VâŽIâŽTâŽRâŽIâŽOâŽL⎠PART ONE
VâŽIâŽTâŽRâŽIâŽOâŽLâŽAND THE  DESCENT TO THE UNDERWORLD The theme of descent to the underworld, also called âcatabasiâ isnât anything new: there are traces of it disseminated in different cultures since earley recorded history. Just consider Herluces, Pollux, Orpheus for the Greeks, the Babylonian Inanna, the Hittite hero Kessi, Xolotl in Mexico, Aeneas for the Latins and Dante in the Italian literature. Jesus himself died and then resurrected, this clearly demonstrates the ancestral need of the man to contemplate the possibility to descend to the underworld and to return amongst the living. Of course all myths and stories likely lead to different interpretations but, at the same time they all conduct to a transformational cathartic process of the I-SOUL or to the IDEA of eternal life and the subsequent defeat of DEATH. CATABASIThe  travel to Hades usually starts from hard accessible places, the gates are hidden from the mortalâs view. Once those gates open themselves, they lead to another dimension, usually a non-temporal one, an ineffable place for the human anchored to life and consequently also to the temporal dimension. A place beyond experience and beyond the knowable, governed by higher powers ruling over âlife after deathâ. Only those  possessing uncommon features can trespass Cerberusâ fury, imperturbable and merciless guardian controlling the gates, and rejoin the World of the Living. We need only recall those words the Cumaean Sybil addresses to Aeneas"O goddess-born of great Anchises' line, The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies.To few great Jupiter imparts this grace, And those of shining worth and heav'nly race.â Hercules himself, hero and demigod, before descending to Plutoâs world had to purify himself and was initiatd to the Eleusinian Mysteries: âWhen  Hercules heard that, he went to Tiryns and did as he was bid by Eurystheus. First, Eurystheus ordered him to bring the skin of the Nemean lion;1 now that was an invulnerable beast begotten by Typhon. On his way to attack the lion he came to Cleonae and lodged at the house of a day-laborer, Molorchus;2 and when his host would have offered a victim in sacrifice, Hercules told him to wait for thirty days, and then, if he had returned safe from the hunt, to sacrifice to Saviour Zeus, but if he were dead, to sacrifice to him as to a hero.3 And having come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at him, but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his club and made after him. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths, Hercules built up the one entrance and came in upon the beast through the other, and putting his arm round its neck held it tight till he had choked it; so laying it on his shoulders he carried it to Cleonae. And finding Molorchus on the last of the thirty days about to sacrifice the victim to him as to a dead man, he sacrificed to Saviour Zeus and brought the lion to Mycenae. Amazed at his manhood, Eurystheus forbade him thenceforth to enter the city, but ordered him to exhibit the fruits of his labours before the gates. They say, too, that in his fear he had a bronze jar made for himself to hide in under the earth,4 and that he sent his commands for the labours through a herald, Copreus,5son of Pelops the Elean. This Copreus had killed Iphitus and fled to Mycenaewhere he was purified by Eurystheus and took up his abode. [2] As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra.6 That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus, he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses, he discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where was its den. By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head was smashed there grew up two. A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot.7 So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus. [3] As a third labour he ordered him to bring the Cerynitian hind alive to Mycenae,8Now the hind was at Oenoe; it had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; so wishing neither to kill nor wound it, Hercules hunted it a whole year. But when, weary with the chase, the beast took refuge on the mountain called Artemisius, and thence passed to the river Ladon, Hercules shot it just as it was about to cross the stream, and catching it put it on his shoulders and hastened through Arcadia. But Artemis with Apollo met him, and would have wrested the hind from him, and rebuked him for attempting to kill her sacred animal.9 Howbeit, by pleading necessity and laying the blame on Eurystheus, he appeased the anger of the goddess and carried the beast alive to Mycenae. [4] As a fourth labour he ordered him to bring the Erymanthian boar alive;10 now that animal ravaged Psophis, sallying from a mountain which they call Erymanthus. So passing through Pholoe he was entertained by the centaur Pholus, a son of Silenus by a Melian nymph.11 He set roast meat before Hercules, while he himself ate his meat raw. When Hercules called for wine, he said he feared to open the jar which belonged to the centaurs in common.â Apollodorus ( Pseudo ), Book II, 5.1-5.12 All these episodes, tell a life lesson; through these moral teachings we understand how  great  classical scholars had reached a conception of the human existence taking into account the essence of life, because they skimmed everything futile and superficial incidental to material values⊠In ancient texts all ingredients for a happy and significant life are  wisely measured out. Of course these ancient precepts are the cornerstones of all holy bookswhich more or less esoterically indicate a spiritual code and behaviour and consequently also the right path for the self-improvement of oneâs own condition. But quite often the same precepts have been misinterpreted by religions longing exclusively for the supreme control over population. The essential thing to be understood is how this condition is neither strictly connected to social life nor to tangible possessions, but primarily to the inner sphere: knowledge, control and power, if properly used upon the own âIâ, make it unassailable from the outsideâŠfate, fortune and opportunity therefore will be relegated to a secondary role and our âIâ  always is aware. The state of things  will be loaded with a different value and during the lifetime youâll never feel lost, lonely, or inadequate; he who walks through this path, at a certain point he starts perceiving as unassailable, because, having the knowledge and the consciousness of the right, he will never be attacked by his own conscience Once you reached this goal, all the ordinary things people fight for, losing precios energy, will appear unnecessary and no longer considered anymore. End of part one. THIS IS ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF TRUTH. MRA










