Orphic Considerations

Orphic Considerations Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes. "A curious aspect of this Western ''Tradition'' is that it continually confuses the mythological with the real." (Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Hermes) Orpheus, is a Solar Entity and 'fluid liquid of Solar Gold', emanating from the Lord of Celestial Light and Protector of the salutary powerful Word. At the same time, it is a solar substance, which like the stream of a river of milk, gushes forth from the One Source – safe and inexhaustible – formally assimilated through a continuous and uninterrupted 'Initiates Chain of tradition' or spiritual journey of telestic transmission. Likewise, this solar vital fluid is one of High Theurgy emanating as essence and seed (solar sperma), which is acquired and it is practically possible to assimilate it, through a very old modality of ritual operative diffusion (theourgia). In fact, it is a very ancient chain of transmission "prisci theologi" or Solar Theology (God is not Invisible), impregnated with the singular magical-sympathetic presence "distant but at the same time close" and whose rays touch faces. (Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, p.173) On the other hand, we can say that this in turn is closely linked to a very strong transmission of the Solar Tradition of Knowledge or Orphic Way. We can also add that it is an ancestral initiatory teaching, duly received and consecrated, by a well-known and correct celestial, harmonic and ritual musical reception, of the primordial solar numerical vital flow. It is, in this sense, the Orphic Cosmic Lyre. In fact, in this Occult Wisdom, the deep poetic rhythm of the ORPHIC VERB is hidden, since it is cordially assimilated through the theurgical-ritual capture or solar reconquest of the Way. It is the glorious Way of "reascension-(anagoge)-regenerative". It could be said that the Theurgical Way, subtly immersed and immanent and transcendent, is in the most pure essential harmonic proportions, transmitted as -bios Orphikos-, and already within the initiatory and millenary Golden Chain = (chruse seira). To this end, we can say: "It was part of the Golden Chain of knowledge, ultimately secured from the highest realms of the universe from the gods and the One itself". (John F. Finamore, 2004) It seems, therefore, that the Orphic Traditional Wisdom (sapientia) is indeed a ritual approach to the appropriate vibratory musical scales (Orphic lyre), which are enclosed in a special and refined glorious essence of solar energy. "The Pythagoreans also make this claim, who used to perform WONDERS by words, songs, and SOUNDS in the Phoebean and Orphic manner". (Angela Voss, Marsilio Ficino, p.153,156-158) Most likely, this occult knowledge is only suitable to be "received" and transmitted (hermaike seira) in an appropriate and healthy way, by those who can achieve, through the very hard and rigorous ceremonial process of death and initiatory resurrection=(teletai), access to the enigmatic codes (Gnosis) of the divine work and Orphic sacramental theurgy. (see: F. Paolini, Hebdomades, sive septem de septenario libri (1589), [on the miraculous effects of Orphic music and poetry]in: Wouter j. Hanegraaff, Hermes in the Academy, p. 82) In this way, Marsilio Ficino called "the Orphic ritual of the Cosmos". (Letter to Cosimo de' Medici, Ad Cosmum Medicem) As can be seen, it is a way of life, strict and formal, as an authentically philosophical way of lifeico. Orpheus and Hermes are then holding hands. (Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis, Frontispiece Volume II and in: Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes, pp. 184,214n5) It should be clarified that it is strictly necessary to lead a pure, moderate, measured and very well ordered life, as well as of the highest sanctity and spiritual quality – "fine linen" – to properly access the elusive and jealous "solar entities". "I do. I have heard it, indeed, from men and women wise in divine matters..." (Plato, Meno.81a) In this way, as we approach the ritual altars dressed in the most sacred and fine linen, this same theurgical purity – in total humility – facilitates and makes viable access to the Primordial Source of reunification (he arrhetos henosis) with King SoL. In reality, Orpheus is the son of the Solar Apollo and his lyre is entirely Apollonian in nature. Of course, we must return to the fundamental and original purpose of the Initiatic Path. However: The Spirit of the 'paradosis' or Orphic Tradition is established, as the search for origins = (journey to Argo, journey to the underworld). In addition, it is limited and framed within real and immense possibilities, whether mythical or historical, of finding those ancestral roots from which the most diverse Orphic and non-Orphic currents – some academically controversial – depart and emanate, in order to establish the most faithful approach to his valuable, very rich and poetic "literary canon". "The scholarly consensus is that these Orphic figures, combining the cosmological conception of time with an iconography in which human forms are merged with wings, snakes, bulls, and lions, must have some INFLUENCE on the Mithraic lion-head god''. (David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, p.120 and in Carl A. Ruck, Hoffman, González Celdrán, Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras, p.166) Consequently, we can believe or not believe in the reality of Master Orpheus, or continue to lose ourselves futilely in mental labyrinths for strictly "intellectual" considerations or perhaps ramble into endless, sterile and vain purely academic struggles between skeptics and rationalists = [Wilamowitz, Linforth, Zuntz...] or, perhaps, reaffirm ourselves in what Mircea Eliade aptly calls..."polemical passions''. "Orpheus himself is a mythical character, NOT A HISTORICAL person, so any deeds belong to the realm of story, invented to fit with the name." (Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Redefining Ancient Orphism, p.3.2013) In fact, we cannot, not even try to understand the valid and authentic reasons for denying its possible historical veracity and its real physical existence (apart from its countless mythical protagonisms). Equally significant is the invaluable opinion of the erudite scholar and well versed in Orphic themes, Raquel Martín Hernández: "Orpheus' homeland is usually Thrace, although some poets, especially Alexandrians, refine the location more and offer in their texts more specific places such as Pimplea, Bistonia or Rhodope, all of them cities in northern Greece"... "Orpheus is, in addition to being a foreigner, a hero from the North. This characteristic has been used by some scholars to associate it with Nordic shamanism and thus support the explanation of some mythical episodes as traces of an ancient shamanic religion." (Raquel Martín Hernández, Orfeo y Los Magos, pp.18-19) It is striking that Maestro Orfeor he was a glorious Shaman, of the most cultured priestly line of 'Apollonian shamanism'. "About Orpheus himself I can make a hypothesis, even at the risk of being labeled as a "panshamanist". Orpheus' homeland is Thrace, and in Thrace he is the worshipper or companion of a god whom the Greeks identified with Apollo. Combine the professions of poet, magician, religious teacher and oracle issuer... I conclude that Orpheus is a Thracian figure of much the same kind as Zalmoxis, a mythical shaman or prototype of shamans. (E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p.144 and see: M. Eliade, Orpheus, Pythagoras and the New Eschatology) "Don't spill blood!" In any case, for the wise Eliade..."the prestige of Orpheus and the most important episodes of his biography are surprisingly reminiscent of shamanic practices". Perhaps the relationship of Orpheus with the Sacred Mysteries was very significant, as an extraordinary founder of initiations and initiated himself in the "true knowledge" of the Mysteries of Samothrace and the one who: "showed the splendors of the ineffable mysteries", according to Euripides. ( M. Eliade, History of Religious Beliefs and Ideas Volume II, p.220 and R. Martín Hernández, p. 41) It was also a relationship of ceremonial assimilation and association with the millenary and ancestral initiatory theurgy. In fact, Orpheus is a highly cultured shaman and an initiate of a high refined spirit of the finest song and verb of high poetry and, at the same time, a very powerful magician possessing the highest qualifications of traditional devotional theurgics, rituals and practices. "In any case, it seems fundamental to me to insist that the pre-Socratic philosophical current – and, of course, that of later philosophy – and the religious current that we can consider Orphic are not watertight compartments, but have communities of thought among themselves, ways of MUTUAL INFLUENCE, on issues that are framed within the same conceptual universe." (Alberto Bernabé, Orphic Texts and Pre-Socratic Philosophy, p.14) Thus, Orpheus taught the Old Way or the Old Way that leads us back to the primordial substance of the Cosmic Egg. "Animals are just as worthy of respect as humans and we should NOT spill their blood in rituals." Orphic music was and is very effective in creating the proper disposition of the soul for proper solar reception. "In natural magic nothing is more efficacious tan the Hymns of Orpheus... (Pico de la Mirandola, Conclusions Orphicae, in D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, p. 22) It is evident that; All Things come from the same beginning without beginning or end. It is the multiplicity of the One and the Pure emission of astrological effluvia from the Unity of the All and the Source of Fountains. Multiplicity, dismemberment, fragmentation, unity, and reintegration are all parts of the same complicated system of cosmic fabric relations that... the "Moira has woven". Orphic Considerations Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes.