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Orphic Mysteries: Difference between revisions
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The legends regarding Orpheus are centered in his ability to charm all living things with his music and his descent into the underworld to reclaim his wife, Eurydice, from the grips of death. He also features in the legends of Jason and the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece. | The legends regarding Orpheus are centered in his ability to charm all living things with his music and his descent into the underworld to reclaim his wife, Eurydice, from the grips of death. He also features in the legends of Jason and the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece. | ||
Orpheus’ father was said to be either Oeagrus, a Thracian king, or the god Apollo himself. According to some sources, his mother was the Muse Calliope, patroness of epic poetry. Apollo, the god of music, gave him his first lyre and taught him how to play it; his mother taught him to compose verses for his music | Orpheus’ father was said to be either Oeagrus, a Thracian king, or the god [[Apollo]] himself. According to some sources, his mother was the Muse Calliope, patroness of epic poetry. Apollo, the god of music, gave him his first lyre and taught him how to play it; his mother taught him to compose verses for his music | ||
== Historical origins == | == Historical origins == | ||
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While scholars today consider Orpheus to be a creation of myth, most ancient authorities assumed he was a historical figure. This view is shared by Theosophical writers Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, who as a result of their clairvoyant probings of history, claimed that Orpheus lived around 7,000 <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>., about 1,000 years after the first city was built on the site that is now Athens. Besant and Leadbeater saw him as one of the great teachers of mankind. They write: | While scholars today consider Orpheus to be a creation of myth, most ancient authorities assumed he was a historical figure. This view is shared by Theosophical writers Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, who as a result of their clairvoyant probings of history, claimed that Orpheus lived around 7,000 <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>., about 1,000 years after the first city was built on the site that is now Athens. Besant and Leadbeater saw him as one of the great teachers of mankind. They write: | ||
<blockquote>Orpheus [was] the Founder of the most ancient Orphic Mysteries, from which the later Mysteries of Greece were derived. About 7,000 B.C., He came, living chiefly in the forests, where He gathered his disciples around Him. There was no King to bid him welcome, so gorgeous Court to acclaim Him. He came as a Singer, wandering through the land, loving the life of Nature, her sunlit spaces and her shadowed forest retreats, averse to cities and the crowded haunts of men....</blockquote> | <blockquote>Orpheus [was] the Founder of the most ancient Orphic Mysteries, from which the later Mysteries of Greece were derived. About 7,000 <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>., He came, living chiefly in the forests, where He gathered his disciples around Him. There was no King to bid him welcome, so gorgeous Court to acclaim Him. He came as a Singer, wandering through the land, loving the life of Nature, her sunlit spaces and her shadowed forest retreats, averse to cities and the crowded haunts of men....</blockquote> | ||
<blockquote>He taught by song, by music, music of voice and instrument, carrying a five-stringed musical instrument.... To this he sang, and wondrous was His music, the | <blockquote>He taught by song, by music, music of voice and instrument, carrying a five-stringed musical instrument.... To this he sang, and wondrous was His music, the [[Deva]]s drawing nigh to listen to the subtle tones; by sound He worked upon the astral and mental bodies of His disciples, purifying and expanding them; by sound he drew the subtle bodies away from the physical, and set them free in the higher worlds.... He showed his disciples living pictures, created by music, and in the Greek Mysteries this was wrought in the same way, the tradition coming down from Him. And He taught that Sound was in all things, and that if man would harmonize himself, then would the Divine Harmony manifest through him, and make all Nature glad. Thus he went through Hellas singing, and choosing here and there one who would follow Him, and singing also for the people in other ways, weaving over Greece a network of music, which should make her children beautiful and feed the artistic genius of her land....</blockquote> | ||
<blockquote>From Hellas some of the disciples went to Egypt, and fraternised with the teachers of the Inner Light, and some went teaching as far afield as Java. And so the Sound went forth, even to the ends of the world.<ref>Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, ''Man: Whence, How and Whither'' (Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1913) pp. 328–30.</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>From Hellas some of the disciples went to Egypt, and fraternised with the teachers of the Inner Light, and some went teaching as far afield as Java. And so the Sound went forth, even to the ends of the world.<ref>Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, ''Man: Whence, How and Whither'' (Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1913) pp. 328–30.</ref></blockquote> | ||
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When the verse speaks of flying out of the “sorrowful weary Wheel,” it is almost certainly referring to escaping the round of rebirth. And reaching the “Circle desired” indicates that the soul has arrived at the sphere outside the matter universe. What is this sphere? | When the verse speaks of flying out of the “sorrowful weary Wheel,” it is almost certainly referring to escaping the round of rebirth. And reaching the “Circle desired” indicates that the soul has arrived at the sphere outside the matter universe. What is this sphere? | ||
The concept of heavenly spheres, found in the mystery religions, holds that the world is ruled by the seven planets: Sun, Moon, [[Mercury]], [[Venus (the planet|Venus]], [[Mars]], Jupiter and Saturn. Each planet rules its own sphere. The Greeks believed that in order to attain divine union, the soul must pass through the seven concentric heavenly spheres, each one ruled by one of the planets, until it reaches the outermost sphere and escapes the matter universe altogether. | The concept of heavenly spheres, found in the mystery religions, holds that the world is ruled by the seven planets: Sun, Moon, [[Mercury]], [[Venus (the planet)|Venus]], [[Mars]], Jupiter and Saturn. Each planet rules its own sphere. The Greeks believed that in order to attain divine union, the soul must pass through the seven concentric heavenly spheres, each one ruled by one of the planets, until it reaches the outermost sphere and escapes the matter universe altogether. | ||
This journey is accomplished by giving up the negative energies or tendencies ruled by the planet. When the soul has purified herself fully, she is released from the wheel of rebirth. The “Circle desired” would therefore be the outermost sphere, the realm outside the dominion of the planets. | This journey is accomplished by giving up the negative energies or tendencies ruled by the planet. When the soul has purified herself fully, she is released from the wheel of rebirth. The “Circle desired” would therefore be the outermost sphere, the realm outside the dominion of the planets. | ||