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Synopsis
ORPHEUS, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Plato, Plotinus, etc., are not the same as a Locke, a Hume or a Fichte or such, even though the latter ones are very stimulating at the mental-conceptual level. To say that the Philosophy of Pythagoras, Parmenides, or Plato belongs to the Philosophia Perennis, precisely because it is not individual and temporal, by no means detracts from the authors' personality. On the contrary, it means recognizing them as "mediators", as "divine transmitters", or what is known in the East, as Avatår.The Mysteries instituted by Orpheus represent different states of being. RAPHAEL, the Author of this book, is fully aware to have only touched on the problem of the Sacred Mysteries, just as he has only touched on the events that characterized the life of Orpheus. But human beings, as such, need to acknowledge in themselves a double element: the one titanic (to use Orphic terms) and the other divine. It is up to one's own consciousness to determine whether one wants to be a single whole with the divine or with the titanic.
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About the Author
Raphael having attained a synthesis of Knowledge (with which eclecticism or syncretism are not to be confused) aims at 'presenting' the Universal Tradition in its many Eastern and Western expressions. He has spent a substantial number of years writing and publishing books on spiritual experience, and his works include commentaries on the Qabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. He has also commented on and compared the Orphic Tradition with the works of Plato, Parmenides and Plotinus. Furthermore, Raphael is the author of several books on the pathway of non-duality (Advaita), which he has translated from the original Sanskrit, offering commentaries on a number of key Vedantic texts. After more than sixty years of teaching, both oral and written, Raphael has withdrawn into mahasamadhi.
From the Inside Flap
«With Orphism the metaphysical vision of Being has taken root in Europe and therefore in the West. Especially Pythagoras, Parmenides and Plato have drawn from it, as has all the philosophy deriving from them».
Raphael
«And certainly the men who founded the Mysteries were not unworthy men: and indeed they have long ago revealed to us, in a veiled manner, that he who goes uninitiated and not purified to Hades shall lie in the mire, but he who arrives initiated and purified there will dwell with the Gods. In fact, the interpreters of the Mysteries say that "the thyrsus-bearers are many but the Bacchuses are few". And these, I think, can only be those who practiced philosophy in the right way».
Plato, Phædo, 69 c-d
«And does not the purification consist in this, which was mentioned in the ancient word, to use all our means to keep apart the soul from the body, and teaching the soul the habit of collecting and holding on itself, away from all bodily elements [titanic], and remain, as far as it can, both in the present as well as in the future life, alone in itself, intent to its freeing from the body as from fetters?».
Plato, Phædo, 67 c-d
«It is impossible, my son, to become attached simultaneously to both mortal and divine things. Beings are of two kinds: bodily and bodiless, and in them the mortal and the divine are distinct; the choice between them is left to the will. Because it is not possible to become attached to both at once. Once the choice is made, the one abandoned manifests the energy of the other. And the choice for the best not only results as excellent for those who chose, making of man God...».
Hermes Trismegistus, Pimander
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Greek society of the IX and VIII centuries B.C. was characterized by an anthropomorphic polytheism manifested above all in the poems of Homer.
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The highest qualities expressed by the heroes, courage, physical strength, astuteness, ardor, etc., were attributed in the Homeric poems to the Gods in a heightened form. Thus, the hierarchy of the Gods, with Zeus as their head, and all their reciprocal relationships, were simply copies of the organization of human social life. What counted in "Homeric religion" was heroism, the battle, and dying on earth as a hero.
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The moral law presented by Hesiod, for example in his The Works and the Days, clearly opposes that of Homer. In the Homeric vision, the Gods are passionate, irritable, vindictive and incapable of equanimity and constancy; they are beyond any kind of moral law and the only virtues exalted are heroism, power, and strength. In Hesiod s vision, on the contrary, there is a moral law which is the same for all. This law is the direct expression of Zeus, who transcends all passion and human behavior.
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Hesiod counteracts the irresponsible justice of the "gift-eating" Kings with the "righteous verdict and equanimous judgement" of Zeus:
«Whoever does harm to others is the maker of his own evil... The eye of Zeus, which observes all, when it so desires rests upon such events and knows what must be just in our city. If the unjust receives benefits from justice, then it is absurd for a just person to pursue justice. However, I do not think that the wise Zeus can do such things».
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«However, writes G. Reale, when Pythagoras speaks about the transmigration of the soul, when Heraclitus speaks of an afterlife destiny of the soul, and Empedocles explains the way of purification, then this naturalism begins to crumble deeply, and this crumbling cannot be understood unless one refers to the religion of the Mysteries and in particular to Orphism...
...Without Orphism we would not be able to explain Pythagoras, or Heraclitus, or Empedocles and, naturally, Plato and what derives from him». In fact, «... it is the suggestion of the Orphic Vision that prompts Plato to undertake his "second navigation", that is to undertake that path which will lead him to the discovery of the suprasensible world».
This means that Europe must look primarily to Orphism for the foundation of a metaphysical vision of Being, in that it establishes the real Being as transcendent to nature... ...Later Euripides and Plato stated that in their time a great number of writings regarding Orphic rites and purifications were attributed to Orpheus. Herodotus and Aristophanes speak about Orphic rites and initiations. But perhaps the most interesting testimony of all is that of Aristotle, according to whom Onomakritos had put into verse doctrines attributed to Orpheus. Seeing that Onomakritos lived in the VI century B.C., this quotation gives us a clear and certain reference: in the VI century B.C. verse compositions in the name of the mythical poet were definitely written, therefore there must have been a spiritual movement which held Orpheus to be its patron and inspirer».
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