Has someone been given greater honor than you at a banquet or in a greeting or by being brought in to give advice? If these things are good, you should be glad that he has got them. If they are bad, do not be angry that you did not get them. And remember, you cannot demand an equal share if you did not do the same things... You will be unjust and greedy, then, if you want to obtain these things for free when you have not paid the price for which they are bought.

Epictetus, The Handbook, 25

Hierocles, who has transmitted [The Golden Verses of Pythagoras] to us with a long and masterly Commentary, assures us that they do not contain, as one might believe, the sentiment of one in particular, but the doctrine of all the sacred corps of Pythagoreans and the voice of all the assemblies. He adds that there existed a law which prescribed that each one, every morning upon rising and every evening upon retiring, should read these verses as the oracles of the Pythagorean school. One sees, in reality, by many passages from Cicero, Horace, Seneca, and other writers worthy of belief, that this law was still vigorously executed in their time.

Fabre d'Olivet, Examinations of the Golden Verses

The path of the philosopher is not a path for nerds. Socrates was respected for his fearlessness in war. Plato was a wrestler and emphasized physical training. The Golden Verses tell us to exercise and take care of our health.

If a good man sacrifices to the gods and keeps them constant company in his prayers and offerings and every kind of worship he can give them, this will be the best and noblest policy he can follow. ... The first weapon in our armory [to hit the target of piety] will be to honor the gods of the underworld next after those of Olympus, the patron-gods of the state... After these gods, a sensible man will worship the spirits, and after them the heroes. Next in priority will be rites celebrated according to law at private shrines dedicated to ancestral gods. Last come honors paid to living parents.

Plato, Laws, 716d-717b

We see that acknowledging the proper rank of beings in our prayers is important. In Plato, this rank is gods, spirits, heroes, ancestral gods, parents.

Similarly in the Golden Verses (1 - 5), we are clearly told to “honor the immortal gods first” followed by heroes, spirits of the dead, then parents and relatives.

Those who would be gods must first become men.

Isidore of Alexandria

Through contemplation we can graduate from the level of fragmented premise-to-conclusion intelligence to intuitive, timeless Intelligence.

This is only possible by first mastering the lower elements of your soul. In Platonism, “mastering” them more precisely means fixing them in their proper place in the natural hierarchy. For example, you cannot be as intellectually effective as you could be if your desires, appetites, and fears are overpowering your reason.

To climb a ladder, you must climb the rungs in order.

For we contain the images of first causes, and participate of total soul, the intellectual extent, and of divine unity. It is requisite, therefore, that we should excite the powers of these which we contain, to the apprehension of the things proposed. Or how can we become near to The One, unless by exciting the one of our soul, which is as it were an image of the ineffable one? And how can we cause this one and flower of the soul to diffuse its light, unless we first energize according to intellect? For intellectual energy leads the soul to the tranquil energy according to the one which we contain. And how can we perfectly obtain intellectual energy, unless we proceed through logical conceptions, and prior to more simple intellections, employ such as are more composite?

Proclus, Commentary on the Parmenides

One of the key insights of Platonism is that our subjective, interior “levels” correspond to objective metaphysical levels. In other words, the various states of being we experience (or can experience) internally - sense perception; desire and emotion; reason; intuition; mystical oneness - in fact form an internal hierarchy: they connect to, lead to, and are caused by prior levels. And just as the lower internal states (such as sense perception) correspond to an external reality, so do the higher states refer to an objective reality, and thus refer to an objective hierarchy of being which culminates in the ineffable One.

Iamblichus’ denoscription of the Pythagoreans’ daily routine:

After their morning walk they associated with each other, especially in temples, or, if this was not possible, in similar places. This time was employed in the discussion of disciplines and doctrines, and in the correction of manners. ... Then they perform libations and sacrifices, with fumigations and incense. Then followed supper, which closed with the setting of the sun. ... The supper was followed by libations, succeeded by readings. The youngest read what the eldest advised, and as they suggested. When they were about to depart, the cupbearer poured out a libation from them after which the eldest would announce precepts...

In Republic 398d-399c, Plato comments on which musical scales are appropriate for a virtuous society. They are the Dorian and the Phrygian. (I am ignoring here the technical difference between scales and modes.)

He describes the Dorian scale as the “violent” aspect of the virtuous man (i.e., in battle) and the Phrygian scale as the peacetime aspect of the virtuous man. Phrygian is further specified as proper for prayers.

Interestingly, Plato bans the Major scale (called Lydian by the Greeks), which is one of the two used in virtually all modern music, describing it as drunken and lazy. The “lamenting” scales, which are either the same or similar to the other scale ubiquitous in modern music (i.e., Minor), he says are “useless even to decent women, let alone men.”

If you (arbitrarily) begin on the note D, the two scales are as follows:

Phrygian: D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D

Dorian: D, E-flat, F, G, A, B-flat, C, D

My source for this is “Music in Ancient Greece and Rome” by John Landels, page 95.

In much of modern spirituality, reason is viewed suspiciously and as somehow anti-spiritual. In Platonism, on the other hand, reason is understood to be the fragmented manifestation in time of Knowing (or perhaps Intuition), which is divine. That is, reason is the inferior but nevertheless divine aspect of humanity, and it can be used to step upwards towards pure timeless knowledge.

The method of doing this is called Dialectic, and it is one of the Platonic techniques of meditation. I will post more information on this soon.

He does not know God who does not worship him.

Sextus the Pythagorean

Platonic Meditation: Dialectic and Contemplation

"[Dialectic] is actually the capacity to say what each thing is, and in what way it differs from other things, and what it has in common with them... Then, it remains still ... no longer busying itself with many things, but having become one [with its objects], it just looks." Plotinus, Enneads 1.3.4

Dialectic
In the Platonic tradition, "meditation" can be broken into two main components: dialectic and contemplation.

Dialectic uses reason to bring the mind up to a point of knowing. Reason is the nobility of the soul and an important spiritual tool; reason is not antithetical to spirituality. Indeed, rationality, at the individual level, corresponds to the Philosopher King at the political level and to Jupiter among the Gods.

The dialectical method consists of considering a proposition from multiple angles with the aim of arriving at a precise definition. Crucially, the object of this definition, if it is accurate, has a real existence and can be accessed by the mind.

For example, you might think about the nature of the soul, or what justice really is, or what Beauty Itself is.

The God Mercury (Hermes) is our guide through the dialectic process.

Contemplation
Our modern conception of meditation derives primarily from Hinduism and Buddhism. What we now tend to think of as "meditation" is akin to what in the Platonic tradition is called contemplation. It is a state of beholding and receptivity. For this reason, it usually follows and, so to speak, crowns dialectic meditation, since the soul will have been elevated to a purer state of knowing by dialectic from which it can now receive the rewards of its effort.

It is important to practice dialectic and contemplation within the context of devotion to the gods. Before you start, always ask that the gods guide you and grant you success.

- CWT Admin

“You should not neglect your physical health,
But give it drink and food in due measure, and also the exercise of which it needs.
By due measure I mean what will not distress you.”

Golden Verses of Pythagoras

Happy Thanksgiving!

Platonic Meditation, Continued

What art, or method, or study, will lead us to that end to which we ought to proceed? That we ought, indeed, to arrive at The Good Itself, and the first principle of things, is granted, and is demonstrated through many arguments. ... [Dialectic] is the science which can speak about everything in a reasoned and orderly way ... It stops wandering about the world of sense and settles down in the world of intellect, and there it occupies itself, casting off falsehood and feeding the soul in what Plato calls "the plain of Truth," ... Then, keeping quiet (for it is quiet insofar as it is present There) it busies itself no more, but contemplates, having arrived at unity.
Plotinus, Ennead I.3

What follows is the long form of the dialectic method as elaborated by Proclus in his Commentary on the Parmenides, Book V. This is the scheme or template of dialectic which you can apply in your own meditations, replacing "it is so" and "it is not so" with the proposition you are considering. The dialectic exercise should be followed, as explained by Plotinus above, by contemplation.

1. If it is so, consider its nature and characteristics.
1. What is true of it?
2. What is not true of it?
3. What is true of it in some sense but not true in another sense?
2. If it is so, consider how it relates to other things.
1. What is true about it?
2. What is not true about it?
3. What is true about it in some sense but not true in another sense?
3. If it is so, consider the nature and characteristics of other things.
1. What is true about them?
2. What is not true about them?
3. What is true of them in some sense but not true in another sense?
4. If it is so, consider how other things relate to it.
1. What is true about it?
2. What is not true about it?
3. What is true about it in some sense but not true in another sense?
5. If it is not so, consider its nature and characteristics.
1. What is true of it?
2. What is not true of it?
3. What is true of it in some sense but not true in another sense?
6. If it is not so, consider how it relates to other things.
1. What is true about it?
2. What is not true about it?
3. What is true about it in some sense but not true in another sense?
7. If it is not so, consider the nature and characteristics of other things.
1. What is true about them?
2. What is not true about them?
3. What is true of them in some sense but not true in another sense?
8. If it is not so, consider how other things relate to it.
1. What is true about it?
2. What is not true about it?
3. What is true about it in some sense but not true in another sense?

An historical note that I didn't think about before: the Ancient Greek modes are NOT exactly equivalent to the Medieval and Renaissance modes, but they are similar and related. Confusingly, regarding the Phrygian and Dorian specifically, the names were swapped around by the Medieval musicians, so that what the Greeks called Phrygian became Dorian to the Medievals, and what the Greeks called Dorian became Phrygian to the Medievals.

If you want to get some sense of the sort of music Plato would have approved of, listen to Medieval and Renaissance music written in Dorian and Phrygian modes. It goes without saying that the texts of Medieval and Renaissance music were overwhelmingly Christian in nature. It also goes without saying that music theory had progressed since Plato's time (particularly in terms of Renaissance polyphony). Thus, while the style and text of some of the music would not have been especially like the music Plato imagined, it is likely that the "spirit" of it would have been.

Of course, you could also listen to actual ancient music, but there simply isn't that much of it and what we do have is all based on reconstruction. Mesomedes' Hymn to the Sun is written in Ancient Greek Dorian (the warrior's mode, according to Plato).

Thomas Tallis' masterpiece Spem in Alium is written in what the ancient Greeks would have called Phrygian (the prayerful mode, according to Plato):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y

It might be worth adding that I do not claim expertise on any of this and could be completely wrong. Use my research as a helpful guide only.

A characteristic chord progression of (what I think would have been) Plato’s Phrygian mode would be D minor, A minor, G major.