Make a start, then, with small things. A drop of oil is spilled, a little wine is stolen; say to yourself, ‘Such is the price at which equanimity is bought; such is the price that one pays for peace of mind.’ For nothing can be acquired for no price at all.

Epictetus, Handbook 12

But there is a third order [of men] - those godlike men who, in their mightier power, in the keenness of their sight, have a clear vision of the splendour above and rise to it from among the cloud and fog of earth and hold firmly to that other world, looking beyond all here, delighted in the place of reality, their native land, like a man returning after long wanderings to the pleasant ways of his own country. ... It is to be reached by those who, born with the nature of the lover, are also authentically philosophic by inherent temper; in pain of love towards beauty but not held by material loveliness, taking refuge from that in things whose beauty is of the soul - such things as virtue, knowledge, institutions, law and custom - and thence, rising still a step, reach to the source of this loveliness of the Soul, thence to whatever be above that again, until the uttermost is reached, The First, the Principle whose beauty is self-springing: this attained, there is an end to the pain inassuageable before.

But how is this ascent to be begun? Whence comes the power? In what thought is this love to find its guide? The guiding thought is this: that the beauty perceived on material things is borrowed.

Plotinus, Enneads 5.9.1-2

All things which participate intelligence are preceded by the unparticipated Intelligence, those which participate life by Life, and those which participate being by Being; and of these three unparticipated principles Being is prior to Life and Life to Intelligence.

... Since the cause of more numerous effects precedes the cause of fewer, among these principles Being will stand foremost; for it is present to all things which have life and intelligence (since whatever lives and shares in intellection necessarily exists), but the converse is not true (since not all that exists lives and exercises intelligence). Life has the second place; for whatever shares in intelligence shares in life, but not conversely, since many things are alive but remain devoid of knowledge. The third principle is Intelligence; for whatever is in any measure capable of knowledge both lives and exists. If, then, Being gives rise to a greater number of effects, Life to fewer, and Intelligence to yet fewer, Being stands foremost, next to it Life, and then Intelligence.

Proclus, Elements of Theology 101

It must be that what can be spoken and thought is, for it is there for being
And there is no such thing as nothing.

Parmenides, fragment B6

I normally avoid politically tinged posts, because politics isn’t my purpose here, but I feel it needs to be stated unambiguously that I do not believe paganism, including Platonism, is compatible with many contemporary cultural trends, such as transgenderism, sexual promiscuity (male or female), homosexuality, drug abuse, etc. I do not hate or shun any such people and I believe that the pagan path can help them, as it can help anyone, but I also cannot sign off on any of those behaviors, however politically incorrect it might make me.

The reader must not suppose ... that the gods are nothing more than so many attributes of the first cause; for if this were the case, the first god would be multitude, but The One must always be prior to the many. But the gods, though they are profoundly united with their ineffable cause, are at the same time self-perfect essences; for the first cause is prior to self-perfection. Hence as the first cause is superessential, all the gods, from their union through the summits or blossoms of their natures with this incomprehensible god, will be likewise superessential; in the same manner as trees from being rooted in the earth are all of them earthly in an eminent degree. And as in this instance the earth itself is essentially distinct from the trees which it contains, so the highest god is transcendently distinct from the multitude of gods which he ineffably comprehends.

Thomas Taylor, footnote to Sallust's On the Gods and the World

Man was generated and constituted, for the purpose of contemplating the reason of the whole of nature, and in order that, being himself the work of wisdom, he might survey the wisdom of the things which exist. For if the reason of man is contemplative of the reason of the whole of nature, and the wisdom also of man perceives and contemplates the wisdom of the things in existence, - this being acknowledged, it is at the same time demonstrated, that man is a part of a universal reason, and of the whole of the intellectual nature.

Archytas the Pythagorean

Philosophy is the purification and perfection of human life. It is the purification, indeed, from material irrationality, and the mortal body; but the perfection, in consequence of being the resumption of our proper felicity, and a reascent to the divine likeness. To effect these two is the province of Virtue and Truth; the former exterminating the immoderation of the passions; and the latter introducing the divine form to those who are naturally adapted to its reception.

Hierocles, Commentary on the Golden Verses

"Jove is a circle, triangle and square,
Centre and line, and all things before all."

Pherecydes of Syros, quoted by Thomas Taylor in Works of Plato v.1 p.18

Our ancestors and men of great antiquity, have left us a tradition, involved in fable, that the first essences are Gods, and that the divinity comprehends the whole of nature. The rest indeed is fabulously introduced, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, enforcing the laws, and benefiting human life. For they ascribe to the first essences a human form, and speak of them as resembling other animals, and assert other things similar and consequent to these. But if among these assertions, any one separating the rest, retains only the first, that is to say that they considered the first essences to be Gods, he will think it to be divinely said.

Aristotle, Metaphysics 1074b

"In such a mighty contest, sedition and discord, you will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of God, ruling together with him."

Maximus Tyrius, Dissertation 1

For those interested in astrology...

"But in order that persons interested in noble sciences may, by the position of the stars under which [Proclus] came into the world, conclude that the life which Fate allotted to him was not disposed in the lowest, nor even in medium conditions, but rather in the highest, we have arranged the table of the position of the heavens, such as it was at the moment of his birth:

The Sun was in Aries, at 16 degrees 26 minutes
The Moon was in Gemini, at 17 degrees 29 minutes
Saturn in Taurus, at 24 degrees 23 minutes
Jupiter in Taurus, at 24 degrees 41 minutes
Mars in Sagittarius at 29 degrees 50 minutes
Venus in Pisces, at 23 degrees
Mercury in Aquarius at 4 degrees 42 minutes
The horoscope was taken in Aries at 8 degrees 19 minutes
The meridian in Capricorn at 4 degrees 42 minutes
The ascendant at 24 degrees 33 minutes
The preceding New Moon in Aquarius at 8 degrees 51 minutes"

Marinus, Life of Proclus 35

How can we preserve our traditions in the face of an emerging technophilic new world order? Pagans need to come together to discuss these pressing issues.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/D0qAmIpDjcfq/

"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."

Plato, Laws 716d

Consider that what I said before about anger has also been said about the other diseases of the soul. First, we must not leave the diagnosis of these passions to ourselves but we must entrust it to others; second, we must not leave this task to anyone at all but to older men who are commonly considered to be good and noble — men to whom we ourselves have given full approval because, on many occasions, we have found them free from these passions. We must further show that we are grateful to these men and not annoyed with them when they mention any of our faults. Furthermore, one should remind oneself of these things each day. It would be better to do this many times, but otherwise at least in the morning, before starting with your business, and in the evening, before going to rest. I in any case am accustomed first to read those exhortations circulating in Pythagoras’s name twice during the day, and to say them out loud later. It is not enough for us to practice self-control over our anger; we must also cleanse ourselves of voluptuous eating, carnal lust, drunkenness, excessive curiosity, and envy. Let someone else keep watch over us to see that we are not seen greedily filling ourselves with food as dogs do, or, as do those who are on fire with a nonintermittent fever, that we do not lift the drink to our lips more greedily than becomes a man of dignity.

Galen, On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Passions in One's Soul 6.10-11

Those who do not punish bad men are really wishing that good men be injured.

Pythagoras, quoted by Stobaeus

First of all, men of Syracuse, accept laws that you think will not arouse your desires and turn your thoughts toward money-making and wealth. Of the three goods - soul, body, and wealth - your laws must give the highest honor to the excellence of the soul, the second place to that of the body, as subordinate to the excellence of the soul, and the third and lowest rank to wealth, since it serves both body and soul. The sacred tradition that ranks them in this order might rightly be made a positive law among you, since it makes truly happy those who live by it; whereas the doctrine that the rich are the happy ones is a foolish saying of women and children, a miserable doctrine in itself, bringing misery upon all who follow it. Put to trial these words about law and you will see by the event that my advice is sound; experience seems to be the truest test of any matter.

Plato, Letter VIII 355b-c

Therefore, if anyone attacks the land in which they live, they must plan on its behalf and defend it as their mother and nurse and think of the other citizens as their earthborn brothers.

Plato, Republic 414e

In fact, sickness is a lack or excess in the materialized bodies that do not maintain order or measure. Ugliness is matter not conquered by form, and poverty is a lack or privation of that which we need due to the matter to which we are joined, a nature that has neediness.

Plotinus, Enneads 1.8.5

Once we are in a position to display the full wealth of our tradition, many Catholics and other Christians will convert as they realize that so much of what they appreciated in Christianity was in fact pagan, and that there is no need to obfuscate and distort pagan truths with useless Judaic accretions.

"Hear, goddess, who leads the light-bringing day
to mortals, bright-beaming Eos, making
the world red, messenger of the mighty
and noble god Titan. With your risings
you send the dark and swift march of night
down to the underworld. Leader of works,
minister of mortal life, whom the race
of mortal humanity hails. No one
flees your face when it is above, and when
you shake sweet sleep from your eyelids, then each
mortal creature rejoices, all serpents
and each of the species having four legs,
or wings, or dwelling in the teeming sea,
for you provide all working livelihood.
So blessed and holy one, magnify
the sacred light for the initiates."

Orphic Hymn to Eos