The DELIAN FESTIVAL & GAMES

* Reylari Socrates

The DELIAN FESTIVAL & GAMES

The 6th & 7th of May are the birthdays of the twin gods Artemis & Apollo, the moon and the sun. They are said to be the favorite children of Zeus.

June 1 , 2007

The Sacred Lake of Delos

Posted at 08:00 EST

We are looking for visionary images of the Sacred Lake. I am hopeful that some of the creative talent here might be inspired to submit some thing.

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Atehena Nike

The crowds gather for the feast and the awards ceremony which is held in the Bouleterion and Prytareion of the Grand Temple complex. Our new young champion enters and the crowd cheers. Although still a boy he is over six feet and taller than any other mesomorph that I have ever seen. His skin is smooth as a baby. He seems quite docile, but I know there is no sheep hiding under the lion skin cape he is wearing. My messenger pigeon informants have told me that he is from Thebes. Some say his father is none other than Zeus. I would belive that. He is seeking sanctuary here. It is not only giants he has killed. He is a young man with a reputation for violence, and he is not to be crossed. The hood of his cape is the head of a lion. As a lion he now rules these games.

"Chief isle of the embowered Cyclades, Rejoice of Delos, with thine olives green, and poplars, and lawn shading palms, and beech, in which the zephyr breaths the loudest song, and hazels thick, dark-stemed beneath the shade: Apollo is once more the golden theme!"

(John Keats, Hyperion - A Fragment, Book III)

The equestrian events were all dominated by Sparta, and the fine team of horses brought to the island by the Prince of Sparta. This is a small island and news travels fast here. The whole island now knows that The Prince of Sparta and the Princess of Crete sailed out to sea; in the dead of night, in a small fishing boat. At dawn a search party was sent to sea to look for them. I have sent messenger birds to all the sanctuaries of Apollo and Artemis. We fear for their safety and the possible repercussions of this reckless venture.

May 7 , 2007

The Grand Temple of the Delians

Posted at 12:00 EST

APOLLO ON DELOS

Today is the birthday of the god Apollo. Thousands of visitors and pilgrims have made their way to celibrate the Delian Festival & Games. As the wild geese and swans fly so do the visitors flock to THE GRAND TEMPLE OF THE DELIANS

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

April 5 , 2007

The Mysteries of Delos

Posted at 08:00 EST

Much has been made ready, but it seems the more you do the more you see that needs to be done. When I first returned to the island all seemed in good order. Improvements have even been made. The museion has some wonderful exhibits. Then I had to make a trip into Athens and when I returned it was a disaster. First, a good many of the treasures are missing from homes and sacred sites. It seems to be the result of a natural disaster. Very few people here this time of year. Only a week ago it was so lovely. Now although the season is officialy changed one would never know it. All I can do is try to do my duty and put things in order as best I can. Time goes very fast there. In another month it will be the Delia. Will the crowds come as they did in ages past? Or will I be left alone among ruins, speaking to the ghosts of long ago, hearing their voices whisper to me in the wind?

THE RITES OF ELEUSIS

Mystae

There is every reason to belive the mysteries were channels through which one philosophic light was disseminated. The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the spring [vernal equinox] in the town of Agrae, and the Greater, in the fall [autumnal equinox] at Eleusis or Athens. Greek mythology was interpreted in a its esoteric light.

The Lesser Mysteries signified the condition of the unpurified soul invested with an earthly body, enveloped in a material and physical nature.

Candidates were bound never to reveal the secrets to the profane. The soul of man-often called Psyche is essentialy a spiritual thing. Its true home is in higher worlds. There free from material form and concepts, it is said to be truly alive and expressive. Physical nature is a tomb, a quagmire, a false impermenant thing, the source of all sorrow and suffering.

The gloom and depression of the lesser Mysteries represent the agony of the spiritual soul unable to express itself because of accepted limitations and illusions of the human enviorment. Man is neither better nor wiser after death than durring life. If he does not rise above ignorance here, man goes at death into eternity to wander forever, making the same mistakes. Those who make no endeavor to improve themselves pass at death into Hades. Lying in rows they sleep through eternity as they slept in life. An ancient initiate once said, "The living are ruled by the dead."

ELEUSIS
The Greater Mysteries of Deo & Kore
The Mysteries of Eleusis
ELEUSIAN MYSTERIES

November 12 , 2004

Orphic & Bacchic Mysteries

Posted at 09:00 EST

Orpheus by Odilion Redon

After the rational soul had been distributed throughout creation in the nature of human kind the Mysteries were instituted for the purpose of disentangling it from the Titanic nature. This lifted the soul out of a sense of seperatness into that of unity. When all the rational parts are gathered Bacchus/Dionisis is resurrected.

Statues of Dionysis were carried to the Elusian Mysteries. Bacchus represented the soul of the mundane sphere, and was capable of an infinite multiplicity of form and designations. Dionysos apparently was his solar aspect.

Dionysos is torn to pieces by the Titans. His destruction was accomplished when he became fascinated by his own image in a mirror. The Titans dismembered, boiled and roasted him. Pallas rescued the heart of the murdered god. Thus Dionysos was able to spring forth again in all his glory. Jupiter beholding their crime threw thunderbots at the Titans. Then burned their bodies to ashes with heavenly fire. The ashes contained a portion of the heart of Dionysos. From this the human race was created. Thus the mundane life of everyman was said to contain a portion of the Bacchic life.

For this reason the Greek Mysteries warned against suicide. He who attemps to destroy himself raises his hand against the nature of Bacchus within him. Human kind's body is indirectly the tomb of this god and consequently must be preserved with the greatest care.

In the initiation of the Bacchic Mysteries, the role of Bacchus is played by the candidate who, set upon by priests in the guise of the Titans, is slain and finally restored to life amidst great rejoicing. The Bacchic Mysteries were given every three years, and like the Eleusinian Mysteries, were divided into two degrees. The initiates were crowned with myrtle and ivy, plants which were sacred to Bacchus.

In the Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins conclusively establishes Bacchus (Dionysos) as one of the early pagan forms of the Christos myth: "The birthplace of Bacchus, called Sabazius or Sabaoth, was claimed by several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmisus, in Thrace, his worship seems to have been chiefly celebrated. He was born of a virgin on the 25th of December; he performed great miracles for the good of mankind; particularly one in which he changed water into wine; he rode in a triumphal procession on an ass; he was put to death by the Titans, and rose again from the dead on the 25th of March: he was always called the Saviour. In his mysteries, he was shown to the people, as an infant is by the Christians at this day, on Christmas Day morning in Rome."

At one time the Bacchic Rites were of a high order, but later they became much degraded. The Bacchanalia, or orgies of Bacchus, are famous in literature.

_MPH

September 26 , 2003

The ORPHIC MYSTERIES

Posted at 02:00 EST

Moreau_Thracian_Girl_Carrying_the_Head_of_Orpheus_1864.jpg

Orpheus was the founder of the Grecian mythological system which he used to teach his ideas. Some say that he
have been a Brahmin. He was an initiate of the Egyptian Mysteries, from which he secured knowledge of magic, astrology, sorcery, and medicine.

The romance of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the tragic episodes of Greek Mythology.

Attempting to escape a villain who seeks to seduce her, Eurydice dies from the venom of a poisonous serpent. Orphrus penetrates the heart of the underworld and charms Pluto and Persephone with the charm of his music. They agree to allow Eurydice to return to life. Orpheus can lead her back to the living if he does not look back to see if she follows him. His fear caused him to turn his head and Eurydice with a heartbroken cry was swept back to the land of death.

There are several conflicting accounts of his death. The general accepted version is that he was torn to pieces by women whose advances he spurned. Plato in his Republic declared that because of his fate at the hands of the women he chose to return in the body of a swan. The head of Orpheus, torn from his body was cast into the river Hebrus. It became wedged in the cleft of a rock from which it gave oracles. The lyre of Orpheus was fashioned by the gods into a constellation.

The Orphics are said to be the highest form of the ancient mysteries. It is a reform of the Dionysic system.

ORPEUS_The Master of the Beasts

ORPHIC SONGS

HELLENIC MYSTERY CULT