Daily Devotional: December 4th
Nones Eve
Hymn for Nones Eve
O Bacchus, Liberator, hear our plea,
In sacred song, we lift our hymn to thee,
On this holy Eve of Nones, we sing,
To thee, O Bacchus, ever-freeing King.
With ivy crown and thyrsus in your hand,
You guide our souls to freedom, as you planned,
In mysteries profound, your truth we find,
Unchain our spirits, free our mortal mind.
On this sacred night, we seek your light,
With offerings pure, we honor your might,
Unveil the paths to realms of divine,
O Bacchus, guide us to the truth's design.
O Liberator, break the bonds we bear,
In your embrace, we find the freedom rare,
With reverence deep, we honor you this night,
O Bacchus, lead us to the endless light.
Daily Meditation
"For the great vice of poets and sophists is never to give any valid reason for the opinions they put forward; it is to a prophetic inspiration from the gods, who no doubt came to visit them, that they both pretend to owe this knowledge. Thus the poets, adorning their words with the charms of expression and rhythm, seduce those who listen to them, and mislead souls who do not know how to distinguish the pleasure of style and harmony from truth or falsity of ideas.”
—Gemistos Plethon
The Laws, Book II.7
We must remember that the purpose of poetry is not to produce coherent theology. These are two separate disciplines with different aims and methods. A theologian makes a lousy poet, and a poet a lousy theologian. Together, they each say something about the gods. If we desire beautiful images and symbols of devotion, we should enjoy the poets. If we want the most exact and precise understanding of God and the gods, we should ask the theologian.
Monthly Ascesis: Repentance
"Repentance is the beginning of philosophy"
—Hierocles
“Repentance is often seen as a particularly Christian idea, but philosophers were quite fond of reminding people to repent. Pythagoras, in particular, suggests two ways that we can begin to repent and take a better inventory of who we are. The word ‘repent’ is related to the Latin word for regret. The idea is that we should look over our actions and judge them if they are unworthy. However, the Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which means the transformation of the mind. Platonic repentance is about creating an inner change that leads us back to a life of holiness in harmony with the divine.
Pythagoras says we should “do nothing shameful, neither in the presence of others nor privately; Thus, above all things, sit as a judge over [ourself].” This suggests we should watch our actions, and when we do something wrong or shameful, we should repent, that is, regret that action. If we never do this or shun it as a practice, we effectively say we have no reason to regret our actions. However, regretting an action is recognizing an area where we fell short of our ideals. If we never regret or repent, we make any spiritual or ethical growth impossible. This is why Hierocles, commenting on Pythagoras, says, “repentance is the beginning of philosophy.””
Excerpt from Ascesis: The Handbook of Platonic Practice
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