Not that long ago, I was sitting there on top of one of the temples of my ancestors. In there, I know there has been a great school of knowledge, a centre of civilization, hope and light for humanity.
Now, there is nothing, I thought to myself. I was looking externally; only ruins and more ruins. Maybe a semblance of energy has survived, I thought to myself, yet maybe nothing else.
Yet as I was sitting there, there were no more children, no more life, there were only ruins of brick and stone, broken. Where there were writings, now there is incoherence. Egypt and nothing else stands anymore. It was all broken down.
Eventually, I too broke down in the realization that all of these civilizations are gone, and with it maybe all the memories and almost all it's knowledge. It felt like death.
If I am here you can be certain it is not only because of the good experiences with the Gods, but I am here because of how deep I have went into the depths of sadness, despair, depression.
If you have cried your nights through knowing about the state of ignorance of mankind, or what has been lost, then we have met into that state. I was there too.
In there, I have found the greatest lights and greatest revelations, deep down there, in the bottom of the pit of existence, surrounded by nothing but grim memories, pain, feelings of weakness. The words of those who say "That is no more" are truly trying to be triumphant in my mind, and I presume, everyone else's.
I have decided on this moment of my great despair, to have the courage to embark to the path that I knew internally was the right path, besides of being hit with impossible odds of both the survival of this knowledge or that of my own.
All of you here must know that I have risked it all to be here, including also maybe, my own "sanity". Granted "sanity" is this perception on nihilism, the belief that nothing is worthwhile and nothing will remain, I, as yet another "finite man" as "logic would have it", have chosen to go the other way.
As they have told us to close up to the past, we have opened up to it. The world boastfully declares to us as the days go by that there is no soul, no memory, no spirit, no worthwhile knowledge.
Instead of hearing the voices of even what I saw before my own eyes, in this case, justified by the observations of broken pottery, bricks and mortar, in my greatest moments of despair, I have crossed the way to the underworld and I have heard the voice of my ancestors.
In their voices, I have also heard the teachings of the great and lost teachings from all over the world, of our spiritual heritage. I have seen a place of assembly, in my heart, an assembly of those who still in this day are Guardians to the knowledge of the Gods.
The Gods, still, True as ever, through fire, brimstone, historical downturns - through everything, have somehow, through elect few people in every generation, managed to pass us down this knowledge again. We are one more generation that has this knowledge in their hands. Yet there have been many others before us. There will be others after us, in better or worse aeons. I am nothing but one of them.
That awakening did not occur to me in peace. It has come through a lot of pain, and in facing the nihilism of existence in itself, face to face. By facing the fact that you can build a great civilization for a thousand years and endless toil, yet one day it can all disappear and fall into penultimate nothingness - as if nothing else remained from it.
Yet somehow, something always remains; what does remain is not always what we approve, but it does. Life clearly, and life at the value of spiritual awakening, comes at a great cost and an even greater price with it. One must be willing to pay this price, and move head to head with the forces of evil that threaten this knowledge at every interval.
It is upon these times where anyone or anything must prove itself, times where for example, the opportunity appears to maintain the non-maintainable, or to fight a battle that for all intents looks like a lost battle.
My ancestors and likely everyone else's here are not strangers to this idea; the "illogical" idea that if one dies in battle, then one becomes immortal by dying in such a battle, where one knows there will be no prisoners.
The battle to maintain the Truth and this Divine knowledge, is what draws the souls of valiant humans all around it to work for it, to defend it, no matter what is the cost for "them".
That is the first sign that one has overcome his humanity: one has transcended his own self. We are known to be fast drivers here, and all of us have wanted to cross that sign. And we are here now because of this.
After I regained my senses from the recurring shocks of my heart by the above realizations, I understood that these lamentations, tears and major pain, is only in fact because I am alive today. I am alive, and therefore I can experience joy and suffering. Despite of any opposing odds, I am still in the image of those "who have passed". I am them, they are I.
Indeed however lesser that we may be, there are two voices in our heads; one of perdition that always preaches the end. This voice comes to us when our faith dwindles or our heart stoops low. Certainly I have not been a stranger to this voice and I have heard it. I have derived sadistic pain from it, to extents that few can handle.
Indeed, me and that voice in times of darkness have become great friends. But I saw that indeed this voice does surely lie. The way it lies is very weird; because it will use certain things you will see strongly to convince you.
You will see fallen and looted cities, you will see ruins of great civilizations or their knowledge, or it will show you only negative things, to try to drag your heart down to despair so that you can say: "You must try no more".
Yet, the wisdom and power of spirit is not reliant on you not hearing it, because certainly this voice has a lot of proof to give to anyone and to show for itself. All around us, there are signs of it's influence. So you will hear this voice that always wants to keep you small, away from the Gods, bruised in your pain. You will also hear it loudly in difficult days, or out of the blue.
Fate has it however, that in select few of us, there is also another voice in our hearts. It is that voice that preaches immortality, eternity, the pathway to glory without really thinking that this might be the end, a voice that still flies from the bottom of your heart even on a heap of ruins and says "We will rebuild, we will rise supreme, we will succeed, I know of the Gods and of that which I do not see, even if I don't know WHY!".
From the two voices I have understood the first one is where it almost always seems to end. At least, this is what it tells me. That I will die and that eventually all will be lost.
Yet, when I hear the other voice, it gives also credence to it's existence, by alluding me to higher things; it tells me that the work of Great Beings still exists; that civilization still exists, and that sands of time have came and went, but the Gods are here as they ever were.
Further, it has told me frequently, that life is a game of phantoms - almost as if I know deep inside, that I must prove something in life to the Gods, whom I have always felt closer to me than I have felt close to maybe those sitting next to me in what we refer to as "real life".
It tells me that still, it's worth it to follow the higher codes of the higher entities. It is this voice that many people have refused from their childhood, that told them that there is something immortal and highly valuable in man. It is the voice of the Gods, speaking to you, on every time that you fail and falter, through numerous faces of guilt, pain, or just the sudden will to move on and try again; no matter what.
They are here in statues and in marbles, but they can live in the absence thereof. They exist in my heart as truly as they did in this day, despite of what I observed or not. Yes, currently we have no temples; but there was also a time we had temples all over the place, and maybe few hearts that had in them the temples of the Gods.
In retrospect, I don't know what we lost or if we lost that much; or if that is mostly a giant test for the ones destined for real ascent. It's after all, easier to be loyal where loyalty is easy, easy to be on the right side when you are right, easier to follow where all things are in place rather than on a path of unclear future.
Ironically, now that we have nothing "of the past" or minimal things, my faith is even more bolstered than ever before. Now, I am granted the chance to prove myself and the value of this community in the face of the Gods, against the troublesome eras, where the enemy has it "all".
Yet, they too have nothing as for all their kingdom, it's all devoid of soul.
At the lowest point for the Gods and for humanity, in what we call the dawn of it all, where there is not a temple on every next corner, this voice keeps me as bolstered as I ever were: I know that I am being tested in the level of the highest difficulty, to prove myself as He that will turn everything around, with a divine battalion of people, against seemingly impossible odds.
As I sit on top of ruins, I will not falter and I will not worry, because I am here; and if you are here, then you know that we have nothing to worry about.
The knowledge of the Gods and the Gods will live on in all of us, thrown as scattered golden droplets right now in the face of the planet earth, only to grow into an ever powerful torrent as time goes on.
Through dissolution, we might be looking at a united future for humanity, where this knowledge will finally reign supreme; a final liberation for humanity that only has had a bad chapter in it's aeon's long existence - all of it happening in a way that the human mind cannot comprehend.
We are the heralds of this future.
Wherever you are, if you are of the Gods and follow their teachings, then we are one. Our kingdom has always expanded way beyond any temple. Our Gods dwell inside us, always eternal.
Long live the Temple of Zeus and all of you, souls of the Gods, and may the Gods always keep us on the right track.
-High Priest Zevios Metathronos