PBP - Apotheosis - 2014-01-10
As Hesiod wrote regarding the Five Ages, in particular, the Golden Age, people lived happy, war-free, died in their sleep, worshipped the gods of their own free will (enjoyed it, not treated like a chore but wanting to), and achieved apotheosis at the end of their lives.
Heroes/-ines become, when they have traveled to the Underworld, and returned to the world of the living (Overworld, technically?).
But, Apotheosis is when we no longer need to reincarnate; when we can spend the rest of our nights with the Muses, Heroes, Family, Gods, Daimons, there on the Blessed Isles. My personal understanding, vague though it may be, is that is regardless of we mortal-born.
In other words, there is no need for a "personality cult" like Michael Jackson had, or Elvis, Betty Page, DaVinci, or anyone else, because it is not based on mortal-born opinion; its not a vote where we outnumber the gods a bazillion to one.
Its more like school, learn English 099 and pass, good, now learn English 100, now English 101, while also History, Art, Numbers, Physics, Chemistry, Modern Greek, and an elective of reincarnating as a African American left-handed 4 ft tall circus-clown, who is lesbian, Atheist, and desires to be elected to local City Council in Buenos Aires.
So just like the above example, there are things to learn that when successful, do not need to be relearned, others can only be learned by experiencing them and are not bad in and of themselves, but the lack of progression through reincarnations makes a non-issue; suddenly a problem that only tyrants would enjoy.
So if you recycle a soda can, you might get a Karma Credit, but if you recycle a second soda can, you don't because you cant do the same thing twice and get credit.
Keeping with the school example (which life is), you can do it over if you got less then an A-grade, but as soon as you get your A-grade Karma Credit, you cant take it again.
There is also this thing where, as I understand it, we do not have to climb out of the muck, but originally incarnated neutral. Our mess is our own making since then. This may be what Aristotle meant when he wrote something like: Do not reward the good for doing good, as they are doing it for the reward, not because it is good, you will find that out when you can no longer reward; however, punish the bad. (Pavlov Response 22.75 centuries before Pavlov was born!)
Things we need closure on, are from things that happened lifetimes ago. Psychic and magickal power due to dedicating, and initiating into one of the Mysteries lifetimes ago. Being a "natural" at something is that A-Grade Karma Credit learned from previous life-times.
So those who achieve Apotheosis are either those who do not frak up at all, while learning...
or those who see it not as reincarnation but one giant life living in two vacation houses called Underworld, and Overworld; who have the sense enough to clean up their own mess, and not only apologize, but never do it again because they meant it when they said "sorry".
*Charon should build a bridge, if he has to ferry us to the Underworld when we are allowed to reincarnate as a spirit, and the Overworld when we are allowed to reincarnate among the living, he must be busy! If he had a bridge, he could charge the obol to cross the bridge but there could be lane markers and a center divider so people can walk across easily. If it were a draw bridge those who do not pay would not be able to cross for 1k years [ouch!]*
- Anonomouse, happily with no anonomice!
PS - Wikipedia on Apotheosis, though I am not happy about the writing style of this one. I could not bear to quote the entire thing; I feel I already need a shower from the hubris miasma dripping off the page. Any religious anthropologists want to take a whack at it with the unbiased-objective-neutral-deductive logic-stick?
Apotheosis - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis
BEGIN QUOTE
Apotheosis (from Greek ἀποθέωσις from ἀποθεοῦν, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.
In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.
Ancient Greece
From at least the Geometric period of the ninth century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding myths of Greek sites were accorded chthonic rites in their heroon, or "hero-temple".
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon, who was a king when the Greeks had set kingship aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely antagonistic, with Achaemenid Persia where kings were divine. At his wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia, from them to Julius Caesar and so to the emperors of Rome".[1] Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Great) or afterwards (e.g., members of the Ptolemaic dynasty). Heroic cult similar to apotheosis was also an honour given to a few revered artists of the distant past, notably Homer.
Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites. The Greek hero cults can be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. Two exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honoured as either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.
END QUOTE
As Hesiod wrote regarding the Five Ages, in particular, the Golden Age, people lived happy, war-free, died in their sleep, worshipped the gods of their own free will (enjoyed it, not treated like a chore but wanting to), and achieved apotheosis at the end of their lives.
Heroes/-ines become, when they have traveled to the Underworld, and returned to the world of the living (Overworld, technically?).
But, Apotheosis is when we no longer need to reincarnate; when we can spend the rest of our nights with the Muses, Heroes, Family, Gods, Daimons, there on the Blessed Isles. My personal understanding, vague though it may be, is that is regardless of we mortal-born.
In other words, there is no need for a "personality cult" like Michael Jackson had, or Elvis, Betty Page, DaVinci, or anyone else, because it is not based on mortal-born opinion; its not a vote where we outnumber the gods a bazillion to one.
Its more like school, learn English 099 and pass, good, now learn English 100, now English 101, while also History, Art, Numbers, Physics, Chemistry, Modern Greek, and an elective of reincarnating as a African American left-handed 4 ft tall circus-clown, who is lesbian, Atheist, and desires to be elected to local City Council in Buenos Aires.
So just like the above example, there are things to learn that when successful, do not need to be relearned, others can only be learned by experiencing them and are not bad in and of themselves, but the lack of progression through reincarnations makes a non-issue; suddenly a problem that only tyrants would enjoy.
So if you recycle a soda can, you might get a Karma Credit, but if you recycle a second soda can, you don't because you cant do the same thing twice and get credit.
Keeping with the school example (which life is), you can do it over if you got less then an A-grade, but as soon as you get your A-grade Karma Credit, you cant take it again.
There is also this thing where, as I understand it, we do not have to climb out of the muck, but originally incarnated neutral. Our mess is our own making since then. This may be what Aristotle meant when he wrote something like: Do not reward the good for doing good, as they are doing it for the reward, not because it is good, you will find that out when you can no longer reward; however, punish the bad. (Pavlov Response 22.75 centuries before Pavlov was born!)
Things we need closure on, are from things that happened lifetimes ago. Psychic and magickal power due to dedicating, and initiating into one of the Mysteries lifetimes ago. Being a "natural" at something is that A-Grade Karma Credit learned from previous life-times.
So those who achieve Apotheosis are either those who do not frak up at all, while learning...
or those who see it not as reincarnation but one giant life living in two vacation houses called Underworld, and Overworld; who have the sense enough to clean up their own mess, and not only apologize, but never do it again because they meant it when they said "sorry".
*Charon should build a bridge, if he has to ferry us to the Underworld when we are allowed to reincarnate as a spirit, and the Overworld when we are allowed to reincarnate among the living, he must be busy! If he had a bridge, he could charge the obol to cross the bridge but there could be lane markers and a center divider so people can walk across easily. If it were a draw bridge those who do not pay would not be able to cross for 1k years [ouch!]*
- Anonomouse, happily with no anonomice!
PS - Wikipedia on Apotheosis, though I am not happy about the writing style of this one. I could not bear to quote the entire thing; I feel I already need a shower from the hubris miasma dripping off the page. Any religious anthropologists want to take a whack at it with the unbiased-objective-neutral-deductive logic-stick?
Apotheosis - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis
BEGIN QUOTE
Apotheosis (from Greek ἀποθέωσις from ἀποθεοῦν, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.
In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.
Ancient Greece
From at least the Geometric period of the ninth century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding myths of Greek sites were accorded chthonic rites in their heroon, or "hero-temple".
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon, who was a king when the Greeks had set kingship aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely antagonistic, with Achaemenid Persia where kings were divine. At his wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia, from them to Julius Caesar and so to the emperors of Rome".[1] Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Great) or afterwards (e.g., members of the Ptolemaic dynasty). Heroic cult similar to apotheosis was also an honour given to a few revered artists of the distant past, notably Homer.
Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites. The Greek hero cults can be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. Two exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honoured as either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.
END QUOTE
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