"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. These are the guidelines I suggest for you."

Parmenides, fragment 5

"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. People who spend their whole life travelling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality but no real friendships. The same must needs be the case with people who never set about acquiring an intimate acquaintanceship with any one great writer, but skip from one to another, paying flying visits to them all."

Seneca, Letter II

Who then is the Mother of the Gods? She is the source of the intellectual and creative gods, who in their turn guide the visible gods: she is both the mother and the spouse of mighty Zeus; she came into being next to and together with the great creator; she is in control of every form of life, and the cause of all generation; she easily brings to perfection all things that are made; without pain she brings to birth, and with the father's aid creates all things that are; she is the motherless maiden, enthroned at the side of Zeus, and in very truth is the Mother of all the Gods.

Emperor Julian, "Hymn to the Mother of the Gods," 362 AD

"For like most people he [ = Socrates] believed that the gods have a care for humankind, but with an important difference: whereas they think that the gods know about some things but not others, Socrates thought that they know all things, our words and deeds and secret purposes; that they are present everywhere, and send signals to humans about all that concerns humankind.

So I wonder how the Athenians were ever persuaded that Socrates was a maverick as regards the gods, when he never said or did anything irreverent regarding gods, and his words and behavior regarding gods were the words and behavior of one who is, and is acknowledged to be, truly pious."

Xenophon, Memorabilia I.1.19-20

"Think about what kind of person you must be, in body and soul, when overtaken by death. Contemplate the shortness of life, the yawning gulf of time behind and before you, the frailty of all matter."

Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.7

My son loves Aesop’s fables too

The view that abortion is wrong beyond a certain point of the pregnancy goes back at least as far as Aristotle.

"...The line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive." Politics 7.16

A Daily Practice for Acquiring Civic Virtue

Civic virtue - also called political virtue - is the kind of virtue that relates to our lives as social creatures. "By these virtues upright men devote themselves to their commonwealths, protect cities, revere parents, love their children, and cherish relatives; by these they direct the welfare of the citizens, and by these they safeguard their allies with anxious forethought and bind them with the liberality of their justice; by these 'They have won remembrance among men'" (Macrobius).

Jupiter is the presiding God of civic virtue, and when we achieve civic virtue we will rule ourselves and command our lives in a manner which imitates Jupiter's rulership over the universe.

Each of the four classical virtues - Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Justice - have a civic mode.

Civic Wisdom: One must direct all thoughts and actions by the standard of reason, and wish for or do nothing but what is right, and have regard for human affairs as one would for divine authority. In wisdom we find reason, understanding, circumspection, foresight, willingness to learn, and caution.
Civic Courage: One must exalt his mind above all dread of danger, fear nothing except disgrace, and bear manfully both adversity and prosperity. Courage endows one with magnanimity, confidence, composure, nobleness, constancy, endurance, and steadfastness.
Civic Temperance: One must strive after nothing that is base, in no instance overstepping the bounds of moderation but subduing all immodest desires beneath the yoke of reason.
Civic Justice: One must safeguard for each man that which belongs to him. From justice comes uprightness, friendship, harmony, sense of duty, piety, love, human sympathy.

As we learn from Hierocles in his Commentary, the first half of the Golden Verses of Pythagoras can be understood as an outline of how to achieve civic virtue. Conveniently, Hierocles summarizes the verses into a kind of checklist. Every night, we are to examine our day and determine whether we lived up to these standards. And when we have, we should rejoice, but when we haven't, we should reprimand ourselves. We always keep in mind three questions: Where have I transgressed? What did I accomplish? What duty did I neglect?

"These are the prenoscriptions of the lawgiving intellect for souls," says Hierocles.
1. To honor the beings superior by nature according to their substantial rank.
2. To accord parents and relatives the highest esteem.
3. To welcome and befriend good men.
4. To prevail over our bodily functions [i.e., our lusts and appetites].
5. To feel shame before oneself everywhere [i.e., to hold oneself accountable].
6. To engage in justice.
7. To know beforehand that our possessions and ephemeral lives are easily destroyed.
8. To welcome our lot in life as assigned to us by divine judgement.
9. To use prudent thought that is pleasing to God and to change one's thinking for the better.
10. To practice the love of speaking, using real arguments.
11. To be immune to deception and slavishness for the preservation of virtue.
12. To use good counsel before we act, as a result of which our actions will be free from regret.
13. To be pure of conceit.
14. To pursue a life informed by knowledge.
15. To reform the body and externals to make them cooperate with virtue.

Sources: Hierocles, Commentary on the Golden Verses 19.3-4; Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio 1.8.3-12

Music training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the secret places of the soul.

Plato

"When Dionysus had projected his reflection into the mirror, he followed it and was thus scattered over the universe. Apollo gathers him and brings him back to heaven, for he is the purifying God and truly the savior of Dionysus, and therefore he is celebrated as the 'Dionysus-Giver'.

Like Kore, the soul descends into genesis, like Dionysus she is scattered by generation, like Prometheus and the Titans she is chained to the body. She frees herself by acquiring the strength of Hercules, gathers herself together through the help of Apollo and of Athena the Savior, i.e. by truly purifying philosophy, and she elevates herself to the causes of her being with Demeter."

Damascius, Commentary on Plato's Phaedo 1.129-130

"...Hermes indeed is the supplier of philosophy, and through this elevates souls, and by the dialectic powers, sends upward both total and partial souls to the good itself. But Venus is the first-effective cause of the amatory inspiration which pervades through wholes, and familiarizes to the beautiful the lives that are elevated by her. And Apollo perfects and converts all things through music, convolving, as Socrates says [in the Cratylus], and through harmony and rhythm attracting to intellectual truth, and the light which is there."

Proclus, Theology of Plato 6.22

"Should anyone feel the presence of an evil spirit, tempting him to injustice, he should go into a temple, remain at the altar, or into sacred groves, flying from injustice as from an impious and harmful mistress, supplicating the divinities to cooperate with him in turning it away from himself. He should also seek the company of men known for their virtue, in order to hear them discourse about a blessed life and the punishment of bad men, that he may be deterred from bad deeds, dreading none but the avenging divinities."

Preface to the Laws of Zaleucus the Locrian

"Well then, they say that those who live according to their own essence - that is, as they were born to live - have the divine daimon allotted to them, and for this reason we can see that these people are held in high esteem in whatever walk of life they pursue. Now to live 'according to essence' is to choose the life that befits the chain from which one is suspended: for example, to live the military life, if one is suspended from the chain of Ares; or the life of words and ideas, if from that of Hermes; or the healing or prophetic life, if from that of Apollo; or quite simply, as was said earlier, to live just as one was born to live. But if someone sets before himself a life that is not according to his essence, but some other life that differs from this, and focuses in his undertakings on someone else's work - they say that the intellective daimon is allotted to this person, and for this reason, because he is doing someone else's work, he fails to hit the mark in some instances."

Olympiodorus, On Plato's First Alcibiades 20

"All human laws are in the keeping of the one divine law."

Heraclitus, fragment 114

A video was published by the Kulture Dads podcast today which critiques Platonism. I do not normally make personalized responses like this, but I felt I needed to address the points made in their video.

In order to avoid posting an enormous wall of text, I decided to experiment with audio recording. I guess time will tell if that was a good decision.

Edit: In case it was confusing, the reason I refer to the above recording as a video is because I was originally intending to add images to the audio track but decided to just post the audio.

Link to the Kulture Dads video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQVaHUV3m0

Who do you trust:
Ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas have resonated in our civilization for thousands of years

Or

Telegram anons?

How many times have you seen a cross or a Buddha statue in a shop or some other place?

Help popularize public displays of busts or statues of the Gods, Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Stoic philosophers, etc. When appropriate, have one on your desk at work or in other places. This is a simple and powerful way to spread awareness. Or have a picture of a Delphic Maxim on the wall, for example. There are many things along these lines that could be done which will make people curious and raise awareness of our native spiritual tradition.

- CWT Admin

The Romanist Creed lays out the central beliefs that separate Romanists from other religious groups. While traditionally, Gentile religion has not been credal, there is good reason for us to establish a creed today.

In the presence of many other world religions, it is crucial for us to be able to clearly state what we value and what makes us Romanists. This isn't a Creed that all Gentiles must accept or a statement of absolute infallible truth.

Instead, it's a statement of our ideals, spiritual goals, and core tenets. This fits the classical definition of doxa as opinion. This is the opinion of the Romanists and the statement we make as an affirmation of our faith in the Gods and our aspiration for spiritual liberation.

When someone asks what it means to be a Romanist, this creed states our core principles while leaving an enormous amount of room for further interpretation and speculation, philosophically and theologically.

🔸 Click on the links in the text below to view some supporting quotes. The text is from the Romanist Society creed posted above.

I believe
that the Gods exist;
that they govern the universe well and justly;
that they are causes only of good;
that they are providential;
that they cannot be influenced by evil.

I honor,
first, Jove, King and Father of the Gods,
maker of the whole visible and invisible world-order;
and the immortal Holy Gods, His divine children.
Next,
those beings who unfold the powers of the Gods and purify lower natures:
the angels;
the good spirits [daimones];
the illustrious heroes.
Lastly,
the saints;
ancestral divinities;
my living kin.

I hold
that the human soul, being akin to the Gods, is immortal;
that, by a life of virtue and the favor of Father Jove, I will be purified of all evils;
that thereby having been freed from the wheel of destiny and generation,
I will rejoin the procession of the Gods and govern the universe with them.