The Sleepwalkers (13 page)

Orphism
was
the
first
universal
religion
in
the
sense
that
it
was
not
regarded
as
a
tribal
or
national
monopoly,
but
open
to
all
who
accepted
its
tenets;
and
it
profoundly
influenced
all
subsequent
religious
development.
It
would
nevertheless
be
a
mistake
to
attribute
too
much
intellectual
and
spiritual
refinement
to
it;
the
Orphic
purification
rites,
which
are
the
hub
of
the
whole
system,
still
contain
a
series
of
primitive
taboos
–
not
to
eat
meat,
or
beans,
not
to
touch
a
white
cock,
not
to
look
in
a
mirror
beside
the
light.

But
this
is
precisely
the
point
where
Pythagoras
gave
Orphism
a
new
meaning,
the
point
where
religious
intuition
and
rational
science
were
brought
together
in
a
synthesis
of
breathtaking
originality.
The
link
is
the
concept
of
katharsis
.
It
was
a
central
concept
in
Bacchism,
Orphism,
in
the
cult
of
the
Delian
Apollo,
in
Pythagorean
medicine
and
science;
but
it
had
different
meanings,
and
entailed
different
techniques
in
all
of
them
(as
it
still
does
in
the
various
schools
of
modern
psychotherapy).
Was
there
anything
in
common
between
the
raving
Bacchante
and
the
aloof
mathematician,
the
fiddle
of
Orpheus
and
a
laxative
pill?
Yes:
the
same
yearning
for
release
from
various
forms
of
enslavement,
from
passions
and
tensions
of
body
and
mind,
from
death
and
the
void,
from
the
legacy
of
the
Titans
in
man's
estate
–
the
yearning
to
re-light
the
divine
spark.
But
the
methods
of
achieving
this
must
differ
according
to
the
person.
They
must
be
graded
according
to
the
disciple's
lights
and
degree
of
initiation.
Pythagoras
replaced
the
soul-purging
all-cures
of
competing
sects,
by
an
elaborate
hierarchy
of
kathartic
techniques;
he
purified
the
very
concept
of
purification,
as
it
were.

At
the
bottom
of
the
scale
are
simple
taboos,
taken
over
from
Orphism,
such
as
the
interdiction
of
eating
meat
and
beans;
for
the
coarse-natured
the
penance
of
self-denial
is
the
only
effective
purge.
At
the
highest
level
katharsis
of
the
soul
is
achieved
by
contemplating
the
essence
of
all
reality,
the
harmony
of
forms,
the
dance
of
numbers.
"Pure
science"
–
a
strange
expression
that
we
still
use
–
is
thus
both
an
intellectual
delight
and
a
way
to
spiritual
release;
the
way
to
the
mystic
union
between
the
thoughts
of
the
creature
and
the
spirit
of
its
creator.
"The
function
of
geometry,"
says
Plutarch
of
the
Pythagoreans,
"is
to
draw
us
away
from
the
world
of
the
senses
and
of
corruption,
to
the
world
of
the
intellect
and
the
eternal.
For
the
contemplation
of
the
eternal
is
the
end
of
philosophy
as
the
contemplation
of
the
mysteries
is
the
end
of
religion."
⁸
But
to
the
true
Pythagorean,
the
two
have
become
indistinguishable.

The
historical
importance
of
the
idea
that
disinterested
science
leads
to
purification
of
the
soul
and
its
ultimate
liberation,
can
hardly
be
exaggerated.
The
Egyptians
embalmed
their
corpses
so
that
the
soul
might
return
to
them
and
need
not
be
reincarnated
again;
the
Buddhists
practised
non-attachment
to
escape
the
wheel;
both
attitudes
were
negative
and
socially
sterile.
The
Pythagorean
concept
of
harnessing
science
to
the
contemplation
of
the
eternal,
entered,
via
Plato
and
Aristotle,
into
the
spirit
of
Christianity
and
became
a
decisive
factor
in
the
making
of
the
Western
world.

Earlier
in
this
chapter
I
have
tried
to
show
how,
by
relating
music
to
astronomy
and
both
to
mathematics,
emotional
experience
became
enriched
and
deepened
by
intellectual
insight.
Cosmic
wonder
and
aesthetic
delight
no
longer
live
apart
from
the
exercise
of
reason;
they
are
all
inter-related.
Now
the
final
step
has
been
taken:
the
mystic
intuitions
of
religion
have
also
been
integrated
into
the
whole.
Again,
the
process
is
accompanied
by
subtle
changes
in
the
meaning
of
certain
key-words,
such
as
theoria
–
theory.
The
word
was
derived
from
theorio
–
"to
behold,
contemplate"
(
thea
:
spectacle,
theoris
:
spectator,
audience).
But
in
orphic
usage,
theoria
came
to
signify
"a
state
of
fervent
religious
contemplation,
in
which
the
spectator
is
identified
with
the
suffering
god,
dies
in
his
death,
and
rises
again
in
his
new
birth".
⁹
As
the
Pythagoreans
canalized
religious
fervour
into
intellectual
fervour,
ritual
ecstasy
into
the
ecstasy
of
discovery,
theoria
gradually
changed
its
meaning
into
"theory"
in
the
modern
sense.
But
though
the
raucous
cry
of
the
ritual
worshippers
was
replaced
by
the
Eureka
of
the
new
theorizers,
they
remained
aware
of
the
common
source
from
which
both
sprang.
They
were
aware
that
the
symbols
of
mythology
and
the
symbols
of
mathematical
science
were
different
aspects
of
the
same,
indivisible
Reality.
^*
They
did
not
live
in
a
"divided
house
of
faith
and
reason";
the
two
were
interlocking,
like
ground-plan
and
elevation
on
an
architect's
drawing.
It
is
a
state
of
mind
very
difficult
for
twentieth-century
man
to
imagine
–
or
even
to
believe
that
it
could
ever
have
existed.
It
may
help
to
remember
though,
that
some
of
the
greatest
pre-Socratic
sages
formulated
their
philosophies
in
verse;
the
unitary
source
of
inspiration
of
prophet,
poet
and
philosopher
was
still
taken
for
granted.