"If only one could be properly convinced of this truth, that we're all first and foremost children of God, and that God is the father of both human beings and gods, I think one would never harbor any mean or ignoble thoughts about oneself."

Epictetus, Discourses 1.3.1

"Any man whom you see resenting death was not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body, and also a lover of wealth or of honors, either or both."

Plato, Phaedo, 68c

The sun illuminates, bestowing the ability to be seen by the eye with its light, as goodness illumines the intelligible with truth.

Plato

Some Thoughts About the Gods and Their Goodness

For a long time, I was confused by the pagan approach to the divine.

But something clicked with me one day that helped make all the texts I was reading a little more intuitive, a little less puzzling.

It seemed odd to me that things like Beauty or Justice or Love could be divinities. Not to mention, say, a God of wind (Aeolus). What could that even mean? Perhaps my default conception of God was still based in the Christianity I was brought up with.

It was the sort of realization that sounds so obvious afterwards that I wondered how I didn't see it sooner: the divine, to them, is (I think) that which is basic, foundational; it's the principle and source underlying some aspect of reality, or of reality itself.

A god of wind isn't some guy with a fan. A god(dess) of love isn't (simply) a god that loves everything a lot.

Rather, the Gods are living metaphysical sources of reality. They are what allow for and cause all the other instances of love or beauty, or even wind, to be, or to continue, or to thrive.

For anything good in reality, a God is ultimately at the source of it - even seemingly mundane things.

But why "good"?

If, as the platonists thought, goodness is the most metaphysically basic principle of reality - The Good, or The One -, then it becomes easier to see why the Gods must be good. If Goodness Itself is the source of everything, then surely those closest to the Good must also be good.

- CWT Admin

"They say that in the beginning, when the animals were being formed, they received their endowments from Zeus. To some he gave strength, and to some speed, and to others wings. Man, however, was still naked so he said to Zeus, 'I am the only one that you have left without a gift.' Zeus replied, 'You are unaware of the gift you have obtained, but it is the greatest gift of all: you have received the gift of speech and the ability to reason, which has power both among the gods and among mortals; it is stronger than the strong and swifter than the swift.' Man then recognized the gift he had been given and bowed down before Zeus, offering him thanks."

Aesop, Zeus and Man

"By paying honor and respect to one’s kinfolk and all who share in the worship of the gods of the tribe and who also share descent and blood, a person will also enjoy the favor of the gods of the household who will be well disposed toward his own begetting of children."

Plato, Laws 729c

If you're the academic type, I encourage you to consider pursuing philosophy (or other relevant disciplines) academically. As paganism grows, there will come a time when we will need intellectually elite defenders of paganism representing us in academic institutions.

I'm not usually so blunt, but this needs to be said bluntly: interpreting mythology in a literal manner is idiotic.

Realizing that the myths have deep and eternal meaning - expressed non-literally - does not make you some sort of anti-traditionalist.

If you literally believe that Zeus turned into a swan and impregnated the queen of Sparta whose children then hatched from eggs, the only tradition you're participating in is the tradition of being stupid.

In fact, the tendency to historicize myth is most strongly associated with Abrahamic traditions, not pagan ones.

Esoteric readings of the myths are absolutely legitimate and within the mainstream of pagan spirituality.

- CWT Admin

The Powers of the Soul

NOTE: The outline presented here is drawn from the Platonic literature.

The soul is the immaterial substance by which the living differs from the nonliving.

Beginning from this simple definition, we can, by observation and analysis, develop a more sophisticated model of the soul, outlined below.

We observe that there are many ways to be alive. For example, comprehension, perception, sensation, self-movement, nourishment, and growth. We further observe that some living things live in all of these ways (like humans), while other living things live in only some of these ways (like plants).

Therefore, the powers of the soul are arranged hierarchically, with those characteristic of e.g. plant life at the bottom, and those characteristic of more divine natures at the top, and the animal nature midway between the two.

Since living virtuously (i.e., in imitation of the Gods) is our life's purpose, this hierarchy is important because virtue is the perfection of the powers of our soul.

The virtue of the rational soul is Wisdom; the virtues of the nonrational soul are Courage and Temperance; and the virtue that ties them all together is Justice.

🔸Rational:
Intellect: Mental sight. That which knows fully and immediately. Its energy is weak in those who are not spiritually advanced.
Reason: That which moves from premise to conclusion and knows the "why" of things.
Opinion: That which knows data. It knows that something is, but it doesn’t know why something is.
Intention (or Will): That which has a voluntary directedness or orientation towards the good.
🔸Nonrational:
Imagination: That faculty which has a kind of internal image of sensory information.
Sensation: That which apprehends external phenomena present to the individual.
Passion (Gr. thumos): That which nonrationally opposes the harmful or obstructive and rejoices in overcoming them. Concerned with preservation.
Desire (or Appetite): That which seeks what is (or appears to be) good. Concerned with acquisition.
Vegetative:
Reproduction: In imitation of the immortal Gods, mortal creatures generate beings like themselves, one after the other.
Growth
Nourishment

"The connection also of males with males defiles, because it is an emission of seed as it were into a dead body, and because it is contrary to nature."

Porphyry, On the Abstinence from Animal Food 20

You need to be using your talents, whatever they are, for the greater good of European spirituality.

Of course, some people will be able to do more than others, for various reasons. I'm just some guy who reads philosophy and poetry after work, and I try to share some of that with you. But we all have to contribute as much as we can, in whatever ways we can.

If you're artistic or musical, make art and music. If you're into history, use that knowledge to educate and defend. If you're into philosophy, use it to clarify, defend, and elaborate European spirituality. If you're good at planning and organizing, plan and organize meetings and the like.

Ideally, use your talents, not simply for self-expression or your own enjoyment, but for the betterment of the community. Make music for us. We need a common music. We need prayer books. We need solid defenses against common objections. We need guides, devotionals, journals. We need everything.

And in everything you do, hold yourself to a high standard. Do it as if your descendants will be using it for centuries. Put everything you can into it.

There's something for everyone to do.

- CWT Admin

"According to [Platonic] theology therefore, from the immense principle of principles [i.e., The One], in which all things causally subsist, absorbed in super-essential light, and involved in unfathomable depths, a beauteous progeny of principles [i.e., the Gods] proceed, all largely partaking of the ineffable, all stamped with the occult characters of deity, all possessing an overflowing fullness of good. From these dazzling summits, these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations, being, life, intellect, soul, nature, and body, depend; monads suspended from unities, deified natures proceeding from deities. ... Thus all beings proceed from, and are comprehended in the first being; all intellects emanate from one first intellect; all souls from one first soul; all natures blossom from one first nature; and all bodies proceed from the vital and luminous body of the world."

Thomas Taylor, Introduction to Proclus' Theology of Plato

"The supervisor of the universe has arranged everything with an eye to its preservation and excellence, and its individual parts play appropriate active or passive roles according to their various capacities. These parts, down to the smallest details of their active and passive functions, have each been put under the control of ruling powers that have perfected the minutest constituents of the universe. Now then, you perverse fellow, one such part - a mere speck that nevertheless constantly contributes to the good of the whole - is you, you who have forgotten that nothing is created except to provide the entire universe with a life of prosperity. You forget that creation is not for your benefit: you exist for the sake of the universe. Every doctor, you see, and every skilled craftsman always works for the sake of some end-product as a whole; he handles his materials so that they will give the best results in general, and makes the parts contribute to the good of the whole, not vice versa."

Plato, Laws 903b-d

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

Epictetus

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

Proclus, Elements of Theology 13

Whenever I quote passages like the above which talk about unity, oneness, etc., I always know I will get a negative reaction.

I want to try to address this topic of unity directly because I think it's a cause of much misunderstanding and confusion.

First of all, unity does not mean mixture. I believe that the two words are wrongly used interchangeably, as if "unity" means removing all difference by creating some sort of smoothie out of everything (it doesn't mean that). In fact, mixture is in many cases opposed to unity. If you mix things together that shouldn't be mixed together, you will destroy the unity they had before.

But let's take a step back and try to understand what guys like Proclus and Plotinus meant by unity and why they thought it's important. Bear with me for a second.

Read again what Proclus says here: "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." This sentence is key because it makes clear what Proclus doesn't mean: he is not saying that you should try to "unite" anything and everything. Instead, he's observing that anytime something loses its quality, or its health, or whatever, it's losing those things - it's losing its good - precisely because it is, in some way, losing its unity as a particular thing.

To be something - anything whatsoever - is to be a particular thing with particular qualities and characteristics. To be a horse, for example, is to have horsey characteristics. But a horse is a composite creature: they have eyes, legs, internal organs, teeth, they feel pain, they run really fast, etc. Therefore, what makes the horse a horse is the unification of all these horsey qualities and characteristics. But what happens if the poor horse loses some of those things? He will have lost some of the unity of his nature, he will be out of whack, he will no longer be a thriving, flourishing horse. If he loses too many of them, he will die.

The loss of unity is the loss of identity. And it is in this sense that The One, or The Good, is good: it is ultimately the source of wholeness, togetherness, health; it is the necessary prerequisite for anything to be anything at all. That is why it is the most holy of all holy things.

- CWT Admin

"The Jews, like other separate nationalities, have established laws according to their national genius, and preserve a form of worship which has at least the merit of being ancestral and national, — for each nation has its own institutions, whatever they may chance to be. This seems an expedient arrangement, not only because different minds think differently, and because it is our duty to preserve what has been established in the interests of the state, but also because in all probability the parts of the earth were originally allotted to different overseers, and are now administered accordingly. To do what is pleasing to these overseers is to do what is right : to abolish the institutions that have existed in each place from the first is impiety."
- Celsus

Today I have shared some quotes from Platonists to dispel the false claims going about that:
-Platonists didn’t believe in the gods
-Platonists were against nationhood or “folkism”
-Platonists were not loyal to the gods
-Platonists saw the gods as mere attributes of a greater God
-Platonists were like Christians (they opposed Christianity for being materialistic)

Platonist paganism was indeed different from conventional paganism in some theological assumptions but not in practice. Pagan Platonists advocated for Nationalism, maintenance of ancient ritual sacrifices and reverence for the gods. I am myself critical of Platonism for certain things but NOT for made up things!

Here is Plotinus, probably the most important platonist besides Plato himself, unambiguously declaring that there are many Gods. Not only does he state that there are many Gods but he says that monotheism is a misunderstanding of the nature of the divine.

- CWT Admin