Orphism and the Initiatory Tradition

The Author of this book acknowledges that he has merely touched the surface of the issue of the Sacred Mysteries and the events that have characterised the life of Orpheus. On the other hand, it is not his task to expatiate on a problem that would not provide any advantage but would simply serve to satisfy empirical intellective curiosity.


To say that the Philosophy of Pythagoras, Parmenides, Plato, and so on, belongs to the Philosophia perennis because it is not, in fact, individual and limited by time is not to detract from their personality. Far from it, for this is to acknowledge them as 'mediators', 'divine transmitters', or avatāras, as they would be called in the East.
If one could comprehend the Philosophy of Plato in its essence and realise it in practice, one would undoubtedly reach the point of transfiguring one's own being.


Plato's Philosophy is Metaphysics based on a supra-ontological Principle, a theology, an ontology, a mysticism, and an ethic which is both individual and social: all of which take practical form in an authentic teaching which is initiatory in the widest sense of the word.


And Orpheus? What can we say of this great Sage, Magus, Theologian, Innovator, Rectifier; this ṛṣi, to use the word from Vedānta? As the following pages will seek to show, Orpheus is another mediator/bridge, a great avatāra, who rectified the cult of Dionysus which had deteriorated and had become superstition; revealed Truth of an intelligible and Apollonian order; devised a science of Rite and Number by means of music; instituted the Mysteries, both the Lesser and the Greater; left behind him, under the aegis of Apollo [ἀ-πόλλων = not many], an impression, a vibration, an influence of such magnitude that they can still be felt today. Furthermore, he exerted a considerable influence on the minds of the philosophers of ancient Greece and therefore on all subsequent philosophers.


The present era in the history of humanity is characterised by an intense numbness of consciousnesses and a strong focus of attention upon the sphere of the physical and sensible: these absorb all the energies.


The human being, as such, must acknowledge that he is composed of two elements: the titanic (to use an Orphic word) and the divine. It is for each consciousness to establish whether to unite with the divine or with the titanic.


But fortunately this ambiguity is not absolute, because the titanic element is only a 'superimposition' on pure Reality, although this superimposition can assume such a thickness and consistency that it is taken to be real. No one will ever be able to destroy the Divinity which is within the human being, for it is an intrinsic part of his nature.


At the present time humanity lives so completely under the stamp of this false nature as to be its defenceless prisoner. Truth has been turned on its head: what appears is real, and what really is is false.


Those who feel a sense of responsibility, who hear the call of the Soul to a life of transfiguration, who are deaf to the allurements of worldly power, erudite opinion, criticism for exalting or demolishing others, who truly wish to strip themselves of their egoic trappings, are undoubtedly able, if they also feel humble and trusting, to prepare themselves for the time when traditional Truth will arise.