Orphicaeum
Orphicaeum is a modern Orphic Thiasos, dedicated to the reconstruction and revival of the ancient Orphic religion. It serves as a sanctuary for the restoration of the Mysteries and a school for the cultivation of the Soul.
Beliefs
Orphicaeum teaches the following, which it upholds as the core tenets of ancient Orphism:
- The Universe is part of a single, complex, divine entity, itself full of Gods.
- Every living thing within the Universe has a mortal body and an immortal Soul.
- Souls undergo a process of transmigration through many mortal lives.
- The purpose of each mortal life is to purify the Soul.
- Each time a Soul reaches the afterlife, its purity is assessed.
- Pure Souls are freed from the cycle of transmigration.
- Freed Pure Souls ascend in unity to the Gods forever.
Orphicaeum affirms that these beliefs act as a foundation which grounds an Orphic perspective and the Orphic life.
Lifestyle (Orphikos Bios)
Orphicaeum teaches that while the specific path of purification is different for each Soul, the process remains the same: the Orphikos bios or 'Orphic life' is full of mindful and deliberate choices. The Orphic life is exemplified by asceticism and intellectual cultivation.
Asceticism
In total respect of the Soul, the recommended Orphic life is a vegetarian one, which in modern terms is closer to veganism:
- no meat
- no eggs
- no wool
- no leather
- no bloodshed / violence
Orphicaeum's lifestyle differs from a strictly vegan one in that dairy and honey are acceptable and ritually significant.
Philosophy & Science
In addition to the above asceticism, Orphicaeum affirms that the Orphic life is a philosophical one, in pursuit of the highest truths.
Commenting on the Zagreus myth, Plutarch says that the Titans give humanity "that faculty in us which is unreasonable and disordered and violent", and Proclus adds that "the intellect in us is Dionysian and truly an image of Dionysus. Therefore, anyone that transgresses it [...] clearly sins against Dionysus himself". Furthermore, Socrates says in Plato's Phaedo:
as they say in the mysteries, ‘the thyrsus-bearers are many, but the mystics few’; and these mystics are, I believe, those who have been true philosophers.