The View from Delphi
Rhapsodies on Hellenic Wisdom &
An Ecstatic Appreciation of Western History
by Frank Marrero, Enelysios
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An Apology for “Rhapsody”
Orpheus sang and taught about “divine realization” in flowing sutras, “song stitches” or rhapsodos. “Rhapsody” can be historically characterized as the theological weaving of sacred poesy and prosaic philosophy. This text seeks to both illuminate that Orphic rhapsody and emulate it. Therefore, herein you will find a logical picture idealistically painted with academic colors and strokes of legend and report. Such exaggeration is often needed to sufficiently suggest that mysterious beauty which is beyond knowing
Preface & Acknowledgments: The Trail of Eleutherios
Three gods in the ancient Hellenic pantheon—Zeus, Dionysus, and Eros—held the esoteric surname Eleutherios, meaning “the Liberator” (root eleuthera, “free”). Zeus (Zeus: “Bright-Day”, Sanskrit dyas, “bright”) Eleutherios was the keeper of liberty, armies of liberation knew his lightning bolts would be their ally, within and without. Mystics spoke of the liberation of Zeus as the inextinguishable brightness beyond the underworld. Dionysus Eleutherios bequeathed his favor through free feeling, ecstasy, and celebration. Eros Eleutherios shot his arrows through the hearts of lovers and the liberation of love was given. And he married the earthbound Psyche before Zeus Himself, whose ambrosia gave her immortality. These gods of Brightness, ecstasy, and love each describe the divinity which grants freedom.
The great goddess Hera also held the name Eilythea, said to be derived from Eleutherios, for the liberating divinity felt in childbirth. A new life is liberated from the womb. Springs near temples often carried the appellation Eilythea—for their purest waters were used in childbirth.
Twenty-seven centuries ago, five generations before the “golden age” was to begin, there was an “Orphic-cleanser and initiator” named Epimenides, the most spiritual of the Seven Sages, who was known to carry the epithet Eleutherios. Though little history was kept, it was particularly noted that Epimenides, “greatest master of all the magically gifted men” came at the behest of the Oracle of Delphi to a plagued-filled Athens on the verge of civil war. It was trumpted how his company held sacred power and he engaged in “potent religious ceremonies of which his wisdom alone knew the secrets.”
Working with the poet and statesman Solon, Epimenides gave the town new laws, to cleanse it from its impurities. It was obvious that the calm ecstasy of his religious power liberated the city from “the polluting spirit.”
Epimenides, the Initiator, hailed from Eleuthernai, “ancient Orphic centre of Kathartic (Purifying) wisdom,” near the cave of Zeus on Mt. Ida above the Minoan expanse. Religious lore tells us of his Orphic mastery and purity: his prolonged fasting, his worship of the “underworld Zeus,” his “god-possessed wisdom,” his divine ignorance, and the transmission of divine communion via the “long ecstasy of his soul.”
And again, upon the behest of the Oracle at Delphi, the Athenians built temple Eleutherios upon the great plains of Platea, commemorating the greatest of all Greek victories for their freedom. And below Dionysus' statue in Athens, sanctifying the birthplace of theatre, was carved the highest Orphic name for the god: Eleutherios.
In November, 2008, a divine-man passed from this life (into Mahasamadhi) who called himself by the ancient mystic name Eleutherios. I sought, came upon, and enjoyed the extraordinary companionship and instruction of Avatara Adi Da, Samraj, Eleutherios (The Descended First Giver, Royal World-Teacher and Liberator) for over three decades.
I was hearkened back to an ancient time as the calm brilliance and mysterious vibrancy of his company initiated in me a graceful process of self-understanding and sacred submission. Via the power of his initiatory and baptismal influence washing us in sheer joy, I began to learn the practice of purifying self-observation “in the face of” his Heart-imbued Presence. In the mysterious vibrance of his company, I came to be convinced of my fundamental and divine Ignorance, emptied in mindless wonder and filled with mindful awe. Because of his Touch, I learned to give my self to divine possession and the blissful paradox of supreme being.
Like in Orphic times, I learned about the internal, subtle anatomy of human potentiality through direct initiation and divine transmission from a Liberator. Like in Orphic times, mystery exceeded knowledge, and I was led beyond the mind to the Source condition of the mind, the world, and the body. Enlightened by the vibrant radiance of this free standing man, I then investigated the mystical origins of the pre-Socratic Mystery schools, using the word “Eleutherios” as a guide. I followed the tree of the mystic wisdom I encountered and what I found is presented here—and in ancient Orphic style—in speech that is more mused than surmised, a rhapsodic song of recollections and revelations.
Let me be very clear about the “academic” nature of these writings. I have read the research and much of the original texts and I choose my words in grounded academics, but my organization and representation is not “academic” in the usual mental way, a collection of “facts” or a scholarly presentation by a learned philosopher. Rather, my renderings of the ancient wisdom are heartily informed by the initiations of spiritual baptisms given to me by Adi Da Eleutherios. This spiritual influence allows me to read the research differently than the usual heady academics or even the early-mental, romantic aesthetics. Indeed, after examining the findings, I proceeded as a forensic artist, reconstructing the religious face of our ancestors with a poetic and spiritual complexion.
There is ancient precedent for this rhapsodic freedom in academic arenas. Indeed, the word “academy” comes from Akademus, an ordinary hero, whose name graces the immense treasured grove outside the city gates—where Plato founded “The Academy”. On the road to Eleusis, just five stadia from the Double Gates, amidst an extensive cathedral of trees, heritage plants, flowers, and the babbling waters of a small river, academic language was originally closer to a rhapsodic gnosis than the collection of provable facts. There, I take my stand once more, speaking outside the city gates, again surrounded by groves, brooks, and divinities, freed of mere mentality by holy mysteries.
The ancient Hellenes noticed that a sound that is too repetitive would soon not be noticed. That which is closest to us is quickly lost in familiarity, they observed. As a Westerner, I am moved to share a sacred inheritance that is hardly recognized by us, invisible in its closeness. This religious origin of logical thinking is often overlooked, or negated by the immature, merely logical mind. The divine knowledge which inspired the West is exalting and liberating like many of the other ways of knowing in the Great Tradition of humanity’s wisdom, but with the added advantage that it is already encoded in Western psyches and in the form of our culture—eminently recognizable and spiritually usable as we re-discover and remember our original religious truth.
Fools are those, Heraklitos exclaimed, that are not in constant intercourse with their own nature. Westerners need not look only to the East for high spiritual issues. The ancients of the West have left Westerners a legacy of truths in dearest terms—one that transmits Being and Truth, the Free and Formless Self-Existing Bright One—Coincident with the infinity of forms which make up the Kosmos and Universe.
This mysterious awareness and understanding beyond myth and mentality which seems to possess us in times of grace and openness grounds the heart-strong glory and logical foundation of our Hellenic legacy. Our ancestors, East and West, opened their feeling and minds and followed the spirit of the body in ascending harmonies to subtle divinities as the body, mind, and intuition became resonant in a pure or erotic unity—and the tongue was set free in this raving joy.
Mentality was thus seen to be the lowest of the “subtle elements,” even as it logically points to spectral dimensions of growth -- where each succeeding dimension holographically integrates and mystically envelops previous levels of adaptation, all the while leading to and enjoying the joyous origin of all thoughts and things. Discovering the roots of my own spiritual tradition in the West inspired me to share this philosophia and theologoia with you.
In the manner of the ancients, I heartily acknowledge the fair-voiced Kalliope who sang me epics, and Klio, the Muse of History, for her sweet visitations. Alas, my telling carries a limitation, a point of view, as all tellings must. From another view, another truth may be trumpeted, but this telling is lost in Delphi. I have stood upon the Temple and I utter these rhapsodies from there. I have laid my hands upon the stone that is transparent to time. Forwith, I do not speak with the authority of a scholar, recounting with exactitude and concluding with certainty, but rather as one who attends a sacred fire, sharing a wonder across centuries.
Accordingly, I cannot extend enough praise to Adi Da Eleutherios, so great were his free gifts to me. I ask you to envision love so intimate — even from afar — that thoughts and breath are shared; so intimate that one is naturally intoxicated with the nectar of love’s perfect embrace and transcendental consciousness. For hours upon end, inviting endlessness, Adi Da’s Company washed and engulfed me in such depth of Heart-Joy and Bright Consciousness that “bliss” is too weak a description.
While the Master of the Mysteries instructed me, inspired me, empowered me and tested me, more than anything that I recall from his company is an unbridled love. Like the love of my family, he held me and every single one absolutely dear. And he set fire to everything that held me from the very Heart. There has been no other gift in my life, no summary of all other experiences and knowledge that compares to the awesome divinity of his loving company.
Because of the glory of my Master, an understanding of human development and history dawned upon me. I came to understand my body's inheritance and, as a Westerner, fell in love with Delphi.
PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction: The Forms of Delphi
Mythological and Historical Accounts of Delphi, the Center of the World
The Ecstatic Dance of Apollo and Dionysus
Rhapsodies on the Ancient Sacred Understanding: The Oracle at Delphi
The Caduceus, “Temple Sleep,” and the Religious Origins of Western Medicine
Orpheus, The Katha Upanishad, and the Secret Way Beyond Death