Wednesday, July 23, 2025

The Sun of God (Part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1, my notes on "The Threefold Sun and the Risen Christ

Here I present more details of the ancient world, especially in Greece and Egypt during the rise of Rome, before the widespread adoption of Christianity.

The Roman influence


In the centuries before and after Christianity c. 338 BC - 117 AD, the Romans were steadily expanding their territory beyond the Italian peninsula, to Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. 

The Roman Empire in 117 AD


Their unique political structure and powerful military helped them achieve their conquests with amazing efficiency. Rome's rise to prominence marked a time of transition between the ancient world and Middle Ages.


Roman Senate
"Cicero Denounces Catiline" — Cesare Maccari

"The Death of Paulus Aemilius at the Battle of Cannae" — John Trumbull
The Roman Republic battles Carthage in the Second Punic War (218 - 201 BC)


The Romans readily took aspects from the different cultures belonging to peoples coming under their rule, and adapted them to their society. As a result, their society was a cultural melting pot. 

They particularly admired the Greeks for their philosophy and art, and cultural exchange between Rome and Greece was a defining quality of this time period, known as Classical antiquity. 


"The Consummation of Empire" — Thomas Cole
Classical antiquity (8th century BC - 5th century AD) 


Between Greece and Egypt


The Greeks were the inheritors of a magnificent ancient wisdom and heritage from the East, notably Egypt's influence on Greek thought. Many Greek scholars, such as Herodotus, Pythagoras, and Hippocrates travelled overseas to study philosophy, religion, medicine, and science, especially under Egyptian priests. 


Herodotus 'the Father of History' c. 484 - 425 BC studied firsthand various cultures, including the Persians, Egyptians, and Scythians, collecting ethnographic information and detailing it in his book "The Histories"


For Egyptians, religious devotion was a way of life. The goddess Maa'at was central to their belief and practice. She symbolized truth, justice, balance, harmony, and order. All decisions were weighed against Ma'at, similar to the Greek idea of the Logos.

logos, in ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.

The weighing of the heart ceremony: the heart of the deceased is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. If it was lighter, the person had led a righteous life and would be granted eternal life.


During Ptolemaic (Greek) rule of Egypt around 305-30 BC, the Library of Alexandria was built as a center of research and comparative study, to gather knowledge and wisdom from various cultures (Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew, etc.) as well as preserving texts.

The Library of Alexandria was built around 295 BC but later destroyed throughout the centuries


In Greco-Egyptian myth, a figure known as Hermes Trismegistus appears, the combination of Greek god Hermes and Egyptian god Thoth. He is a revealer of Divine Truths, and through his teachings the Hermetic religion and philosophy is established. In the anthroposophical tradition, Hermes Trismegistus is the inaugurator of Egyptian cultural Age (2907 - 747 BC)


Hermes Trismegistus the "Thrice-great"


"As above, so below" is a central principle of Hermetic philosophy - what happens on a small scale reflects the bigger picture, similar to how a fractal's pattern repeats infinitely at any scale.


The Emerald tablet engraving by Johann-Daniel Mylius in "Opus Medico-Chymicum", his treatise on alchemy. The scene is divided into Above and Below.

Fractal geometry

Fractals in Nature

In the lecture, Steiner states:
"The world would never have had such a sublime Greek art, nor such a wonderful Greek philosophy, would never have had a Plato and an Aristotle, were it not that into the art and philosophy of Greece, streams from this ancient wisdom were able to flow."


"The School of Athens" by Raphael features Aristotle, Plato and other Greek philosophers
 

Rome and the decline of ancient wisdom


As we can see, spiritual wisdom flourished in the ancient world and was particularly important to the Greeks. However, the story changes once Rome rises to power and absorbs the neighboring traditions. The Romans were more imperially-focused and decadent than the philosophically-inclined Greeks. Initiation wisdom became susceptible to profanation, losing its original meaning due to ignorance and irreverence.

"Many teachings that had their source in initiation wisdom passed into the hands of distinguished Romans...especially Roman emperors...[There was] no understanding for the esoteric factor in Greek art and Greek wisdom, no recognition that these contained elements which could be traced back to the very most ancient wisdom teaching.

Consequently, the hopelessly prosaic, the semi-barbarous civilisation of Rome took over what we may call the surface brightness, the sheen, of Greek culture, but was quite incapable of handing on, in its true form, to later generations what lived at the heart of this culture."

 

"The Romans in their Decadence" — Thomas Couture

This period of history witnessed some of the most dramatic shifts in the Mysteries. The ancient Wisdom gradually disappeared from the common knowledge of the people. The pagan religions were replaced by monotheistic worldviews ('pagan' was a term used to refer to the followers of polytheistic and ethnic religions under the Roman Empire.) 

Though it was a natural consequence of humanity's evolution, nevertheless, the cultural dominance and influence of Rome played a key role in this process. Although philosophically unsophisticated, the Romans were technologically advanced, especially in construction and engineering. Their organized society and impressive infrastructure was unique in the world, which contributed to the expansion of their vast empire.


Pax Romana: Two hundred years of economic prosperity and stability under Roman rule 


In Part 3, we will discuss the descent of Christ in world evolution, and the early history of Christianity in relation to ancient myths.