In September 2023 I attended the first conference on Owen Barfield held at Cambridge University. That weekend, Cambridge basked in the golden embrace of a radiant sun, the city awash in warmth and light. This year’s conference, titled Plotinus and Barfield: Emanation and Evolution, took place on 14th September, and the atmosphere in Cambridge was no different. As I wandered through the narrow streets toward the Divinity Faculty, I crossed over quaint bridges, where punting boats lay moored, poised for a busy day of guiding tourists along the river, offering them glimpses of the city’s breathtaking architecture.
The conference began with some opening remarks and readings by Professor Douglas Hedley (Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, which hosted the conference). Unfortunately Owen A. Barfield (Owen Barfield’s grandson) could not attend this year. He was sadly missed. Douglas discussed how he felt Barfield’s work has been neglected compared to the writings of the other Inklings. I certainly sense that Barfield’s body of work is more important than ever. We are witnessing a world devoid of any real meaning. Unfortunately we start with that which we are aware of, instead of awareness itself — we don’t know what we see, we see what we know. As Barfield writes in “The Rediscovery of Meaning”:
Amid all the menacing signs that surround us in the middle of this twentieth century, perhaps the one which fills thoughtful people with the greatest foreboding is the growing general sense of meaninglessness. It is this which underlies most of the other threats. How is it that the more able man becomes to manipulate the world to his advantage, the less he can perceive any meaning in it?
Douglas quoted the end of Barfield’s book Poetic Diction, a favourite of mine:
But without the continued existence of poetry, without a steady influx of new meaning into language, even the knowledge and wisdom which poetry herself has given in the past must wither away into a species of mechanical calculation. Great poetry is the progressive incarnation of life in consciousness. Hence the absolute value of aesthetic pleasure as a criterion; for before we can feel it, we must have become aware in some degree of the actual progress – not merely of its results. Over the perpetual evolution of human consciousness, which is stamping itself upon the transformation of language, the spirit of poetry hovers, for ever unable to alight. It is only when we are lifted above that transformation, so that we behold it as present movement, that our startled souls feel the little pat and the throbbing, feathery warmth, which tell us that she has perched. It is only when we have risen from beholding the creature into beholding creation that our mortality catches for a moment the music of the turning spheres.
Douglas certainly set the mood for the day. All the papers were wonderful and very stimulating. Here is a very brief summary.
The first was by Mateusz Stróżyński (Adam Mickiewicz University) entitled “Parts, Wholes, and Persons: from Plotinus to Owen Barfield”. Mateusz delivered a very rich paper covering of course Plotinus’s Enneads, but also The Meaning of Love by Vladimir Solovyov, for which Barfield wrote a wonderful introduction.
“Inspiration and Consciousness: Barfield on the Difference Between Plato and Plotinus” was the next paper, by Gareth Polmeer. Gareth delivered a wonderful paper last year and he didn’t disappoint this year. The discussion was very rich as we explored the power of the imagination, discussing in particular the differences between Barfield and his great friend C.S. Lewis in their conceptions of the imagination. Then we explored this great subject with the aid of Barfield’s essays “The Harp and the Camera”, and “The Nature of Meaning” (the latter published in the recent collection The Riddle of the Sphinx). We concluded with a discussion of the image of the Aeolian harp: Douglas discussed this with relation Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Eolian Harp”.
“Nature’s Consciousness in Plotinus” by Andreea-Maria Lemnaru (University of Vienna) followed. What a fascinating paper, beginning with Saving The Appearances, and covering consciousness, cosmology, the One, Original Participation and panpsychism. This paper is still very much resonating with me.
After the morning session we went for lunch where the stimulating conversation continued.
The afternoon session began with “Mirrors of Arcadia: Neoplatonic participation in classical mythopoeic gardens” by Johan N. Prinsloo (University of Pretoria). I was very much looking forward to this paper as I had spent some time walking in the university gardens with Johan. His paper was beautifully crafted, written with a poetic elegance. It traced the history of gardens, statues, landscapes, and sculptures, delving into the transformative eras of garden design. Drawing heavily on Saving the Appearances, he explored these garden idols through the lens of Barfield’s philosophy.
I had to leave for my train a little before the end. The conference closed with the following:
A paper by Szymon Majewski (Adam Mickiewicz University) “Plotinus and Owen Barfield: a potential for comparative research”.
The session closed with a presentation on an application for a research grant by Mateusz Stróżyński and Gareth Polmeer, titled “Before the Inklings: Platonism in the Early Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and O. Barfield (1917-1933)”. This application has been made to the National Science Centre in Poland, for funding from 2024 till 2028. We had discussed this over lunch, and I look forward to seeing how this research develops over the next few years.
I wandered back through the evening sunlight toward the train station, then settling into its warm embrace as I sat reading The Hobbit, a book I revisit every few years. The influence of Barfield is woven so deeply into the fabric of Middle-earth.
