<CENTER> - ENTER THE MYST -






GREEK MYSTERIES:


CONTINUED:


As it turns out, the Orphic Circles did much to benefit the Eleusinia, and provided much of the
educational needs of the ordinary man inclusive of guidance towards a Higher life, and gives us
an indication that their efforts were more unselfish than the Political Mysteries, and they
aspired towards a loftier goal than did the State Mysteries

Their Inner Circles and Mysteries were beyond the Eleusinia, and the Eleusinia, it seems, were but
another pathway leading to the real Circles, having no true enlightenment of their own

Now we needs study the innermost Religious Circles effecting life in Greece, keeping in mind that
the really profound 'secrets' were difficult to access, and not available to most under any
conditions

The Orphic Circles, as we have indicated, were greatly influenced by the Pythagoreans, and
Pythagoras himself seems to have been schooled in all of the Egyptian, Chaldean, Orphic and
Eleusian Mysteries

He must have presented quite a quandary to the State

His students were renoun for their lofty goals and their purity of lifestyle, and their teacher taught
them not a philosophy of his own construction, but a compilation of his experiences and trainings
mixed well with a large portion of intellect, and he is accredited to have been one of the original
founders of the Greek Philosophy

As well as being a mathematical genius

He saw the need to suppliment the repidly growing social intellect towards a line of contemplation
on the inner nature of things, and felt that without such guidance, the joy of freedom might get
entirely out of hand, and reject the real truths of the ancient wisdoms


Plato carried this Philosophy forward, but in a different manner

Mostly, he worked on clarity of distinction, and his biggest efforts were towards clearing up
misconceptions and falicies

He prefered to work towards clarity, and attaining a state of flux, a more pure form of ability
to determine things of the Gnosis, things that would become self-aparent if ones mind was in the
correct attitude, a more fit state of contemplation

Comprehension being easier to attain thereby

Plato niether used nor formulated any new 'system', he prefered to work towards clearing a path to
understanding as it should be - contemplating the realities of the Older Wisdoms, those things and
knowings already in exhistance, things handed down by the older, wiser Sages to his time

His dialectic methods taught not to originate new aspects and concepts, rather to clear the mind
so as to be able to properly recieve that which was already there, but with stronger and cleaner
abilities to percieve them for what they were

In a document called the Timaeus, Plato formulated one of his only positive documents from
previously unpublished works of Pythagoris and a few others, it was unusual, to say the least
as thru most of his life his works were of a negative manner, being conclusive work, and
speculative in its nature, and its interpretation, and he certainly had a desire to inspire
contemplation and comprehension rather than assumption and speculation

In his advanced years he developed a desire to leave behind a motivational cause, perhaps
for his students to become inspired by, but, unfortunately, this was percieved as the end
to the course by many, and instead of continuing on a journey to understanding, a journey of
clear vision and initiating themselves into Philosophia, they became degenerative, and spiraled
downwards, and wound up losing the impetus to continue

Aristotle picked up the flag, and perhaps developed a more comprehensible method, and seems to
have been more physical of a teacher, and less esoteric than Plato

His methods were, perhaps, all the better for it, and he leaned towards teaching exacting
observations and less towards spiritual realisations, but, alas, his system, too
became considered an end to itself

And once again, a doorway was closed because of mis-comprehension of the teachings


History does, indeed, repeat itself


SO ---

There we have the three centuries prior to the inception of the Inner Circles and the
Philosophia Mystica, it has become a time when Greece was formulating Intellectual Life
and life in Greece was becoming centered around Alexandria, and now these Schools of
innumerable numbers were warring with eachother, each one struggling for growth, each
touting their being holders of the only truths, as the Government conquers the Orient
and their world expands exponentially in this quite a confusing time, and the spectacle
it provided must have been quite a production to behold indeed

We can, perhaps, only match it to the European development of the last 300 years

The Hellas of Plato had become a reality of power, with a viguor

They would conquer their known world, but fall short in the end

Looking at the surface of things, we might assume that Greece had entirely forgotten their
history of Mystica and Philosophy, and bragged solely on their Intellectual Prowess, but
further investigations expose this to be not so

In a few hundred years, it became old in its own time

There was a new breeze, and the Intillect shifted from Greece to Egypt
This doesn't mean that Greece ceased to progress, it means that when once the Orient and Egypt
were brought to Greece, now Greece went there

As Greece expanded into trade with the East, there were many that were well prepared and
intelligent minds, and to come across the Oriental and Egyptian Schools they discovered
and an unprecedented opportunity availed itself, and they drank in the new knowledges like
sponges

Where once Philosophia CAME to Greece, now they brought it BACK with them, and the
Orphic and Pythagorean communities adapted and embraced the newness and the fresh
flow of knowledge, merging it with their own, and expanding their horizons and knowledges

Just as the influx of Orientalism in their Philosophia had brought with it an undesirable
element in the past, so this new source brought it too, and altho the influence may have
been prevalent in a social manner we're not comprehending (yet), the benefits that it
brought far and away out weighed the problems, and an increased intensification appears
to have given their Religious life a greater satisfaction and emotionsl support, and
while spreading attitudes of arogance and scepticism abroad, at the same time they were
using their Oriental Conquests to sharpen their intellect and refine their perceptions


Philosophia was once again on the rise


The successors to Alexander were humbled in turn by ROME, but its legalistic and practical
attitude seems to have missed out on the subtleties of the Greek Philosophia, perhaps because
of resentment, perhaps because of their system, but miss it they did, and at best, they
only copied their art and literature

The role ROME played was more of ethics and conduct, rather than one of Knowledges

In the end, this may very well have been their down-fall, their stoic naturalism was
a sumary of ethics in 'honestas' tradition, and was about to be put to the test

Rome had no more chance than Greece of avoiding the Oriental religious belief structure
and went thru similar problems with exposure to it as Greece did

It clashed with social culture, it clashed with belief structures, and it was in no way
compatible with the Multi-thiestic doctrine prevalent in Rome at the time

Their beliefs were varied, and most seem to have been centered around a common worship
of the Sun, and the inner philosophy of it ran back to about 70 b.c. the Mysteries of
Mithras were as far as they went, and the Mithras cult fought hard for status in a fast
changing society, but it was not to be

The Mythras Mythos had united Rome and Greece, and Heathens from all around could
gather togeather and agree on a common bond, but soon enough it became the principal
antagonist of the truth, or at least so it would seem

The Mythriac Mysteries were part of an esoteric international movement and had made
it possible to unite the many types of people in the Graeco-Roman world, and was made
possible by the contact of Greece and Rome in conjunction with the Eastern Philosophies
,br> Local cults were the first to be influenced, and slowly their national counterparts became
influenced by their symbolisms that resulted in worship of the Spiritual Sun, the LOGOS
with the natural symbol present in the sky, and was common in one form or another in all of
the more popular cults, this Devine Symbolism was eventually followed by the rest of the
solar system symbolicly, and eventually they became imbedded into all the various forms of
worship and/or belief systems

In time the symbolism came to possess a duality, representing the obvious Sun in the Sky
but for the Initiate, an inner meaning, a Spiritual one, indicating the Sun as Mediator
between the Light and the Darkness

The Historian Plutarch recorded that the outer Symbolism was indicative of the outermost
limits of the Empire and the inner meanings divided esoterically the line between the outer
forms of national worship and the inner forms of the Mysteries in the ancient world


Worship of the Sun had achieved Mystica


TO CONTINUE ..CLICK HERE....

Email me at:
gcol@angelfire.com