As I come to write this blog post my random musical playlist has picked Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time Of Dying“. This turns out to be directly relevant to this post! Have a listen to get you in the mood for this post.
httpv://youtu.be/yZgblTKscX0
Relevant because the topic of this post – The Death of the Old Gods – is something that Kal and I uncovered as we explored the last site on the slopes of Delphi’s glorious temple complex. The main road into Delphi splits the sites into two parts – those above (governed by paid access) and those below. There is also a sacred site on the road itself and I’ll describe that too soon.
Defining Thought Forms
Let me start by first talking about Thought Forms. These are energetic constructions made by the imagination and intention of human beings. We create pictures of something, then we feed this image with subtle energy by re-imagining it. We give it power by imagining that it has power. If the idea gains wider popularity, then other people can also begin to shape and feed energy into this imaginative construction. At some point in this process the energy levels are such that the thought form can actually evolve, can gain independence, intelligence, and can begin to act by its own intention. Sounds mad, huh? Sure does, but this process is how we have constructed most of our ancient and modern deities, mythological and modern heroes and folkloric figures.
The Old Gods were propelled by these elements:-
- human’s thoughts of their image, including being realised into art
- the number of thoughts that sustained them – whether by devotion, need, or curiosity
- focal points where this energy was collected, promoted and sustained, e.g. temples or shrines
I could go much deeper into those elements – psychology of the archetypes, the differences between ritual and intent, the idea of earth energies being used to retain thought form energy – each of these topics is an article in itself. At the moment let’s take these as read, and consider some information about how the old gods are destroyed, which is the aspect that we discovered at Delphi.
Choose Your Weapon
If there are things in the modern world that kill off the old gods they are surely these:
- Wi-fi signals – omnipresent radiation that combats subtle energy. Part of a technological replacement of the unseen forces within Nature.
- Health and Safety – the New Gods, who decree that we should cordon off most of our ancient sites and birthrights
- Apathy and Indifference – old gods with new faces. They re-direct attention and remove thought from the process. They seek the dissolution of intent.
- Repatriation – the re-dedication to another religion, and the consequent loss of hard-earned knowledge.
- Physical neglect – letting the ancient sites become dilapidated or “modernising” them, constructing over them, using inappropriate materials which do not have the same energy-retentive capabilities.
As I go through this post I will try to provide you with some evidence for how these things dull our connectivity with the ancient thought-forms that grew up around the Old Gods. Of course, many of the Old Gods have been replaced by New Gods, so should we care? Well, only in the sense that we have invested a great deal of psychic energy into the Old Gods, and we’d be wasting a lot of stored knowledge and subtle energy if we let them fade away to nothing. Very few people care about this. It may or may not be an issue – I’m too small to be able to hold the bigger picture in my head, but I just want to make the point as I go along about what I think is happening with the Old Gods, and to describe some of the ways in which we are killing them, or rather, letting them die.
See now, that even in the town of Delphi, that once mighty sacred place, how the Old Gods are stripped bare and left to wither. Here is a tale of woe and sadness. Brace yourself!
The Castalian Spring
At the start of the day we had visited the Castalian Spring. This was formerly a beautiful spring emerging from the ravine created by the wonderful and dramatic mountains which shield the Delphi temple complex. The spring can be reached easily from the main road – the only road. In the foreground are beautiful trees which I couldn’t identify – forgive me – it is Winter.
The Roman-constructed bathing area no longer receives the waters of the spring, which is now piped to one side using plastic tubing. The trees and the ancient spring’s source are caged off from eager pilgrims. A sign reports that this is done for our own Health and Safety due to falling rocks. One cannot argue with Health and Safety. Together they create all the new laws, and protect us from the ugly old god Risk. You may remember Risk? He’s largely emasculated now and can be found limping around some ancient cliff edges, but he’s not what he used to be.
Despite the restrictions I cleansed in a manner that I often do before visiting a site of spiritual importance. It was traditional to wash one’s hair in the spring, but I didn’t quite go that far. Instead I did my usual routine or wiping my face in a cross with the waters. Yes, I claim the right to use that ancient symbol for my own purposes, without any reference to recent religious uses.
I wish people were allowed to be a little more dangerous these days – it’s killing the spirit of adventure, and indeed the spirituality of adventure! We moved off to do more interesting things which have been reported already.
Tholos Lives – All Else Is Dying
At the end of the day, the last site we visited was the Temple of Athena and The Tholos. We really wanted to be in the Gymnasium – the ancient seat of learning. I had a strong feeling that the Gymnasium contained a lot of information that would be very useful to me, so I was very keen to visit. Alas, that section was cordoned off and locked up. Why? Er… pass. I’m sure there was a very good reason. I’m sure there was.
We made do with a visit to the other remaining sites on the lower slopes. Finding the entrance had been difficult. I was only a parked car that really gave us the clue that it could even be entered. There are no signs until you actually get to the entrance, which is some way down the road and heading down the hill. Clever!
Unperturbed and still intent on seeing as much as possible we bathed in the dappled sunshine through the olive trees that lines the path to the Athena Temple and a building known as The Tholos.
I was interested in whether there was any remaining energy in the area. Before I had a chance to dowse anything my attention was drawn towards a yew tree between the remains of the Athena Temple and the Tholos. It was cordoned off. My limit was reached with this, and I used my long legs to simply step over the insubstantial barrier. I’m sorry, but I know my own intentions….they are conservative not destructive. “What if everyone did that?” comes the cry….yeah, right, what if everyone took it upon themselves to go and sit by an old yew tree for no apparent reason? I venture to suggest the world might improve slightly.
I sat where the dowsing rods directed me to. Turns out it was just out of sight of the Sentry Booth up ahead, but I didn’t know that at the time. As I sat, I introduced myself to the tree after asking for permission to be in its aura. It seemed genuinely pleased to have been asked, and soon I was receiving gentle and warm impressions of feelings, thoughts and the occasional picture. I was asking about the energy forms in the area, and the yew told me about Athena. I learned about the degradation of the Athena thought-form and how she was a remnant of a once-powerful goddess, who could not longer operate in the world because she didn’t have enough human mental intention. How much would she need to revive, I asked? 50,000 followers would be required to create enough energy and intention to revive her back to her former glory. Er….these days that’s not very likely. What a shame!
When I emerged back into the afternoon light I spotted the Sentry Booth at the far end of the following temple ruin. Dammit! I understand why they’re there but with this volume of tourists it seems a bit unnecessary. There must have been about five people in the whole square mile area. We’re hardly going to wear these ancient rocks down with our constant passage!
I began to dowse for the Athena thought form which the yew had led me to believe still existed in the area. The dowsing rods took me over the low rope and into the Tholos building. Athena was standing just behind one of the reconstructed pillars. But I had pushed my luck too far this time. A swarthy olive-skinned man with a moustache and a bored look was attracting my attention and then motioning at me to come back over the rope. I obliged, for I am obliging. I had made contact. The rest could now follow at a distance.
So, what had caused the once-powerful goddess thought-form of Athena to become a mere faded remnant in a temple where she once ruled and protected the Oracle? There were many things, and I have listed most of them at the top of this post. Mainly it is distraction, leading to apathy, and finally to disbelief. Ultimately, no-one needed to believe in the powers of Athena, so no-one was putting intention into the thought form to power it. Or at least insufficient numbers anyway. Now she dwindled, kept barely in existence by the thoughts of those who visited her former strongholds. Now, she was merely historic. Consigned to a slow lingering vanishing from the thoughts and feeling, the hearts and mind of mankind.
In these ways we kill the Old Gods. They become an irrelevance, and pure mythology. Farewell – we loved you once.
