Region Western Philosophy Name Jorge Livraga | Role Poet | |
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Born September 3, 1930 Buenos Aires, Argentina Era 20th-century philosophy Died October 7, 1991, Madrid, Spain Schools of thought Humanism, Neoplatonism, Theosophy, Esotericism Education University of Buenos Aires Books The Elemental Spirits of Nature Influenced by Plato, Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa, Nilakanta Sri Ram Similar People Plato, Giordano Bruno, Helena Blavatsky, Octavio Paz, Ruben Dario | ||
Jorge Ángel Livraga Rizzi (September 3, 1930 – October 7, 1991) was an Argentinian poet, novelist, philosopher, essayist, educator and lecturer of Italian heritage best known for having founded and directed New Acropolis, an international philosophical educational and cultural organisation. He was an academic member of the International Philo-Byzantine Academy and University (IPHBAU) and the International Burckhardt Academy (Italy), a knight of the Real Orden de San Ildefonso y San Atilano, and a recipient of the silver cross from the Société Académique Arts Sciences Lettres (France)
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His works have been translated into several languages, titles in English include the novels The Alchemist and Ankor, the Last Prince of Atlantis, as well as The Spirits of Nature and Thebes, two studies on esotericism.
He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and died in Madrid, Spain.
Biography
His mother, Victoria Rizzi, and his father, Ángel Livraga, an industrial engineer, were of Italian origin whose families had emigrated to Argentina in the late 19th century; (Livraga himself would later gain Italian citizenship). Livraga's father died when he was 15, and this led to a spiritual crisis, where, via his English teacher, he eventually came into contact with the Argentine Theosophical Society in the early fifties. With his partner Ada Albrecht, he became recognized in theosophical circles as a charismatic teacher and lecturer. He was a member of the Theosophical Society from 1950 to 1962. He entered the history and history of art faculty of Buenos Aires university and later the Medical Faculty. He also cultivated poetry and, in 1951, won the Argentine National Poetry Prize with his book Lotuses.
At some point, he founded the magazine Estudios Teosóficos with Ada Albrecht, and founded New Acropolis, an association intended to promote Philosophy, along the lines of the classical Schools of Philosophy, such as Plato’s Academy. Livraga began to expand New Acropolis to other Latin American countries: Uruguay, Chile (in 1965), Perú, Brasil and Bolivia. Livraga's activities during this period consisted in writing the extensive course manuals which extends to seven cycles (the manuals cover such topics as psychology, eastern and western wisdom, theological symbolism, oratory, history of philosophy, comparative religions, philosophy of science, metaphysics and esthetics, human evolution, cosmic evolution, astrology, and others), as well teaching classes and giving public lectures.
In 1972, Livraga moved to Spain, to establish New Acropolis centers in Europe. At that time, two of his Argentinian students, Delia Steinberg Guzman and Fernand Schwarz, opened centers in Spain and in France, respectively. In 1981, Albrecht left New Acropolis to form her own organisation, Hastinapura. New Acropolis has continued to expand and is present in over fifty countries across Europe, America and Asia.
Livraga's role as international coordinator of New Acropolis led him to travel extensively, giving various lectures, workshops and meetings. He also maintained a busy writing schedule, contributing at least one article to Spain's New Acropolis magazine per month (for the first 200 issues, approximately) as well as continuing to write special instructional manuals. He also had an interest in archeology, regularly organizing private expeditions and maintained a collection housed in a private museum, the Rodrigo Caro Museum. After his death, his natal home in Buenos Aires was converted into a museum in his name.