Group Review: Ἐραστὴς καὶ Ἐρώμενος: Attraction, Love and True Initiation

Thank you Sungio for sharing this insightful and thought-provoking review. I especially appreciate your message about self-love, spiritual growth, consistency, and the importance of putting our understanding into practice. True progress is not about never stumbling or taking a break; it is about having the courage to rise again, reconnect with our purpose, and continue learning.

Your reminder that even returning to read and participate is a meaningful first step is particularly encouraging. We should approach our spiritual journey with patience, discipline, humility, and compassion for ourselves and others. Every small step forward matters, and our past struggles do not have to define our future.

May we continue growing in wisdom, strengthening our inner character, and expressing the love and goodness we seek through our daily actions. Thank you for this timely reminder that the journey is not about perfection, but about sincere effort, consistency, and the willingness to begin again.

First things first, I must point out the quote that moved me most:

The form she had described is poverty and need. In the strict Platonic order, then, the Gods stand in the place of the beloved: beautiful, perfect, blessed, lacking nothing. The human being stands in the place of the lover. Plotinus, the Platonist of the 3rd century AD, puts the true beloved in the world above: "yonder is the true beloved," ἐκεῖ δὲ τὸ ἀληθινὸν ἐρώμενον.

The striver confuses the places. He pursues the Gods for what he lacks, as a lover does, and at the same time he waits for them to court him, as a beloved waits. The Initiate has left the lover's lack and the beloved's waiting behind for a 3rd word, οἰκεῖος: of the house, kin, one's own. Aristophanes, another speaker in the Symposium, names οἰκειότης, belonging, among the things that seize those who find their other half, and the Neoplatonist Proclus named the 2nd stage of perfect prayer οἰκείωσις, the soul's becoming akin to the Gods.

This, I have nothing to comment, as it speaks for itself, I only show and bring attention to it.

Now, onto sections I feel I have some thoughts to speak on, after studying this page:

As with many of the Temple's writings, what I read here brings my mind back to the Tetractys, especially this section:

"Potential in All, Binary in Fact"

We live and exist within the manifest world, where expansion and differentiation allow the beauty and goodness of the Gods to truly show themselves.

Within all of us, there is potential for the Divine, a oneness of good origin. And yet, for this to show itself, the first differentiation must be made, and this is the most severe differentiation: those that do, and those that don't. Those that make of their potential something beautiful, and those that don't. And of those that don't, I ask, in what sense is it even sensible to say they "have the potential"? As the situation of life matures, it's no longer enough to say that one has potential, we must look at what one does with it.

It is more sensible to say: those that don't bear fruit "have the potential merely in theory", whereas those that bear fruit "have the potential in practice". To put those who do and those who simply don't on the same level of "potential" feels, past a point, almost insulting.

Now, onto what I feel is the most important lesson to understand, and to take to heart: the Striver and the Initiate.

This section is most poignant, about how the Striver approaches the Gods:

How the Gods should be. He carries a picture of the Gods drawn from his own wishes, and he measures the Gods against it.

What he should receive. He expects experiences, signs, powers and quick answers, and he counts the relationship by what it pays.

What they should be to him. He wants a comforter, a provider and an audience, someone who is there when he needs it.

How they should make him feel. When the practice brings excitement, he stays. When it brings dryness, effort or correction, he decides the Gods have failed him.

When the Gods don't behave precisely as he expected, he recoils, sulks, leaves, gets angry or abandons the chase. It's sometimes said afterwards that he abandoned something real, though it wasn't yet truly there: he stood around the subject and never entered it. Everyone and everything has to satisfy his need of striving and connect with him on his own terms, or for him there's nothing there.

If one cares even slightly about the path, they might see themselves in this description to a lesser or greater degree, and that's fine. To acknowledge that this skewed relationship with the Divine is not the correct approach is already a sign that one has what it takes to change it, regardless of whether you see in yourself 1% of this mistaken view or 99%.

To me, this is a very human hubris that we deal with, a trap of solipsism. We yearn for the beyond, and simultaneously expect the beyond to conform to us.

"Base is that lover, the common one, who loves the body more than the soul; he isn't constant either, since what he loves isn't constant. As soon as the bloom of the body he loved fades, 'he is gone, flown away,' putting his many words and promises to shame. The lover of a good character remains through life, since he has been fused with what lasts."

In order to truly love the Gods, we must know them, or else we simply love phantasms that we conjure up in our minds. And you do not get to know someone by yourself, it is a process that involves reaching out.

Within our human, day to day relationships, we often run into the same problem. We assume we already know what there is to be known about our friends, our lover, our family or what have you. We do not put in the effort, sometimes, to reach out in humility and attempt to understand the other. How much greater still is this friction of two beings interacting when we refer to the Eternal Gods? All the more great, as we have even less in common to simply project.

I come out of this reading and study with two conclusions, which I will hold to heart, and hope that others find helpful as well:

1. We are building a relationship with the Gods, a synergy, a return. This takes time, and most of all, it takes consistency. If one does not give up, does not abandon this endeavor, it will grow into something beautiful. All your questions will find answers, all your problems will find solutions. You will understand what it is you have yearned for on the deepest level, and you will have it. Nobody can make the choice to pursue this for you, and paradoxically, you do not need to make the choice either. You yearn for something, and you must simply pursue that yearning.

2. Be careful about projection. As humans, we are at risk of being self-centered, obtuse and blind to the fact that there are things outside our perception. With other humans, a lot of our problems in relationship stem from projection. We have things in common (a body, a nervous system, a common society that raised us to a certain degree), and we assume of others that they are one and the same as us, that "we would handle their problems better", that "this person is sad because of the same reasons I would be sad".

This, often enough, does work in practice when it comes to human-to-human relationships, as we do truly have a lot of things in common. The Gods are, if anything is certain of Them, very different from us. Much higher, and experiencing Being very differently. Avoid projection when it comes to understanding the Gods: "if I was a God and was asked for help, I would help, why would they not be as kind as me?".

When having a thought like that, all that this can lead to is frustration. You've already labeled the God as "not as kind as you", you already label yourself as "knowing better than the Gods". Why would that ever be grounds for a good relationship?

If you are struggling on the path, reach out. If you have something you can contribute to help others, speak out and contribute. This way, you will align with the Gods.

"And only like can know like..."

- Virtue E, Respect, Reverence, and Belief In the Gods