What is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is that which becomes but never is? The former is grasped by understanding, which involves a reasoned account. It is unchanging. The latter is grasped by opinion, which involves unreasoning sense perception. It comes to be and passes away, but never really is.

Plato, Timaeus 28a

Meditative Reading

A simple but profound technique.

1. Select a short passage to meditate upon, such as a quote from Plato or Homer or the Golden Verses. Remember, the texts of our tradition are not mere historical curios, they are the works that have inspired our greatest minds and continuously refreshed our civilization century after century.
2. Pray for wisdom and guidance. (There is no wrong God to pray to, but Hermes is an example of a God who would be perhaps especially appropriate here.)
3. Carefully read the passage. Take your time. Think about every word. Look at it from every angle. Question it, draw out the implications of it, think of how you can apply it to your life. Try to really get at the timeless essence of the wisdom behind it.
4. Quiet your thoughts, sit in silence, and listen. If any insight comes to you, gaze at it with unthinking intellectual sight.
5. Thank the Gods. You can also give an offering of thanks.

In the highest level of beings, the abundance of power has this additional advantage over all others, in being present to all equally in the same manner without hindrance; according to this principle, then, the primary beings illuminate even the lowest levels, and the immaterial are present immaterially to the material. And let there be no astonishment if in this connection we speak of a pure and divine form of matter; for matter also issues from the father and creator of all, and thus gains its perfection, which is suitable to the reception of gods. ... Observing this, and discovering in general, in accordance with the properties of each of the gods, the receptacles adapted to them, the theurgic art in many cases links together stones, plants, animals, aromatic substances, and other such things that are sacred, perfect and godlike, and then from all these composes an integrated and pure receptacle.

Iamblichus, On the Mysteries 5.23

To justice belongs the capacity to distribute to each his deserts, to preserve ancestral customs and laws and also the written law, to be truthful in matters of importance, to observe one's agreements. First among acts of justice come those towards the gods, then those to deified spirits, then those towards one's country and parents, then those towards the departed: amongst these comes piety, which is either a part of justice or an accompaniment of it. Also justice is accompanied by purity, truth, trust, and hatred of wickedness.

pseudo-Aristotle, On Virtues and Vices 1250b 15-24

"The beauty of a household consists in the conjunction of man and wife, united to each other by destiny, and consecrated to the Gods presiding over nuptial birth and houses, and who harmonize, and use all things in common for their bodies, or even their very souls; who likewise exercise a becoming authority over their house and servants; who are properly solicitous about the education of their children; and to the necessities of life pay an attention which is neither excessive nor negligent, but moderate and appropriate. For, as the most admirable Homer says, what can be more excellent

Than when at home the husband and wife
Live in entire unanimity.
(Odyssey, 7.183)

That is the reason why I have frequently wondered at those who conceive that life in common with a woman must be burdensome and grievous. Though to them she appears to be a burden and molestation, she is not so; on the contrary, she is something light and easy to be borne or, rather, she possesses the power of charming away from her husband things burdensome and grievous. No trouble so great is there which cannot easily be borne by a husband and wife who harmonize and are willing to endure it in common."

Hierocles, Ethical Fragments: On Marriage

To mortal men the gods allot woes which cannot be foreseen: despite the pain in your spirit, have the courage to bear your share of these. Take courage from the assistance of Athena and the favorable oracles of Phoibos, and moreover from the present help of the heroes.

Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica 298-302

"Everything changes; nothing dies; the soul
Roams to and fro, now here, now there, and takes
What frame it will, passing from beast to man,
From our own form to beast and never dies.
As yielding wax is stamped with new designs
And changes shape and seems not still the same,
Yet is indeed the same, even so our souls,
Are still the same for ever, but adopt
In their migrations ever-varying forms."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.164-172

O, Absolutely Transcendent! (what else is it rightful to call Thee?)
How shall I fittingly hymn Thee, that art of all things most exalted?
How would words speak Thy Splendor? For words cannot name or denote Thee,
Sole Unspeakable Being, since Thou art the cause of all speaking.
How might the mind know Thy Nature? For mind cannot grasp or conceive Thee,
Sole Unknowable Being, since Thou art the cause of all knowing.
All things existing, the speaking and speechless together proclaim Thee.
All things existing, the knowing and nescient together, adore Thee.
All keen desires or lust, all painful passions are yearnings
Only for Thee. Thine is the whole world’s prayer; to Thee all,
Sensing Thy tokens within them, utter a paean of silence.
Everything issues from Thee. Only Thou art dependent on nothing.
Everything nestles within Thee. Everything surges upon Thee.
For Thou art the Goal of all beings. And Thou art One Thing, and All Things,
And yet neither one thing, nor all things.
O, Most-Named, how then shall I name Thee?
That art alone the Unnamable? What even Heaven-born Mind then
Could possibly penetrate Thy distant Shroud? I Pray Thee, be gracious!
O, Absolutely Transcendent, what else is it rightful to call Thee?

Uncertain authorship, Hymn to God

The whole combination of soul and body is called a living thing, or animal, and has the designation ‘mortal’ as well. Such a combination cannot be immortal, not on any reasonable account. In fact it is pure fiction, based neither on observation nor on adequate reasoning, that a god is an immortal living thing which has a body and a soul, and that these are bound together by nature for all time.

Plato, Phaedrus 246c-d

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

O Powerful Victory, by men desir'd,
With adverse breasts to dreadful fury fir'd,
Thee I invoke, whose might alone can quell
Contending rage and molestation fell.
'Tis thine in battle to confer the crown,
The victor's prize, the mark of sweet renown;
For thou rul'st all things, Victory divine!
And glorious strife, and joyful shouts are thine.
Come, mighty Goddess, and thy suppliant bless,
With sparkling eyes, elated with success;
May deeds illustrious thy protections claim,
And find, led on by thee, immortal fame.

Orphic Hymn to Victory

But know that to die has been destined for all,
And that possessions are wont to be acquired at one time and lost at another.
As many pains as mortals have by heaven-sent fortunes,
Bear lightly your portion of these and be not distressed.

The Golden Verses 15-18

Or have you ever grasped [the Just itself, Beauty, or the Good] with any of your bodily senses? I am speaking of all things such as Bigness, Health, Strength and, in a word, the reality of all other things, that which each of them essentially is. Is what is most true in them contemplated through the body, or is this the position: whoever of us prepares himself best and most accurately to grasp that thing itself which he is investigating will come closest to the knowledge of it? Then he will do this most perfectly who approaches the object with thought alone, without associating any sight with his thought, or dragging in any sense perception with his reasoning, but who, using pure thought alone, tries to track down each reality pure and by itself, freeing himself as far as possible from eyes and ears and, in a word, from the whole body, because the body confuses the soul and does not allow it to acquire truth and wisdom whenever it is associated with it. Will not that man reach reality, Simmias, if anyone does?

Plato, Phaedo 65d-66a

Philosophy is meditation.

As originally practiced, it seeks to attain a vision of the immaterial structural causes of reality.

By deeply focusing the mind on some aspect of reality - beauty, justice, the soul... anything - and thinking about it carefully and thoroughly, the philosopher eventually comes to see the thing itself.

At that point he has abandoned theories and treatises for genuine knowledge of the intellectual realities which he contemplates.

What is the subject of our present enquiry?
'Pleasure.'
Submit it to the standard, put it on the scales. For something to be good, must it be something that we can properly place confidence in and trust in?
'Indeed it must.'
Can we properly place confidence, then, in something that is unstable?
'No.'
Is pleasure stable?
'No, it isn't.'
Away with it, then; take it out of the scales, and drive it away from the realm of good things. But if your sight is none too keen and one set of scales isn't enough for you, bring another. Is the good something that can properly inspire us with pride?
'It is indeed.'
Is the pleasure of the moment, then, something that can properly inspire us with pride? Take care not to say that it is, or I'll no longer regard you as being worthy of even using the scales!

Epictetus, Discourses 2.11

"Something is said to be a cause if it is: [1] The component from which a thing comes to be - for example, the bronze of a statue or the silver of a bowl... [2] The form or paradigm, that is, the account of the essence...(for example, of the octave, the ratio 2:1 and number in general)... [3] Further, that from which the change or rest from change first starts - for example, the person who has deliberated is cause [of the action] and the father of his child and in general the producer is cause of the thing being produced and the change-maker of the change. [4] Further, the end, and this is the for-the-sake-of-which - for example, of taking walks health is the end."

Aristotle, Metaphysics 1013a

"Life, connectedly-contains in itself bodies; but of this, soul is the cause. Harmony comprehends, connectedly, the world; but of this, God is the cause. Concord binds together families and cities; and of this, law is the cause. Hence, there is a certain cause and nature which perpetually adapts the parts of the world to each other, and never suffers them to be disorderly and without connection."

Ocellus Lucanus, On Laws

Fragment from a Greek red-figure calyx crater found in Taranto, Italy - 400-390 BC. It depicts a gilded and/or polished bronze statue of Apollo in his temple at Delphi. Beneath the temple was a chamber in which his oracle would receive and relate prophecies

"The intellect derived from philosophy is similar to a charioteer; for it is present with our desires, and always conducts them to the beautiful."

The Similitudes of Demophilus 34

"The proper incense:
🔸 of Kronos is styrax, for it is heavy and fragrant;
🔸 of Zeus, malabathron;
🔸 of Ares, kostos;
🔸 of Helios, frankincense;
🔸 of Aphrodite, Indian nard;
🔸 of Hermes, cassia;
🔸 of Selene, myrhh."

The Greek Magical Papyri XIII.15-20