Nature of the Gods
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Nature of the Gods
What are the Gods and what are their nature?
Human- Junior Member
- Posts : 28
Join date : 2013-05-03
Age : 31
Location : Lakeland Florida
Re: Nature of the Gods
I think, probably, that those outside of intellectual and/or philosophical traditions do not concern themselves much with these questions (most religious people, of any tradition, I think, probably don't, which I think is a dreadful shame, but that is neither here more there).
This is a core principle of the Orphic religion, however. By our tradition's teaching, a god is an energized being predominantly made up of the element aether, which is the source of all other elements. There are many levels, types and sub levels of gods, which vary in their potency and level of association with other elements, from the highest God, to the lowest daimon. As for what gods are, we say that they are essentially the cognizant governors and overseers of the Natural Laws, which govern every act of generation from the Unspeakable Source. In the terrestrial, mortal frame of reference, there are twelve Natural Laws, and hence, we perceive twelve gods, however, there are higher stases of the set of laws beyond our frame of reference and ontological field of view.
The nature of a god is purity of Virtue — which in Orphism is used to refer not just to virtuousity, but to the grand sum total of all that is true, good and right; the fullness of Virtue. The character of all divinity is pure Virtue. Error, egoism, avarice, degeneration or fluctuation of any kind is the seed of mortality, although these things do not exist independently, but only insofar as a thing is divorced from Virtue.
If you want a more exhaustive exploration of this, there is always Cicero's De Natura Deorum, which you can read for free here (although I think you'll find owning a copy to be beneficial, and I think you'll want to):
http://archive.org/details/denaturadeorumac00ciceuoft
This is a core principle of the Orphic religion, however. By our tradition's teaching, a god is an energized being predominantly made up of the element aether, which is the source of all other elements. There are many levels, types and sub levels of gods, which vary in their potency and level of association with other elements, from the highest God, to the lowest daimon. As for what gods are, we say that they are essentially the cognizant governors and overseers of the Natural Laws, which govern every act of generation from the Unspeakable Source. In the terrestrial, mortal frame of reference, there are twelve Natural Laws, and hence, we perceive twelve gods, however, there are higher stases of the set of laws beyond our frame of reference and ontological field of view.
The nature of a god is purity of Virtue — which in Orphism is used to refer not just to virtuousity, but to the grand sum total of all that is true, good and right; the fullness of Virtue. The character of all divinity is pure Virtue. Error, egoism, avarice, degeneration or fluctuation of any kind is the seed of mortality, although these things do not exist independently, but only insofar as a thing is divorced from Virtue.
If you want a more exhaustive exploration of this, there is always Cicero's De Natura Deorum, which you can read for free here (although I think you'll find owning a copy to be beneficial, and I think you'll want to):
http://archive.org/details/denaturadeorumac00ciceuoft
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