"It is our task as founders, then, to compel the best natures to reach the study we said before is the most important, namely, to make the ascent and see the Good. But when they’ve made it and looked sufficiently, we mustn’t allow them to do what they’re allowed to do today."

"What’s that?"

"To stay and refuse to go down again to the prisoners in the cave and share their labors and honors, whether they are of less worth or greater."

"Then are we to do them an injustice by making them live a worse life when they could live a better one?"

"You are forgetting again that it isn’t the law’s concern to make any one class in the city outstandingly happy but to contrive to spread happiness throughout the city by bringing the citizens into harmony with each other through persuasion or compulsion and by making them share with each other the benefits that each class can confer on the community. The law produces such people in the city, not in order to allow them to turn in whatever direction they want, but to make use of them to bind the city together."

Plato, Republic 519c-520a

Since, then, there is soul that engages in calculative reasoning about just and beautiful things, that is, calculative reasoning that seeks to know if this is just or if this is beautiful, it is necessary that there exists permanently something that is just, from which the calculative reasoning in the soul arises. How else could it engage in calculative reasonings? And if soul sometimes engages in calculative reasoning about these things and sometimes does not, there must be Intellect that does not engage in calculative reasoning, but always possesses Justice, and there must be also the principle of Intellect and its cause and god. And it must be indivisible and unchanging; and while not changing place, it is seen in each of the many things that can receive it, in a way, as something other. Just as the centre of the circle exists in its own right, but each of the points on the circle contains it in itself, the radii add their unique character to it. For it is by something like this in ourselves that we are in contact with the One and are with it and depend on it. And if we converge on it, we would be settled in the intelligible world.

Plotinus, Enneads 5.1.11

But these powers [of rationality], beginning from the lowest, are opinion, dianoia, and the summit of dianoia, which summit is the intellect of the human soul, and is that power, by the light of which we perceive the truth of axioms, it being intuitive perception. Dianoia is the discursive energy of reason; or it is that power which reasons scientifically, deriving the principles of its reasoning from intellect. And opinion is that power which knows that a thing is, but is ignorant of the cause of it, or why it is.

From a footnote by Thomas Taylor to Porphyry’s Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures

The deification, however, of dead men, and the worshipping men as Gods, formed no part of this theology, when it is considered according to its genuine purity. Numerous instances of the truth of this might be adduced, but I shall mention for this purpose, as unexceptionable witnesses, the writings of Plato, the Golden Pythagoric Verses, and the Treatise of Plutarch on Isis and Osiris. All the works of Plato, indeed, evince the truth of this position, but this is particularly manifest from his Laws. The Golden verses order that the immortal Gods be honoured first, as they are disposed by law; afterwards the illustrious Heroes, under which appellation the author of the verses comprehends also angels and daemons, properly so called; and in the last place, the terrestrial daemons, i.e. such good men as transcend in virtue the rest of mankind. But to honour the Gods as they are disposed by law, is, as Hierocles observes, to reverence them as they are arranged by their demiurgus and father; and this is to honour them as beings not only superior to man, but also to daemons and angels. Hence, to honour men, however excellent they may be, as Gods, is not to honour the Gods according to the rank in which they are placed by their Creator; for it is confounding the divine with the human nature, and is thus acting directly contrary to the Pythagoric precept. Plutarch too, in his above mentioned treatise, most forcibly and clearly shows the impiety of worshipping men as Gods.

Thomas Taylor, Introduction to Iamblichus' On the Mysteries

The philosophers say that the first thing that needs to be learned is the following, that there is a God, and a God who exercises providential care for the universe, and that it is impossible to conceal from him not only our actions, but even our thoughts and intentions. The next thing to be considered is what the gods are like; for whatever they’re discovered to be, one who wishes to please and obey them must try to resemble them as far as possible. If the deity is trustworthy, he too must be trustworthy; if free, he too must be free; if beneficent, he too must be beneficent; if magnanimous, he too must be magnanimous. And so thenceforth, in all that he says and does, he must act in imitation of God.

Epictetus, Discourses 2.14.11-13

According to Iamblichus, rites and sacrifices are not mere human customs but are ruled over by divinities, and every nation and people has its own guardian.

"If, therefore, these were human customs alone, and derived their authority through our legal institutions, it might be said that the worship of the Gods was the invention of our conceptions. Now, however, divinity is the leader of it, who is thus invoked by sacrifices, and who is surrounded by a numerous multitude of Gods and angels. Under him, likewise, a certain common presiding power, is allotted dominion according to each nation of the earth. And a peculiar presiding power is allotted to each temple. Of the sacrifices, also, which are performed to the Gods, the inspective guardian is a God; but an angel, of those which are performed to angels; and a daemon, of such as are performed to daemons."

Iamblichus, On the Mysteries 236-237

Some key concepts of this tradition. Not an exhaustive list.

1. Gods are really existent; they are not mere archetypes or metaphors.
2. The Gods are good.
3. The cosmos we inhabit is as good as it possibly could be and is, in Plato’s words, a “shrine to the Gods.” The universe is a theophany.
4. The Gods and other beings actively maintain and order the cosmos, which is an expression of divine goodness, power, and intelligence. “Everything is full of Gods.”
5. The cardinal virtues are Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Temperance.
6. We are to become as like to the Gods as we can, and this is in essence what it means to be virtuous. We must align ourselves with “that which always is” rather than with “that which is always becoming.”
7. Your soul is immortal.

Perhaps as a legacy of Christianity, we tend to have a dualistic perspective that sees the divine realm as separated off from and apart from the cosmos, but this is not the orthodox Platonic position. Rather the cosmos is a direct expression of the divine and is, so to speak, infused with divinity; and it is this fact that allows for ritual communication.

The European pagan community in general labors under the delusion that ancient people prayed in epic verse according to complex rules.

Most of the time, they just prayed. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

For example, Socrates prays at the very end of the Phaedrus dialogue, and there isn't anything fancy about it. This is his prayer:

"O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him."

I’m not discouraging you from using poetic prayers, but don’t think your prayers have to be formal works of art. It’s ok to simply pray.

You should be extending your stay among writers whose genius is unquestionable, deriving constant nourishment from them if you wish to gain anything from your reading that will find a lasting place in your mind. To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

Seneca, Letter 2

Our motto, as everyone knows, is to live in conformity with nature: it is quite contrary to nature to torture one’s body… Philosophy calls for simple living, not for doing penance, and the simple way of life need not be a crude one.

Seneca, Letter 5

The Prometheus Trust, an English publisher of Platonic literature, will be hosting a course for beginners to the Platonic tradition via Zoom call, starting September 19. See link for details.

https://prometheustrust.co.uk/html/essentials_course.html

If you don't want to be bad-tempered, then don't feed the habit, throw nothing before it on which it can feed and grow. First of all, keep calm, and count the days in which you haven't lost your temper - 'I used to lose my temper every day, and after that, every other day then every third day, then every fourth' - and if you continue in that way for thirty days, offer a sacrifice to God. For the habit is first weakened, and then completely destroyed. ... How is this to be achieved, then? Make it your wish finally to be contented with yourself, make it your wish to appear beautiful in the sight of God; you must aspire to become pure in accord with what is pure in yourself and in accord with God. 'Then whenever an impression of that kind assails you, ' says Plato, 'go and offer an expiatory sacrifice; go as a suppliant to the temples of the gods who avert evil; it is indeed sufficient merely to withdraw to the company of wise and virtuous men,' and to examine your life by comparison with theirs, whether you choose your model from among the living or from among the dead.

Epictetus, Discourses 2.18

The purpose that lies before you is to return to your homeland, to relieve your family from fear, to fulfil your duties as a citizen, to marry, to have children, to hold public office. For you haven't come into the world to pick out the prettiest places, but to return and live in the place where you were born, and which you've been enrolled as a citizen. ... Your purpose, man, was to render yourself capable of using the impressions that present themselves to you in conformity with nature, and not to fail to attain what you desire, and not to fall into what you want to avoid, and never to suffer failure or misfortune, but to be free and immune to hindrance or constraint, and as one who conforms to the governing order of Zeus, obeying it and finding satisfaction in it, and never finding fault with anyone, and never accusing anyone, being able to recite these verses with your whole heart, 'guide me, Zeus, and thou, O Destiny.'

Epictetus, Discourses 2.23

I am of the opinion that the gods neither seek sexual relations which are not allowed, nor that they put one another in chains did I ever hold to be correct, and I will never believe it, nor that one is master over the others. The god, if he is truly god, requires nothing. The rest is the wretched words of singers.

Euripides, Herakles

Below is a historically informed reading list to begin your journey. The order matters. This list is based on what we know some historical Platonists used as a curriculum.

The first two are short and straightforward and will transform your life if you engage seriously with them. I recommend reading them frequently and meditating on them daily.

This curriculum will take you through a plan of moral purification and gradually introduce you to deeper philosophical matters.

While not part of the "standard" historical Platonic curriculum, as far as I know, I do also recommend reading Book VII of Plato's Republic, which contains the famous cave allegory. Additionally, Sallust's On the Gods and the World is a good introduction to the Platonic path.

1. The Pythagorean Golden Verses
2. The Handbook of Epictetus
3. Select dialogues of Plato:
1. Alcibiades I
2. Gorgias
3. Phaedo
4. Cratylus
5. Theaetetus
6. Sophist
7. Statesman
8. Phaedrus
9. Symposium
10. Philebus
11. Timaeus
12. Parmenides

Moving on from here, there are ancient commentaries available on many of these texts, as well as numerous other Stoic and Platonic texts, such as those by Epictetus, Seneca, Plotinus and Proclus.

All texts mentioned here are easily accessible online for free.

Do not speak of flight, since I do not think you will persuade me.
For it is not in my blood to do battle by fleeing,
Nor to cower; my nerve is still steady,
And I am unwilling to mount my chariot, but even as I am
I will go to meet them; Pallas Athena will not allow me to retreat.

Homer, Iliad Book 5 252-256

Apologies for the lack of content recently.

"Don't let that which is contrary to nature in another be an evil for you, for you were born to share not in the humiliations or misfortunes of others, but in their good fortune. If anyone suffers misfortune, remember that he suffers it through his own fault, since God created all human beings to enjoy happiness, to enjoy peace of mind." - Epictetus, Discourses 3.24

"Every good tends to unify what participates it; and all unification is a good; and the Good is identical with the One.

For if it belongs to the Good to conserve all that exists (and it is for no other reason that all things desire it); and if likewise that which conserves and holds together the being of each several thing is unity (since by unity each is maintained in being, but by dispersion displaced from existence): then the Good, wherever it is present, makes the participant one, and holds its being together in virtue of this unification.

And secondly, if it belongs to unity to bring and keep each thing together, by its presence it makes each thing complete. In this way, then, the state of unification is good for all things.

But again, if unification is in itself good, and all good tends to create unity, then the Good unqualified and the One unqualified merge in a single principle, a principle which makes things one and in doing so makes them good. Hence it is that things which in some fashion have fallen away from their good are at the same stroke deprived of participation of unity; and in like manner things which have lost their portion in unity, being infected with division, are deprived of their good.

Goodness, then, is unification, and unification goodness; the Good is one, and the One is primal good."

Proclus, Elements of Theology, Proposition 13

"For something which uses its body and its irrational emotions as instruments has an essence altogether and wholly separated from them, and persisting after their destruction – and its perfection obviously persists as well, since it is coordinate with its essence."
Simplicius, Commentary on Epictetus' Handbook