Showing 59 articles
Myths of Africa: Deepening our Understanding of Life and Death
Author: Siobhan FarrarOctober 1, 2020
Africa is a vast continent with many different peoples and a diverse diaspora whose cultural and spiritual heritage has often been misunderstood and misrepresented through colonial and Western perspectives. The ability to move past assumptions and conditioning always presents a challenge, which requires that we aim to see the essence of human life and experience. [...]
The Magical Function of Rituals and Ceremonies
Author: Julian ScottOctober 1, 2020
From an esoteric point of view, a ritual is dependent on the existence of the invisible dimension. This invisible dimension consists of a spiritual-mental aspect, which is the domain of the archetypes or ‘living idea-beings’ spoken of by the Platonists; and an ‘astral’ aspect, which is an intermediate world between spirit and matter, just as [...]
Terra Preta, the Black Earth upon which Civilisations were Built
Author: Gareth KinsellaJuly 30, 2020
“Agriculture is the noblest of all alchemy; for it turns the earth, and even manure, into gold, conferring upon its cultivator the additional reward of health.” – Hebrew proverb In 1542, a Spanish conquistador named Francisco de Orellana set sail along the Amazon river with a group of his fellow countrymen, looking high and low [...]
The High City of Troy
Author: Nataliya PetlevychJuly 30, 2020
Long ago at the dawn of history, on a distant seashore near the sacred Mount Ida, stood a marvellous city, the walls of which were built by the gods themselves. It was there that Poseidon and Apollo did their penance labouring for king Laomedon on the orders of the great Zeus. The city was Ilium [...]
The Noble Spirit of Competition
Author: Markus EdinJuly 21, 2020
With the 2020 Olympic Games being cancelled we may seize the opportunity to reconnect with the spirit of this most famous and prestigious sporting event. For it has not always existed in the format we know it today, the ancient Olympics serving a vastly different purpose than the modern day Olympic Games. Just how far [...]
Old Ireland
Author: Gareth KinsellaJune 21, 2020
During the course of the last two millennia, ripple effects from endless waves of invasions and migrations have contributed to the Irish identity of today, although preceding tales of misty legends and epics are still expressed by ancient structures, myths and culture. Ireland’s origins are of vague beginnings, with butchered bear bones carbon dated to [...]
Plato’s Esoteric Teachings
Author: Julian ScottApril 17, 2020
Plato is typically thought of as a ‘respectable’ Greek philosopher who is widely taught at reputable universities around the world and admired for his original philosophical thinking. However, there is another side to Plato which is only explored by a minority of scholars, starting with Heinrich Gomperz in the 1930s and continuing with the ‘Tübingen [...]
Daring to Live as a Warrior
Author: Vineet LalanApril 17, 2020
In various ancient civilizations, we find the Archetype of the Warrior as an inspiration for human beings to overcome the challenges of life. Today, most of us are not physically engaged on battlefields, as warriors fighting with swords and spears, with our lives on the line. Nevertheless, the challenges we face in our day-to-day lives [...]
Women in Myths
Author: Margarita DominguezJanuary 22, 2020
In myths we can find the archetypes that can guide our life and help us discover our soul. In the case of goddesses, these can reveal to women the primordial forces of the spiritual world and help us to understand the inner being that characterizes our female complexity. Jorge Angel Livraga, founder of New Acropolis, [...]
A Deeper Understanding of Myth: The Contribution of Mircea Eliade
Author: Nataliya PetlevychJanuary 15, 2020
Nowadays myth is sometimes perceived as something opposed to reality – a fictional tale without connection to real life. Such an understanding has existed for quite a while, having its roots in the ancient world. It was especially prominent in the 19th century, when myth was considered as a primitive outdated counterpart to science or [...]
The Sun in Celtic Mythology
Author: Pinar AkhanNovember 30, 2019
“There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun, and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an eternal sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened [...]
The Symbolism of the Chinese Dragon
Author: Agostino DominiciNovember 30, 2019
The Chinese Dragon is the most ancient and most important mythological and esoteric symbol of China. The origins of this symbol are lost in the mists of time. In China, artefacts depicting dragons have been unearthed which date back to the fifth millennium BC. It is said that the ancient people of China saw themselves [...]