Orphism and the Initiatory Tradition: 6 (Aurea Vidya Collection) - Softcover

Raphael, (Āśram Vidyā Order)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1931406057 ISBN 13: 9781931406055

Publisher: Aurea Vidya, 2012

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.

About this title

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 After more than sixty years of teaching, both oral and written, Raphael has withdrawn into mahasamadhi.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 Back Cover

With Orphism the metaphysical vision of Being takes 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 [This is an obvious reference to the "sacred word" of the Orphics. Catharsis is a central idea in Orphism, accepted and partially modified by the Pythagoreans], 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. --

RAPHAEL is an author and a teacher in the western Metaphysical Tradition as well as in the Vedånta one. In the past 35 years, he has written several books on the pathway of non-duality (Advaita). He has also translated and commented a number of key vedantic texts from the original sanskrit. His entire work represents a conscious reunification of Western and Eastern Traditions in the One Tradition of Metaphysics.
-- Founder of the Asram Vidya Order, Raphael is now dedicating himself entirely to the spiritual practice. He lives in a hermitage connected to the Asram and devotes himself completely to a vow of silence.
-- May the Raphael Consciousness, authentic expression of the traditional Metaphysics, guide and illumine along this Opus all those who donate their mens informalis to the attainment of the highest known Realization.

Edition details

• Publisher: Aurea Vidya
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1931406057
• ISBN 13: 9781931406055
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154