…And the spirit of God moved over the waters… …And light was made…and God made a firmament…and He said : Let us make man to our image and likeness…And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul… (Genesis, Ch.1:2, 7, 26, Ch.2:7).
The first images in the book of Genesis carry the idea of God and his creation, thus defining from the very beginning a world which emerges from the invisible and is gradually transformed into an endless sequence of phenomena. These phenomena have a One and Unique Principle and Cause: it is, according to the Christian Bible, the Will of God.
All Holy Scripts in the world share the general idea of the existence of An Invisible Power whose Will – as Initial Cause – configures the universe and its phenomena.
“In the beginning was the Will of the King, prior to any other existence…It (the Will) sketched the forms of all things that had been concealed but now came into view” [1] (Zohar)
“The Mundane God, eternal, boundless, young and old, of winding form, say the Chaldean oracles.” [2]
Whileas the Ancient Sanskrit Texts mention that
“He is only the ideal Cause of the Potencies to be created, after they have become the real cause. Save that one ideal cause, there is no other to which the world can be referred…Through the potency of that cause, every created thing comes by its proper nature.” [3]
In the Secret Doctrine, the Initial Cause has no name. It was later depicted as an invisible mysterious Bird which dropped an Egg inside Chaos, from which the Universe was born. With the Greeks, the Orphic Egg was described by Aristophanes and was part of the Dionysian and other mysteries during which the Cosmic Egg was hallowed and his meaning explained. Porphyrys presents it like an introduction of the world,
“…the egg renders the interpretation of cosmos”.
A similar account of the first gathering of elements in the shape of an egg is given by all Indian Puranas, using the adjective golden…
“In that egg, o Brahman, were the continents, and seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe, the gods, the demons and mankind.” [4].
According to Anaxagoras Clazomeneas, the writer of the Homeomeros philosophical system, the spiritual patterns for all things and their elements, could be found in the infinite Ether where they were born, appeared and returned to.
In spite of its mental acuity, our epoch is doubtedly capable of discovering the source and causes of phenomena. Although modern Physics, Quantum mechanics, as well as every scientific observation through all the more sophisticated material organs discover that matter is condensed energy made tangible only through accumulation of strongly receptive objects, it is still impossible to determine the causes and models of phenomena.
However, the spiritual need of an answer to the burning question concerning life and death, whether there is after-death perception of things, concerning destiny and reincarnation, the necessity of transcendental moral and everything else that complete our existential anxiety, lead the daring to search for answers that exist only in the field of invisible causes of all manifested phenomena. This pursuit, due to its transcending the plane of tangible perception of things, is called “metaphysics”.
Metaphysics is a term used for the first time by Aristoteles, in order to define whatever existed “beyond nature”. It is the concept which covers everything that man cannot observe and perceive through his five senses. It is the transcendental plain where the cause of every phenomenon is found and which possesses everything that stands between the man and the Spiritual Principle which created him.
As metaphysical philosophy, it determines the spiritual causes of life, interprets and explores them, refers to laws which govern man and the universe, and –by reinforcing the spiritual aim of life– urges man to loftier actions. The metaphysical theory, depending on the epoch it appears, may be expressed under a special shape, as initiation, religion and philosophy; however, regardless of its way of presentation, it always gives the message of spirituality.
Esoteric Tradition mentions that there were times when humans had developed their inner senses and that communication with their divine ancestors was so direct that they were not allowed to forget and deny their spiritual nature and origin. However, in time, the material veils which cover spiritual purity, drove man away from his spiritual home, Ithaca, and threw him –like Ulysses– into peregrination on earth, where seduced by his senses, he has forgotten and many times denied his true nature.
For Metaphysics, man is the result of a series of consecutive causes which belong to his spirit and soul, while his body is only a wrapping made from the physical substance, and through it, his spiritual being are directly confronted with matter and thus get to know it. As a matter of fact, we are metaphysical beings since, besides our body we see and touch, we possess emotions and thoughts that we are able to feel without seeing or touching them; we have predispositions and premonitions, dreams and visions, we sometimes predict and make prophecies, and most of the time we deeply believe in God. Nightly dreams, being memories the next day, persuade us that there also exists another kind of perception of things which is not based on the gates of senses, but on the impressions of a dreamlike state, beyond the limits of physical consciousness.
The meaning of supernatural, at times, is rendered through different definitions like occultism, esotericism, metaphysics and initiation; these are concepts which were once –and maybe still are– considered as dark fields which, for some people, cover suspicious activities. All these happen because man was alienated from his spiritual nature, as it was covered under mental arguments and wishes for satisfaction of the Ego, as well as under the prejudice and superstitions of distorted dogmas and faith.
However, the Metaphysical is the cradle of our existence, it is the space of our after-death life, the field of our emotions and thoughts, and it is within its upper plains that the see of the good and spiritual is found; from this see emerge the Superior Ideas, Archetypes of Life and Eternal Values. Within the Metaphysical plain there is God, the Saints and the Angels, as well as the Beings who take care of the development of our spiritual self. It is from this plain that religions, theologies and esoteric philosophies emerge. It is the plain of the Spirit and of the Soul which become human as it looks to the physical world; as Plato has it, it slides and gets wrapped into the sense of separateness, ignorance, attachment and fear, and –according to its inclinations– ensouls the characteristics of an animal. And through indefinite reincarnations, dominated by self-efforts and repeated trials, it becomes progressively man and celestial man.
The journey of human soul, as it was symbolized by Homer in Odyssea, by Vyasa in Mahabharata, and by the Persians as the Epos of Ghilgamesh, is the cycle of human experience within nature, during which –after many adventures and pains– man manages to remember his real motherland, the spiritual Ithaca. During this journey, which is a mystery, the metaphysical truth stands beside man as an assistant and supporter, in order to remind him of his origin and to determine the roads of return to his spiritual cradle.
“We possess the integrity of mystery within ourselves. It steeps in the deepest root of our existence, and no logic processing, no matter how powerful and great, can take its mist.” [5]
The return of soul to its spiritual home, is always signalled by the struggle of a hero who transcends temptations and material calls, and through a continuous choice and distinction between Good and Evil, marching along the path of Virtue, reaches the desired aim. This progress of the metaphysical hero, of Hercules, Ulysses, Arjuna and Ghilgamesh, becomes the model and aim of a future hero, who is everyone of us. Being a future hero, the metaphysical is a man who thinks seriously, feels beautifully and optimistically, acts positively and contributes to common matters, because he cares not only for his own self. He is a citizen of the world, who – having realized which the true values of life are – works for virtue, unity and spirituality. He is the one who – living and assimilating spiritual reality – displays and establishes spiritual ideals. His modest and exemplar behaviour patiently endures arrogance, unsettles dishonesty, violence and bigotism, instead suggesting honesty, justice, truth and compassion.
Certainly, in modern times, –after centuries of persecutions and harassment– metaphysics takes a manifest place in our life, because, on the one hand, part of it is justified by science, and on the other, because man has made enough progress so as to dare unveil Isis and pursue the supernatural cause of his existence, outside the form of established religion and his individual tradition. The individual begins his search by first approaching the phenomena related to his psychic world, while later, after study and personal experience, he chooses the path of a metaphysical doctrine. Thus, spiritual life and its laws are revealed to him, the aim of life –which is spiritualization– is determined, and, moreover, a method is suggested, through which he can achieve his spiritual aims.
Metaphysical space, like the physical one, consists of different sections and subdivisions which result from man’s relation to his transcendental causes. Thus, the relation of man’s lower nature with the metaphysical will lead to the phenomena of parapsychology and spiritualism, of divination and magic (especially black). Meanwhile, the relation between man’s noble and superior nature and metaphysics will display the phenomena of mysticism, theurgy, esoteric philosophy and religion; it will also create immutable faith into Divine Will, free from fear, intentionality and bigotism.
There is a more specific classification, as follows:
- The first section, closest to our human nature, includes the phenomena which occur from the relation between psychism and supernatural states where the cause of human Ego is found. This relation establishes the various branches of Occultism, which - by revealing the impact of invisible powers upon human Ego as well as the impact of Ego upon the same powers – appear as Parapsychology (the relation between human psychism and physical persons and things), Spiritualism ( the relation of the individual with whatever exists within the invisible field to which belongs human personality), Astrology ( the impact of universal and planetary powers upon man and his karmic relation to them), Divination ( prediction of events through interpreting the codes of ethereal memory) and Magic ( the control of the invisible, closest to man, powers).
- The second section concerns Metaphysical Philosophy and is related to the upper part of human soul, the one which surveys the Ideas ( Plato). Through this aspect, Metaphysics is transformed into a concrete esoteric doctrine which reveals to us the Spiritual Principle of life. The First Principle as Law and Divine Ideal is manifested into a universe by the collective joint of Spiritual Beings, known as Heloim and Archangels.
The flow of spiritual forces from the Initial Cause, through a consecutive ascending transformation, leads to the formation of physical phenomena and of man. This ascending differentiation of forces determines the aim of life, which is the individual experience through all dimensions of universe. At the same time, this route configures the ladder that individuality climbs the opposite way in order to return to its original cradle. This process, which is the spiritualization of life, represents the ultimate aim of Manifestation and the main concern for every religion and initiation. Moral purification, righteous use of mind and wish for the lofty and spiritual, are the means of spiritualization, and as patterns and upgrades on the configured deterministic ladder, they help man climb from matter back to his Spiritual Cause.
- The third stage belongs to the highest section of metaphysical plain and concerns the conscious spiritual effort called mysticism which culminates in divinization. The Divinization of mystic Fathers of Christianity or Shamandi of Yogi, represent the return of individual monad into its spiritual home; it is the end of a temporally undetermined journey inside the universe, a journey which, after infinite experiences through all manifested states of life – visible and invisible, material, psychic and spiritual – ends up in the encounter of monadl and its Creator.
Metaphysics is ageless wisdom
Metaphysics is not temporally determined; in other words, it is ageless. The metaphysical is the cradle of the tangible and precedes it. Hence, metaphysics existed even before mankind did and will exist after it. Esoteric Tradition mentions that Spiritual Entities, called Manasapoutras, ensouled animal-like physical bodies, which were prepared during billions of years of natural evolution, and turned them into aware and intelligent beings with their manasic essence. Besides, loftier groups of these Entities who function as One Collectivity, represent the Spiritual Hierarchy of mankind, and are considered not only as our spiritual parents, but also as Beings who, as initiates, prophetes, hierophants and religious leaders, take in hand our training at all levels of life, and mainly aim at our spiritualization. These are the real educators of mankind. They are founders of mysteries, of metaphysical doctrines, religions, sciences, arts and civilizations, and their presence among us through physical bodies –although most of the times unofficial and unobserved through common perception– is a comforting reality.
Esoteric Tradition refers to Enoch and Hermes who are equally accepted by the Western esotericism as initiates who then shaped earthly life at all its levels. The Eastern mysticism refers to Naranda, the ancient Rishi of the Veda, and to Asuramaya, the Atlantian.
“There is a work among the secret books, called The Mirror of Futurity, wherein all the Kalpas within Kalpas and cycles within the bosom of Sesha or infinite time are recorded; this work is ascribed to Pesh-Hun Naranda”. [6]
This work enables us to count the future cycles. While as in the Atlantian Asuramaya, the amazing astronomer is based on the Indian Zodiac archives and it is said that he could calculate all past geological and cosmic periods, as well as those to come.
The ante-deluvian cycle of metaphysics ends up with Noah and Xisuthrus, while Eastern philosophies such as Vedas, Puranas, Samkya-Yoga, Vetanda, Tao as well as other esoteric doctrines in the Mediterranean basin, as well as those of Maya and the Aztecs, refer to the metaphysical reality revealed by an Initiate or Prophete. In the period recorded by modern history, merely 3.500 years old, the line of mystics continues to appear in the East and West. By creating spiritual centres through initiations and religions, it intends to cultivate mental formation, psychic uplift and spirituality with mankind.
Hermes the Trismegistos, Dionysos, Orpheus, Heraclitos, Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato, Origenes, Plotinus, Paul, Augustinus, Paracelsus, Boehme, Kant, Bacon and so many others in the East, maintain the torch of spirituality burning above our small earthly planet. Plato, the supporter of metaphysical philosophy in the West, was Aristoteles’s teacher. And his disciple, Aristoteles, was the founder of Western Science, the first to inaugurate the observation of species and the experiment, by attempting to connect metaphysical philosophy with natural things and prove that through action – which is the result of a continuous invisible differentiation - one can reach the initial cause of the phenomenon, if insisting to transcend its visible result. Certainly, the Aristotelian method was acknowledged and used only in terms of its lower part, that is observation, which constituted the fundament of sciences. Materialism, which is man’s inability to perceive things beyond senses, covered the spiritual values, hid under the veil of prejudice, puritanism and formality, the metaphysical reality and, by chasing away whatever revealed the metaphysical, castigated any expression of the occult. Even religion, being the most simple metaphysical revealing which transmits spirituality to common people, was covered by the material veils.
On the threshold of the New Age, metaphysical thinking awakes from its lethargy and re-appears in order to remind of the spiritual nature of man. The metaphysical, as a self-sown element of individuality,
- determines a relation of unity between the life members, since for all exists a One and Unique Spiritual Cause and
- by revisioning man’s relation with the spiritual nature of the world, it determines and proposes virtues and higher ideals as means of his inter-connection with it.
Metaphysical Philosophy
For Metaphysical Philosophy, the following postulates are true:
- There exists One Superior Principle from which manifested life becomes. It is defined as God, Law of Justice, Law of Motion or Evolution.
- The First Principle appears with a polarity as Spirit and Matter, Light and Dark; this fact determines all opposite aspects of manifested life as day and night, warm and cold, good and evil, life and death, action and reaction, etc.
- The Great Law, which is Justice and Motion and Polarity, determines the law of recycling which can be perceived as action – reaction and as periodical recurrence of phenomena. These are the famous laws of Karma and Reincarnation. Karma is the power which forces the manifested to move under the law of Justice; meanwhile, the cyclic recurrence of life is the opportunity offered to the monad, by God’s grace, in order to learn from experience, to assimilate and apply through individual effort the Supreme Law at the level of manifested life.
- Manifested life appears under three fundamental aspects : as spirit, soul and nature. It also displays a ladder of seven-folded changes and differentiations; each change expresses a different life field, which possesses its own particular rhythm, sound, principle and quality.
- Manifested life is the result of an eternal and perpetual cyclic motion, during which the souls, evolved and developing their self-existent divine elements, are progressively transformed from physical to superior intelligent and spiritual beings.
- There are Beings, superior to physical evolution, known as initiates, prophetes, Buddhas and Archangels, who help and support mankind. These are man’s instructors, who reveal metaphysical reality through mysteries, philosophies and religions. They are the ones who display ideas, ideals and mystery truths, help with the intellectual development of mankind and chisel our souls with the good, the moral, the superior and the spiritual. They are the initiators of education, art, science and civilization on our planet.
- Human soul is an infinitesimal spiritual part, of the same essence with its creator, which – during its peregrination through the seven different levels of the manifested universe – gathers experience and knowledge and thus develops its lethargic spiritual elements. Man is the phenomenon- a result of a series of spiritual and mental causes which precede his physicall existence. The aim of human life is the development of mental and spiritual powers through individual experience and self-effort. This is called enlargement of consciousness, it is based on the laws of karma and reincarnation and has its fundaments in the purification of human powers and their alignment with their higher mental and spiritual causes.
Man, at the very beginning of his evolution is not able to perceive and comprehend the inner mechanisms of his existence. This begins to happen when the individual, tired by the trials, sorrows and disapointments of matter – sounding his wishes and goals – turns to higher and more spiritual pursuits. Then, looking for answers and solutions, he discovers the end of an invisible spiritual thread, which gradually leads him towards his inner spiritual reality. At that point he begins to aknowledge a spiritual order which reaches human perception as moral; then, he consciously deliberately choose between the temporary which is the evil, and the good, which is the eternal. He begins to discern between the one that serves the Ego and the one that serves the whole. He begins to set measures to his own self by using spiritual ideas, which are self-denial and selflessness; whileas, by limiting the unceasing wish and greed, he becomes detached from whatever separates and strays humans from their unity.
At this turning-point which is man’s becoming aware of the aim of human existence, stands the pursuer’s right to choose the path along which he will march towards his spiritual transformation. Religion – with its ritual, initiation with its symbolic revelations, or knowledge-wisdom, become gates of access to the untrodden part of his soul.
Metaphysics, as a self-existent element of human nature and manifested life, functions as a force which disturbs the lethargy of individual consciousness and urges man to observe the phenomena of life and their causes, as well as his own self, and thus comprehend his real needs and fight for them deliberately. Modern Metaphysics appears as a Spiritual Idea at this specific moment, which coincides with the entry of our planet under the influence of a new Celestial Power (Zodiac Sign); the metaphysical revelation – by charging the flow of moving life with intense spirituality – enhances and ensouls it so that the spiritual Idea should maintain itself during its cycle, upon the planet and its mankind.
Modern Metaphysiscs, a history which began about a hundred years ago, inaugurates the presence of a specific Spiritual Idea, which was called Theosophy by H.P.Blavatsky; this idea sends a message of unity, collectivity and synthesis of the many into wholes and gives a new definition to the notion of love; the metaphysical message is not only an aim for our superior spiritual accomplishment, but also a direct need for man’s co-existence, which is realized through mutual understanding and respect, tolerance and selflessness.
Metaphysics is not a myth, nor is it heresy or dogma, it is not a trend, nor is it religion; it is the core of religion. It is our forgotten hypostasis, the Alpha and Omega of our existence. Its inward search, with moderation and caution, would solve many of our personal problems and would provide an outlet for our social ones. In the age of rapid information and misinformation, the knowledge of metaphysical wisdom and its application to our daily life could help with the settlement of problems which derive from ignorance, greed for possessions and attachment to the satisfaction of our temporary self; it would ease the way to personal peace of mind and, consequently, to universal peace; and all these because metaphysics reveals the inner truth of apparent things and, by outlining the spiritual vision, gives an interpretation of the human course, its aim and, naturally, its end.
“ In order to philosophize…one has to study death. And this death grows inside us and gradually conquers us while we struggle – eager for time – to prolong our life, to enjoy longer its goods, to get to know new things and not to be separated from what we have, by now, steadily and passionately loved…” [7]
Information about metaphysics turns man into a conscious being who, knowing and believing in the inviolable laws of God and Nature, sees that he takes action according to them; deliberate obedience to invisible determinism, brings order to the chaos of selfishness and greed, and consequently of immorality, and precipitates spiritualization, at the same time delivering man from pain and recurrent trial.
While our soul is eternal, human life is a moment within cosmic eternity, during which individuality knows, learns and assimilates the laws of the physical dimension. When this knowledge and the experiences it provides are completed, the monad, as part of eternity, continues its journey to higher experiences into more spiritual worlds than the present one. Metaphysics, by providing the vision of continuation of individual life and its spiritualization, can ease the existential anxiety and insecurity, it can expand human consciousness and turn the planet into a place where we could all co-exist, live together and get along peacefully. That may be achieved if we obey the law of Evolution and Justice, and we fulfil our duties to the others and to our Spiritual Creator.
Could it be that research about metaphysical things might enable us to awake from the lethargy of matter and reset spiritual values into their place? Could it be that we should – in the age of speed, informatics and multidimensional knowledge – reconsider opinions and fanatic positions about things that we know little or at all? What would you say if we investigated the other side of deceptive appearance, the one that is hidden behind physical things?
[1] S.D. 35 [2] (Cory, “Fragments”, 240) S.D.I 348 [3] (Original Sanskrit Texts, Part iv, pp. 32,33) S.D.I 349 [4] (Book i., ch.2) S.D.I 360 [5] From “Kathimerini”- 12.6.96 – “Subdued Fires” by E.Tsiropoulos [6] S.D. II 49 [7] From “Kathimerini”- 12.6.96 – “Subdued Fires” by E.Tsiropoulos).
