Since the topic of man's status and worth and the issue of universalism are both frequently raised, I decided to write this clear and concise statement addressing both concerns from the point of view of classical polytheism, drawing directly from the classical pagan literature and citing the sources.

Please feel free to copy or forward the above post when these topics arise.

Once Asclepigeneia, the daughter of Archiadas and Plutarche, and the wife of Theagenes our benefactor, while she was still a maid and being reared by her parents, was gripped by a severe illness which the doctors were unable to cure. Archiadas, whose hope of offspring rested entirely in her, was distraught and full of grief, as one would expect. When the doctors gave up, he went as his custom was to the philosopher who was his final anchor, or rather his benevolent savior, and earnestly begged him to come quickly and make his own prayers on behalf of the daughter. Taking with him the great Pericles from Lydia, a man who was himself no mean philosopher, Proclus visited the shrine of Asclepius to pray to the god on behalf of the invalid. For at that time the city still enjoyed the use of this and retained intact the temple of the Savior. And while he was praying in the ancient manner, a sudden change was seen in the maiden and a sudden recovery occurred, for the Savior, being a god, healed her easily.

Marinus, Proclus, or on Happiness 29

No one may join the company of the gods who has not practiced philosophy and is not completely pure when he departs from life, no one but the lover of learning.

Plato, Phaedo 82b

This is just what I was getting at when I said I knew of a way to put into effect this law of ours which permits the sexual act only for its natural purpose, procreation, and forbids not only homosexual relations, in which the human race is deliberately murdered, but also the sowing of seeds on rocks and stone, where it will never take root and mature into a new individual; and we should also have to keep away from any female 'soil' in which we'd be sorry to have the seed develop.

Plato, Laws 838e-839a

All the virtues are found also in the Gods: (1) many Gods are honored by the names of virtues; (2) all goodness originates with the Gods; (3) prior to those who participate in virtues sometimes, there must be those who participate in them always, and prior to the participating there must be the participated; therefore, since the 'companions of the Gods' belong to those who participate, the things participated, i.e. the virtues themselves, must be Gods.

Damascius, Commentary on Plato's Phaedo 150

It will be tomorrow when Aether has contracted nuptials for the first time,
To create the year with spring clouds all,
The father, as a marital storm, fertilized the lap of his nurturing wife,
Where the fruit developed in great body would nourish everything.
Venus, in heart and mind, with her pervading spirit,
Governs inside, procreator of hidden forces,
And through earth, sky, and sea
She established a course for the seminal route
And she ordered the world to know of the birth.

Pervigilium Veneris 59 - 67

As it is, to dedicate your life to winning a victory at Delphi or Olympia keeps you far too busy to attend to other tasks; but a life devoted to the cultivation of every physical perfection and every moral virtue (the only life worth the name) will keep you at least twice as busy. Inessential business must never stop you taking proper food and exercise, or hinder your mental and moral training. To follow this regimen and to get the maximum benefit from it, the whole day and the whole night is scarcely time enough.

Plato, Laws 807c-d

One of the things the dialogues of Plato show us is how to dialogue with ourselves about a topic and, by using dialectic, move towards a vision of the real being of a thing.

"Priests or Priestesses of temples who have hereditary priesthoods should not be turned out of office. But if (as is quite likely in a new foundation) few or no temples are thus provided for, the deficiencies must be made good by appointing Priests and Priestesses to be Attendants in the temples of the gods. In all these cases the appointments should be made partly by election and partly by lot, so that a mixture of democratic and non-democratic methods in every rural and urban division may lead to the greatest possible feeling of solidarity. In electing Priests, one should leave it to the god himself to express his wishes, and allow him to guide the luck of the draw. But the man whom the lot favors must be screened to see that he is healthy and legitimate, reared in a family whose moral standards could hardly be higher, and that he himself and his father and mother have lived unpolluted by homicide and all such offenses against heaven. They must get laws on all religious matters from Delphi, and appoint Expounders of them; that will provide them with a code to be obeyed. Each priesthood must be held for a year and no longer, and anyone who intends to celebrate our rites in due conformity with religious law should not be less than sixty years old. The same rules should apply to Priestesses too."

Plato, Laws 759b-d

So, our soul is something divine and of another nature [than sensible objects], like the nature of all soul; it is perfect by having intellect. One part of intellect is that which engages in calculative reasoning and one part is that which makes calculative reasoning possible. The calculative reasoning part of soul is actually in need of no corporeal organ for its calculative reasoning, having its own activity in purity in order that it also be possible for it to reason purely. Someone who supposed it to be separate and not mixed with body and in the primary intelligible world would not be mistaken. ...

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 reasoning? 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.

How, then, given that we have such great things in us, do we not grasp them, but rather are mostly inactive with respect to these activities; indeed, some people are altogether inactive? ... So, if there is going to be apprehension of things present in this way, then that which is to apprehend must revert inward, and focus its attention there. Just as if someone were waiting to hear a voice that he wanted to hear, and, distancing himself from other voices, were to prick up his ears to hear the best of sounds, waiting for the time when it will come - so, too, in this case one must let go of sensible sounds, except insofar as they are necessary, and guard the soul's pure power of apprehension and be ready to listen to the sounds from above.

Plotinus, Enneads 5.1.10-12

We do not need Hindu or Buddhist initiation in order to be legitimate. Please stop buying into this lie.

People like this always reveal their true colors sooner or later, because they have forsaken their heritage.

Which way, Western man?

We are not Hindus. We are not Buddhists. Despite historical connections, Buddhism and Hinduism are not a part of our heritage. We respect them and may choose to learn from them at times - but we do not need them.

We have clear instructions from Plato on how to set up a priest class and it has nothing to do with initiation.

CHOOSE WISELY! Embrace your heritage!

"The appointments [of priests] should be made partly by election and partly by lot ... In electing Priests, one should leave it to the god himself to express his wishes, and allow him to guide the luck of the draw." - Plato, Laws 759b-d

Praise be to the Fates and to the Gods of Europe who will decide this!

Philosophy is a perfecting of every knowledge, music is preparatory to paideia. Philosophy is precise because it is an accomplishment that, through calling things to mind, makes up in full what was shed by the souls through circumstance in the course of creation; music is an initiation into the Mysteries and an agreeable preliminary sacrifice that presents a little something and gives a foretaste of things brought to perfection in philosophy; and music transmits the beginnings of every kind of learning, philosophy the extremes.

Aristides Quintilianus, On Music 3.27

"We can attain likeness to God, first of all, if we are endowed with a suitable nature, then if we develop proper habits, way of life, and good practice according to law, and, most importantly, if we use reason, and education, and the correct philosophical tradition, in such a way as to distance ourselves from the great majority of human concerns, and always to be in close contact with intelligible reality.

The introductory ceremonies, so to speak, and preliminary purifications of our innate spirit, if one is to be initiated into the greater sciences, will be constituted by music, arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry, while at the same time we must care for our body by means of gymnastics, which will prepare the body properly for the demands of both war and peace."

Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism 28.4

"We ought to learn by heart the hymns in honour of the gods—and many and beautiful they are, composed by men of old and of our own time—though indeed we ought to try to know also those which are being sung in the temples. For the greater number were bestowed on us by the gods themselves, in answer to prayer, though some few also were written by men, and were composed in honour of the gods by the aid of divine inspiration and a soul inaccessible to things evil.

All this, at least, we ought to study to do, and we ought also to pray often to the gods, both in private and in public, if possible three times a day, but if not so often, certainly at dawn and in the evening."

Emperor Julian, Letter to a Priest 302a-b

A very quick guide to getting started:

1. On a regular basis, wash your hands, make an offering, and pray. While washing your hands, ask for purity of body and mind. If you don’t currently have incense, wine, food, or other such things to offer, offer a hymn.
2. If you have no idea what to pray about, pray for understanding of the goodness of the Gods and that they may give to you what they know to be best.
3. Read and study the Golden Verses (they’re quite short), a chapter or two of The Handbook by Epictetus, or some other appropriate text. Both are available for free online.
4. Every night before you sleep, examine yourself and your day. Acknowledge as cold fact everything you did and didn’t do, the good and the bad. It is not about guilt, it is about becoming Godlike - but that requires radical self-honesty.

You will learn the rest as you go.

"Let not your feeble eyes expect to sleep
Until you have rehearsed each of the day's deeds three times:
'Where have I transgressed? what have I done? what duty not fulfilled?'
Beginning from the first go through them in detail, and then
Rebuke yourself for the mean things you have done, but delight in the good."

To honour the beings superior by nature according to their substantial rank; to accord parents and relatives the highest esteem; to welcome and befriend good men; to prevail over our bodily functions; to feel shame before oneself everywhere; to engage in justice; to know beforehand that our possessions and ephemeral lives are easily destroyed; to welcome our lot in life as assigned to us by divine judgement; to use prudent thought that is pleasing to god and to change one's thinking for the better; to practise the love of speaking, using real arguments; to be immune to deception and slavishness for the preservation of virtue; to use good counsel before we act, as a result of which our actions will be free from regret; to be pure of conceit; to pursue a life informed by knowledge; to reform the body and externals to make them cooperate with virtue. These are the prenoscriptions of the lawgiving intellect for souls. Our reflective power, after it has accepted these, becomes an untiring judge of itself, often saying to itself, 'Where have I transgressed? what have I done?', and undertaking to remember everything in orderly succession for the sake of virtue.

Hierocles, Commentary on the Golden Verses 19.3-4

The philosopher Hierocles explains how we can use the first half of the Golden Verses, which he neatly summarizes here, to examine ourselves nightly, using the standards suggested in the verses as the metric.

This technique of daily self-examination was widely practiced in antiquity, and it was important to the Pythagoreans and Stoics in particular. It is useful in our attempt to live according to the Delphic maxim Know Thyself.

[Pythagoras] ordered that libations should be made thrice, observing that Apollo delivered oracles from the tripod, the triad being the first number. Sacrifices to Venus were to be made on the sixth day, because this number is the first to partake of every number, and when divided in every possible way, receives the power of the numbers subtracted, and those that remain. Sacrifices to Hercules, however, should be made on the eighth day of the month, counting from the beginning, commemorating his birth in the seventh month.

He ordained that those who entered into a temple should be clothed in a clean garment, in which no one had slept; because sleep, just as black and brown, indicates sluggishness, while cleanliness is a sign of equality and justice in reasoning. ...

Libations were to be performed before the altar of Zeus the Savior, of Hercules, and the Dioscuri, thus celebrating Zeus as the presiding cause and leader of the meal, Hercules as the power of Nature, and the Dioscuri, as the symphony of all things. Libations should not be offered with closed eyes, as nothing beautiful should be undertaken with bashfulness and shame.

When it thundered, he said one ought to touch the earth, in remembrance of the generation of things.

Temples should be entered from places on the right hand, and exited from the left hand; for the right hand is the principle of what is called the odd number, and is divine; while the left hand is a symbol of the even number, and of dissolution.

Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 28