Heroic Age of Greece

1300 - 900 BC

Jason and the Argonauts While Medea (The Goddess figure or soul and also the wife of Jason) puts the Dragon (Dweller of the Threshold) to sleep, Jason, followed by Orpheus, takes the Golden Fleece (Outsmarts the dweller, passes initiations and acquires the Christ or Buddhic consciousness). Painting by William Russell Flint, 1880-1969.

Homer and Orpheus

Urusvati knows that when We speak about Krishna, Orpheus, Zoroaster, and other Teachers of mankind, We have important reasons for this. All of them gave instruction, differing in language and custom, but the essence of their teaching was the same.

As yet, the work of comparing these Teachings has not been accomplished. One can point to studies in comparative religion, but We now have in mind an analysis of the common foundations given by the Teachers. A scholar who sifts through the characteristics of all nations and ages will find at their foundations teachings that are as if given by one source. One could mention those few individualities who in succession fulfilled their mission of teaching humanity, thus helping mankind's progress.

At different periods, Teachers, at times without knowing the teachings of others, pronounced ideas that were similar to the others, not only in language but also in feeling. Even someone ignorant of this might think that one individual alone gave these teachings. But those who knew more will draw their own conclusions.

The work that will reveal the universality of these teachings will be of great benefit. Such work will be very difficult, for, in order to be believed, it will be necessary to utilize the recognized sources. The most valuable of the apocryphal writings cannot be cited, for they are not trusted by people. But even the accepted historical data permit useful comparisons. Truth must be proven by recognized methods of reasoning. In spite of the tragic loss of materials beyond counting, many valuable records can still be found. For example, the writings of the disciples of Apollonius of Tyana and Pythagoras can be studied. Perhaps only some words from these will be found dependable, but even these fragments will sufficiently convey the essence of the Teaching. It will become evident that the Teachers, though belonging to different religions, affirmed the same principles. In studying Origen, ancient ideas will be found that he himself could not have previously heard. During deep study, every individual will come to similar understandings.

The Thinker [Plato] used to say, "When I listen to the narrations of the pilgrims, it sometimes seems to me that it is one person who speaks. I see different garb, hear different tongues, but my heart recognizes the one source." Supermundane III, 665.

Odysseus sails past the sirens. Mosaic in Bardo Museum. Tunis, Tunisia
"Holy Heroes have been represented correctly as sailing in a boat. Thus does the wave of world energy carry along those who have entered its current." El Morya, Illumination, III:III:2, 1925, Agni Yoga Society

Homer

Roughly corresponding with the decline of Egypt and the coming of Abraham, the culture of Ancient Greece begins its ascendancy. It is only fitting that this age is known as the Heroic Age and Homer is its chronicler. Not much is known about Homer beyond that he was blind and that he wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Odyssey is in fact the story of the soul's testing on the Path. It belongs to the Occult dispensation and therefore is coded and disguised in myth. Since those epics were handed down orally, many scholars doubt Homer ever existed. He did. However, since little is known we thought we'd depart from the historical record and tell you where he is now.

Because of his tremendous ability to embody the essence of the Holy Spirit of comfort, compassion and truth over many lifetimes, Homer ascended and took the spiritual off ice of the "Maha Chohan". Go to any message from any of the Lords or Masters of the Seven Rays, whenever they speak about the Maha Chohan, they speak with great reverence and respect; for he is the Lord of all their offices. He is also the Master that represents the Holy Spirit.

Following is the ascended Homer speaking to the students of The Bridge to Freedom of what it means to become the Maha Chohan. (The Bridge to Freedom Journal Book 1; September, 1953). Note: at the end he says the written form of this message carries a certain weight:

The Office of the Maha Chohan

In the establishment of the inner court of Sanat Kumara, certain offices were designed which were to be channels through which the God-energies might flow and be directed toward manifesting definite, specific and constructive effects. In the beginning, there were no members of the human race in this court, all offices being held by the voluntary endeavors of beings from other spheres. Gradually, working only with love, Sanat Kumara was enabled to magnetize the interest of the souls of certain lifestreams, to assist in the government of this world from an inner standpoint, and these offices were filled, successively, by various beings.

I would like to bring this point very forcibly to your attention, because the messengership is not provided for the messenger, it is an office into which is placed upon a lifestream with the necessary potentialities, who may fulfill that office and through graduation, or retrogression, leave the office for another. Over and above the Office of Lord of Lords, stands the Silent Watcher, who, to this planet, is the supreme authority. The office beneath is held by beloved Sanat Kumara. The beloved Manus, the beloved Buddha, Lord Maitreya and myself serve with him, followed by the seven Chohans of the Rays.

Even in my position, I did not, in applying for the honor of becoming the present Maha Chohan, know whether I could fill the requirements. The sphere of influence of a being that holds an office is a great globe of light, and the length of the beam of light from the heart reaching to the periphery of that sphere in every direction, is determined by the momentum and pressure of light of the lifestream, which is built through contemplation, and then through action. When, in my case, if you will excuse a personal reference, which is merely to elucidate upon the subject, I was given the opportunity of training so that when the Maha Chohan preceding me was to vacate the office one of us might be chosen, I did not know whether the beam of my own light could reach the periphery of the sphere of influence required to be a Holy Comforter to an entire evolution—angelic, human, elemental, animal, vegetable, mineral—and, to the divine, as well.

Do you know, many times, after my illustrious predecessor had gone to enjoy a concert or a conference, I stepped into his aura, and just as a child would stand on tiptoes and try to touch the ceiling, I endeavored, with my light, to reach the periphery of his sphere of influence, knowing that my comfort had to be the master control of all the life in those kingdoms. You have seen a fond parent mark a child's heights against the wall—that is the way I used to measure my light when I first stood in that sphere of influence. My maximum endeavor, to comfort life, was like that of a four-year-old child compared to the capacity of a Christ, and I returned to my quarters and thought, "I will never do it." A being came to me, it was beloved Buddha, and he said, "Son, if you are going to grow to fill that great sphere of influence, you must begin to WANT to comfort life, never mind how you qualify, and that great desire within you, will raise you until you are the fulfillment of the need."

Isn't it strange, how just a word will bring again a memory, a moment that you know so well, and mind you, I had been ascended and living in the heart of God and associated with free beings. Yet, I remember that hour, where I sat, I remember the sound of his voice, and I remember watching him walk off through the trees — and I made my decision, then, that whether or not I was chosen was of no consequence BUT that my energy from thence forth as long as I had a beating heart, was to COMFORT life, and I never went back to measure my spiritual height, until the night came when Sanat Kumara handed me the scroll and I knelt before him and became the representative of God's love. Mark you well my words — the REPRESENTATIVE OF HIS LOVE — for once man or messenger feels himself, instead of the love of God, as the action of the Law, he has closed to door to heaven's grace.

I am allotted only a certain time to speak with you, because the energy I give you brings a responsibility for what you will do with it, and so I measure it well. I measure the contents of the "Bulletin," lest the Cosmic Law demand too much of those who read it. I measure the contents of my message, written or spoken, according to your spiritual digestive tracts, your assimilative power, and your capacity for action, but I shall come again and I KNOW BY THE POWER OF LIFE that each of you shall fill that spiritual sphere into which your lifestreams fit. I give you my blessing and my love."

Let's let that digest awhile, shall we?

Orpheus pleading with Pluto and Proserpina to restore Eurydice to him. H W Bissen

Orpheus

Since Homer mentions Orpheus in The Odyssey, our next hero probably lived a few hundred years before Homer. Orpheus is thought to have founded the first mystery school in Greece. Theosophy claims that Orpheus was a previous embodiment of Buddha. Given his impact on the world as you will see, it seems reasonable. Few knew history like Will Durant. From The Life of Greece by Will Durant. pp. 189-192.

In the seventh century there came into Hellas, from Egypt, Thrace, and Thessaly, another mystic cult, even more important in Greek history than the mysteries of Eleusis. At its source we find, in the age of the Argonauts, the obscure but fascinating figure of Orpheus, a Thracian who "in culture, music, and poetry," says Diodorus, "far surpassed all men of whom we have a record."

Very probably he existed, though all that we now know of him bears the marks of myth. He is pictured as a gentle spirit, tender, meditative, affectionate; sometimes a musician, sometimes a reforming ascetic priest of Dionysus. He played the lyre so well, and sang to it so melodiously, that those who heard him almost began to worship him as a god; wild animals became tame at his voice, and trees and rocks left their places to follow the sound of his harp.

He married the fair Eurydice, and almost went mad when death took her. He plunged into Hades, charmed Persephone with his lyre, and was allowed to lead Eurydice up to life again on condition that he should not look back upon her until the surface of the earth was reached. At the last barrier, anxiety overcame him lest she should no longer be following; he looked back, only to see her snatched down once more into the nether world. Thracian women, resenting his unwillingness to console himself with them, tore him to pieces in one of their Dionysian revels; Zeus atoned for them by placing the lyre of Orpheus as a constellation among the stars. The severed head, still singing, was buried at Lesbos in a cleft that became the site of a popular oracle; there, we are told, the nightingales sang with especial tenderness.

From: Ancient Landmarks, The Greek Mysteries. Theosophy, Vol. 27, No. 4, February, 1939, (Pages 147-153)

Herodotus informs us that the Mysteries were introduced into Greece by Orpheus, the son of Apollo, from whom he received his seven-stringed lyre, or the sevenfold mystery of initiation. Although Orpheus is commonly described as a "mythological" character,
This alone may be depended upon, from general assent, that there formerly lived a person named Orpheus, who was the founder of theology among the Greeks; the first of prophets and the prince of poets; who taught the Greeks their sacred rites and mysteries, and from whose wisdom the divine muse of Homer and the sublime theology of Pythagoras and Plato flowed. (Thomas Taylor: Mystical Hymns of Orpheus.)

Orpheus was a generic title, the name of one of those early instructors of the Third Race, which passed from teacher to pupil for untold generations. The Greek Orpheus is identified with Arjuna, the disciple of Krishna, who went around the world establishing the Mysteries. The word Orpheus, which means the "dark skinned," points to the Indo-Aryan ancestry of that Teacher, while the purely Eastern character of his philosophy indicates the real source of the wisdom of Greece.

According to Orpheus, all things may be traced back to a great Principle to which men have tried to give a name, although it is really indescribable and ineffable. Following the Egyptian symbolism, Orpheus speaks of this Principle as "thrice-unknown darkness, in the contemplation of which all knowledge is refunded into ignorance." Proclus, one of the most scholarly commentators on the philosophy of Orpheus, says he taught that a progeny of principles issued from the original Principle, each one of which was stamped with the occult characters of Divinity.

The Orphic system describes the Day and Night of Brahmâ as the Great Year of the Universe, at the end of which "Kronos squares the account of the gods, and re-assumes dominion of the most primeval Darkness." Orpheus declares that man's evolution is accomplished by means of innumerable reincarnations. Plutarch expresses the opinion that the myth of Bacchus, which was enacted in the Orphic Mysteries, "is a sacred narrative concerning reincarnation." In the sixth book of the Aeneid, which is an allegorical record of some of the Mystery rites, Virgil speaks of the time elapsing between earth lives:

All these souls, after they have passed away a thousand years, are summoned by the divine ones in great array, to the Lethean river. In this way they become forgetful of the former earth-life, and re-visit the vaulted realms of the world, willing to return again into living bodies.

In later days it was claimed that he had left behind him many sacred songs; and perhaps it was so. At the behest of Hipparchus, says Greek tradition, a scholar named Onomacritus, about 520, edited these as the Homeric lays had been edited a generation before. In the sixth century, or earlier, these hymns had acquired a sacred character as divinely inspired, and formed the basis of a mystical cult related to that of Dionysus but far superior to it in doctrine, ritual, and moral influence. The creed was essentially an affirmation of the passion (suffering), death, and resurrection of the divine son Dionysus Zagreus, and the resurrection of all men into a future of reward and punishment. Since the Titans, who had slain Dionysus, were believed to have been the ancestors of man, a taint of original sin rested upon all humanity; and in punishment for this the soul was enclosed in the body as in a prison or a tomb. But man might console himself by knowing that the Titans had eaten Dionysus, and that therefore every man harbored, in his soul, a particle of indestructible divinity. In a mystic sacrament of communion the Orphic worshipers ate the raw flesh of a bull as a symbol of Dionysus to commemorate the slaying and eating of the god, and to absorb the divine essence anew.

After death, said Orphic theology, the soul goes down to Hades, and must face judgment by the gods of the underworld; the Orphic hymns and ritual, like the Egyptian Book of the Dead, instructed the faithful in the art of preparing for this comprehensive and final examination. If the verdict were guilty there would be severe punishment. One form of the doctrine conceived this punishment as eternal," and transmitted to later theology the notion of hell.

Another form adopted the idea of transmigration: the soul was reborn again and again into lives happier or bitterer than before according to the purity or impurity of its former existence; and this wheel of rebirth would turn until complete purity was achieved, and the soul was admitted to the Islands of the Blest.

Another variant offered hope that the punishment in Hades might be ended through penances performed in advance by the individual, or, after his death, by his friends. In this way a doctrine of purgatory and indulgences arose; and Plato describes with almost the anger of a Luther the peddling of such indulgences in the Athens of the fourth century B.C.:

Mendicant prophets go to rich men's doors and persuade them that they have a power committed to them of making atonement for their sins or those of their fathers by sacrifices or charms ...And they produce a host of books written by Musaeus and Orpheus ...according to which they perform their ritual, and persuade not only individuals but whole cities that expiations and atonements may be made by sacrifices and amusements [ceremonies?) which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and the dead. The latter [ceremonies] they call mysteries, and these redeem us from the Pains of Hell; but if we neglect them no one knows what awaits us.

Nevertheless there were in Orphism idealistic trends that culminated in the morals and monasticism of Christianity. The reckless looseness of the Olympians was replaced by a strict code of conduct, and the mighty Zeus was slowly dethroned by the gentle figure of Orpheus, even as Yahweh was to be dethroned by Christ. A conception of sin and conscience, a dualistic view of the body as evil and of the soul as divine, entered into Greek thought; the subjugation of the flesh became a main purpose of religion, as a condition of the release for the soul.

The brotherhood of Orphic initiates had no ecclesiastical organization and no separate life; but they were distinguished by the wearing of white garments, the avoidance of flesh food, and a degree of asceticism not usually associated with Hellenic ways. They represented, in several aspects, a Puritan Reformation in the history of Greece. Their rites encroached more and more upon the public worship of the Olympian gods.

The influence of the sect was extensive and enduring. Perhaps it was here that the Pythagoreans took their diet, their dress, and their theory of transmigration; it is worthy of note that the oldest Orphic documents now extant were found in southern Italy." Plato, though he rejected much in Orphism, accepted its opposition of body and soul, its puritan tendency, its hope of immortality. Part of the pantheism and asceticism of Stoicism may be traced to an Orphic origin. The Neo-Platonists of Alexandria possessed a large collection of Orphic writings, and based upon them much of their theology and their mysticism. The doctrines of hell, purgatory, and' heaven, of the body versus the soul, of the divine son slain and reborn, as well as the sacramental eating of the body and blood and divinity of the god, directly or deviously influenced Christianity, which was itself a mystery religion of atonement and hope, of mystic union and release. The basic ideas and ritual of the Orphic cult are alive and flourishing amongst us today.

Above all else, Orpheus is remembered for his contribution to culture. The esoteric teachings of the Brotherhood have stressed the importance of music, rhythm and sound on the health and well being of not only the individual but also a nation. Plato, whom El Morya respects greatly and gives him the moniker "The Thinker," wrote in the Republic:

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated, graceful.

Later he writes in the Republic about the negative effects on society:

The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole State: since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

El Morya refers to Orpheus in several works of the Agni Yoga Society:

Amidst millennia how can one discover the Founder of the Brotherhood? Nations call him Rama, Osiris, Orpheus, and many better names whose memory has been preserved by peoples. Let us not vie with them as to whom to give primacy. All these were tormented and torn to pieces. Contemporaries do not forgive concern over the Common Good. In the course of the ages let the Teaching be transmuted, and thus the scattered parts of the one body will be collected. But who will gather them? The memory of the people has affirmed Her who will apply her forces for the joining of the living parts. Remember the many who have toiled for the Brotherhood. Brotherhood #575 1937,

Urusvati knows that each one of Us has contributed to the peace of the world in various ways. You remember Orpheus, who gave the people soothing melodies of peace, and how a certain Teacher tried to purify the Teachings so that people would know more and understand life better. Supermundane II #320. 1938

Interestingly, Morya is implying that some consider Orpheus the founder of the Brotherhood. When you ponder that his efforts eventually affected Pythagoras and Plato and therefore, by extension all Neo-Platonists and mystery schools thereafter, perhaps all outer organizations of The Great White Brotherhood in the West owe a debt of gratitude to Orpheus. Unfortunately, the esoteric understanding of music and Orpheus' role has mostly been lost. Not all of the Brotherhood's teachings survive the millennia. Fragments are there, however, for those seek it.