Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism

by David Fideler

 

This 430-page book covers a wide range of aspects of cosmological symbolism important to ancient Greek philosophers and early Christian writers. It is not about the historical Jesus but about the representation of Jesus and other divine figures as symbolic personifications of cosmic principles. Though it is not an historical account, the fantastic tapestry it weaves presents a very interesting picture of human social development, philosophy, and science from the beginning (whenever that was) that rivals our present sophistication of knowledge and understanding of our world. The book includes an historical exploration of ancient forms of spiritual knowledge, but it is more of a gnostic work than a history. It reads something like a mystery novel and sometimes gives the impression of being an allegory on Plato’s allegory of the cave.

For the general reader, the book is a good summary of (Western) ancient beliefs and definitions useful in understanding ancient cosmology. For more advanced students, and for more-detailed analyses, the text provides an excellent groundwork and bibliography for understanding how spirit and matter can be so intimately interwoven.

When you explain the biographical-type history of gods who are, or who at least acted like, part human/part divine beings, you get a glimpse of a manifestation of a universal archetype that underlies the structure of cosmic reality. Considering the “definitions” of gods in the book, Jesus was a manifestation of God — part human, part divine.

The book “reveals just how sophisticated the cosmology of the early philosophers was and to what degree they were inspired by mathematics and the ideals of symmetry and harmony.” It shows the “cosmic universalism at the heart of Christianity.” It inspires the thought that in this new age, concepts of the new sciences—e.g., holography—will play a role for us similar to what mathematics did for the ancients. The Logos, beauty, harmony, and the laws of physics still exist, and, as Plato taught, there are indications that “the philosophical ascent is thus also a movement toward progressively higher states of cognition.”

The book includes a wide variety of topics that are nevertheless related to the primary theme, so the inclusion of over forty brief documentary illustrations with short commentary is very helpful as a reference guide to the “players in the tapestry.”

Ancient philosophers believed that consciousness is based upon natural patterns that underlie the fabric of the phenomenal world. Platonists would say these basic patterns, or Divine Ideas, that shape the world of humans also shape the world of the stars. Our relationships to the universe, and to each other, are “inextricably conditioned by our underlying belief systems and mythologies.”

To elucidate the symbolism of the sun and the role of Jesus in relation to it, Fiedler’s search begins with the concerns of the early Greek philosophers and the idea of the Logos, which came from earlier Pythagorean views of harmony and proportion. In ancient times, though the Logos was represented in numerous ways, the primary way was as the sun, the source of light and life. Long before the advent of Christianity the nature of the Logos was studied in a mathematical sense. One of the meanings of Logos is “ratio” as in mathematical ratio: “the conceptual link between unity and multiplicity. To the Pythagoreans, the principle of Logos “underlies the manifestation of harmony at its very core.”

This book presents a unique study that shows “how the ancient, scientific understanding of the Logos underlies the name and attributes of Apollo and Hermes, the Greek gods of music, harmony, and geometry.” This preexisting symbolism of the Logos, the symbolism of Apollo, was adopted by the earliest Christians and is the underlying basis for certain New Testament allegories. Fiedler sees the beginning of Christianity as a Greek religion among many religions and philosophical systems that flourished in Alexandria and throughout the Hellenistic world. The Platonic theory of knowledge is beautifully discussed.

Students of Cosolargy can see our age as foreshadowed in the knowledge that existed in Egypt hundreds of years prior to Plato. The learned saw the physical sun as a lower manifestation of a higher principle. To Plato, the sun was a symbol of a higher principle, itself the source of the physical sun and the source of the All. Before the birth of Christianity, the sun came to be seen as being between the manifest world of nature and the extratemporal world of first principles.

Helios was at the heart of the celestial pattern, and his physical aspect was considered a manifestation of a higher principle — the Solar Logos. Chapter 3 of the book is dedicated to the Solar Logos: the “Word of the Sun” in Hellenistic mysticism and cosmology. In ancient Greek, Logos had a number of meanings, several of which are discussed, as is the nature of Logos and its meaning in Latin as “ratio” (reason) and “oratio” (speech or prayer).

In early writings the Logos was described as the “Son of God.”  Eventually, Jesus was equated with the Logos, and thus the “Son of God” (as well as the “Sun of God”). The historical development of the relationships among the Logos, Christ, and Jesus as represented by Jesus’ statements in the Gospel of John, are outlined to show how/why Jesus became the mediator between heaven and earth in Christian symbolism.

The story of the harmony of Apollo, the Pythagorean science of harmonic meditation, Gematria, and mathematics are clearly discussed so that our understanding of the present “condition” of the world and the decline of the vision of the original Christians is enhanced. The justification of the political church and the original forms of spiritual repression and intolerance are outlined.

With the demise of classical civilization in the West, theological dogmatism replaced philosophical inquiry. The roles of the key figures responsible for this movement are outlined as part of the historical development.

Chapter 10 discusses the “Harmony That Was, Is, and Ever Shall Be.”  Unity, duality, and harmony as part of the Christian mythology of the time and the pattern of harmony that corresponds with the Coming of Christ are outlined. The theme that Christianity is largely the product of Greek thought rather than of Jewish origin is borne out by the history of Greek myths of the gods who prefigured Christianity for centuries.

Fiedler understands the subtlety of ancient thought and modern history as they are portrayed in ancient philosophical definitions of Being — “that which is,” or the “level of reality which is subject to birth, generation, or decay.”

In his interesting discussion of “The Renewal of Time,” Fiedler strikes a key note of more than passing interest to Cosolargists regarding the Golden Age.

Great cultural movements may “grow” out of preexisting elements and manifest in a temporal context, but cannot be considered solely as the inevitable march of factual historical events. Fiedler talks about the fact that there are other elements, such as “inspiration,” when something “new happens to be in the air.” He reviews the evolution of the far-reaching effects of the forces at work in combination with the renewal of time. One example of special interest to Cosolargists is the foretelling (about 37 B.C.E.) by the poet Virgil of the coming of a divine child, a solar king, who will reestablish the Golden Age.

From the patchwork of human events, Fiedler weaves a magnificent tapestry of the rise of spiritual realities that culminated in the birth of Jesus and developed into esoteric variants of Christianity. A study of ancient Greek thought and Greeks gods reveals the long-brewing coalescence of mysteries that prefigured Christianity and the manifestation of Jesus as the new Christ, the preexistent Logos.

Prior to the birth of Jesus there was a fully developed Logos doctrine, based on Greek sources, “used to interpret the symbolism of Jewish scripture allegorically: a clear example of the conscious merging and synthesis of traditions, including the early Gnostic teachings. It was no accident that Christianity began as a Greek religion.

The early days of Christianity, of which little is known, was the Golden Age of Christianity. In this age of great scholars, visionaries, and mystics, the mythology of Christianity was emerging, and the oral tradition was of prime importance. As Christianity spread, organizational structure developed and dogmas began to be enforced by an organized church. The Golden Age, like a beautiful garden, was invaded by powerful beings, like noxious weeds, that resulted in mini-ages, like the Dark Ages.

The book includes a detailed discussion of Gematria, sacred numbers, sacred geometry, temple architecture, musical harmonics, the music of the Sun, the Platonic solids, names of Jesus and gods as aspects of representation of the universal Logos and harmony of the Sun, etc. The Hymn of the Pearl is included to show the beautiful expression of the “Gnostic themes of the soul’s origin, forgetfulness, and subsequent recollection of its nature.” The book ends with an Index of Gematria: Numerical Values and an Index of Gematria: Names and Words, both of which can be helpful research tools.

Plato said that in a higher level of cognition there exists direct knowledge, or gnosis, in which “the mind becomes unified with the object of the knowledge.”

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over all.” This book whets the appetite to continue seeking in a variety of directions.