Sophia Perennis:
The Theon Philoi Constitution

Reflecting the manner in which the perspectives of the ancients may be understood and lived
By the Friends of the Gods in the modern era.

By Robin Artisson
Copyright © 2008



Introduction


I. Goal and Justification

A document such as this- a concise constitution of cosmological and metaphysical positions, born from a broad, scholarly consideration of the beliefs and philosophies of the pre-Christian Indo-European peoples- was inevitable. Many attempts have been put forth by people in the modern day to create "neo-Pagan" belief systems, or to reconstitute and revive old Pagan beliefs in the modern day. Few have gone so far as to succeed in being truly exhaustive and systematic in their work.

The reasons for this are many; this is not a criticism of some of the "reconstructionist" Pagans operating in the modern world; every pre-Christian European Pagan culture was radically altered by the incursion of Christianity, and much of the wisdom of these cultures was lost, along with large quantities of their cultural heritage- art, literature, customs, myths, sacred stories, academic learning, language, and more.

The devastating impact of these losses is still being felt today, as we attempt to scrap together pieces of the whole vision of the vibrant cultural and religious lives of our ancestors. Any attempts on the part of people today to revive and "re-imagine" or understand Pagan religious practices and mysteries are seriously hampered by the fragmentary state of affairs with respect to what lore and material survived the cultural cleansings and destructions that took place so long ago.

So while individual reconstructionist movements have made great efforts and succeeded in resurrecting a (typically) working state of religious affairs, few if any have had access to enough intact Pagan material to recreate a complete working system that satisfies all of the "big question" issues that philosophy and religion are together meant to answer for curious human beings.

Some modern Reconstructionists have embraced the idea that they cannot and need not have such "complete" systems- rightly preferring to keep some areas of philosophy and deep considerations "open and flexible". This is also wise, in a way, and in keeping with the emphasis on freedom of mind enjoyed by the orthopraxic Pagans of the past. Sometimes, a religious cultural movement can be held back by too much "weight of doctrine" or belief.

What drives both the modern attempts to "reconstruct" Pagan religious beliefs and religious culture? Chiefly a belief that the ancestors, previous to their oftentimes tragic encounters and relations with Christian governments and absolutism, were very wise and had access to important shares of wisdom that could have benefited the modern world had it been allowed to survive. Fortunately, much wisdom did survive, including clues to the beliefs and religious practices of these noble peoples. It is in reconstituting religious practices, reconsidering their cosmological and mythical understandings, and other related cultural practices that we hope to re-capture some of that wisdom for ourselves.


It must be stated up-front that this work is not about reconstructing the totality of any one ancient Indo-European Pagan culture. It is about answering a very hard question- the question of how we modern men and women can experience the wisdom, born in the cultural and religious life of the ancients, without actually being born into one of these ancient cultures. It is undeniable that the old religions of pre-Christian Europe were completely tied into cultural life. Entire cultures and ancient cultural practices upheld the religious life and helped to transmit the experience of the Gods and mysteries to their members. Without those cultures being revived in whole or in large part, is it possible to engage only the religious aspects? I think not.

Thus, a search begins for the "Sophia Perennis", or the "perennial wisdom" that was universally transmitted among the Indo-European peoples, and which was trans-cultural. Furthermore, a search begins for a way that we can understand the larger patterns of belief, cosmology, and philosophy, and access them in the context of our modern day, and our modern cultures.

Some people will not appreciate such a search. The reasons are many, but can be boiled down to a single point- such a search necessarily involves a sort of "Pagan Theosophy", (if I may coin a partially humorous term) which still infuriates the sensibilities of many. Modern Pagans of the serious, culturally-sensitive variety rightly shun attempts at universalism, and there is little way to avoid the charge of "universalism" in any system that calls itself "theosophical"- even one that makes light of the term.

It is true, without a doubt, that ancient Pagan societies- whether in the form of tribes or city-states- were somewhat culturally insular, and that their historical religious and cultural systems deserve their individual acclaim in the modern day for uniqueness and sacredness. To consider some "larger" philosophical message that is drawn from different mythologies and remnant metaphysical writings from various cultures, and to attempt to systematize it, will be met with resistance in some circles, and thought of as disrespectful to individual cultures. No disrespect is meant here on my part.

A while back, a friend of mine mentioned that such attempts at "Pan-Indo European" religious reconstruction had taken place, and some were still underway- all of them attempts to create a "perennial wisdom" born in ancient Europe, that could act as a valid alternative to the dominant mainstreams of religion born in the ancient Near-East and Middle East.


I have my concerns for such attempts, but at the end of the day, I support them, for after a decade and a half of closely studying the various mythologies and Pagan writings and remnants of Old Europe, and after a similar length of time religiously practicing within a pure reconstructionist context, I am convinced that there is a possibility of grasping a general metaphysical/philosophical worldview, a cohesive theology and cosmology based on the distant Indo-European past, which, while being a modern innovation, is supported by real patterns of antique belief.

The fact that I make no attempts to claim "this or that culture believed just like this" is salient here. I am not intruding on any one ancient culture. What I am doing is taking a broad view, and seeking justification for certain universal beliefs in things like the "cyclical universe" and the "multiplicity of the Gods" from the mythical patterns and writings of many of the ancients. It is indisputable that all of the Indo-European Pagans had common patterns of belief and religious practice. They had many similarities alongside much dissimilarity.

It is those similarities that I wish to focus on in this work, as I attempt to leave behind the restrictions of "historical cultural evolutions" and create a consistent belief-system based on what we can infer that the Indo-European people as a whole likely believed, in some form or fashion, before their various cultural strands diverged and changed into many unique forms.

Another challenge I face- and which, I believe, I have overcome- is the fact that not all Indo-European people had a similar experience of Christianity. Christianity, as a movement, did not tolerate much of the old religions that came before it, and some cultures experienced more absorption and destruction as the paradigm of Christianity became dominate than did others. Different aspects of Pagan culture survived in various ways, in various cultures, some more than in others. In Northern Europe, for instance, among the Celtic and Germanic peoples, very small amounts of Pagan lore survived, when compared to the large amounts of Pagan myth and literature that survived from the Classical world of Greece and Rome.

This is not to say (again) that valid reconstructions are not possible for Germanic and Celtic Paganism- they both have been successfully more-or-less reconstructed. The same can be said for modern reconstructions of Greek and Roman Paganism.

My challenge was the fact that most of my written sources for Indo-European Paganism are found in the surviving writings of Pagans from Southern Europe, as opposed to Northern Europe, where cultures were largely not literate, and depended on Christian monks and scribes to record what little of their myths we actually have. Thankfully, when considering the mythologies and writings from North or South, a cohesive picture emerges, allowing us to see how the many Pagan religious systems of Europe have patterns and deities and cultural structures which match well what we know of the Indo-Europeans as a whole, and even with the Indo-Europeans that lived outside of Europe.

So, the basis of this current work is, admittedly, "leaned" towards the models and understandings of the Southern Europeans, especially the Greeks. I have used some of their terminology to refer to the "religious universals" found among all Indo-European people. Even the name of the movement I have created to re-embrace the "perennial wisdom" is Greek:Theon Philoi, or the "Friends of the Gods".

Who are the "Friends of the Gods?" They are anyone, anywhere in the world, who agrees with the ideas laid out in the constitution given here. It is a club for those who thirst for spiritual alternatives and respect the art, culture, and wisdom of the past; it is a fellowship of like-minded men and women, a fraternity/sorority without walls, boundaries, leadership, or dues. Its meeting places are everywhere.


My hope is that the structure given in this present work can be used within any cultural context of ancient Europe, but that it will be seen for what it really is: an attempt to allow people who never had the benefit of those historical cultures, in their full and majestic operation, to still experience something of the wisdom of their worldviews, their philosophical depth, and their emphasis on the Gods as true and powerful divinities and friends to mankind.

Nothing stops people from taking what is written here and using it as a philosophical "backbone" for further work into individual European Pagan cultures. The work itself lends itself easier to Southern European Paganism, but again, this was merely a consequence of the fact that so much information remains from historical Southern Europe.

The themes addressed in this work are universal and trans-cultural: the reality of the cosmos as an expression of an eternal cycle of birth, persistence, destruction, and rebirth; the notion of true Polytheism; the beliefs in Spirits of the natural world who are important to humans living successfully in conjunction with the natural world, the idea of "proper relations" between human beings having a basis in family bonds and social loyalty as well as hospitality and oath-keeping; and the notion of the immortality of certain aspects of each man and woman, and the reality of conscious existence after death.

These themes are apparently universal among the Indo-European peoples, and were expressed in many forms; they are emblematic of how the ancient Indo-Europeans lived and believed. These themes are, in my belief and experience, just as powerful today as they were at the dawn of Indo-European history.



These themes contrast in many important ways with the basic themes of the Judeo-Christian world, and in those contrasts, we understand how worldview can spell the difference between the life and death of the world as a whole- can we continue to justify the destructive conflicts caused by cultures who have been taught by mainstream religions that only they have the "true" God or the true scripture? The worldview of Polytheism allows for (and in fact, expects) a harmonious and vast variety of beliefs that do not necessitate the sorts of challenges that lead to crusade and holy war and the cultural destruction of those who are different. There is an implicit tolerance in Polytheism that this world badly needs.

But beyond this fact, there is more to keeping a Polytheistic worldview than merely tolerating others who are different and expecting tolerance in return; “tolerance” implies (in a sense) that those who “tolerate” others are somehow allowing those others to exist in some magnanimous way; unqualified “tolerance” easily establishes an unspoken hierarchy or an attitude of “superior versus inferior.” To be more concise, it is not “tolerance” that modern day non-Monotheists or non-mainstream religious folk want and need, but liberty- the liberty, the freedom to believe and live as they wish, and to find that sacred liberty respected and believed in by others. The freedom and liberty to engage and live one’s own hopes, dreams, beliefs, and motivations, so long as those do not interfere with the lives and liberties of others, is a precious value that the modern Polytheistic world (and the world in general) needs to accept, extend and expect from others. It is far more compelling than mere “tolerance”.

Can we continue to justify our mistreatment of the natural world, and the creatures of the natural world, in the idea that this world was created by a human-like God who "gave" the world to man for his "use"? Or would it make more sense to return to the wisdom that all primal cultures in the past- and many still alive today- embrace, that we are parts of this world, not its masters? That animal and plant communities have a sacredness about them that is worthy of our reverence and which requires respectful, non-exploitive coexistence?

Such nature-based spirituality was lost in the transition from a polytheistic, animistic world, into a monotheistic, non-animistic one. People have been severed, at the level of soul and mind, from the sacredness of the natural world, and this condition causes a sickness of the soul and mind- a pervasive sickness that hurts not only people, but also the world itself.


Other features contrast between the Pre-Christian Indo-European worldview and that of Judeo-Christianity; the Indo-European notion of an uncreated and endless cyclic universe contrasts with the idea of the "linear timeline" which is believed to be inaugurated and consummated by the "One True God"; the idea of rebirth for living beings after death into some condition or another, and beyond that, into new conditions, contrasts with the notion of "one death, one judgment, one eternal condition to follow." From top to bottom, the contrasts are enormous and structure a very different experience of our common world for the people who believe in them.

The greatest difference, if one had to be picked, would be the simple fact that Pagans of the various Indo-European traditions did not have guilt or sin based ideas that acted as the cornerstones of their explanations of the state of the world, nor which defined the nature of the relationship between Gods and humans. There was, in fact, no notion of "sin" as it is known in the Judeo-Christian world; humans were not "fallen" creatures, alienated from the divine world, and helplessly in need of divine grace and forgiveness to be lifted from their condition.

In the Indo-European view, passive "salvation" and long-suffering denial of the senses or the body in the name of some strange standard of "holiness" divorced from the world does not figure into goals for the highest form of human religious or spiritual life. Instead, the development of virtue and especially wisdom emerges as the most sublime or sought-after goal for human beings. There is a special wisdom, a deepest insight, which can liberate mortals from the hard circles of necessity, but the path to this wisdom is not one of contrition and guilt. It is not one of hatred or disregard for the organic realities of human life.

It is of a different character altogether, a character of total immersion in the wholeness of the realities of life and of attaining a special sort of perception which excludes nothing and which places humans among the company of the deathless Gods. The "mysteries" of old dealt at length with this and similar attainments for human beings, paths to awakening that knowledge of the divine core that was found at the heart of the human experience, and which changed the character of destiny for those who attained initiation.


I do not believe it is realistic or even necessary for people who are interested in the wisdom of the old Indo-European religious systems, or in worshipping the Gods and Goddesses of the ancient world, to force themselves to adopt the dress, speech, mannerisms, and ancient cultural/religious calendars of these older cultures. If a person feels more connected to those cultures by so doing, and is therefore able to enter into the desired religious experience more honestly and completely, then by all means, I suggest they do so. I myself, at times, engage my sense of ancestral piety in this manner.

But I believe that cultures are constantly evolving- and I doubt anyone will try to argue this point with me too harshly- and to this belief, I believe that the Gods and spiritual entities that were known by the ancestors of old are still in existence, and still just as available for relationships with human beings now as they ever were, well within the context of our modern cultures, and the complex features of our everyday lives.

Can we truly submit ourselves to the notion that unless we pray to the Greek Gods in ancient Greek, invoke them in Homeric verse, and dress in chitons, that they will not listen to us? The Greeks who live in Greece today are not culturally very similar to their ancestors- does this mean that no relationship is possible between the present day Hellenes and the Gods of their ancestors? What about for the rest of Europe?

I believe that beings of wisdom and power as great as the Gods were believed to be are not the sorts of beings who allow the simple fact of cultural evolution to stand in their way of relationship with the mortals that they showed such steadfast friendship to in the past. Gods and mortals derive not only from a common source, but a fellowship of reciprocity has always existed between them, relationships of common benefit.

The Gods, for their own Godly reasons, are involved in the course of humanity, as teachers, guardians, and advisors, and if this was true a mere handful of centuries ago, it must still be true today- or at least a reality that is still accessible on whatever level is appropriate in the modern day. The recent "loss of relationship" with the Gods, enforced by the calcified edifice of monotheism, is no great interruption to the possibility of a new, ongoing relationship with the divine world.

The "Friends of the Gods" in the modern day must work to understand and create relationships with the Gods and spiritual powers of old, in what way they best understand them. They must approach the Gods in formal occasions of prayer, libations, and sacrifice inspired by the models of the past, but take a care not to become too enslaved to theatrics or adherence to forms of worship that have no deeper meaning for them.

They must also consider what the ancients had to say about how, precisely, the Gods related to mankind, for the temptation in the modern day is to assume that the ancient Pagans related to their many Gods and Goddesses and other spiritual allies in the same manner that Christians relate to their God or Jesus- and this was certainly not the case.

The nature of this relationship is discussed in the Constitution, but briefly summed up: the Gods may choose rare favorites among human beings, but often do not directly involve themselves in the lives of individuals. The Gods are more than aware of any efforts made on their behalf by mortals, and establish any pious, faithful mortal in their good tidings, and they, at times, send dreams or omens or perhaps healing or relief from troubles to a mortal who shows respect and piety, as reciprocation for rightly done worship. However, the ancients did not imagine that the Gods themselves regularly stopped by their homes while on nightly rounds, to listen to their every minute concern about family problems, career-related problems, or the like.

The Gods were not pictured as "loving family members" in the same intimate terms that God or Jesus may be pictured; they were instead pictured largely as a noble kindred of beings that worked on behalf of mortals from their own realms, and who were always available, through sacrifice and worship, to possibly give aid that was needed or to help to create virtue and excellence in human life and society.

The Gods were "friends of man", for certain, but the notion of the "personal God" so common today was largely unknown. There were other spiritual beings- even divine orders of being- to which mortals could have intimate relationships, closer approximating the idea of the "personal God", chief amongst these were the guardian spirit or Daimon that watched over each life and each family, as well as others.

But there was a respectful distance that all Pagans seemed to keep between the greatest of Gods and mortals- the true subjects of the "common" and "intimate" daily prayers made by Pagans were not often the Gods at all, but the ancestral spirits that were tied to the family, or to spiritual powers present in the local area where one lived, up to and including the cults of Heroes that were once mortal, but had moved on to a semi-divine state after living a mortal life. These powers were believed to be "closer" to the mortal estate than the Gods were, and thus, were more likely to be responsive to such common prayers. Mythological accounts of Godly mating and love affairs with mortal women were celebrated stories of rare and cosmologically important events, far outside of the range of the ordinary religious experience.




II. The Five Pylons of the Constitution

The "Theon Philoi Constitution" covers five broad areas, which I feel cover every salient aspect of a "perennial wisdom-philosophy", but which also cover all of the crucial understandings and religious-type cultural impulses of the ancient Indo-Europeans. They are cosmos, Gods and daimons, sacred nature and the spirits of nature, proper relationship, and the meaning of death and existence after death.

"Cosmos" refers to the structure of things- what, precisely the world (or the universe) is, what laws structure it and transform it, and the like. Those who are well read will notice that the cosmology given within is similar to the cosmology of the great Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles. Upon examining Empedocles' thinking, I noticed that it provided an interesting route to understanding (and a language for describing) the central themes of many other Indo-European Pagan cosmologies, including those of the Greek, Norse and Slavic cultures, all of which deal with the birth of the cosmos out of a primordial chaos, the integration and proliferation of parts, the eventual dissolution or breaking down of the cosmic components, and the regeneration and re-ordering thereof.

Empedocles goes further- he provides a mystical understanding of the "soul" or the deathless element/essence of Aither which becomes involved in the "mixture and dissolution" of the cosmos and provides an explanation for why sentience and "mind" exists amid the mixtures of element, including those mixtures of bodies, and even in the subtle mixtures of spirits and beings in the unseen regions.

It is my contention that philosophers who came later, in the over-rationalistic and "logical" traditions founded by Plato and Aristotle, did a wonderful job murdering the true mystical foundations of Greek Indo-European philosophy, especially the incredible foundational visions of Parmenides and Empedocles, which I believe represent the remnants of the wisdom of very ancient traditions. I suggest anyone interested in the radical depth of pre-Socratic philosophy look to the works of Dr. Peter Kingsley, especially his works "In the Dark Places of Wisdom" and "Reality".

An understanding of "cosmos" has to underlie any cohesive philosophy. Even if our understandings of cosmos and cosmic process are just models, they are sacred models that give us a way of relating to the many experiences we have, and which we infer are created by "outside processes". In reality, the "processes" of the universe are not "outside" us- we are an essential part of them, and they of us, on every level.


The "Gods and Daimons" pylon covers the existence of those beings called "Gods" and "Goddesses" by the ancients, as well as the lesser divine beings which the Greeks called "Daimons", but may appear in any mythology as spirits or demigods of various types. I have not covered the notion of "Titans" in this constitution, for a mention of them here in the introduction will suffice. The Titanic powers, sentient and "Godly" though they may be described, represent a mythological "previous generation" of divine being, previous to the Gods that were honored by historical European Pagan societies.

As beings, whether called "Fomorian" or "Jotun" or "Titan", they are of immense power, and tied inseparably to natural powers- the Earth-Goddess herself, called by the Greeks Gaia, is a Titaness of great importance to the myths. She is mother to other Titans, and "grandmother" to the Gods of the Greek native religion. Unlike the Gods and Goddesses, who are beings of a very mysterious order, Gaia's body is literally the earth itself.

The powers of "raw nature"- the volcanic force under the earth, wide ocean, the physical body of the sun, the body of the moon, all of these beings were "Titanic" in power and station- represented by Typhon, Oceanus, Helios, and Selene, respectively. They are ancient and not quite as kindly disposed to human beings as a result of their primordial nature, though some of them (Selene and Helios, especially) were often supplicated in certain times and places.

It was the Gods, on the other hand, who were special friends to man, and their allies against the deeper, more ancient Titanic powers, who can perhaps be seen as possessing wills, intelligence, and motivations that are more primordial and hard to understand, compared to the Gods who freely enter into communication with human beings and respect common standards of pistis or reciprocal relationship.

One may take this explanation of the Gods and the "Pre-Godly" Beings who appear in the myths as competitors with the Gods, and in it, look through the classical language I am using and see the same stories being told by the Germanic peoples, with their Gods and Giants in perpetual struggle- even in those myths, the Giants were an older generation of being in the cosmos, and in common with the Greek myths, the Gods took rulership of the natural world-order after struggle and defeat of the pre-Godly beings.

This pattern- of ancient powers being defeated by later generations of Godly beings, and the world-rulership passing into a more agreeable management (at least from the perspective of humans that rely on the Gods) is nearly universal, and not only in the world of the Indo-Europeans.

It is essential to my understanding of the "Perrenial Wisdom" that various orders of sentient life exist, both orders of life that can be observed with the ordinary senses- that of human beings, the beasts of this world, and the like, and orders that extend into ranges of sense or experience that are not so apparent, but whose living presence is still essential to the order of the world, and to the well-being of things. These "unseen reaches" are peopled by the spirits of nature, divine beings or Daimons, and of course, the Gods.

The post-mortem existence of animals and humans (and any other being that is fatefully vulnerable to death) also create forces that populate the extra-sensory world, though the post-mortem existence of these beings is divided between the "shade" or remains of the released vital force of a human or animal, and the Daimon which appears to have been related to the being in its life somehow.

An acceptance and an understanding of the vast populations of beings that exist, whether seen or unseen, is needful to a true "ecology of sentience"- an ecology that human beings have no choice but to be a part of. It was a great achievement of wisdom, on the parts of the ancients, which allowed them to fathom the depths to which the "community of sentient life" truly extended, and to religiously embrace it in the systematic approach of religious polytheism.


"True polytheism" is the name I give to the understanding of the Gods (and other divine beings) in the institution of the perennial wisdom. This is a perfect polytheism- it does not hide some belief that there is a greater, singular "god" or "mystery" that is somehow "behind" all the Gods. Such monistic tendencies are common among modern Pagans of any stripe- and it is a shame, for the real freedom of worship, personal spiritual questing, and individual spiritual transformation promised by the perennial wisdom relies on a worldview that sees a true multiplicity of divine powers, unqualified by the belief (so comforting in the monotheistically-influenced modern day) that all Gods must be "one" God.

Whatever certain rare ancient mysteries or minority cults may have taught, we must look to the vast range of known Indo-European beliefs about the divine and realize that true polytheism was an important and crucial point of belief. At the "top level" of metaphysical or cosmological speculation, we must allow the processes of the cosmos, which bring even the Gods and human beings into existence, to be a truly natural and sacred process, not some "greater" sentient being.

In this way, Gods and humans and every other sentient order of life stand within an infinite space of life and reality, bound only by common participation in an immense field of interactions, in which anything is possible. Nothing interferes with the necessity of their coming to know one another as full individuals; no greater "supreme being" stares down on them in judgment or puppets them as "masks for itself"- only the unavoidable consequences of action, inherent in an all-encompassing system of interaction, keeps the integrity of the universal drama sound.

As history has shown- in rivers of blood and tears- any belief that strays too far in the direction of a "supreme being" or "one true God" leaves open a door for disaster- the groundwork is laid in such philosophies for one group of people to claim a "higher truth" over another, and to defame or devalue the Gods of others, and justify conquest, conflict, and the horrors of war and conversion by force. The door of fanaticism is open, and from that terrible portal always comes powers inimical to the development of virtue and wisdom.

Such an approach as true polytheism is needful (as I have argued) in the modern day, for many reasons, but it must be carried out in a manner accessible to modern people, though with no less respect than was rendered in ancient times. Added to this emphasis on polytheism is my attempt to give concise working definitions- or at least as concise as can be given, taking into account our mortal limitations- to the concept of "God" and "Daimon". To my knowledge, no such working definition has ever been attempted in writing.


By far, one of the most centrally important pylons described in this constitution is the pylon that deals with "Proper Relationship"- for it posits a modern approach to relationships between human beings, but also between humans and the unseen world, which reflects the cultural values of the ancients, and also good common sense.

It is hard for modern people to grasp the high premium that the ancients placed on rightful relationships and the duty to act as was appropriate when one was placed into a situation of interaction with another. But the social codes of proper relationship were so deeply entrenched as to be given a sacred value- it was believed that the Gods themselves were the tutors of humankind in the customs that bound society together. One good example of how serious these concerns were taken is in Homer's most celebrated work, the Iliad.

The entire war against the Trojans was undertaken on the simple- but deadly- pretext that a Trojan prince had broken the sacred laws of hospitality, and abused his host by stealing his wife and absconding with her. His indiscretion was enough to justify a legendary war, the mobilization of all the nations of the Greeks, and the launching of quite a few naval vessels- and no one at the time batted an eye at what might seem to modern sensibilities to be an over-reaction.

To violate the proper relationship between guest and host wasn't just bad form; it was a strike at the heart of the sacred bonds that held human society together, and allowed for positive relationships between people. Loki, in Northern Myths, was likewise vulnerable to terrible repercussions when he violates the peace of a hosts' hall and insults the guests at a Fateful dinner party; an ages-long torment, a terrible punishment is fairly leveled against him by the Gods for his bad behavior in a sacred context of hospitality.

This very same idea functions across the range of social norms and even governs religious norms- there is a proper relationship that governs human interactions with the Gods, and vice-versa. The standards of piety exist to guard and encourage positive interactions, which are of benefit to all parties involved.


Theon Philoi's Constitution ends with a concise discussion of a model of death and existence after death which may be the most controversial and difficult of all its pylons. While I have again defaulted to a Classical model, I have made all efforts to reflect the following simple facts: that all Indo-European peoples believed that something, some aspect of each human being, was not vulnerable to oblivion and dissolution at death, and that certain aspects of each person had a destiny apart from the body and former mortal life- and it pursued this destiny after that event that we call "death".

Again, here at the end, as at the beginning, the understandings of Empedocles presented me with an interesting "language" for understanding how such a deathless "aspect" can enter into involvement with the many situations of life, and how it can continue to interact after "death".

The Indo-European peoples did not put much of an emphasis on precisely what "happened" after death. They put more emphasis on the proper decorum that had to be followed at the event of death, and the proper way in which the dead needed to be laid to rest- both for the sake of the dead person, and for society itself. Death rites are important "milestone" events in which society can bring a sacred sort of finality or closure to the passage of the dead individual out of the order of society and into a new order of existence, in whatever form that might be.

Despite the lack of emphasis (and lack of uniformity of belief) regarding the fate of the dead, certain key elements do remain common- the belief in an afterlife in general, sometimes depicted as a realm under the earth, and ruled over by specific Gods of the dead, and sometimes depicted (for the especially deserving) as a realm of wonder, honor, or peace. In many places it is inferred- and sometimes, outright stated- that death may be a passage, after a certain period of time, into a new condition of life here on earth again. This Indo-European notion of "rebirth", still extant in the ancient Hindu religious complex and in Buddhism, shows up in ancient Europe, in places as far apart as Scandinavia and Sicily, the home of Empedocles.

The metaphysics of rebirth are not easy to for some to harmonize with the common ideas found in ancient Europe that the dead could become powerful spiritual protectors of their families, could sometimes become semi-divine and worthy of worship, or sometimes end up wandering passionlessly in the deep Underworld. The truth of the matter is simpler: various cultures believed that various post-mortem scenarios were possible, and the fate of each individual after death was a personal and mysterious matter.

One thing is certain- again, across cultures, we find a notion that valiant, virtuous behavior in this world often gave way, in a fateful sort of symmetry, to a happier "afterlife", and a life of wickedness often gave way to a sort of loss in death, or a wandering, or a torment. There is a pervasive notion that "Justice" exists, in both a mortal and an immortal form, and that what people do in life matters beyond the perceptual boundaries of a "body" or a "lifetime", or a social role.

For the purposes of "Sophia Perennis", we cannot rule out the possibilities inherent in the mysterious time of death, and must look, as the ancients did, to the dominant features of our lives here, as humans, for clues to what forces may influence us (or those subtle aspects of "us") beyond the grave. This, perhaps, is why the Indo-Europeans tended to emphasize life more than death; it is better, and wiser, to leave the mysteries of the afterlife to the afterlife, and concern oneself more with the business of living.

All the same, there is no conflict between models of "afterlife" in some "land of the dead" and rebirth or reincarnation- both represent stages or conditions in a long journey that the soul or immortal essence of any being may have to take, and so both ideas are captured in whole or in part in the beliefs of the ancients.

These ideas should be considered carefully by those who wish to believe in harmony with the ancients in the modern contexts of today, for the scenario they present has implications that are quite profound- death is not truly an "ending", but a passage into further reaches of interaction with the powers of reality, in a variety of awe-inspiring ways. Such a wisdom keeps us honest with respect to our motivations in life, and prepares us to be participants in a sacred reality, in some form, forever. That preparation, more than most things, builds the sacred sense of "reciprocity" and "relationship" that so many modern people lack.

* * *




The Constitution of Theon Philoi


I. Here we present our understanding of the Cosmos and Its Fateful Laws.

We submit that the universe, as we now experience it, is the product of an omnipresent universal process, which, in the fullness of its operation, brings into temporary existence all galaxies, solar systems, planets, many sentient orders of life, and countless natural processes which themselves shape, sustain, degrade, and destroy these various features of the universe over longer or shorter periods of perceptual time.

The vastness of this process is only matched by its irresistibility. It is the universal process of creation, sustaining, destruction, and re-creation that has no "original beginning" and no final ending; it apportions to all possible places, times, beings, or arrangements of the elements that which is proper to them- thus it was called by the ancients "Fate" or Moira, the "apportioner" or that which gives to each entity, place, or process its "share" or "lot".

This process of Fate was embodied mythologically and anthropomorphically as a shadowy female weaver or a trinity of weaving women, though the mystery of this process transcends such images. This universal process of unfolding is also called the power of "Necessity"- by it, all things come to be, and all things come to an end in their fateful time. The operations of this power- experienced by humans as sometimes fearsome or beautiful, are all necessarily good for the whole of nature- the sacred "body of nature" which coalesces out of equally sacred natural processes.

The universe, as humans experience it, moves repeatedly through an immense natural cycle of formation, persistence, destruction and re-formation. The natural materials of the universe- the elements themselves- always exist in some form and are carried into mixture and interaction throughout each cycle. At the end of each cycle, the elements are once again free of mixture and involvement, until the necessary and fateful processes of a new Cosmos-age draws them together again.

Each "cosmos age" ends with the beginning of another, and within the new cosmos-order there is an eventual re-arising of similar patterns of natural process, the appearance of sentient forms of life (whose bodies, whether coarse or subtle, are themselves mixtures of the elements in various harmonious proportions), the re-appearance of Gods, the rebirth or re-entwining of Daimons into various forms of life and expression, and the re-emergence of the spirits of natural phenomenon. These beings, so crucial to the worldview of the perennial wisdom, are described in the pylon to follow this one.

The universe, and the natural processes which give rise to it and indeed are it, are not products of any sort of "sin" or evil; they are not "flawed" by any power from "within" or "without"- and truly, no power or being can exist "without" the universal process. All powers that exist are parts of the universal process. Nothing comes to pass due to some "cosmic error", on the part of Gods, human beings, or any other powers or beings.



II. Here we present our understandings of the Gods and Daimons.

We submit that there are, arisen from the natural universal process and working within it, sentient non-human beings, entities who have individual and discrete "minds" and "bodies"- though their bodies need not be composed of "matter" in the way that "matter" is normally experienced by human beings, nor in the manner that human and animal bodies are compounded.

These beings possess memory, volition, will, and various modes of awareness and perception that encompass those known to human beings, and some that transcend the boundaries of human awareness and perception. These beings are sometimes associated with- or may be experienced on some level in conjunction with- various natural processes, times, events, and activities. Some of these beings are called now, as they were in the past, "Gods" or "Goddesses"- and some, occupying a lesser order of existence (as understood by mortals) are called "Daimons" which simply means "divine beings".

The distinction between "God" on the one hand, and "Daimon" on the other can be blurred at times, but in general, those beings called "Gods" have come to occupy positions within the great and boundless field of interaction and communication- which is the field of the Universe or all reality- which make them responsible for consciously directing interactions and communications (which can also be understood as power-transactions, including the unifications of various forces, proliferation of combinations of force, and the destruction of forces and their combinations) of fundamental importance to the Fateful direction in which the totality of things is unfolding.

The length of perceptual "time" that the Gods may maintain the cohesiveness of their non-ordinary "minds" and "bodies" is believed to be truly eternal- The Gods were rightly called "deathless" by the ancients, for they are beings free of the compulsion of necessity that drives other sentient beings into limitation, and thus to death. The Gods appear, though an act of will, at the "beginning" of each cosmos-cycle, exist for the duration of the cycle, and, though another act of will, emerge at the start of each cycle anew, to continue what interactions are appropriate to the mystery of their divine being. That divine work, which is impossible for human beings to fathom fully, is always on behalf of the ultimate welfare of other sentient beings.

Daimons may assume a lesser responsibility for the equilibrium and transformation of a lesser "region" of interactive space/time, and some Daimons- but not all- may also periodically receive and carry out the will of a God or Gods to whom they may be bound through some circumstance. The length of perceptual "time" that lesser Daimons may maintain the cohesiveness of their non-ordinary minds and bodies is not truly known, though it is not as long as the Gods. By the report of the ancients, their "life spans" may be countless millennia. Non-Godly Daimons are, therefore, subject to processes which are, for them, equivalent to mortal "death".

For their own wise reasons- and pursuant to the omnipresent and natural chain of power-relationship and the many types of possible modes of "communication" that exist on all levels in this cosmos- the Gods may choose to enter into reciprocal relationships with individuals or groups of human beings up to the level of a nation. Through interaction with them, the Gods may steer them on courses or aid them in tasks that are of fundamental importance to the rightful unfolding of a larger social, spiritual, or historical context which will be of overt or covert benefit to many.

These same Gods can choose to benefit only an individual, knowing as they do the extent to which even the transformations of one human being can be a key to larger patterns of development within the world, or beyond. It is thought that such Godly relationship with an individual is rare- but not impossible. It is pious and wise to work for such a relationship or aid, and further wise to accept that such aid or transactions of communication- when granted- will likely come through the agency of a Daimon bound to the divinity whose attentions are sought, or through a dream-vision or an omen (an "omen" being a synchronistic combination of natural forces which occurs within the experience of the human being).



III. Here we present our understanding of the sacredness of the natural world.

We submit that the ancients understood the body of nature itself to be inhabited by orders of sentient life that included all the various creatures and races of man that are visible to the senses, but also spiritual entities that were perhaps a lesser class of Daimon- and called by us- as by many of the ancients- "Nature Spirits".

These entities are bound through Fateful circumstance (i.e. circumstance of natural process or unfolding of power-interaction) to various natural phenomena, including various trees, rivers, streams, oceans, plants, and the like. There they reside, and act as guardians and mediators of those natural powers and realities to the rest of the world.

The names given to these various entities (Wights, Dryads, Nereids, etc) refer to sentient, non-human beings that possess individual and discrete minds and bodies, though their bodies need not be composed of "matter" in the way that "matter" is normally experienced by human beings. Each of these entities possesses memory, volition, will, and various modes of awareness and perception- including modes that may go beyond the normal range of human awareness and perception. These beings may be experienced on some level in conjunction with the various natural processes or natural phenomenon with which they are traditionally associated.

The length of perceptual "time" that these nature spirits may maintain the cohesiveness of their non-ordinary minds and bodies is not truly known, but it is thought to be shorter than that of Gods or Daimons, and, in the case of such beings bound to natural phenomenon like trees, their "lives" may last only as long as their tree survives. The spirit of a river or a mountain may persist for many ages of man, or perhaps outlast the ages of man, and at any given time, new spirits or other spirits may become involved or tied into existing phenomenon, replacing or joining the spirit that was first encountered there by the ancients.

These spirits are, like the Gods and Daimons, non-human persons; they can be experienced on various levels, or in various states of consciousness. They fulfill, like any other human or non-human entity, an important role in both the unfolding of the Fateful natural processes that govern reality, and an important role in the ecology of the wholeness of the world. They are, poetically stated, members of the sacred web of sentience that informs all of nature's many realms and parts. They are reminders to us of nature's sacredness, and of our place in a vast community of sentient life.



IV. Here we present our understanding of the proper relationships that should govern human interactions.

We submit that the notion of "proper relationship" is the central key to understanding the social and religious wisdom of the ancients. Within a web of interaction such as this world, it is right, good, and proper to understand one's reliance on other beings, whether they be human, beast, Godly, Daimonic, or spiritual. To understand one's reliance on natural processes, whether seen or unseen, and to render respect, worship, protection, or aid where such things are due is right, good, and proper.

It is right and proper- and to the lasting benefit of individuals, families, and communities- to honor the Gods who are timeless friends and benefactors to mankind, constant teachers and guardians of mankind, and constant actors within the immense field of interaction who assure the proper and beneficial unfolding of the universe.

It is likewise right and proper to honor the helpful Daimons who themselves may aid or protect, and the nature spirits whose bounty, protection, and aid is needful to maintaining a safe and healthy life within a land, and whose aid is needed to secure reciprocal yields of bounty between humans and the land they dwell upon.

This notion of "proper relationship" extends to the treatment of other human beings, according to Necessity. It is right and proper to meet enemies- those who would undermine the health and well-being of one's own life, the lives of one's family, or threaten the needful conditions of life and well-being relied upon by one's community- with force or violence, as much as is needed to make an end to their threat.

Interactions between groups of human beings, as well as between groups of beasts or between humans and beasts, are often defined in terms of "competition", and this is not an evil. Competition is a natural and normal part of this life which is allotted to human beings. To compete well, to display excellence, with a mindful devotion to the preservation and benefit of one's family and community, and a wise understanding of the good of the whole, is right and proper.

All interactions, even competitive ones or violent ones, must therefore be ruled by the principle of moderation, which ensures that the interaction or the use of force never swings too far into the extremes of imbalance which themselves lead to future conflict and loss.

Along with the need to meet enemies as enemies, and to embrace the reality of competition, is the need to meet family as family and friends as friends, extending to them love, support, and hospitality, and to meet strangers in a hospitable manner.

Hospitality is a sacred duty, taught and sanctioned by the Gods, and it is clearly appropriate and necessary to all high-minded men or women who examine the realities of reciprocity and interaction. Those who act in a manner not befitting a friend, a guest, or a host, position themselves to cause conflict and the breaking down of the necessary bonds that sustain fair justice and treatment between families and societies.

It is fair and proper to keep one's oaths that are sworn with humans or Gods as witness- such bonds of trust compel others to act in accord with each other, and to expose themselves to risk or danger, contingent on the honor and goodness of the word of another. To betray oaths undermines one of the fundamental pylons of human society, and the one who betrays his word loses the power of trust that keeps him fixed within society's benevolent concern. He becomes a liability to the needed and fair reciprocity that social groupings depend upon.

Together, these values emerge from our understanding proper relationship:

-Respect and piety for the Gods, including due worship given to Gods, Daimons, and the spirits inhabiting nature;

-The brave resistance of all enemies;

-The acceptance of competition and the desire to excel at competition and show excellence in all worldly efforts;

-The governance of moderation in all things;

-Loyalty and support to family;

-Hospitality for friends and strangers;

-The keeping of oaths.

In shorter language, we say that we value Piety, Bravery, Excellence, Moderation, Loyalty, Hospitality, and Oath-keeping as the guardians of human society and interaction.



V. Here we present our understanding of the meaning of death, and our perspectives on the idea of "conscious existence beyond death."

We submit that the sacred processes of generation and growth that bring human men and women into life are necessarily paired with the sacred processes of physical and mental waning, weakening, danger, and disease, after which time the event called "death" occurs. Death may come before old age, through violence, in battle or in accident, but eventually, all human lives must succumb to death.

At such a time, the elements of the body are returned to their proper place within the elements- to earth, mound, or grave, or to the flames of a pyre, with the further remains being given to water or earth or the winds.

For those subtle aspects of each man, woman, or child, the time of death is an entry into a condition of interaction with the Gods and Daimons who exist perpetually or long-lastingly in various states of being beyond the senses of the ordinary human experience.

Each man, woman, and child is, at heart, a being of Aither, an extremely subtle element, more subtle than air, which persists forever, sharing the eternal life of the Gods- but which enters, along with all elements, into the mixture compelled by Necessity in each age of the Cosmos.

Daimons and nature spirits are likewise ultimately beings of Aither, and, like human beings, any who are not Gods are compelled by Necessity in every age to enter into the mixture of the elements and experience the circumstances of many kinds of life, subject to all the confusion and forgetfulness which is characteristic of that compulsion and mixture.

At death, the elements of the body are dispersed, and in human societies, the ceremonial dispersion of the elements is a sacred duty, pursuant to treating family or friends in the rightful and respectful manner that they must be treated. To disperse the elements of their bodies in a respectful, sacred, and pious manner compels the subtle essence of them to speedy rest, to easy journey, and to honor. To fail in the proper funerary duties is to endanger the souls of the dead with restlessness and to break the ties of proper relationship.

At death, after the dispersal of the elements of the body, the breath and vital power of the deceased man, woman, or child returns, under the guidance of Gods and ancestral Daimons, to the Underworld, the interior world of our experience, where it forms a shade of the deceased, and the released vital forces of the dead come to rest in the body of nature itself.

That mystery of pure Aither, however, which is the true immortal aspect of the person, moves into relationship and interaction with those of like kind- up to and including the Gods. The purity of the Gods here is paramount to remember- and only the pure can enter into or remain for long in the company of the pure.

What follows is as mysterious as it is sublime; the ultimate destiny of the released spirit of Aither is known only to the Gods and the individual; it was thought by many of the ancients- and so believed by us- that the good piety exercised by an individual in life, the purity of virtue achieved by them, and the good or glorious deeds performed in their days conditioned them for many experiences in sympathy and harmony with those achievements. There is no evil in death for a good man.

Those whose lives were dismal failures of virtue, failures to live according to wisdom and moderation, and characterized by submission to the most savage and cruel things inherent in the nature of man, are subject to the painful states that such things predispose them to.

While few were believed able to achieve the wisdom and purity required to remain in the company of the Deathless Gods forever (though those mortals favored by the Gods could expect goodness and peace beyond this life), to dwell in a new, Daimonic state was possible to the best and bravest of humanity, and from that state, they can and do influence the lives and times of those still living, acting in turns as protectors and guides.

The Daimonic dead act in this manner, as protectors and helpers, and are honored by the living for these acts, until Necessity dictates that they undergo dissolution even from that state, and re-involvement in a new state. The new state of any being can be found again among the families and societies of men or women, in the state of nature spirits, among populations of beasts, among other classes of Daimon, or the like. Any condition of life is truly possible to the deathless Aither, and only virtue guarantees its restful or joyful involvement with states of being that lead to higher attainments of virtue and self-knowledge.

It was known among the most wise men and women, and those initiates wise in the ancient Mysteries, that the Deathless Gods sought to lift man above his confused and difficult estate. The greatest mysteries of purity and virtue are those that show men and women the truth of their most essential nature, the truth of his or her true being in Aither, and which allow humans to achieve the Deathless state that is their natural birthright, though from the beginning of each cosmos-age, we humans and countless other sentient beings have all been drawn into the mixture of the elements and the confusion of interaction and limitation.

Some humans may be heroic and wise enough to attain the Deathless, and become free of the compulsion of Necessity. They are to be honored as such- as Heroes, as the most wise, or even Demigods- rare though they will be in any age.


* * *

Bibliography of Informational Sources For This Work

The scholarly basis for my understandings of the beliefs of the Indo-Europeans, both in general, and by culture, and particularly as I have spoken of them in this Constitution, is found in the pages of the books that follow. I myself often forget that not everyone who reads my work is as familiar with the beliefs of the various ancient Indo-European cultures as the circle of people I usually share my writings with; this bibliography is added in response to a request from a dear friend, and based on feedback she received from others. May the Gods feed them honey.

The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History by Mircea Eliade
The Cyclical Serpent: Prospects For An Ever-repeating Universe by Paul Halpern
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony
Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science by Stefan Arvidsson
Indo-European Poetry and Myth by M.L. West
Religious Attitudes of the Indo-Europeans by Hans F.K. Gunther
The Iliad and The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles
Greek Religion by Walter Burkert
Greek Folk Religion by Martin P. Nilsson
Arcana Mundi by Georg Luck
In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Kingsley
Reality by Peter Kingsley
The Poetic Edda translated by Lee M. Hollander
The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems translated by Henry Adams Bellows
Our Troth: History and Lore Vol. 1 by Kveldulf Gundarsson and Associates
A Brief History of the Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis
Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs by John Lindow
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson
Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions by Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson
The Celts: The People Who Came Out of the Darkness by Gerhard Herm
Tales from Slavic Myths by Ivan Hudec




Click Here To Return To The Main Page




All text is Copyright © 2008 by Robin Artisson
All Rights Reserved