original poem into the fire. 

The king and the court laughed... And then they explain the joke to the poet and philosopher. 

Just a healthy mental joke. 

Subsequently, the officer copies the burned poem exactly as it was read by Voltaire for the first time... Well... if my memory serves me right. 

The Art of Memory 

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes. 

Minimal bibliography: 

1. Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, p.191. 

2. Miguel León Portilla, Literatura del México Antiguo, p.327. 

3. Richter, Die unsichtbaneloge, 1793. 

4. Schiller, The Aesthetic Education of Man, Letter VI, 1876.