THE GOD DECEPTION

THE GOD DECEPTION JEROME WHITCROFT 1 2 Dedication To the memory of Josie and John Kunek. Thank you for the kindness and generosity. 3 By the same author Odyssey of Homer The Richest Man Is Matter Real? Parmenides: Is Reality Real, or Ilusion? Language and its Demise The Concept of Time Nestor's Cup The God Deception How to Think The New Dark Ages Troy's Lost Plunder Lose Weight: A How-to Guide Lord Jerome Whitcroft (A.O.) is a philosopher and classicist. His interests include: Philosophy, Literature, History, Studies in Western Traditions, Bronze Age Archaeology, Hellenic Studies, Critical Thinking, Reification and Art Theory. His work includes literary, cultural and humanitarian projects throughout the world. He is committed to the restoration of ancient classical works into their original, Alētheian Tradition. 4 Ideas you now think come from you; However, thoughts are of Self; Mind is their cause, it is true! Homer --- Every thing is of the nature of no thing Parmenides --- Beliefs are millstones: Not milestones. JW --- Stupidity is my entertainment; the world is hilarious. JW ZEUS PRESS GREECE I AUSTRALIA I USA I UK 5 6 THE GOD DECEPTION JEROME WHITCROFT THIS WORK IS ALSO PUBLISHED WITH THE TITLE: PARMENIDES: IS REALITY REAL, OR ILLUSION? Jerome Whitcroft asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including e-mail, internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the author. Copyright © Jerome Whitcroft 2020, 2021, 2022 VPB: 25122022 (Fifth Edition) https://jw334.academia.edu I Enquiries: whitcroft@protonmail.com ISBN: 9798636988007 7 Prelude Whilst this work might appeal to scholars and academics, it was written for the benefit of secondary-school and under-graduate students. It aims to introduce the metaphysical and philosophical concepts of the Ancients that are most valuable to the broadening of young minds. Most of the wisdom contained in this work, together with the study of Critical Thinking, was withdrawn from curriculums deliberately by organised education over the last two generations. 8 Introduction The Ages of Man Who was Parmenides? The Ancients, their Beliefs and Ours: One or Many? The Enigma Schools Pluralism as Reality and Idealism as Actuality Necessity and Context The Problem of Appreciation Restoration: Orthodox versus Original Postscript Keywords: Parmenides, reification, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, critical thinking, concepts, cosmogony, realism, solipsism, materialism, pluralism, separateness, monism, ontology, On Phusis, idealism, mentalism, Xenia, actuality, glamour, education, Mind, epistemology, logic, God, Self, One. 9 10 Introduction It was said: History is written by the victors. In the case of the western world, history was modelled through the agendas of organised religion. Most notably, the history of ancient times was penned by medieval Catholics. The expansion of Christianity through invasion, violence and colonisation resulted in a belief system that has impeded the meaningful development of humanity. Moreover, a culture of control based on fear and doubt of its compliant masses now reigns. The Western Canon1 is the literature which shaped our culture. Upon it our understanding of the world is known; our collective – and individual – beliefs are based on an understanding of those works. What is not widely known is that those works were censored and re-versioned to suit the political agendas of organised religions and orthodox propaganda. Today's education systems support fake history and fictitious science. One's world-view is not consistent with the legacy of the ancient wisdom upon which our reality exists. Imperceptibly, the world becomes more difficult for the vast majority, day by day. Our culture is spiralling, despite its inventiveness. Are we heading in the wrong direction? Are we devolving? Although we have advancements in technology, the vast majority have miserable lives; hunger, poverty, lack, sickness, violence prevail in every society. Deception is the new social currency and corruption is pandemic. For all our intelligence, the world has become dismal for the vast majority. Another major war – a war on humainity itself – has begun. Where did it go wrong? Why is it 11 broken? If one imagines this analogy: That the world is a mirror of its cultural foundations and beliefs, then they are either inappropriate or wrongly understood if the reflection is ugly. Is reality telling us something? Further, if one's TV set is a projector reflecting what is wrong with the world, then, is it time for an alternative world-view, a shift in thinking? A channel change? Perhaps reality, after all, is an illusion as Parmenides proved: the world is not an outside-in experience; it is an inside-out adventure. I put it to you that your understanding of life is based in the belief that reality is comprised of many things. This vast-majority belief is responsible for the world that you seem to be separated from. If that is your belief, then this book is for you. In fact, it contains all of the information you need in life, in order to reveal your true nature, appreciate your purpose and live without fear, in joy. In a world bent on self-interest and deception, perhaps you too were groomed to compete and attain worldly, material possessions on an ivory path of glamour. Your worth is measured by dutiful compliance and economic significance. However, it is never enough and it doesn't last. If you seek answers and a meaningful life, read on. You are supposed to be happy. The ancients' knew better: The only way forward is through giving. One cannot be successful by taking. This principle was established thousands of years ago and is fundamental to humanity. However, it was corrupted, suppressed and remains hidden by those you serve: Ivory Men. The greatest minds and achievers throughout history have known this Truth: Self is omnipotent. Melbourne, Australia Easter, 2020 12 The Ages of Man The first account of human evolution was detailed by the Greek A historian, Hesiod. His life dates are contested, but it is likely that he lived around 750 BC. His poem, Works and Days, defined five epochs, each having a unique cosmogony.B The fifth epoch, that in which we live, is known as the Iron Age. 2 Iron signifying rust and decay, a devolution and corruption of its precursor, the Heroic Age3 in which Homer's allegory,C OdysseyD is portrayed. In the Iron Age, according to Hesiod's warning, the vast majority of humans, epsilons (the fifth-kind) will live miserable, anxious existences. Lack must be overcome by toil. Dishonour, violence, deceit, betrayal, arrogance and anxiety prevail. Humans will no longer feel shame or indignation at wrong-doing; liars and thieves will be rewarded, if not glamourised. It is the age of power and destruction; might overcoming right; glamourE eclipsing the metaphysical.F It is the reign of deception. A B C D E F “Greek”, is a misnomer as there was no notion of “Greece” before the Roman invasions which started almost 800 years later. The word “Greek” comes from the Latin terminology for one whose life was “spared” through the “graciousness” of the Roman invaders around 325 AD. Prior to the Roman agression the people of that culture are more-accurately described as, “Hellenes”. A cosmogony is any model for understanding the source of One's experience of the world; a mental or theoretical construction of existence, a world-view, an order to things, or, simply, beliefs. An allegory is a story which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically revealing a moral, educational or metaphysical message. A story within a story. The word Odyssey is derived from “odoszeus” a compound of two ancient words: Odos, meaning: Way, and zeus, meaning: Self or mind. In translation: One's way, Way of Self, or Way of Mind. Glamour is the quality of fascinating, alluring or attracting especially by the apparent or superficial. Metaphysics, meaning, beyond the physical, is the enquiry into the origin of being; of thought and of mind. 13 As Hesiod and others predicted, the principle of XeniaG – the spirit of goodwill to others – would become subordinated to self-interest. According to Homer and Hesiod, Xenia, the responsibility of kindness, was the evolutionary challenge for humanity. On a personal level it involved mutual respect and kindness between host and visitor. It imposed the duties of protection, generosity and courtesy to be given to anyone, whether a foreigner, a stranger or an associate of the host. The Ancients believed that Xenia must be reciprocated by the visitor; it must not be abused. If so, retribution from Zeus B was inevitable. That process was binary. The modern notion of karmaC has its origin in the Hellenic concept of justice (Zeus-tice). As a metaphor, the spirit of XeniaD was venerated in Zeus, Mind, the “Self-pervading” influence which enforced that principle. Incredibly, Xenia was, and remains, the fundamental paradigm underlying Western culture.4 Its instruction and mandate was, and remains: Help others!E --- G B C D E Xenia is pronounced: Ex - enya. It is the root of the English word: saviour. The name, Zeus, meaning self, also is interpreted as: Mind, or, en-lightener by thought; thought giver, the genesis of thought. In ancient Hellenic (Greek) culture Zeus' gods were the “thoughts” that create One's mental activity. One's mental life is directed by the source of thought, the All-seeing and Self-pervading One-ness: Mind. In the Ancient Hellenic tradition One's experience was inside-out, not outside-in; there is no outer world, only the “seeming” of it. Karma means action, work or deed; it also refers to the spiritual principle of cause-and-effect where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deeds bring suffering. The word Xenia is borrowed from the ancient Hellenic (and modern Greek) concept of philoxenia, meaning: Attracted to: kindness, caring or, giving. Treat other-ness with kindness and respect; be an xenophile, an example in thought, word and deed. An xenophile is attracted to foreign things, such as different styles or people, and appreciates the quality or intrinsic value of that object. The opposite, or perhaps the correspondence, of an xenophile is known as an xenophobe. An xenophobe is unduly challenged by what is foreign, especially of people of different origin, and who fails to appreciate the quality or intrinsic value and significance of that object, and its place within One's reality. 14 The Ancients, their Beliefs, and Ours The Bronze Age Ancients' world-view A is today known as, pan-entheism,5 meaning: All-in-thought, or, All-of-mind. The notion of thoughts – thinking – was the experience of a supreme, primary power: God, Mind, the Subconscious, Nature, or Self which the Ancients named, Zeus. Pan-en-theism means the Universe is a mental experience and includes the appearances of an “external” world. It was mental and material simultaneously: however time, space and matter were only concepts for understanding the moment of One's “experience”. Zeus, the “Self-pervading” influence, was the metaphor B used by the ancient Hellenics (Greeks) for the “Mind”. Zeus's domain was the Universe C (Reality) and was inseparable from thought.D Zeus was primary. It was Mind. It used gods – thought-spirits – known as a pantheon.6 Together they became the invisible Olympians. Zeus' mandate to the individual and humanity was: Kindness and goodwill to others; no harm! Human interaction with those gods (thought-spirits) yielded awareness: A B C D A world-view or cosmogony is any model for understanding the source of One's experience of the world, or universe; a mental or theoretical basis for existence and beliefs. A metaphor is a name or label used to represent something else; an emblem or symbol. The word, Universe, meant: one song, poem or one thought; one thinker. Zeus's domain, the Universe (reality), was inseparable from thought and mentation. The ancient Hellenes (Greeks) believed that Mind works through its agents: gods or thoughts, ideas and concepts: The metaphors of Poseidon symbolising, place, situation, context or contrast - the negative - and the opposing, but complementary Athena symbolising action through inspiration, imagination, and courage. That trilogy would eventually be reified into the “Trinity Doctrine” deities of Christianity after it became an “organised religion” (by the Roman, Constantine I) around 325 AD, which partly corrupted the doctrine and values of Christ's teachings about the pre-Aristotelean tradition of Idealism. 15 feelings, emotions, sensory responses, faculties, rationale, perception and cognitive experience. Where did thoughts come from? Mind. The notion that one was separate from Mind led “individuals” to trouble and suffering through repetition of circumstances, situations. Closely related to pan-en-theism is “solipsism” the state of awareness A that only one thing exists, Self. The modern-world's cosmogony is very different; it is known as “pluralism”.B The vast majority believes that their world is made of an infinite number of things. Concepts (ideas) are used to explain the relationships between these different things which form one's “separated” world. For the vast majority the world is a stream of appearances of “things” rather than the apprehension of a singularity: Self. One may ask: Is One's experience of life physical or mental, or both? Perhaps Parmenides'7 evocative comment explains the difference between those two seemingly opposed world-views: “Through the troubles [travels] of experience, you will learn these things: The notions [concepts] and labels [names] of mortal things are illusions, you'll find, Which will lead to One's true identity, Self-pervading Mind.”C Today, another vast-majority belief (a myth, and a fallacy) is that the Hellenic people (Greeks) in the Bronze Age worshipped gods in religious and devotional ways. Nothing could be further from the Truth.D There was no religious A B C D Solipsism, the awareness that only one thing exists: One's Self. Philosophical solipsism is the monistic doctrine being the most extreme form of subjectivity; that only Self exists. Pluralism, is the belief that One's experience is of separated things; “separation” is primary to the vastmajority's belief system. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief (being a concept fallacy) that things are made of matter; and “substance” is the primary cause of existence. Parmenides of Elea is today labelled as a “philosopher” dedicated to ontology; his writings invoke the ideas of the self - being - as the only thing that can exist, or be experienced. He was an inspiration to Plato, Socrates and many others. Ontology is the study of being. He was an initiate of the Elean Enigma School. Truth (or, Alētheia) refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, The Tradition, and the, Secret 16 devotion or faith, or places of worship or any formal theological doctrine in that era. However, there were shrines, sanctuaries and retreats located in remote locationsA and established for learning and contemplation of existential matters. Those schools were available to anyone seeking enlightenment and were devoted to teachings about the enigma of life. Pan-en-theism was the context of that guidance.B For example, the shrines and sanctuaries of many “Enigma Schools” devoted to “Apollo” (the metaphor for space, light and distance), including Delphi, Bassae, Ithaki were education centres dedicated to understanding the falsity of the concept of space and One's apparent “separation” within it. The many sanctuaries dedicated to Poseidon C were available to those seeking guidance about anxiety, fear and self-doubt. In Bronze Age cultures, Zeus' god's were metaphors for the various thoughts that created One's mental activity, One's experience was directed by the source of thought, Mind. This belief system was discussed in the previous section. Below is a list of the main gods – thought-spirits – that represented Mind's hierarchy and categories of thoughts with their respective qualities and attributes; metaphors, concepts and ideas:D A B C D Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am), Descartes, Pythagoras, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Hesiod, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates and Parmenides, to name a few. In that era, sanctuaries included Dodona, Delphi, Bassae, Ephyra, Eleusis, Olympia, Delos, Ithaki, Brauron, Tiryns, Gortyn, Mycenae, Athens, Corinth, Rhodes, and Orchomenus to name a few of the many hundred. See: Endnote: 4, relating to Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy. Many sanctuaries were dedicated to Poseidon, including: Aegea, Athens, Syros, Sounion, Kas and Eleusis to name a few. By way of a “modern” analogy, curiously, the American Psychiatric Association's, DSM-5, defines and classifies mental activity in order to help diagnosis, treatment and research of mental conditions. 17 Nature, Mind, One-ness, the Subconscious, Id, Mind-fullness, God, Self Zeus: Mind. The genesis of thought.A One-ness. Existence. The Way. The force. It directs and enforces Xenia, throughout One's life experience. One evolves through the process. Reward or retribution. Evolve, or repeat.B Mind (Self) works through its agents: gods or thoughts, ideas and concepts: metaphors ... Athena: Inspiration, imagination, intellect, practicality, reason, positivity, consensus, wisdom, courage, joy, kindness, goodwill. Yes! Those states, thoughts and feelings oppose,C the awareness of: Poseidon: Fear, doubt, anxiety, grief, panic, strife, crisis, despair, desperation, hardship, punishment, devastation, dread, isolation, separation, self centred-ness, negativity, ill-will. No! Then, the lesser “gods” or mental activity through the awareness of: Hermes: Conscience, empathy, shame, pity, guilt, confusion, guile, introspection, clear thinking, originality, suspicion, intuition Apollo: Distance, place, space, multiplicity, separation of things, context, contrast, focus, concentration, light, direction Artemis: Femininity, procreation, protection, perspective, attraction, health and well-being, preservation A B C Modern versions of the “Christian” Bible, and literature of other organised religions, refers to the Logos (word or thought) being the fundamental nature of their God. Refer to Genesis 1:1 and Gospel of John. Where self-interest compromised One's duty of care, Zeus (Mind) evened that imbalance. Reward, or retribution. The ancient Taoist concept of Yin-and-Yang also describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected and interdependent. They balance each other as they interrelate through One's experience as necessary opposites. 18 Aphrodite: Female emotion, love, beauty, sensuality, eroticism, female pleasure, charm, captivation, victor, heroine Hera: Domesticity, envy, jealousy, revenge, female pride, anger, scorn, gossip, expectation, covetousness, security Demeter: Prosperity, bounty, nature, appreciation, generosity, replenishment, charity, tolerance, patience, forgiveness Ares: Force, conflict, violence, deceit, betrayal, stealth, intrigue, strategy, vengeance, control, terror, domination, wrath Hephaestos: Creativity, artistry, male anger, persistence, effort, toil, fulfilment, artistic passion Dionysos: Pleasure, desire, ecstasy, revelry, fertility, eccentricity, excitement, male eroticism, male emotion, lust --From the 6th century B.C. in “Greece”8, so called, and through the Roman era and onward, Zeus has been portrayed as the “paternal” God.A Religious devotion to that “supernatural” and “mythical” entity was developed and expanded with Roman Empire invasions and it continues undoubted by the vast majority today.B Despite what encyclopedias, history books and scholars suggest, the Ancient Hellenes (Greeks) did not believe in a supernatural god and did not have a polytheisticC religion. The fictitious notion of “god” myths was invented by their conquerors and remains an almost universal belief promoted by organised religious – and educational – institutions to this day.9 A B C It is interesting to note that the modern concept of the Christian “God” and the Islamic “Allah”, were induced from the Hellenic “Greek” concept of “Mind” and Self. It is interesting to note that “gods” (or religion) did not exist in the era of Homer. In fact, “gods” were mythologised (invented) by the Peisistratids around 550 BC, some 300 years after Homer and 700 years after the era of Homer's Odyssey, around 1,200 BC. The mythic god, Zeus, was exploited by the Romans when they organised a religion based on a “supernatural” God which later formed Christianity and Islam. Both of those organised religions are based on Enigma School teachings, the Ancient Wisdom and the principles of Idealism. It is estimated that over 2.3 billion Christians and 1.9 billion Muslims believe in a “supernatural” God. Polytheism is the worship of, or belief in, more than one supernatural entity. 19 Simply, there is no evidence of any supernatural religion in those times. None. A very popular, fake god perhaps? But, why? 20 This exquisite image on a preserved, red-figure water jar, A from about 500 B.C., shows Mind in the form of Zeus, directing and balancing one's focus on goodwill - Xenia - through the binary forces of the inspiration of Athena,B illustrated by the owl, a symbol of wisdom, against fear, depicted as Poseidon's Trident, here portrayed as part of a lightning bolt, the metaphor for thoughtsC. A B C Courtesy of: Musee du Louvre, Paris Athena, was also referred to as, Tritogeneia, meaning: one of three, of one; or: one of the three originals. Mentation, or mental activity; Mind being the source of all thought. 21 22 Parmenides: Who, Where, When and Why? Knowledge of Parmenides is uncertain. His profound legacy, About Reality, despite being misunderstood for most of its 2,500 years, ranks as one of the most important works of literature in history, and it is one of the shortest, as only remnants remain. --It is likely that Parmenides was born about 535 BC in Foca, near Izmir, in today's Turkey. In those times, Greater Greece A included many settlements throughout the Mediterranean. Some believe that his family had been persecuted by Peisistratos,10 a dictator-tyrantB of Athens between about 561 and 527 BC, and they fled to Elea, a small coastal settlement located 100 kilometres south of today's Naples, Italy. For a history of Parmenides, Michael Nikoletseas presents a comprehensive summary.11 A B Greater “Greece”, is a misnomer as there was no notion of “Greece” before the Roman invasions which started almost 800 years later. The word “Greek” comes from the Latin terminology for one whose life was “spared” through the “graciousness of enslavement” by the Roman invaders around 325 AD. In Book VIII of The Republic, Plato, who experienced all the forms of institutional authority, detailed that democracy inevitably degenerates into tyranny. Democracy is taken-over by the longing for real freedom where social chaos and inequity prevail. Power is seized to maintain law and order. A champion-of-thepeople emerges and experiences power causing him to become a tyrant. Citizens start to distrust and loathe him and eventually seek his removal, but realise they are not able to do so. The tyrannical “man” is the one who promises democracy, but seeks self-interest from the affairs of others. He is the worst form of human due to unjust and unreasonable behaviour. He is consumed by corruption and lawless desires which cause him to commit deception, theft and murder. The idea of goodwill is not relevant to him. Then comes complete lawlessness. He is consumed by the basest pleasures in life. The tyrant will manipulate and conquer to satisfy his desires, but will eventually overreach and fear those around him, effectively limiting his own safety. The tyrant runs the risk of being killed for all his unjust acts, becoming paranoid he is trapped in his own home; a victim of his own self-imprisonment. In a modern sense, Ivory Men have superseded the tyrant. 23 The Peisistratids were a regime of “reformers” that aggressively sought to unify, through invasion, violence and colonisation, the many Greek – Hellenic – settlements (city-states) into a political super-state; a monarchy. A From Athens, they standardised government and introduced a fascist regime masked as an early form of democracy, so called. Culture and education became state controlled and censored. The military became a tool for control over citizens with the introduction of martial law. Curiously, another of their initiatives was a state-sponsored religion based on the principles of the ancient Enigma schools which the Peisistratids had attempted to abolish. Those Enigma Schools B – also known as the “mystery schools” – had existed in the Mediterranean Basin in the Bronze Age, before 1,200 BC.C The origins of those Enigma Schools located around “Greece” began in Egypt, date many thousands of years, and were probably introduced via the seatrade routes from Crete, Greece's major trading partner in the Bronze Age, before 3,000 BC. However, sanctified or worshipped deities did not exist prior to the Peisistratids. They were the first to religionise “god” myths and mythologise and censor Homer's, Iliad and Odyssey and other metaphysical literature of those times. In that new “idolatry” religion were the seeds that would become Christianity, some eight hundred years later, and 325 years after Jesus Christ. D A B C D Monarchies are based on the Divine Right, the incontestable notion that a monarch is the “agent of God” on Earth. A monarch is not subject to the will of its subjects and is beyond reproach having absolute discretion. A monarch has “supernatural” authority. Modern monarchies, their religious, educational and political systems, are based on that preposterous manifesto. In that era, Mystery Schools – sometimes referred to as “cults” – operated retreats and sanctuaries including: Dodona, Delphi, Bassae, Ephyra, Epidaurus. Eleusis, Olympia, Delos, Ithaki, Brauron, Orchomenus and Ephesus to name a few of the many hundred. These, mostly remote, refuges were visited by people from all over the Mediterranean basin and Europe who sought the enlightenment of the Ancient Wisdom. Most of these sanctuaries were destroyed or modified by pagan invaders and, later, the political, state-backed religion of the Peisistratids and many subsequent orthodox, religious regimes. Enigma Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back before the ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Indus cultures. However, political control and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the metaphysical literature, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek enlightenment. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am) Christ, Descartes, Michelangelo, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Parmenides, Plato, Socrates and Heraclitus to name a few. Christianity became an “organised religion” (by the Roman, Constantine, I) in 325 AD, which partly corrupted the doctrine and values of Christ's teachings about the pre-Aristotelean Tradition, idealism and monism which was based on ancient enigma school teachings. 24 The Peisistratids were responsible for the invention of a fictitious religion based on beliefs in “supernatural”A idols: The Olympians. Zeus, became the over-ruler of supernatural, idolised gods. Originally the metaphor for Mind, in the Bronze Age,B Zeus morphed from the Hellenic political-state in Athens into the Christian's supernatural “God” seven centuries later. Socrates, also was victimised and later killed (in 399 BC) by the successors of the PeisistratidC regime for, “… failing to acknowledge the gods that Athens acknowledges" and, "introducing new deities". Ironically, those new deities were the metaphors of the ancient enigma schools which had been rejected as pagan “cults”. Dedicated to the enigma of Self,D Parmenides recently became the “Father of Metaphysics.”E His method of guidance employs deductive, a priori reasoningF to justify the arguments for the primary nature of Self which was – and remains – the foundational principle of metaphysics and the ancient enigma schools. Parmenides is considered to be the founder G or at least associated with the “Elean Academy”, an enigma school which flourished until the Peisistratid “pagan” purge around 550 BC. However, Parmenides was just one in a very long line of custodians of the Ageless Wisdom and its manifesto, which has withstood 3,000 years of rejection and oppression. A B C D E F G Belief in the supernatural is known as: Supernaturalism: the notion that what One's experiences cannot be explained by laws of nature, scientific discipline or religious enquiry. Today, the vast majority of human beings affirm supernatural, faith-based religions as part of their lives. The Bronze Age lasted from 3,200 to about 1,200 BC and was followed by the Iron Age from about 800 BC, and according to Hesiod, that age continues today as this epoch is related to a cultural retardation of metaphysical principles. The English word, disastrous, has its origin and is named after Peisistratos. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Metaphysics, meaning, beyond or underlying the physical, is the enquiry into the origin of being; of thought and of mind. A priori, means: what comes first, or, what is primary. Other members of the Mystery Schools of that era include Heraclitus, Zeno of Elea, Melissus of Samos, Homer, Hesiod, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Xenophanes. 25 The original work, About RealityH does not exist.I What survived – in the public domain – are written comments, opinions and interpretations. Those works endured (some secretly) for over 2,500 years. The irony of, About Reality's handme-down survival lies in the fact that it was misunderstood and deemed a harmless curiosity piece, particularly by religionists and academics, who failed to appreciate, or purposely suppressed, the profound wisdom within its lines. J That wisdom exposes the frailty and absurdity of the underpinnings of organised religions, ivory-toweredK academia and their mutually dependent education system which has conditioned – and retarded – a meaningful understanding of One's world. Clearly, today, the vast majority of human beings are ignorant of the metaphysical nature of their own existence. A grave pity and shame: lives lived in pursuit of ivory and maintaining fake beliefs, perhaps? The enigma schools – ancient and contemporary – argue that One's Self is all that one can know, and that an external reality is not separated from One's Self. What seems to be many, is One: you, Self. --About Reality is significant throughout the history of philosophy. It H I J K Most scholars and academics insist that the work should be titled: On Nature. However, that title gives a superficial connotation to the context of the work and its significance as it does not allude to the difference between, “what seems and what is”. Perhaps the title should be: The Nature of One. All of the philosophical works of that era have been lost (or are not in the public domain); the limited appreciation of those lost works comes through the doxographical (opinion) works of later philosophers, commentators, and biographers. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle acted as doxographers in order to preserve the integrity of those works and the Tradition from being misrepresented. Hundreds of thousands of articles, opinions and academic commentaries have failed to bring a unanimous understanding of the work's significance or intent. Dissent has always provided fruitful pickings for scholarly enquiry; ivory towers must be maintained and defended, at any cost, it seems. Perhaps the vast majority's understanding of the world is based on fake facts. The, “Gates of Horn and Ivory” was a metaphor used to distinguish true dreams, or trusted thoughts, from false hope or appealing – convenient – ideas that offer the least line of resistance; the easy way out that leads to the madness of the Ivory Tower. The phrase originated in a form of an historical Hellenic (Greek) language, when the word for "horn" was similar to that for “fulfil” and the word for “ivory” was similar to that for “deceive”. On the basis of that word-play, truth comes through the gates of horn: false ideas and beliefs come through those of ivory. This metaphor dates back to Homeric literature, where in Odyssey of Homer, Penelope tells Odyssey: “Stranger, thoughts are dubious things, and most times no truth is born; There are only two gates by which truth unfolds, one is of ivory, the other, horn, Those that come through the ivory gate, are falsities that are sent to deceive; But those from the gate of horn predict what will happen, and are safe to believe.” 26 affected many of the great thinkers: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Bacon, Newton, Michelangelo, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Kepler, Berkeley and Hegel to name a few, because of its indisputable, self-evident truths and its logical purity and validity. Only remnants of, About Reality – known as “The Fragments” – remain in the public domain. They are interpretations and subjective translations by later commentators.12 As noted elsewhere, “...the texts of the pre-SocraticsA were continuously reshaped according to the ideas and purposes of those who cited them.”13 According to M. Nikoletseas, “ ... it is widely accepted that the impact of Parmenides has not fully been evaluated because of the alleged mystical character of his poem and his intentional use of ambiguity.”14 I suggest that the ambiguity arose through the lack of appreciation of its context: the primacy of Self as opposed to the presumption of an exoteric “Reality” prevalent in academic and philological versions since, ironically fore-shadowed within Parmenides' work. Much conjecture by commentators and scholars about style, content, intent and motivation for the work has failed to reconcile the context of, About Reality. Ironically it remains an unfathomable enigma for the thousands of opinionators attempting to unravel its mystery. For example, the scholar, C. Kahn took “an ordinary mortals [exoteric-based] stance” when he suggested that he could not find sense in Parmenides' contrarian, novel work: “ Still, the radical nature of his claims, in both ontology and epistemology, and his acute sense of the distance from the views of ordinary mortals, strongly suggest that Parmenides had experienced a revolutionary insight, which he has chosen to present to us in this imaginative form. As far as I know, we have no real parallel to this proem in the literature of archaic Greece.” 15 --A The word, “pre-Aristoteleans” is a more apposite term because Aristotle's works were foundered on denial of Idealism as they presume “pluralistic” assumptions, nor does it include the works of Plato in a chronological sense. 27 No original texts of any ancient Hellenic (Greek) literature survive. Further, the ancient texts of, About Reality were censored by organised religions, most significantly by the Roman Empire and later medieval Catholics. In turn, this led to the corruption of history, manufactured fake knowledge and languages and thereby our modern beliefs which now retard humanity. The so-called “source” documents we rely upon today are defective and remain deceptive; they read awkwardly and there is much controversy about translation. Do they reflect the ideology of The Tradition? All commentaries remain biased and generally misrepresent the context and manifestos of the enigma schools. Another factor that has hindered a meaningful understanding of, About Reality is the persistent philological problem. A I suggest that Parmenides' legacy has been misunderstood through the corrupting process of subjective translations and re-interpretations over hundreds of years. Also, its philosophical context eludes modern scholars who are preoccupied with subjective translations of corrupted texts through incompatible, unworthy versions of so-called “Ancient Greek” language.B The people of the Bronze Age and through to the 6 th century BC did not speak Greek, but a language which is lost to us. In those times there were hundreds of dialects spoken throughout the Mediterranean basin. A uniform language started through the Peisistratids' reform and consolidation of an expanding “Greater Greece”, from the mid-sixth century BC. In fact, the words, Greek and Greece, came later from a Latin word, graeci, meaning: enslaved or, spared, which the captives of the conquered regions were named after the Roman A B Philology is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics. Philological reification is the outcome of considering that an abstract idea becomes a real or tangible “thing”. Reification (concretism) is induced through the presumption of a belief or concept being real. In critical thinking and logic concretism leads to an erroneous conclusion or belief; a fallacy derived through the sophistry of either a posteriori reasoning or inductive logic, or both. Actually, Medieval Greek, a reified language was invented to standardise the orthodoxy's Christian education agenda. 28 invasions started around 340 BC. It is certain that the “Homeric Greek” or “Epic Greek” language we have inherited was invented in the Middle Ages, between the 5th and 15th century, AD, and most probably standardised around 1,450 AD to codifyA all ancient texts. --This work is also aimed at restoring, About Reality into its prototypical context. It is hoped by this author that students, scholars and educators will appreciate the context of the Parmenidean legacy and move to deconstruct other corrupted ancient works. Then, by reverse engineering the “source code” of Medieval “Greek” language, bring to light the hidden revelations in all the works attributed to the scores of pre-Aristotelean “philosophers” dedicated to the preservation and diffusion of The Tradition.B The establishment of a consistent, new standard of language will provide meaningful contextC to all ancient works. By that paradigm shift much lost ground will be gained for humanity, particularly for One's ontological D status and spiritual heritage. Perhaps Hesiod's prognosis for humanity and Self might be averted. --What remains unappreciated by mainstream academia is that the “fragments” are a summary of excerpted, enigma-school monographs; lessons designed to impart a revelation.E A B C D E Codify, meaning to classify and standardise. The Tradition (or, Alētheia) refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, Truth, and the, Secret Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am), Descartes, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Hesiod, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates and Heraclitus to name a few. Ontological and philosophical contexts that have been suppressed, obscured or lost. Ontology is the awareness of One's state of being, or existence, or One's awareness of being; the study or understanding of: “is-ness”. Revelation, meaning a novel metaphysical principle or proposition. 29 The monographs were provided at enigma schools as part of one's education. NeophytesA would travel to the remote locations throughout the Mediterranean Basin to undertake a course of “instalment” study to obtain “degrees” of knowledge. A degree could require the mastery of understanding up to 30 monographs. Some schools had more than 24 degrees. “Enigma” schools were the fore-runners of the Athenian academies which were later consolidated during and after the Peisistratid tyranny 16 in order to secretly preserve The Truth.B --About Reality was divided into three sections: 1. Proem: About NecessityC 2. Actuality: The Way to Truth (also known as, Alētheia) 3. Reality: The Way of DeceptionD (also known as, Doxa) The Proem features a man on his life journey seeking purpose from a wasted, selfish and competitive existence. Angst-ridden and desperate, he seeks an A B C D Neophytes: Beginners, or, seekers of Truth. Truth (or, Alētheia) refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, The Tradition, and the, Secret Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am), Descartes, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Hesiod, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates, to name a few. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. 30 alternative way of life. The analogy for that individual was Homer's, Odyssey, A the central character of that allegory. Homer's Odyssey was used by enigma schools to symbolise the futility of a selfish, deceptive life. Through Necessity, Odyssey's troubled life led him to “self-revelation” in the final (24th) episodeB of Homer's epic when Athena (his inspiration) asks of his-self:17 “Odyssey, noble son of Laertes, why are you at war with Zeus? Haven't you learned from your lessons? Stop this war against your Self!” Next, Actuality:C The Way to Truth (Alētheia) is the ontologicalD principle and rationale that proved the primacy of One's Self.E Here, the notion of an external Reality is revealed as an illusion, and Parmenides concludes with the incontrovertible axiom: Self is all.F The third division is, Reality: The Way of Deception (or, Doxa, being Opinions) which warns that the beliefs that are relied upon of Reality, are false. Parmenides lists and debunks many commonly held beliefs as deceptions and concludes that the appearance of a plurality is false; there is only one thing; Self. The ontologicalG issues associated with, About Reality expose the fallacy of PluralismH or a pluralistic world-view. That crucial issue was also revealed in A B C D E F G H Odyssey, later known as the Latinised Odysseus, is the protagonist of Homer's Odyssey. The word Odyssey is derived from “odoszeus” a compound of two ancient words: odos, meaning: way, and zeus, meaning: self or mind. In translation: One's way, Way of Self, or Way of Mind. Homer's Odyssey was used by Mystery Schools as an example of the futility of a selfish life. Each of its 24 Episodes was broken down into many monographs for instruction to a seeker of Truth. Outwardly, it is an adventure story, but its true purpose was an esoteric allegory, a fact not known (or to be shared) by academics and religionists. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Ontology is the awareness of One's state of being, or existence, or One's awareness of being; the study or understanding of: “is-ness”. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can not be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Today, this state of experience is known as Solipsism: The solipsistic state is the awareness that only one thing exists: Self. Ontology is the awareness of One's state of being, or existence, or One's awareness of being; the study or understanding of: “is-ness”. Pluralism, is the belief that One's experience is of separated things; “separation” is primary to the vastmajority's belief system. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief (being a concept fallacy) that things 31 Plato's, Parmenides18 where, not only was the distinction between ActualityA and Reality made more positively, but the presumption of plurality in pre-Aristotelean thinking is revealed and debunked; Parmenides suggested, “ex hypothesi, it [experience] is oneB [singular], and not many”19 while Zeno, the protagonist, said, “... that reality is not many.” Socrates 20 compares Parmenides' and Zeno's seemingly disparate arguments which appear to have nothing in common but, “come to very much the same thing ... [for Zeno] states the same position as your own; only by varying the form he tries to delude us that his thesis is different”, exposing the futility of using concepts and hypotheses that are based upon separateness [plurality] exclusively. Also, the pluralist's cosmogony “separates” the interdependent elements of Parmenidean Reality into different “things” thereby conferring “them” with attributes: “qualities” that distinguish them in a seemingly heterogeneous reality. That stepping down into the “material” or “real” through hypostatising the construct – ideas, matter, God, Mind, separateness – is the wandering of the lost through a multiplicity of worldly appearances as Parmenides' goddess alludes to, and warns against. That should alarm us to the polemic that shatters the cornerstone of non-Traditional thought: Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? 21 The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of, reductio ad absurdumC that we are warned against by Parmenides,22 “... you must not assume … that X is solely, and then go on to examine the consequences of your assumption, you must also assume that X is not.” A warning also alerted by Thomas Kuhn 23 and many others in the 20 th century, when pluralism, the pervading world-view paradigm of the vast majority, reached its zenith. This contribution by Parmenides, is perhaps the very first instance of a principle of Critical Thinking in western history. A B C are made of matter; and “substance” is the primary cause of existence. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. “One” in the sense of “Being” as a verb, as opposed to a noun, or a thing. One might be amused at the folly – and irony – of the vain search for the “GOD particle” by modern subatomic particle physicists. A short course in critical thinking might expose the obvious issues and blunders. 32 Plato's arguments unveil Pluralism for what it is: an inductively reasoned way of understanding Reality, and not apprehending Being.A That, of course, equally applies to other world-view constructs. In Dr. Penwill's 24 interpretation, the goddess alludes to and anticipates the popularity of “new” paradigms and their falling short of a real apprehension of Being and eventually becoming redundant: “This ... is how, according to opinion, these things come-to-be and now are; [and] how, having grown, they will eventually come to finish. And for each [concept] humans establish an idea as a thing.” The error, from The Tradition's perspective, of “place” being separated from “thing” is brought out clearly by the paradoxes of Zeno. Zeno's puzzles were not developed to discredit the pluralist's cosmogony solely, but to allude to something far more deceptive: the action-at-a-distance B experience paradox upon which all cosmogonies, except Idealism, C are conceived. Zeno's arguments undermine the proposition of action at a distance and the “effects” induced through the “separateness” delusion, or as Bailey 25 put it, “the Heresy of Separateness.” Parmenides' goddess too reminds us of the certainty of mentation, the power of imagination and the primacy of ideas, “... [imagined] things which are absent [from reality] are firmly present to the mind nonetheless.” --Why are there so many differing “Greek” translations? For a discipline so precise, why so many versions? Whilst the denotations of “Greek” vernacular are A B C Plato does not waste the opportunity to expose that through the dialectic, reinforcing the role of intelligent, balanced discourse in pre-Aristotelean philosophy. The fallacious – but still popular (almost universal) – theory that: “separated” objects interact in space. That theory hatched other induced, reified concepts and fallacious theories by “pop” physicists and other “modern world-view” commentators, who it seems didn't bother to read the primary source. The theory was induced because of a misinterpretation of the ecliptic writings of Isaac Newton who defined and extended Descartes' work, which would become Cartesian Solipsism. Newtonian Solipsism was reified into Newtonian Mechanics. A reading of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (first published in 1687) affirms Newton's philosophical model, reasoned through a questioning, rhetorical dialectic. Although rarely appreciated since, he alluded to the errors of a pluralistic model of reality, and exposed the sophistry of separateness. Idealism, the principle that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. 33 so well standardised they continually fail the test of time. It seems that competitive academia is never content with its-self, NecessityA – the mother of invention – demanding a tweak or nuance to tease-out another meaning which leads to further reificationB of content and the volubility of inconsonant language.26 --The public-domain “Fragments” are so decimated as to quantity and quality that they bear no resemblance to their original scope and intent, however they hold the clues to life's paradox when understood in true context. In order to distinguish denotation and connotation, it was essential to clarify the terminology and meanings used to restore, About Reality, so, its key terms are explained and repeated in the footnotes throughout. That repetition serves to reinforce the presumptions that are essential to appreciating Parmenidean wisdom through its didactic “fragments”. To reconstruct their intent I used an orthodox version: Larry Reedy's work.27 He suggested: “Rarely can an analysis present the source material that it draws upon in its "entirety." The following is a translation of the poem that is representative of mainstream academic consensus. I have added it simply for reference, since context is so important to the study of Parmenides. The translations are taken from Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy edited by S. Marc Cohen, Patricia Curd, and C.D.C. Reeve, with most translations being Curd's.28 Footnotes will indicate original sources [sic (reification)] of fragments.” A B Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Philological reification is the outcome of considering that an abstract idea becomes a real or tangible “thing”. Reification (concretism) is induced through the presumption of a belief or concept being real. In critical thinking and logic concretism leads to an erroneous conclusion or belief; a fallacy derived through the sophistry of either a posteriori reasoning or inductive logic, or both. 34 I have used his “20” “fragments” as they were referenced.A ---- A There are no original sources; they are the remnants of interpretations by latter commentators. Accordingly, this is a reification. 35 36 About Reality The Fragments of Parmenides 37 FRAGMENT ONE: ORTHODOXA PROEM 1. The mares which carry me as far as my spirit ever aspired were escorting me, when they brought me and proceeded along the renowned road of the goddess, which brings a knowing mortal to all cities, one by one. 2. On this path I was being brought, on it wise mares were bringing me, straining the chariot, and maidens were guiding the way. 3. The axle in the centre of the wheel was shrilling forth the bright sound of a musical pipe, ablaze, for it was being driven forward by two rounded wheels at either end, as the daughters of the Sun were hastening to escort (me) after leaving the house of Night for the light, having pushed back the veils from their heads with their hands. 4. There are the gates of the roads of Night [dark] and Day [light], and a lintel and a stone threshold contain them. 5. High in the sky they are filled by huge doors of which avenging justice holds the keys that fit them. 6. The maidens beguiled her to push back the bar for them quickly from the gates. They made a gaping gap of the doors when they opened them, swinging in turn in their sockets the bronze posts fastened with bolts and rivets. 7. There, straight through them then, the maidens held the chariot A Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, 7.111-114. 38 and horses on the broad road. 8. And the goddess received me kindly, took my right hand in hers, and addressed me with these words: “Young man, accompanied by immortal charioteers, who reach my house by the horses which bring you, welcome since it was not an evil destiny that sent you forth to travel this road (for indeed it is far from the beaten path of humans), but Right and Justice. There is need for you to learn all things - both the unshaken heart of well-persuasive Truth. 39 FRAGMENT ONE: RESTOREDA PROEM: ABOUT NECESSITYB 1. The chariot, Mind,C that is my SelfD delivered me through everworsening troubles, far and wide, brought about by desire, selfishness and ignorance; I was like the craftiest fool.E At the limit of desperation I surrendered my attitude and sought another way to make sense of my miserable, meaningless life. 2. Zeus'F daughterG answered my plea with unexpected thoughts, which guided me along the pathway, before unknown. Athena,H A B C D E F G H “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or Ageless Wisdom as learned in the enigma schools. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve existence through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Mind or Zeus or Self, was the metaphor used by the ancient Hellenes (Greeks) for the experience of thought. Zeus's domain, the Universe, is inseparable from thought and mentation. Mind works through its agents: gods or thoughts, ideas and concepts: The metaphors of Poseidon symbolising, place, situation – the negative – and the opposing, but complementary Athena symbolising action through inspiration, imagination, and courage. That trilogy would eventually be re-invented as the “Trinity Doctrine” deities of Christianity after it became an “organised religion” (by the Roman, Constantine, I) in 325 AD, which partly corrupted the doctrine and values of Christ's teachings about the pre-Aristotelean tradition of Idealism. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. The work eludes to Homer's allegorical character and protagonist, Odyssey, a privileged, demi-god and some say, a hero who led a very troubled life. The word Odyssey is derived from “odoszeus” a compound of two ancient words: odos, meaning: way, and zeus, meaning: mind or self. In translation: Way of Mind (or self). Odyssey is a metaphor for the individual, and humanity. Homer's Odyssey, too, is another example in Traditional literature where the folly and difficulties of a pluralistic ontology are revealed. That allegory alludes to separated “place” and “thing” through the metaphors of Poseidon and Athena and the alternating experience that ensues for the troubled Odyssey. The name, Zeus, meaning Self, also is interpreted as: Mind, or, en-lightener by thought; thought giver, the genesis of thought. In Ancient cultures Zeus' gods were the thoughts that create One's mental activity. One's mental life is directed by the source of thought, the All-seeing and Self-pervading One-ness: Mind. Zeus' daughter, Athena, was originally sprung from Zeus' head. An offspring. A thought also, perhaps? Some commentators suggest that Dikē the thought-spirit and metaphor for justice and moral order prevailed over the desperate “seeker”. The first recorded censorship of the Odyssey was by Peisistratos, a dictator of Athens between about 561 and 527 BC, in the Late Archaic period. He standardised Homeric literature and performance art. It is believed that he was the first to religionise and mythologise the Iliad and Odyssey and other literature. That 40 Inspiration,A lit the way. The ember of intuition led me on. 3. Slowly, like the dim warmth of an axle turning in its bearings, and then, later, at a faster pace, the spinning wheel's hub sprung fire and shrilled like a horn. Like Dawn's brilliant light-beams, such was the revelation that threw off the dark veils of ignorance exposing me to the enlightenment of Truth.B 4. I learned of two gates that one must advance through on life's way: The Gate of Ivory, and the Gate of Horn.C The ivory path is the way of glamourD and false appearances, the open gate which all travel upon, following others down into a hell of anxiety and madness. That is Reality,E the easy way of deceptive concepts and false beliefs of an outer – separated – world.F The seeming of A B C D E F censorship coincided with another of his initatives: the institution of state-sponsored religion, also standardised. “god” myths and beliefs in the supernatural did not exist prior to the Peisistratids. This identification as Athena is mine. Others have identified the goddess as a Muse, a goddess who is deliberately anonymous in order to distance her from the “new” Greek (read Roman) deities, and a goddess identifiable by a priori reasoning. Athena, the name means: pointed words, inspiring, emotive and passionate. I have used Athena as the metaphor for inspiration and imagination. Truth (or, Alētheia) refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, The Tradition, and the, Secret Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am), Descartes, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Hesiod, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates, to name a few. The, “gates of horn and ivory” were metaphors used to distinguish true dreams, or trusted thoughts, from false hope or appealing – convenient – ideas that offer the least line of resistance; the easy way out that leads to the madness of the Ivory Tower. The phrase originated in a form of an historical Greek language, when the word for "horn" was similar to that for “fulfil”and the word for “ivory” was similar to that for “deceive”. On the basis of that word-play, truth comes through the gates of horn: false ideas and beliefs come through those of appealing ivory. This metaphor dates back to Homeric literature. In the author's Odyssey of Homer, Penelope tells Odyssey: “Stranger, thoughts are dubious things, and most times no truth is born; There are only two gates by which truth unfolds, one is of ivory, the other, horn, Those that come through the ivory gate, are lies that are sent to deceive; But those from the gate of horn predict what will happen, and are safe to believe.” Glamour is the quality of fascinating, alluring or attracting especially by the seemingly apparent, or superficial. Reality is a world of separated things. That concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Pluralism, is the belief that One's experience is of separated things; “separation” is primary to the vastmajority's belief system. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief (being a concept fallacy) that things are made of matter; and “substance” is the primary cause of existence. 41 otherness leads to a empty dead-end. 5. That troubled path led me to The Gate of Horn which is the way to enlightenment. That is Actuality,A the way to Truth of the selfpervading One-ness.B That gate is fitted with a lintel and a threshold of stone, which keeps its door sealed. Self, alone, is the key that unlocks Truth. 6. Athena, Inspiration, eventually, by NecessityC brought through despair,D encouraged me to satisfy my curiosity, to seek what awaits beyond the lock. 7. When the Gate of Horn opened an upward way was revealed, its portals leading through trials to resolve the enigma of Self.E 8. Athena greeted me with satisfying thoughts; intuitively spoken: “Welcome neophyte, seeker of Truth. You that Destiny sent on your inevitable, solitary way. Zeus did not accidentally put you here, far from the beaten track of those seeking the lustre of the Ivory Path, where things are not what they seem. There is only one way to understand your existence. Come, through the portals,F the enigma awaits your realisation.” A B C D E F Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. One's actual state of Being. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve existence through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Poseidon the metaphor for these states of Mind, or experience: Fear, doubt, anxiety, grief, panic, crisis, despair, desperation, hardship, punishment, devastation, dread, isolation, separation, self-centredness, illwill. No! Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. The “portals” are the courses of lessons (degrees) of learning that One must undertake as a seeker of Truth in the enigma schools, or the bitter experiences of a troubled life on the Ivory Path. 42 [blank] 43 FRAGMENT TWO: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. And the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true reliance. 2. But nevertheless you will learn these too: that the things that appear must genuinely be, being always, indeed, all things. A “Verses” Nine and Ten [one and two above] are identified by their source: Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens, 557.25-558.2 44 FRAGMENT TWO: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Be suspicious of that which is convenient and habitual for it will lead back to the hollow reality you are leaving, where there is only deepening anxiety and madness.B Reject deceptive beliefs that lead to a false and illusory life. 2. Judge through reasoning and experience why this much-disputed proof is the only way to apprehend your true nature: There is not many, only One's Self.C A B C “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or Ageless Wisdom as learned in the enigma schools. This metaphorical place was the Ancients' Hades, which would later become reified into the Christian, Hell. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 45 FRAGMENT THREE: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. Come now, I will tell you - and bring away my story safely when you have heard it: the only ways of inquiry there are for thinking: the One, that it is and that it is not possible for it not to be, Is the path of Persuasion (for it attends upon Truth), 2. The other, that it is not and that it is necessary for it not to be, 3. This is pointed out to you to be a path completely unbearable, for neither may you know that which is not (for it is not to be accomplished) nor may you declare it. A Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, 1.345.18, and Simplicius, Commentary On Aristotle's Physics, 116.28. 46 FRAGMENT THREE: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Heed this: use your nousB to discern and to remember: There is nothing else but Self.C That is the one – and only – principle of existence: Being.D 2. The alternative is that: One is not, which is not possible and cannot be meaningful; that is self-contradictory. Self,E is. 3. Now, you are sceptical of this revelation, for you are ignorant of the flawless reasoning behind that idea, and the irrefutable TruthF that awaits you on your way. A B C D E F “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Nous, intellect and common sense. Solipsism, is the natural state of Self, according to Parmenides and the Mystery School metaphysics. It is the foundational principle of metaphysics. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Truth refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, The Tradition, and the, Secret Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am) Christ, Descartes, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates, to name a few. 47 FRAGMENT FOUR: ORTHODOX Alētheia 1. Also, that goes for the same thing as for thinking and for being.A A Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 6.23; Plotinus 5.2.8 48 FRAGMENT FOUR: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. To think, is to be.B There is only one way to understand Being:C I am: One is. That is incontrovertible. If One thinks, “I am not” then that is absurd, and cannot be; that is self-contradictory.D There is no denying, “I am”. A B C D “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Self, is also the metaphor for Being. Being is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am, I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind or Being. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Here, One must bear in mind the incongruence of the “not-Self”: One's experience is all One can really know; there is nothing else. This axiom would later become the concept of solipsism: the extreme form of subjective idealism. 49 FRAGMENT FIVE: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. But gaze upon things which although absent are securely present in thought. 2. For you will not cut off what is from clinging to what is, neither being scattered everywhere in every way in order nor being brought together. A Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 5.15.5. 50 FRAGMENT FIVE: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. BeingB seems to be of many formsC, but itD is One.E It is not many. 2. The alternative, the seeming of many (the not-selfF) must be denied; SelfG is One-ness. Be cautious of the seeming of many: only One-ness – Self – is not separated. A B C D E F G “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Forms or Objects are concepts based on the notion that more than One's Self exists. Pluralism is the philosophical concept which asserts, contrary to Idealism, that there is more than a single thing constituting One's reality. The belief that One's experience is of things; “separation” is primary. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief that things are matter; “substance” being primary. The pluralist's cosmogony “separates” the interdependent elements of Parmenidean Actuality – indivisible, irreducible, One-ness – into different “things”, thereby conferring “them” with attributes: “qualities” that distinguish them in an apparently heterogeneous reality. That stepping down into the “material” or “real” through reifying the construct - ideas, matter, God, Mind, separateness - is the wandering of the lost through a multiplicity of worldly appearances as Parmenides' goddess – Inspiration – alludes to, and warns against. That should alarm us to the polemic that shatters the cornerstone of non-Traditional thought: Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of reductio ad absurdum and madness. It, being something else, a separated object. Monism is the notion that only a single thing is responsible for One's experience. In the case of Parmenidean Doctrine, that is: Solipsism, the notion that Self is all. Here, One must bear in mind the incongruence of “not-Self”: Self, One's experience is all One can really know; there is nothing else in Parmenides' philosophy. This remark foreshadows Fragment VII, Monograph Six: The Not-self Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 51 FRAGMENT SIX: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. And it is all common to me 2. From where I am to begin; for to there shall I come back again. A Verses Three and Four are derived from: Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, 1.708. 52 FRAGMENT SIX: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Be cautious of the seeming of many: only One-ness – SelfB – is. 2. One-ness is One: Self is One-ness. That is irrefutable. This is the first principle to which One shall – and must – always return. A B “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 53 FRAGMENT SEVEN: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. That which is there to be spoken of and thought of must be. 2. For it is possible for it [Self] to be, but not possible for nothing to be. 3. I bid you consider this: for you from this first way of inquiry but next from the way on which mortals, knowing nothing, twoheaded, wander. For helplessness in their breasts guides their wandering mind. But they are carried on equally deaf and blind, amazed, hordes without judgement, for whom both to be and not to be are judged the same and not the same, and the path of all is backward-turning. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 86.27-28; 117.4-13 54 FRAGMENT SEVEN: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. What can be spoken of, is thought of first. 2. Nothing does not exist: SelfB is self-evident. 3. Heed this: Avoid the negative (reductive and inductive) way of thinkingC which only compounds One's woes. That is the way of “Ivory Men”, those of vacillating thoughts, always in two minds; stupefied, blind and deaf they wander away from Truth,D believing in the opposite of, I am. Ivory Men use concepts to separate the appearance of formsE – objects – in their Reality.F A B C D E F “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Here, Parmenidean doctrine alludes to what is today known as: Reification. It occurs when an abstract idea becomes a real or tangible “thing”. Reification (concretism) is induced through the presumption of a belief or concept being real. In critical thinking and logic concretism leads to an erroneous conclusion or belief; a fallacy. Truth refers to the Ageless Wisdom, a term often used for: Ancient Wisdom, or Mystery Teachings, Enigma Studies, Esoteric philosophy, Gnosis, Divine Knowledge, The Tradition, and the, Secret Teachings of the Ages. It is sometimes referred to as metaphysics; that which is behind One's physical reality. The Mystery Schools have existed for at least 5,000 years, extending back well before the Egyptian, Assyrian and the Indus. However, political agendas and religious censoring and persecution destroyed and corrupted much of the literature of the Ageless Wisdom, forcing its adherents underground. Some of the ancient manuscripts and other documents remain today, for those that seek. Well-known “neophytes” of the Enigma Schools included; Je-sus (I am) Christ, Descartes, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Plato, Socrates, to name a few. Forms or Objects are concepts based on the notion that more than Self exists. Pluralism is the philosophical concept which asserts, contrary to Idealism, that there is more than one thing constituting One's reality. The belief that One's experience is of things; “separation” is primary. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief that things are matter; “substance” being primary. The pluralist's cosmogony “separates” the interdependent elements of Parmenidean Actuality – indivisible, irreducible, One-ness – into different “things”, thereby conferring “them” with attributes: “qualities” that distinguish them in an apparently heterogeneous reality. That stepping down into the “material” or “real” through reifying the construct - ideas, matter, God, Mind, separateness - is the wandering of the lost through a multiplicity of worldly appearances as Parmenides' goddess – Inspiration – alludes to, and warns against. That should alarm us to the polemic that shatters the cornerstone of non-Traditional thought: Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of reductio ad absurdum and madness. Reality is a world of many things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; 55 Reality is what seems, not what is. Self is Actuality.A Concepts are false idols based on separated, divided Being,B and that cannot be.C Be cautious of the seeming of many: One-ness – Self – is all. A B C concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Actuality, Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Parmenidean Being – Actuality – is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. 56 [blank] 57 FRAGMENT EIGHT: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. For in no way may this prevail, that things that are not, are. 2. But you, bar your thought from this way of inquiry. A Plato, Sophist, 242 a. 58 FRAGMENT EIGHT: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Every thing is of the nature of no thing. Things are part of you, not separate. Things are thought, part of SelfB. 2. The Ivory Way is false: Concepts – negativesC – cannot be proved because a negative qualityD cannot exist.E Concepts are not real things. A B C D E “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Self, is also the metaphor for Being. Being is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am, I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind or Being. Negatives, in the sense that a thing can not exist independently of another thing. Here the Action-at-adistance paradox is bought into focus. Induced reasoning forms concepts... Thoughts, mental activity, includes undifferentiated “place-and-thing”. Those elements are only contrasting and are not mutually exclusive, but if named – reduced or induced – into concepts and labelled: light or dark, and these seemingly different qualities – appearances – then each is full of light and obscured darkness, of both, equally, since there is nothing not shared by both.” Being is One-ness. 59 FRAGMENT NINE: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. And do not let habit born from much experience compel you along this way to direct your sightless eye and sounding ear and tongue, but judge by reason the heavily contested testing spoken by me. A Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, 7.114. 60 FRAGMENT NINE: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Reject the way of the sensesB and false beliefs that come from convenience. Redirect your thinking to: What is, is! I am. 2. Do not allow habit and previous routine experience to confound that irrefutable Truth. Notes: 1. The Ivory Way of RealityC follows what is false: In Reality, an object is named by its position in space: not its context of One's experience of Being.D It is known by negative or positive qualities, for example its waxing or waning, according to what seems to surround it.E But, how could an object exist in the absence of space? How could space exist without an object? A B C D E “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. The belief that One's perception is directly related to the “physical senses” being stimulated by an outside agency is still unproved by modern scientists and psychology. Many theories are induced from the presumption of an exoteric world and concepts developed to account for that presumption. However, no proof has been provided. It is the Way of Seeming, that Parmenides and many others have warned about. Reality is a world of many things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. The concept of undifferentiated “place-and-thing” is in fact the foundation of Parmenidean Reality: the elements are only contrasting and are not mutually exclusive. The ancient Taoist concept of Yin-and-Yang also describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are not mutually exclusive; they are actually complementary, interconnected and interdependent. They balance each other as they interrelate through One's experience. 61 How could an object be the opposite of what it is.A 2. In Actuality,B an object should be appreciated for the context of the thought it evokes and represents; all thinking is of Necessity:C there are no unintentional thought-moments. Reality is what seems, not what is. Actuality – SelfD – is.E A B C D E Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of reductio ad absurdum and madness. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve existence through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. As Dr. Sworder offered in his commentary on Parmenidean Reality, “Though we think of each physical object, event and experience as distinct from all others, it is not so.” And further, “The passing of all things which seem through each other and everything else, the homogeneity of seeming, is realised ...”. “Placeand-thing” are contingent and integral to Parmenidean Reality. That construct's elements are both elemental, not separable; it is a concept, a way of thinking which contributes to an awareness of Actuality through the process of mentation, Becoming. 62 [blank] 63 FRAGMENT TEN: ORTHODOXA Alētheia 1. There is still left a single story of a way, that it is. On this way there are signs exceedingly many - that being un-generated it is also imperishable, whole and of a single kind and unshaken and complete. 2. Nor was it ever nor will it be, since it is now, all together One, continuous. For what birth will you seek for it? How and from where did it grow? I will not permit you to say or to think from what is not; for it is not to be said or thought that it is not. What necessity would have stirred it up to grow later rather than earlier, beginning from nothing? Thus it must either fully be or not. Nor will the force of conviction ever permit anything to come to be from what is not beside it. 3. For this reason, Justice [necessity] has Permitted it neither to come to be nor to perish, relaxing her shackles, but holds fast. But the decision about these matters lies in this: it [Self] is or it is not. But it has been decided, as is necessary, to let go of one way as unthinkable and nameless (for it is not a true way) and that the other is and is real. How could what is be in the future? How could it come to be? For if it came into being, it is not, nor if it is ever going to be. In this way, coming to be has been extinguished and destruction is unheard of. Nor is it divided, since it all is alike; or is it any more in any way, which would keep it from holding together, or any less, but it is all full of what is. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 145.1-146.25; 39.1-9 . 64 4. Therefore, it is all continuous, for what is draws near to what is. But unchanging in the limits of great bonds, it is without start or finish, since coming to be and destruction were banished far away and true conviction drove them off. Remaining the same in the same and by itself it lies and so stays there fixed; for mighty Necessity holds it in the bonds of a limit, which pens it all round, since it is right for what is to be not incomplete; for it is not lacking, if it were, it would lack everything. 5. Thinking and the thought that it is are the same. For not without what is, in which it is expressed, will you find thinking; for nothing else either is or will be except that which is, since Fate shackled it to be whole and unchanging; wherefore it has been named all things mortals have established, persuaded that they are true--to come to be and to perish, to be and not, and to change place and alter bright color. But since there is a furthest limit, it is complete, on all sides like the bulk of a well-rounded ball, evenly balanced in every way from the middle; for it must be not at all greater or smaller here than there. For neither is there what is not--which would stop it from reaching its like--nor is what is in such a way that there could be more of what is here and less there, since it is all inviolate; for equal to itself on all sides, it meets with its limits uniformly. 6. At this point I stop for you my reliable account and thought concerning Truth; from here on, learn mortal opinions, listening to the deceitful ordering of my words. 7. For they make up their minds to name two forms for one experience, of which it is not right to name one; in this they have gone astray. 65 8. And they have distinguished things opposite in body, and established signs apart from one another, for one, the aetherial fire of flame, mild, very light, the same as itself in every direction, but not the same as the other; but each other one, in itself is opposite, dark night, a dense and heavy body. 9. I declare to you all the ordering as it appears, so that no mortal opinion may ever overtake you. 66 FRAGMENT TEN: RESTOREDA Actuality: The Way to Truth 1. Only one mode endures: I am. On that path there are many proofs that: What is, is. BeingB is irreducible, indivisible and unified, and is not in another place or time than Self.C It contains no separation. Being has no beginning or end; Self is. 2. Self is a One-ness, ever present, having no other place than you; all at once in the now (kairos)D of Self. There was no beginning of it in time. Where could it have begun? How could you find it? Outside of you? From what source could it come from? Do you think that it came from an absence of itself? For as you have learned, nothing-ness negates Being, and that cannot be. What is, is. And, if Self could come from nothing-ness what could make it seem to be of the past? No, your Being is now as it always is. Therefore, kairos is, it must be part of your NecessityE of A B C D E “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Self is the first principle. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that one can't be separate from thought, Mind. Time or “Kairos” meaning the right or destined moment. The ancients had two explanations of Time: chronos and kairos. The former refers to chronological - or sequential - experience of reality, a concept. The latter signifies the ordained moment when an event within One's reality is experienced. The distinction lies in the belief that One's experience of reality is predetermined - and primary - as all “moments” are subjective. Sequential time is not subjective, but nominal, and used as a concept, or label, for sharing the experience of kairos, the moment. Consider the difference through this analogy: If time is to: climate, then kairos is to: weather. It's about the moment, the context, of One's immediate experience. For example, the modern theory that “memories” are recalled from a past stored in the brain, as opposed to the ancient Greek idea that a memory is part of the ever-present now of Mind. Where do thoughts originate? Modernist's brain, or Ancients' Mind? Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve existence through compassion; 67 experience: The moment is! Its context is now. The notion of now cannot be in the past or belong to the future; the past and future are of the age-less now. Being is always in the present. Self cannot, not be! Self is imminent. Self, does not have random, trivial thoughts: all thinking is of Necessity and context. One's awareness of the context depends on relevance of the moment: Why this thought? Why now? Cherish this moment for what it holds and hides. 3. Surely, you will avoid the Ivory Path and its false lustre, now that the road to Truth is in front of you. How will you use this wisdom? What is to be learned from Truth. Or, will you return to where you were, forgetting the challenge of the true path of One's Destiny. 4. Either way, BeingA will be; Self is. It cannot be extinguished, divided, forgotten, discovered, replaced, added to, multiplied, diminished, destroyed, denigrated, for, what is, is. It is unchangeable. 5. Further, SelfB is autonomous and unbound, remaining constant through change, NecessityC determining the context of the A B C evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Self is the first principle. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. 68 moment, the now of Self becoming. Only One-ness – Self – is. 6. From here I end my discourse on the Way of Truth. Now, through the remaining monographs, I shall expose the folly of the vast majority's beliefs. Pay heed to the wisdom of my words. 7. Ivory MenA convince Mortals to believe in the many:B Reality,C for them is the appearance of objects in space. But, these things should not be considered as primary. That is where mortals go astray. There is only One-ness; that is fundamental and primary. Self is primary. There is nothing else. 8. Mortals consider that objects are separated and that space is also separate from Self. They assign to objects – and their absences – names that seem to distinguish each object from another object is known by its qualities; its apparent shape or extension, its colour, its size, its form, but the differences are superficial and everchanging. An object's position is known by its seemingly independent action. It seems to be many of itself: however, it is not so. Whilst Reality seems obvious and natural, and most through un-examined belief will agree, it is not provable and cannot be so. Reality is not real; it is a deceptive and illusory state of mind. A B C Ivory Men, glamour merchants, concept fabricators and adherents. Forms or Objects are concepts based on the notion that more than Self exists. Pluralism is the philosophical concept which asserts, contrary to Idealism, that there is more than One thing constituting One's reality. The belief that One's experience is of things; “separation” is primary. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief that things are matter; “substance” being primary. The pluralist's cosmogony “separates” the interdependent elements of Parmenidean Actuality – indivisible, irreducible, One-ness – into different “things”, thereby conferring “them” with attributes: “qualities” that distinguish them in an apparently heterogeneous reality. That stepping down into the “material” or “real” through reifying the construct - ideas, matter, God, Mind, separateness - is the wandering of the lost through a multiplicity of worldly appearances as Parmenides' goddess – Inspiration – alludes to, and warns against. That should alarm us to the polemic that shatters the cornerstone of non-Traditional thought: Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of reductio ad absurdum and madness. Reality is a world of many things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. 69 FRAGMENT ELEVEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. But since all things have been named light and night and the things which accord with their powers have been assigned to these things and those,all is full of light and obscure night together, of both equally, since neither has no share [of the other]. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 180.9-12. 70 FRAGMENT ELEVEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. In Reality, an object (thing) is named by its position in space: not its context of One's Being.C It is known by negative or positive qualities, for example its waxing or waning, according to what seems to surround it.D But, how could an object exist in the absence of space? How could space exist without an object? How could an object be the opposite of what it is.E Notes: 1. The Ivory Way of RealityF follows what is false: In Actuality,G an object (the element of what is perceived within a scene) should be appreciated for the context of the thought it evokes or A B C D E F G “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. The concept of undifferentiated “place-and-thing” is in fact the foundation of Parmenidean Reality: the elements are only contrasting and are not mutually exclusive. The ancient Taoist concept of Yin-and-Yang also describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are not mutually exclusive; they are actually complementary, interconnected and interdependent. They balance each other as they interrelate through One's experience. Does the thing belong to its qualities? Or, do the qualities belong to the thing? The effect of reification leads only into the infinite, spiral regression of reductio ad absurdum and madness. Reality is a world of many things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. 71 represents; all thinking is of Necessity:A there are no unintentional thought-moments. To be clear: Reality is what seems, not what is. Actuality – Self B– is.C 2. The concept of undifferentiated “place-and-thing” is in fact the foundation of Parmenidean Actuality: the elements are only contrasting and are not mutually exclusive. The ancient Taoist concept of Yin and Yang also describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are not mutually exclusive; they are actually complementary, interconnected and interdependent. They balance each other through the interrelation of One's experience. A B C Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. As Dr. Sworder offered in his commentary on Parmenidean Reality, “Though we think of each physical object, event and experience as distinct from all others, it is not so.” And further, “The passing of all things which seem through each other and everything else, the homogeneity of seeming, is realised ...”. “Placeand-thing” are contingent and integral to Parmenidean Reality. That construct's elements are both elemental, not separable; it is a concept, a way of thinking which contributes to an awareness of Actuality through the process of mentation, Becoming. 72 [blank] 73 FRAGMENT TWELVE: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. You shall learn the nature of the aether and all the signs in the aether and the destructive deeds of the shining sun's pure torch and whence they came to be. 2. And, you shall learn the wandering deeds of the round-faced moon and its nature. 3. And, you shall know also the surrounding heaven,from what it grew and how Necessity led and shackled it to hold the limits of the stars. A Clement ofAlexandria, Miscellanies, 5.14 74 FRAGMENT TWELVE: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. Ivory MenC will convince you to believe in an infinite, separated space. 2. Ivory Men convince you to believe that the astronomical constellations of stars, Sun and Moon came from nothingness and are separated from you.D Those theories are falsehoods and absurd. They have no beginning and are in no other place than Self.E 3. The astronomical exists because of you. The universe is not separated from Self. Self is infinite; Being is One-ness. Space does not exist independently. --A B C D E “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Ivory Men, concept fabricators and adherents. The fallacious – but still popular (almost universal) – theory that: “separated” objects interact in space. That theory hatched other induced, reified concepts and fallacious theories by “pop” physicists and other “modern world-view” commentators, who it seems didn't bother to read the primary source. The theory was induced because of a misinterpretation of the ecliptic writings of Isaac Newton who defined and extended Descartes' work, which would become Cartesian Solipsism. Newtonian Solipsism was reified into Newtonian Mechanics. A reading of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (first published in 1687) affirms Newton's philosophical model, reasoned through a questioning, rhetorical dialectic. Although rarely appreciated since, he alluded to the errors of a pluralistic model of reality, and exposed the sophistry of separateness. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 75 Notes: 1. Here one might draw upon the work of Max Jammer 29 in his study of the history of the concepts of space, in which he exposes the reificationA process which renders science as futile if it continues to depend upon it as a fundamental presumption. Space is not a real thing; it is a concept, a mental construct. The Way of Ivory is absurd and futile. It leads One into meaninglessness and madness; reification leading to, reductio ad absurdum. A Reification is the outcome of considering that an abstract idea becomes a real or tangible “thing”. Reification (concretism) is induced through the presumption of a belief or concept being real. In critical thinking and logic concretism leads to an erroneous conclusion or belief; a fallacy derived through the sophistry of either a posteriori reasoning or inductive logic, or both. 76 [blank] 77 FRAGMENT THIRTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. [You shall learn] … how Earth and Sun and Moon and the aether which is common to all and the Milky Way and furthest Olympus and the hot force of the stars surged forth to come to be. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens, 559.22-25. 78 FRAGMENT THIRTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. Ivory MenC will convince you that the astrological constellations of stars, Sun and Moon came from nothing and are haphazard, having no purpose. Ivory Men do not accept DestinyD and its Wheel of Fortune.E However, they are of Necessity; bringing One's experience of Self.F Notes: 1. The Way of Ivory is absurd and futile. It leads One into meaningless-ness and madness. A B C D E F “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Ivory Men, concept fabricators and adherents. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered in situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as to opposing self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. The Wheel of Fortune (or Destiny) is the Zodiac which is a metaphor – an externalisation – Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 79 FRAGMENT FOURTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. For the narrower were filled with unmixed fire*. 2. The others next to them with night, but a due amount of fire (light) is inserted among it. 3. And in the middle of these is the goddess who governs all things. Notes: 1. * Fire, or Celestial Fire, is an ancient metaphor for emotion and its purging process, just as quenching Water was the metaphor for thought and wisdom. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 39.14-16 80 FRAGMENT FOURTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. The narrow minded on the Ivory Path suffer emotion (celestial fireC) purging their Being.D One's most common thoughts are emotional, by Necessity.E Emotion stems from desire. Desire is based on the ignorance of SelfF. Ignorance of Self leads to this heresy: The illusion of a RealityG of separated things.H 2. The Way of Horn has less trouble. One suffers less. A B C D E F G H “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Fire, the metaphor of emotion. The world of seeming is an emotional place based on One's vacillating thoughts of the Ivory Way. Being, the awareness of Self; One's existence or experience. It is based on: Idealism, the philosophical notion that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered by situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as opposed to self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Reality is a world of many things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. His ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being – Self – is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Plurality or Pluralism, is the fallacious belief that One's experience is of separated things; “separation” is primary to the vast-majority's belief system. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief (being a concept fallacy) that things are made of matter; and “substance” is the primary cause of existence, yet this theory has not been proved. 81 3. Either way, that is the Necessity of, The Way of Deception: the seeming. The Way of Ivory is futile and malignant. It leads One through suffering to meaninglessness, then madness. 82 [blank] 83 FRAGMENT FIFTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. For she rules over hateful birth and union of all things, sending the female to unite with male and in opposite fashion, male to female. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 31.13-17 84 FRAGMENT FIFTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. NecessityC from birth compels One along the Ivory Way. Necessity brings temptation; prevailing self-interest brings only pain and suffering, like the sexual attraction between male and female, first passionate bonding, then, later, cold regret. If One acts out of self-interest suffering will prevail.D Notes: 1. What One does to another, One does to Self.E There is no other; Self is all: All is Self. A B C D E “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Inspiration, the Ancient's metaphor was Athena, thoughts that inspire and lead One through Necessity. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered by situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as opposed to self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. Zeus's domain, the Universe (reality), was inseparable from thought and mentation. The ancient Greeks believed that Mind – Self – works through its agents: gods or thoughts, ideas and concepts: The metaphors of Poseidon symbolising, place, situation, context or contrast - the negative - and the opposing, but complementary Athena symbolising action through inspiration, imagination, and courage. That trilogy would eventually be reified into the “Trinity Doctrine” deities of Christianity after it became an “organised religion” (by the Roman, Constantine I) around 325 AD, which partly corrupted the doctrine and values of Christ's teachings about the pre-Aristotelean tradition of Idealism. Refer to the Pantheon of Mind on Page X Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. 85 2. The Way of Ivory is futile and malignant. It leads One through suffering to meaninglessness, then madness. 3. Surely, you will avoid the Ivory Path and its false lustre, now that the road to Truth is in front of you. How, will you use this wisdom? What is to be learned from Truth? Or, will you return to where you were, forgetting the challenge of the true path of Destiny? How long can you suffer? 4. One path endures, The Way of Horn, which leads to Self. 86 [blank] 87 FRAGMENT SIXTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. First of all gods she contrived Love. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics, 39.18 88 FRAGMENT SIXTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. NecessityC brings desire. A B C “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered by situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as opposed to self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. 89 FRAGMENT SEVENTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. Night-shining foreign light wandering round earth. A Plutarch, Against Colotes, 1116A. 90 FRAGMENT SEVENTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. It seems that the Moon has motion at a distance from One's Self.C Notes: 1. The action-at-a-distanceD theory is akin to the ancient's understanding of the illusion of separated “place” and “thing” which Parmenides and others warned against. Nothing new under the Sun? 2. Here Parmenides alluded to the action-at-a-distance paradox. That fallacious – but still popular (almost universal) – theory that: “separated” objects interact in space. That theory hatched other induced, reified concepts and fallacious theories by “pop” physicists and other “modern world-view” commentators, who it A B C D “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. The fallacious – but still popular (almost universal) – theory that: “separated” objects interact in space. That theory hatched other induced, reified concepts and fallacious theories by “pop” physicists and other “modern world-view” commentators, who it seems didn't bother to read the primary source. The theory was induced because of a misinterpretation of the ecliptic writings of Isaac Newton who defined and extended Descartes' work, which would become Cartesian Solipsism. Newtonian Solipsism was reified into Newtonian Mechanics. A reading of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (first published in 1687) affirms Newton's philosophical model, reasoned through a questioning, rhetorical dialectic. Although rarely appreciated since, he alluded to the errors of a pluralistic model of reality, and exposed the sophistry of separateness. 91 seems didn't bother to read the primary source. The theory was induced because of a misinterpretation of the ecliptic writings of Isaac Newton who defined and extended Descartes' work, which would become Cartesian Solipsism.A Newtonian Solipsism was reified into Newtonian Mechanics. A reading of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (first published in 1687) affirms Newton's philosophical model, reasoned through a questioning, rhetorical dialectic. Although rarely appreciated since, he alluded to the errors of a pluralistic model of reality, and exposed the sophistry of separateness. A Solipsism, the awareness that only One thing exists: One's Self. Philosophical solipsism is the monistic doctrine being the most extreme form of subjectivity; that only self exists. 92 [blank] 93 FRAGMENT EIGHTEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion of Reality) 1. Always looking towards the rays of the sun. A Plutarch, Against Colotes, 1116A. 94 FRAGMENT EIGHTEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. The appearance of “things” is always dependent on the notion of “light” or illumination. Notes: 1. The concept of “light” has always been troublesome for science, since Isaac Newton cast doubt over its existence in Opticks.30 Indeed, space, place, distance, extension, multiplicity, length, breadth, dimension, quantity, mass, form, body, matter, gravity, light, energy, atoms, electrons, photons, consciousness and other “qualities” are a few of the offceptsC that have developed the bewildering complexities of the “modern” cosmogony which is rooted in the materialistic values of Pluralism.D Those constructsE (developed for consensus through NecessityF) are all A B C D E F “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. I have coined the word, “offcept” to distinguish the “child” concept induced through necessity to compensate for the inadequacies of the “parent” theory, premise or concept. In essence, an offcept is the offspring of successive reifications. Perhaps poor parenting portends perfunctory progeny. Plurality or Pluralism, is the fallacious belief that One's experience is of separated things; “separation” is primary to the vast-majority's belief system. It is often confused with Materialism, the belief (being a concept fallacy) that things are made of matter; and “substance” is the primary cause of existence, yet this theory has not been proved. The offcepts of science and physics above, all remain unproved. None have been experienced; they are a posteriori beliefs, that is: induced – reified – concepts. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered by situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as opposed to self-interest. Moros, 95 induced on the fallacious, action-at-a-distanceA hypothesis which has become an embarrassing anathema for pluralistic science and Ivory Way physicsB spiralling its-self into reductio ad absurdum. A B through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve existence through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. The fallacious – but still popular (almost universal) – theory that: “separated” objects interact in space. That theory hatched other induced, reified concepts and fallacious theories by “pop” physicists and other “modern world-view” commentators, who it seems didn't bother to read the primary source. The theory was induced because of a misinterpretation of the ecliptic writings of Isaac Newton who defined and extended Descartes' work, which would become Cartesian Solipsism. Newtonian Solipsism was reified into Newtonian Mechanics. A reading of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (first published in 1687) affirms Newton's philosophical model, reasoned through a questioning, rhetorical dialectic. Although rarely appreciated since, he alluded to the errors of a pluralistic model of reality, and exposed the sophistry of separateness. The action-at-a-distance theory is akin to the ancient's understanding of the illusion of separated “place” and “thing” which Parmenides and others warned against. Nothing new under the Sun? 96 [blank] 97 FRAGMENT NINETEEN: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. For as each person has a mixture of much wandering limbs, so is thought present to humans. 2. For that which thinks – the constitution of the limbs – is the same in all humans and each one; for which is more is thought. 3. The goddess brought boys into being on the right side of the uterus, girls on the left.B A B Theophrastus, On the Senses, 3 Galen, Commentary on Book VI of the Hippocrates' Epidemics II, 46. Edited by Curd. 98 FRAGMENT NINETEEN: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. One will be led to believe that the sensory faculties perceive stimulation as it appears that others have senses too. 2. However, all sensation is caused in Mind.C 3. NecessityD divides offspring and gender as required. Notes: 1. The modern approach is opposite to the Ancient's understanding: Cognition is primary, then perception followed by sensation as part of One's “stream of consciousness”. William James, 31 and many others in the early 20th century, introduced this paradigm to the “new” field of psychology. This irrefutable doctrine was reversed by the Ivory Men who started the corporatisation of A B C D “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Self, is the metaphor for Mind. Mind is synonymous with Self. An idea re-kindled by René Descartes at the end of the Dark Ages in his reflexive argument: I think; therefore I am: I am; therefore I think. His point was that One can't be separate from thought, Mind. Self is the first principle. Destiny or Necessity is associated with Moros, the metaphor of an underlying purpose of One's life. It is administered by situations that require an act of goodwill or kindness, as opposed to self-interest. Moros, through Zeus, the metaphor for Self, continually compels One to improve One's life through compassion; evolve or repeat is the mandate. Later mythological explanations had the Moirai (Fates) superior to Zeus. Moros became the only force that Zeus truly respected and dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered as the plan behind Zeus. Moros' opposite is Elpis the metaphor of Hope and goodwill. Hope and other “thought-spirits” were trapped in a jar by Zeus who entrusted it to the care of the first human woman Pandora (the famous Christian Eve). When she opened the vessel all of the Spirits escaped (causing an epidemic of selfishness and trouble), except for Elpis (Hope) who remained behind to comfort humanity. 99 education in the USA, and beyond, after World War One. Today it is no longer taught in the context William James intended. 2. The concept of IdealismA is not new to humanity; it grew out of Parmenidean Solipsism,B which foreshadowed Plato's work. 3. There is no uncertainty as to continuity and diversity of Self. A B Idealism, the principle that One's experience is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. It is primary and not reliant upon other concepts or the “physical” senses. It is the anti-thesis of Pluralism. Solipsism, the awareness that only One thing exists: One's Self. Philosophical solipsism is the monistic doctrine being the most extreme form of subjectivity; that only self exists. 100 [blank] 101 FRAGMENT TWENTY: ORTHODOXA Doxa (False opinion) 1. In this way, according to opinion, these things have grown and now are and afterwards after growing up will come to an end. 2. And upon them humans have established a name to mark each thing. A Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens, 558.9-11 102 FRAGMENT TWENTY: RESTOREDA The Illusion of Reality: The Way of DeceptionB 1. The Ivory Way, the deceptive way, takes ideas and reifies C them into “real” things. Eventually they must be cast off as unsuitable and false, then replaced with offcepts.D 2. The Ivory Way is paved with false concepts. Notes: 1. As Dr. Sworder32 offered in his commentary on Parmenidean Reality, “Though we think of each physical object, event and experience as distinct from all others, it is not so.” And further, “The passing of all things which seem through each other and everything else, the homogeneity of seeming, is realised ...”. “Place-and-thing” are contingent and integral to Parmenidean Reality. That construct's elements are both elemental, not separable; it is a concept, a way of thinking which contributes to A B C D “RESTORED” means presented in a version consistent with The Truth or The Tradition as learned in the enigma schools. Deception, doxa and Illusion are synonymous with superficial awareness and understanding of One's Reality; a world seeming to be of many separated things. The concept is opposed to Parmenidean Being – Actuality – which is a continuous and unchanging irreducible wholeness: Self, to which space, substance and time are abstractions; concepts. Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. Here, Parmenidean doctrine alludes to what is today known as: Reification. It occurs when an abstract idea becomes a real or tangible “thing”. Reification (concretism) is induced through the presumption of a belief or concept being real. In critical thinking and logic concretism always leads to an erroneous conclusion or belief; a fallacy. I have coined the word, “offcept” to distinguish the “child” concept induced through necessity to compensate for the inadequacies of the “parent” theory, premise or concept. In essence, an offcept is the offspring of successive reifications. Perhaps poor parenting portends perfunctory progeny. 103 an awareness of ActualityA through the process of necessity, Becoming. 2. In Dr. Penwill's33 interpretation, the goddess alludes to and anticipates the popularity of “new” paradigms and their falling short of a real apprehension of Being and eventually becoming redundant: “This ... is how, according to opinion, these things come-to-be and now are; [and] how, having grown, they will eventually come to finish. And for each [concept] humans establish an idea as a thing.”34 or, my translation: “Through the troubles of experience, you will learn these things: The notions [concepts] and labels [names] of mortal things are illusions, you'll find, Which will lead to One's true identity, Self-pervading Mind.” --- A Parmenidean ontology does not preclude the existence of a reality: that is elemental to it, but it does allude to the appearances of reality being superficial and illusory; the “way of seeming” is unreliable. If “seeming” is Reality, then Being is Actuality in Parmenidean doctrine and context. 104 Postcript As I suggested elsewhere: 35 These Ancient understandings of One's everchanging being – experience – were models developed to reveal context within One's world. However, perhaps we have lost the Word,A the clue to One's spiritual heritage and true identity through an overwhelming dependency upon the apparent; the exoteric, sense-driven world, and its erroneous and deceptive beliefs. The superficial modes of understanding existence and “being” have been induced into Western thought as “real” things against the incontrovertible truth: Only SelfB exists. Perhaps, as Bailey implied, the illusion of separated “thing” and “place” has its correspondence in the reified psychological condition of self-consciousness and of separation for the sense-reliant “individual”. The medium of the “not-self” is exposed as an illusion, but also an evolutionary dynamic.36 Modern science, religion – and contemporary education – are based on the presumption of pluralism. The metaphysical perspective has all-but been abandoned. The vast body of academic work over the last century (which has been predicated on the Oxford ModelC) is mostly redundant; an incomprehensible waste of resources and lives supporting the crumbling edifice of Ivory Tower-based education. That culture, based on erroneous assumptions, must take responsibility A B C Self, perhaps? Self is synonymous with Mind, Zeus and Being in Monistic doctrine. The “Oxford Model” is the fallacious convention that a pluralistic interpretation of reality should be primary. 105 for the World's condition. What is believed by the vast majority is based on ignorance, fallacies and deception. Within the Bible, history's most censored and corrupted literary work, many truths and much wisdom survives: "And One that hears the [Truth] sayings of mine, And do-eth them not, Shall be likened unto a foolish [Ivory] man, Which built his house upon the sand:"A The unchecked process of reification – deception – has separated us from nature, the meaning of existence and One's true identity. Perhaps, however, the current, seemingly dystopian B world-view of the vast majority is an effect of Necessity. Remember, there is nothing but Self. XeniaC remains the key to reversing One's suffering; Help your Self. If One's outside-in world is meaningless, troubled or shallow perhaps One might make an effort to think, inside out. --- I leave One with an insight of Albert Einstein: "I hold it to be true that pure thought is competent to comprehend the real, as the Ancients dreamed." A B C The Bible, Matthew 7:26 Dystopian, meaning a society characterised by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease and overcrowding. The word, Xenia is borrowed from the ancient (and modern Greek) concept of philoxenia, meaning: Attracted to: kindness, caring or, giving. By giving, One receives. 106 Notes 107 Notes 108 1 2 3 4 5 The Western Canon are the foundational works of art and literature which form the basis of western culture. Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, The Bible, and works of ancient philosophers are the most significant. The Iron Age commenced at about the end of the Bronze Age of archaeological dating, around 1,100 BC. The Ages of Man: According to Hesiod's predictions, the modern era is the age of suffering: “… Mind made a fifth generation of men, and with it began, after the Bronze and Heroic Ages, the Age of Iron. It is said that all evil burst forth into this baser age, which is our own: Men never rest from labor and sorrow by day, and from exhaustion by night. Modesty, truth, and faith leave the earth, and in their place come tricks, plots, traps, violence, and unbridled love of profit. The ground, which had been common possession, is now neatly marked with boundary-lines. Men demand of the fields, not only the sustenance they provide with their surface, but also what is in the very bowels of the earth, bringing to light the wealth buried and hidden away by the gods. Iron and Gold: Not only hard iron came with this age; but also gold, which is even worse than iron. And with both war came, and so men found it natural to live on plunder: The guest cannot trust his host, and affection among brothers became rare. The husband started longing for the death of his wife, and she for the death of her husband. Piety was vanquished, and Dike - the last of the invisibles - left the Earth. Doomed to destruction: If the duty-of-care principle is not honoured, Mind will destroy this race of mortals too: For the father will not agree with his children, nor the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade, nor will brothers love each other as once they did. Men will dishonour their parents as they attain old age, without repaying them the cost of their nurture. Might shall be right, so that one man may sack another man's city. There will be no merit for the man who keeps his word, or for the just, or for the good; rather, men will praise the evil-doer and admire his audacity and violent dealings. Strength will be right, and respect will vanish as an empty word. Peace is banished and inspirational thoughts will cease, leading to a life of anxiety. The wicked will hurt the worthy, speaking false words against them; therefore will envy walk along with them. Anxiety will forsake mortal men, letting bitter sorrows fall upon them; and being defenceless like children in the wilderness, they will not find any help against all evil they themselves created.” Western culture is based on the foundational works of art and literature known as the Western Canon, of which Homer's epics, the Iliad and Odyssey are the most significant. But why? What do they represent? Panentheism, see: The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley (1945). As Huxley stated, “The metaphysical recognises a divine reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent basis of all being - the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the Perennial may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher 109 6 7 8 9 10 religions. A version of this Highest Common Factor in all preceding and subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago, and since that time the inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the principal languages of Asia and Europe. In the next paragraph, Huxley summarised the problem more succinctly, saying: "Knowledge is a function of being." In other words, if you are not suited to knowing something, you do not know it. This makes knowing the Ground of All Being difficult, in Huxley's view. Therefore, he concludes his Introduction with: “If one is not a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge.” A pantheon of gods is a common element of polytheistic societies that believed in supernatural gods. The “Greek Pantheon” was a concept developed by the Romans. The ancient Hellenic culture – prior to the sixth century BC – was monistic (monotheistic) accepting the primacy of Mind as its fundamental concept. Monism is the concept that only a single thing exists, Mind (or Self), which can't be divided into many things. Parmenides lived in the 6th century, BC, and furthered the study of ontology, the understanding of Being. He was deeply influenced by the philosophy and wisdom of Homer. He was an initiate of the Elean Mystery School. The first recorded censorship of the Odyssey was of Peisistratos, a popular dictator of Athens between about 561 and 527 BC, in the Late Archaic period. He standardised Homeric literature and performance art. It is believed that he was the first to religionise and mythologise the Iliad and Odyssey and other literature. That censorship coincided with another of his initatives: the institution of state-sponsored religion, also standardised. There is no evidence of “god” myths and beliefs in the supernatural existing prior to the Peisistratids' purges. See: The God Deception, J. Whitcroft, Zeus Press, Los Angeles, USA, 2020 Refer to: Philosophy before Socrates: an introduction with texts and commentary. Richard D. McKirahan (2nd ed.) Hackett, Indiana (2010) Page: 373 [… A person reading Pindar would hardly suspect that the heyday of the aristocracy would soon be over. Already in Athens a century earlier Solon’s political reforms (594) had severely limited traditional aristocratic rights and had given a political voice and role to a much larger segment of the community. While Pindar was writing his poetry, the Athenians adopted Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms (508) designed to put an end to the concentrations of power through which aristocratic families had dominated the Athenian political scene. Moreover, in sixth century Athens under Peisistratus and his sons, and in a multitude of other city-states as well, a kind of monarchy called “tyranny” (the word turannos originally meant “absolute ruler” or “monarch,” without any necessarily negative connotations; frequently these “tyrants” were enlightened rather than “tyrannical,” as we use the word) had wrested influence from the aristocratic families and had recognised the growing wealth and importance of the commercial classes. The increase in wealth and the shift in its distribution which had begun by the seventh 110 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 century led to profound changes in the social and political scenes in the sixth and forced a wedge in among the complex of qualities which traditionally constituted aristocratic aretē. Pindar’s unified picture in which wealth, power, and noble birth tend to go together became ever less true to contemporary reality. The aristocratic response to this changed situation receives its clearest expression in the poems attributed to Theognis and composed in the sixth and early fifth centuries. Even less than with Pindar can we find a consistent set of views advocated in these poems, but among the most frequently recurring themes are the view that money does not make the man, that many undeserving people are now rich and many deserving people (deserving because of their birth and social background) are now poor.] Parmenides: The world as modus cogitandi. Nikoletseas, Michael M. (3rd ed.) USA, 2016. Pg: 12 Philosophy before Socrates: an introduction with texts and commentary. McKirahan, Richard D. (2nd ed.) Hackett, Indiana, 2010. Pg: 1 The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife. Bremmer, Jan N., New York: Routledge, 2002. Pg: 19 Parmenides: The world as modus cogitandi. Nikoletseas, Michael M. (3rd ed.) USA, 2016. Pg: 11 Some disputed questions in the interpretation of Parmenides, Kahn, C. Annals de filosofia classica, Vol. 1 no 2, 2007. Pg: 44 The Republic, Plato. B. Jowett, Gutenberg.org (Ed. Ascher and Widger) 2016 In Book VIII of The Republic, Plato, who experienced all the forms of institutional authority, detailed that democracy inevitably degenerates into tyranny. Democracy is taken-over by the longing for real freedom where social chaos and inequity prevail. Power is seized to maintain law and order. A champion-of-the-people emerges and experiences power causing him to become a tyrant. Citizens start to distrust and loathe him and eventually seek his removal, but realise they are not able to do so. The tyrannical “man” is the one who promises democracy, but seeks self-interest from the affairs of others. He is the worst form of human due to unjust and unreasonable behaviour. He is consumed by corruption and lawless desires which cause him to commit deception, theft and murder. The idea of goodwill is not relevant to him. Then comes complete lawlessness. He is consumed by the basest pleasures in life. The tyrant will manipulate and conquer to satisfy his desires, but will eventually overreach and fear those around him, effectively limiting his own safety. The tyrant runs the risk of being killed for all his unjust acts, becoming paranoid he is trapped in his own home; a victim of his own selfimprisonment. Odyssey of Homer. Whitcroft, J., Ithaki / Melbourne / Los Angeles: Zeus Press, 2018. Pg: 433 The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Parmenides. Cornford, F.M. In Hamilton, E. & Cairns, H. Eds. 1980. Princeton University Press., Pg: 931 [136] Plato: Parmenides. Warrington, J. in J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.: London. [137]. Pg: 14 Ibid [128]. Pg: 3 Stewart, J. A. (1909/1977) Plato's Doctrine of Ideas. Oxford:Clarendon 111 Press., p. 131 Cornford, F.M. In Hamilton, E. & Cairns, H. Eds. (1980) The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton University Press. p. 931 [137] 23 Aristotle, Metaphysics. 1080 b 33. cited in Jammer, M. Concepts of Space. p. 7 24 The Fragments of Parmenides. Bendigo: La Trobe University, Penwill, J. 1996. 25 Esoteric Psychology, (Vol.1) Bailey, A. A. (1936) New York: Lucis Trust. Pg: 378 26 The Perpetual Emptiness of Academic Philosophy, and its strange inability to address the one issue that matters. Peter Eastman, London, 2014. 27 The Jury is Forever Out: The Parmenidean historiographical method. Reedy, L. Undated. 28 Eleatic Arguments, (in Method in Ancient Philosophy). Curd, Patricia, Edited by JYL Gentzler. New York: Clarendon Press, 1998. 29 Concepts of Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics. Jammer, M., Dover Publications; (3rd Ed.), 2013. 30 Opticks: or, a treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. Also two treatises of the species and magnitude of curvilinear figures. Isaac Newton. (1704) Commentary by Nicholas Humez (Octavo ed.). Palo Alto, California. 1998. 31 The Principles of Psychology. James, William. Harvard University Press. 1983. 32 Parmenides of Elea., Sworder, R. Bendigo: BUP. 1993 Pg: 52 33 The Fragments of Parmenides. Penwill, J. Bendigo: La Trobe University, 1996. 34 Esoteric Psychology, Bailey, A. A. Volume 1. New York: Lucis Trust. 1922. Pg: 378 35 Is Matter Real? Are Concepts Real? The curse of reification: a world problem. Whitcroft, J. Ithaki, Melbourne, Los Angeles: Zeus Press. 2019. 36 The Consciousness of the Atom. Bailey, A. A.. London / New York: Lucis Trust. 1922. Pg. 108 22 112