A Tale of Two Cultures

A Tale Of Two Cultures

 

There are many different thinkers, that is, interpreters and therefore interpretations.  This quote is from Edith Starr Miller’s 1933 study- Occult Theocrasy in which she examines the history of mystical thinking in all its manifestations through the Ages.  Very informative.

She evolves both the European approach to life and the Jewish approach stemming from Ancient Egyptian Theocrasy.  The ‘s’ instead of the ‘c’ changes the meaning slightly.

I quote:

Concealed behind the popular cult of Osiris and Isis was the soul of Egyptian esotericism which no one could reach, except after having been deemed worthy to penetrate the most sacred mysteries of Isis whole statue, with its face veiled, stood before the door of occultism.

The trials of initiation which the candidate had to withstand before he beheld the light of Osiris and understood the “Vision of Hermes” were long and terrible.  They were interspersed, however, by a series of trance induced by special beverages, during which the initiate had voluptuous visions of Isis preceded by the five-pointed star or the Rose of Isis.

Two great flowing currents issued from the esoteric wisdom, jealously safe guarded by the Egyptians, namely, Mosaism or Judaism, taught by Moses whose God was Jehovah [or Yahwey], and Orpheism taught by [the Greek] Orpheus whose God was Zeus or Jupiter.  The former adapted his beliefs to suit the mentality of the undisciplined, rebellious masses of Israelites in Egypt, hence a god of Fear and Vengeance; the latter legislated for a people whose Hellenic genius touched sublime heights of philosophic wisdom on the one hand and sought on the other to carry its irrepressible sense of beauty and lightheartedness in pursuit of material pleasures.  Hence the great difference between the two currents which had divided their central teaching from the same source.

Unquote.

The conflict in values continues today.  Something to consider.