Orphism, Orphic Mysteries [from Greek
orphikos] Orphism originally taught of the Causeless Cause on which all speculation is impossible; the periodical appearance and disappearance of all things, from atom to universe; reimbodiment; cyclic law; the essential divinity of all beings and things; and the duality in manifestation of the universe. It postulated seven emanations from the Boundless: aether (spirit) and chaos (matter), from which two spring the world egg, out of which is born Phanes, the First Logos; then Uranus (and Gaia) the Second Logos, with Kronos (and Rhea, mother of the Olympian gods) a later phase of the Second Logos; and Zeus, the Third Logos or Demiurge -- who starts a minor sevenfold hierarchy of emanation by begetting Zagreus-Dionysos the god-man, the divine son. Characteristic of Orphic cosmogony is the important place given to the number seven. "The rise of the Orphic worship of Dionysos is the most important fact in the history of Greek religion, and marks a great spiritual awakening. Its three great ideas are
(1) a belief in the essential Divinity of humanity and the
complete immortality or eternity of the soul, its pre-existence and its post-existence;
(2) the necessity for individual responsibility and righteousness; and
(3) the regeneration or redemption of man's lower nature by his own higher Self" (F. S. Darrow).
to be continue "
Orphism2 "
ORFISMO. RELIGIONE ORFICA
