A Single Primordial Tradition?

Many schools of esoteric and initiatory thought, both in the East and in the West, tend to support the existence of a Single Primordial Tradition and a hypothetical transcendent unity of religions. However, the Mystery Tradition of the Mother Eleusinians has always strongly opposed such a vision. And in this chapter we will explain why.

Moreno Neri, in his excellent and well-considered preface to the recent re- edition, by Edizioni Aurora Boreale, of Arturo Reghini’s essay On Western Tradition[1], writes verbatim:

“The branch of Western Tradition, which is a single aspect of the unique and universal Tradition, has not lost its effectiveness and is still certainly the most compliant with the spiritual constitution and the most adherent to the fate and duty of an Italian and to its structure spiritual psychophysics. Before arriving at what René Guénon called “Primordial Tradition”, Frithjof Schuon “Transcendent Unity”, Raphael “Single Universal Tradition”, it would be necessary to follow one’s own tradition, the one most suited to one’s nature, training and historical-cultural roots“.

This is an impeccable analysis from a Latomistic and Pythagorean point of view, and which can certainly be accepted or shared also from an Eleusinian point of view except on two particular “nodes”: the question of the alleged uniqueness of Tradition and of a presumed “transcendent unity” of religions. Regarding these “nodes”, the Eleusinian point of view is rather clear and clear: we believe that the theorizations of Guénon, Schuon and Raphael, mentioned by Moreno Neri, reflect that fallacious cultural orientation which, in the wake of the syncretistic tendencies of late antiquity and the rediscovery during late medieval and Renaissance times of the Hermetic Tradition (which never had anything to do with either the Eleusinity or the Mystery Tradition in general), is linked to that deleterious relativistic attitude, unfortunately also adopted by various initiatory orders and also by Freemasonry , which historically resulted in the delusional idea of a presumed transcendent unity of religions in the sign of an equally presumed “Single Primordial Tradition” also contemplated by the Pythagoreans, in particular by late Pythagoreanism. An idea, the latter, that the Eleusinians have always abhorred and strongly refuted.

According to the Eleusian Mystery Tradition, it is not at all true that all the religions, that have been formed and/or differentiated over time, would indiscriminately originate from that “primordial religion” enunciated by the Pythagorean-Platonic vision, as they are presumed adaptations of the Palaios Logos in the form of one Hieros Logos specific to each individual spiritual form.

Furthermore, it would be an aberration just to think so. If we correctly identify that original Primordial Titanic religion in the most authentic Titanic religion which arose and established itself in that golden age when the Titan Gods still reigned with justice over this world, with the first traumatic breaking of the golden chain of Tradition occurred with the Titanomachy and with the victory of the Olympic Gods, the vast majority of the religions that arose and developed and succeeded one another among the various civilizations did so under the aegis of the latter, and not certainly under that of the defeated Titan Gods. Therefore, they have clearly distanced themselves from the Palaios Logos and the Primordial Tradition, adapting to doctrinal compromises and pollutions which have allowed the respective priestly castes to survive and exercise their control over the masses of the faithful ones, but have thus inexorably and inextricably linked to the katabasic path. These religions have given their followers only the illusion of possession of the Sophia Aionia, of the Sapientia Aeterna, while in reality they have clearly distanced themselves from it. If some legacy of the Palaios Logos, of the Primordial Titanic Tradition, can be partially recognized in such religions or doctrines, it represents only a pale and weak shadow.

The most authentic Primordial Tradition, the one linked to the ancient Titanic cult, managed to survive and perpetuate itself certainly not thanks to the multiple religions that arose and developed after it, but despite them. Indeed, in the history of the last millennia, it has always been the object of systematic persecutions by them and their priestly castes, since nothing can scare the new usurping Gods and the priestly castes of the religions subservient to them more than an awareness, on the part of humanity, of its true titanic nature and its potential, of a reunion of humanity with its true Primordial Tradition.

If we agree with Gemisto Pletho and the Pythagoreans on the real existence of an uninterrupted golden chain of the transmission of Tradition (a chain of which, as Eleusinians, we have been and continue to be the main actors), we identify with it, yes, the transmission of a Primordial Tradition, but certainly not the same Sophia Aionia, the same Sapientia Aeterna enunciated by the Byzantine Philosopher-Initiate and before him by the entire line of Pythagorean-Platonic continuity.

Although the true and definitive forced Christianization of imperial Roman society saw its peak under the reign of Theodosius, finding full legal “legitimation” with the infamous and criminal Edict of Thessalonica of 380 AD. (what the scholar Fabio Calabrese rightly defined in one of his articles as “the most infamous act in history”[2]). This dramatic catabasic and obscurantist involution of European civilization had decidedly deeper roots. If Constantine and his successors had metaphorically opened the door to the monster’s cage and Theodosius had decisively thrown it open, allowing it to come out and unleash its dogmatic and persecutory fury, this monster had already been nestling in the folds of human history for some time . I am referring to a tentacled and creeping monster with many names and many faces, emblem of every counter-initiatory principle, which since the defeat of the ancient Titan Gods at the hands of the usurping Olympic Gods, has punctually raised its head again with its own emissaries of turn (Zeus, Dionysus, Amenophis IV, better known as Akhenaten, Moses, Paul of Tarsus, up to the prophet of Islam Muhammad), working incessantly in the direction of a submission of humanity and a darkening of consciences, with an objective not only aimed at mere domination or political power, but also and above all at wanting to prevent humanity from reclaiming that fire once returned to it by Prometheus, from eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, thus becoming fully aware of himself and of that titanic part that is naturally inherent in every man and every woman and which is just waiting to be awakened.

As noted by L.M.A. Viola in various of his works and, in particular, in his introductory essay to the Treatise on the Laws of Gemisto Pletho[3], according to the Pythagorean-Platonic vision, humanity would have known in its early days an “Integral Divine Truth”, in a paradigmatic time in which the Eternal Logos would reveal himself entirely in the Palaios Logos, in the “original immanent Divine Word”, constituting the perfection of a “primordial religion”, by virtue of the possession of the Sophia Aionia, of the Sapientia Aeterna. And up to this point there may be a certain concordance with the Eleusinian vision. But, according to the Pythagorean-Platonic vision, all the religions that have formed and/or differentiated over time would originate indiscriminately from this “primordial religion”, as they are adaptations of the Palaios Logos in the form of a Hieros Logos specific to each individual spiritual form.

And a single golden chain of “Divine Wise Men” (in the context of which Pythagoras would have had a fundamental role) would have allowed the uninterrupted transmission of the “original Divine Wisdom” in the many differentiated expressions that it has assumed in the different nations and among different peoples.

Again, according to this vision, paraphrasing some concepts expressed by Plato in the Politics, humanity would proceed according to a catabasic envelope[4], established by “God”, the same “God” who would have created the world and men, for which light of the “Divine Truth”, and the tradition in the religious institutions of the various civilizations, would gradually become obscured, to the point of its complete concealment in the external life of men. And, in this inexorable katabasic context, the fullness of the light of the “Divine Wisdom” of the origins would be cyclically re- actualized, for increasingly limited periods and spaces and involving increasingly smaller parts of men and civil and religious institutions.

Due to this presumed katabasic covering, the traditional civilizations would have known – again according to this distorted interpretation – various phases of decadence and related crises, due to which progressive degradations of their state of original perfection would have been produced. This same katabasis would have caused that humanity would progressively move away from its “divine state” to leave room for the emergence of its “titanic” (sigh!) element, which would overlap with an “ancient nature” and a “primordial order”.

Here it is absolutely necessary to clarify things, because we are faced with a vision that is not only initiatically incorrect, but also and above all profoundly distorted of reality and the state of affairs. A “vision” that I have no hesitation in defining as counter-initiatory and markedly Olympic, if not downright Dionysian, which overturns for its own use and consumption a whole series of concepts and initiatory truths typical of Eleusinity and the most authentic Western Tradition.

As I highlighted in the fourth part of the first volume of my essay From Eleusis to Florence: The Transmission of Secret Knowledge, as long as the Titans reigned over this world, humanity lived in the fullest and most total harmony and in symbiosis with its creators. Only following the religious upheaval that originates from the Titanomachy and the victory of the new usurping Olympic Gods did the deleterious and nefarious concept of hubris originate. And this is because, from that moment on, any attempt, whether by the defeated Titans to redeem and free humanity, or by the latter to raise their heads, to open their eyes and to relight the torch of Knowledge, was inevitably seen by the new rulers as an intolerable act of arrogance and pride, an “impious” act and therefore to be punished severely.

We Eleusinians have always rejected, categorically and forcefully, the principle of a presumed transcendent unity of religions, as well as the aberrant idea that there could be an “absolute esotericism” deriving from a presumed all-encompassing and unitary “Single Primordial Tradition”, both in the forms and ways in which it was proclaimed and celebrated by the ancient Pythagorean Tradition first and by many personalities of Humanism and the Renaissance afterwards, and in how it was theorized at the beginning of the 20th century by René Guénon in his Doctrine of Unity Metaphysics of Eternal Wisdom. And even less so as it was more recently outlined by Frithjof Schuon in his essay Transcendent Unity of Religions[5].

For us Eleusinians there is, yes, a Primordial and original Tradition, but we recognize it and identify it exclusively with the pre-Olympian, and therefore pre-Hellenic, Titanic religion. That great common religion which, before the religious and cultural overthrow brought about with the Titanomachy and with the consequent institution of the social system of patriarchy and the cult of new usurping Gods, was practiced and transmitted by all the peoples of the Blue West, therefore by all the European, Mediterranean and Near Eastern peoples, from the misty lands of Scotland to North Africa, from the Iberian peninsula to the mountain ranges of the Caucasus, from Egypt to the Danube valley, from Crete to Anatolia. That same religion transmitted in a golden age to humanity by the Titan Godly creators, by those Titan Gods of the lineage of Iapetus who created man in their own image and likeness and raised him to his feet, in full dignity, placing their hands in his hands. same weapons and their own instruments of power and infusing them, as a truly indelible mark, with their own vital and spiritual essence. Not only, therefore, the gift of life and the immortality of the soul, but also Knowledge, reasoning and reason, the ability to learn and distinguish good from evil, truth from lies. The ability to learn and follow that one basic commandment that the Great Father Uranus left to the mortal children of the lineage of Iapetus: «It is proper for fish, wild animals and flying birds to devour one another. But to you I give Justice, the Truth with a wide pupil“[6].

Without delving into the details of the revelations and the content of the initiatory teachings (which, for understandable reasons, I would not be allowed to do), it is still worth explaining a specific and fundamental concept here. One of the fundamental rules of Eleusinity, one of the first and basic mystery teachings that was given to those who received the salt of life in Eleusis, was to understand the meaning of the word why. Knowing how to find the courage to question everything, not being afraid to ask the reason for things, the reason for anything, had to be the first requirement of an Initiate. It is precisely with reasoning, with asking ourselves the why of all things, even those that may apparently seem simple and devoid of arcana, that we can truly understand them from every aspect.

In Eleusinity there is no dogma of faith, and the Semnas exist precisely to be revealed and understood through a specifically established initiatory path.

Whether we like it or not, despite millennia of counter-initiatory conditioning and uninterrupted domination of the new usurping Gods, who over the centuries have gradually manifested themselves under various forms and expressions, sowing false doctrines and generating new false “prophets” ( and, with them, new religions founded on dogma and submission, on obscurantism and oppression), that spark, that Titanic Divine essence present in every man, has never been extinguished, and has represented for humanity, even in the darkest phases of its history, the only hope of redemption and liberation. That same titanic divine essence which, paradoxically (but certainly not by chance) is identified by the counter-initiatory traditions and by the Hellenic religion (irremediably contaminated by the Olympic-Dionysian pollution) as an “absolute evil”, if not actually as something of “beastly” and “brutal” which would distract men from a presumed “divine state”.

According to the Eleusian Mystery Tradition, humanity was in fact created by Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus, the four sons of the Titan God Iapetus. And this Tradition teaches us that Atlas gave man Knowledge and Life, Menoetius the Strength, both internal and external, Prometheus the male seed and Epimetheus the female seed. The four Titans then, jointly, gave humanity the “Night”, a term that expresses a concept superior to that of “soul” that we commonly understand, the very concept of the Titanic Divine Essence, a perennial and immortal quid, as devoid of the axis of time, which, through and thanks to the work of these four Titans, still dwells today in every man, son of the Lineage of Iapetus. That same divine essence that still today so frightens the defenders of counter-initiatory traditions, so much so that they associate it with something “bestial” and “misleading”, while in reality it represents the exact opposite.

 

[1] Arturo Reghini: On Western Tradition. With preface by Moreno Neri and introductory essay by Nicola Bizzi. Aurora Boreale Editions, Florence 2018.

[2] Fabio Calabrese: How the Ancient World became Christian. Article on www.eretiche.net.

[3] L.M.A. Viola: Introductory Essay to Giorgio Gemisto Pletone: Treatise on the Laws. Ed. Victrix, Forlì 2012.

[4] The term Catabasis, associated with the concepts of descent and involution, derives from the ancient Greek term κατάβασις (“descent”), formed from κατα- (“down”) and βαίνω (“to go”), and therefore literally means “go down”. In ancient Greek literature it mainly indicated the descent into Hades of a living person, a recurring topical motif in many texts. In fact, we find the first literary example of Catabasis in the 11th book of the Odyssey, even if Ulysses does not actually enter the kingdom of the dead, stopping on the threshold. However, the descents into the Underworld of Orpheus, in search of his wife Eurydice, and that of Heracles, in the context of his last labour, remained famous. The motif was then taken up by the great Initiate Publius Virgil Maron who, in the VI book of the Aeneid, has Aeneas enter Hades alive, where he meets Dido, and the Elysian Fields, where the hero meets his father Anchises, who gives him shows his future descendants, from Romulus to Augustus. But the most well-known Catabasis is certainly the one carried out by Dante Alighieri in his Comedy: a journey into the afterlife that the poet-Initiate takes accompanied by Virgil.

[5] Frithjof Schuon: Transcendent Unity of Religions. Ed. Mediterranee, Rome 1980.

[6] Nicola Bizzi: From Eleusis to Florence: the Transmission of Secret Knowledge. I° Volume. Ed.