There is no necessary conflict between ethnic religion and universal truth.

What is true, is true universally. A religious truth-claim, then, is universally true and may be just as applicable to all people as to any particular one.

But this universality of truth does nothing to delegitimize an ethnic story of human-divine relationship or the texture of spiritual life expressed by a people. Their unique spiritual project is untouched by this. It is important to understand this because it suggests two things: that we should respect the traditions of others, and that the direction and nature of our religion must be chosen by us, guided by our gods.

For convenience, I have created a simple nightly journal template structured around the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. We all know the power of writing things down, and there is no doubt that making this exercise of positive self-reflection a habit will have a great impact on your life. Each day is accompanied by a verse. Please share with anyone you think would like it.

'The focus is not on being exempt from moral error, but on being god.'

Plotinus, The Enneads, I.2.6

From Thomas Taylor:
"That is, to be a God according to a similitude to divinity itself. For through this similitude, good men are also called by Plato Gods."

This is a critically important point: that we are not to be primarily avoidant in moral perspective, but rather we are to be constantly seeking to model ourselves according to divinity.

Temple of Apollo Epikourios
Discover this pagan place at https://paganplaces.com/places/temple-of-apollo-epikourios/
#EuropeanPaganism

Tomorrow I will begin a series from the Handbook of Epictetus. The Handbook was an enormously influential text written in the 120s CE and was, like the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, used as part of a sort of beginner’s curriculum by the late Platonists.

“Some things are in our control and others not.

...Work, therefore to be able to say to every harsh appearance, ‘You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.’ And then examine it by those rules which you have, and first, and chiefly, by this: whether it concerns the things which are in our own control, or those which are not; and, if it concerns anything not in our control, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.”

Epictetus, The Handbook, 1

You have control over “opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions.” If you concern yourself with things outside your control, you will be miserable.

"Any man whom you see resenting death was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body, and also a lover of wealth or of honors, either or both."

Plato, Phaedo, 68c

Remember the cardinal virtues:

Justice
Wisdom
Self-control
Courage

"Concerning all the calamities that men suffer by divine fortune, support your lot with patience - it is what it may be - and never complain at it. But endeavor what you can to remedy it."

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, 17 - 19

Inferiority can be got in droves, easily: the road is smooth, and she lives very near. But in front of Superiority the immortal gods set sweat; it is a long and steep path to her, and rough at first. But when one reaches the top, then it is easy, for all the difficulty.

Best of all is the man who perceives everything himself, taking account of what will be better in the long run and in the end. Good is he, too, who follows advice. But he who neither perceives by himself nor takes in a lesson from another, he on the other hand is a worthless man.

Hesiod, Works and Days

He who fails to obtain the object of his desire is disappointed, and he who incurs the object of his aversion wretched. If, then, you confine your aversion to those objects only which are contrary to the natural use of your faculties, which you have in your own control, you will never incur anything to which you are averse. But if you are averse to sickness, or death, or poverty, you will be wretched. ... If you desire any of the things which are not in your own control, you must necessarily be disappointed; and of those which are, and which it would be laudable to desire, nothing is yet in your possession. Use only the appropriate actions of pursuit and avoidance; and even these lightly, and with gentleness and reservation.

Epictetus, The Handbook, 2

Since men live but for a very short period, if their life is compared to the whole of time, they will, as it were, make a most beautiful journey, if they pass through life with tranquility. This they will best possess if they accurately and scientifically know themselves, namely, that they are mortal and of a fleshly nature, and that they have a body that is corruptible, and can be easily injured, and which is exposed to everything most grievous and severe, even to their latest breath.

Hipparchus, On Tranquility

Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Sculptor: Pheidas (Φειδίας)
Date: 435 BCE

I have renamed the channel from Wisdom of the Gods to The Hellenic Wisdom Tradition to more accurately reflect the focus.

We are largely confined to private worship because of a lack of resources. Due to persecution, our late antiquity ancestors were increasingly forced to worship the gods in private as well. So there is this continuity between us and them in that sense. It is up to us to rediscover practice in the public sphere again.

“With regard to whatever objects give you delight, are useful, or are deeply loved, remember to tell yourself of what general nature they are, beginning from the most insignificant things. If, for example, you are fond of a specific ceramic cup, remind yourself that it is only ceramic cups in general of which you are fond.”

Epictetus, The Handbook, 3

If we love the forms or essences of things rather than particular instantiations of those essences, we will not be made miserable by the inevitable end of the particulars.

"Hymn of the Pythagoreans to the rising sun" by Fyodor Bronnikov (1869)

"Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming."

The Golden Sentences of Democrates

When you are going about any action, remind yourself what nature the action is. If you are going to bathe, picture to yourself the things which usually happen in the bath: some people splash the water, some push, some use abusive language, and others steal. Thus you will more safely go about this action if you say to yourself, "I will now go bathe, and keep my own mind in a state conformable to nature." And in the same manner with regard to every other action. For thus, if any hindrance arises in bathing, you will have it ready to say, "It was not only to bathe that I desired, but to keep my mind in a state conformable to nature; and I will not keep it if I am bothered at things that happen."

Epictetus, The Handbook, 4