The reign of the Titans corresponds to the childhood of humanity, to its golden age before the mind takes over when Zeus rose to power. During the growth of life, the twelve Titans and Titanides ruled over the vital evolution of mankind and the gestation of mind: it was a period governed by the Titan Cronos. The initiated of ancient times have described this time as the “golden age” based on their observation of the early period of childhood: “And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart (…) When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep” (Works and Days, verse 109). It was the garden of Eden, paradise, the childhood of humanity in the period of life’s growth before it reached the age of reason when control was taken over by the mind.
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Symbolism of the Titans
Le symbolism of the Titans and Titanides is not explicitly explained in mythology, and we can only propose certain hypotheses concerning their organisation based on their genealogy.
They represent the great forces or principles which preside over creation and stem from the union of Matter (Gaia, the densified principle of Existence) and Spirit (Ouranos, the starry sky). They unfolded freely before mental consciousness became a dominant force in man, at the time when the Olympians took power. In Greek mythology, the Titans do not seem to have the role of Asuric powers which Sri Aurobindo attributes to some of them.
While the forces associated with the gods can be brought closer and understood by means of the mental faculties as a “psychological” manifestation of the Absolute, it is not the case for the world of the Titans; in the latter, forces and their interrelations are strangers to common mental consciousness and can only be connected with by way of inner experiences, intuitions, illuminations and revelations issued from the superior planes of the spirit.
The ancient Greeks left few clues concerning this world of the Titans, and the contradictions between different sources are difficult to comprehend. The abstemiousness of details about this is probably because knowledge about this plane is not indispensable for progression on the spiritual path. The fact that the Titans do not appear in the hero myths confirms this. And for a good reason! At the end of the war between gods and Titans, they were banished to Tartarus by the gods.
There is a reason for this eviction from the world of gods and men: the forces which they represent were not to evolve freely in man as long as the process of mental maturation was underway. What could be expressed freely in the infancy of humanity, when it was under the domination of the vital, and still leaves traces in present-day childhood, was submitted to many constraints from the moment in which intervened intuition and reason, the two mental movements of identification and separation. Coming to the forefront at different times, these two movements shape the development of the mind.
Understanding the world was therefore only useful for the initiated, who designed or made use of the myths in their teachings or encountered these forces in their exploration of consciousness. And in fact, they did not ascribe personal histories to the Titans before their exile into Tartarus. Consequently they can only be addressed by a discussion of their descendants.
Two Titan couples held a privileged role, for almost all the great myths and epics unfolds within their lineage.
The lineage of Iapetus and Clymene outlines all the stages to be crossed in the mental plane to breach the gulf between Matter and Spirit (a separation maintained by the Titan Atlas) so as to experience Reality by an evolution in consciousness. It depicts in detail the experiences of those who cross the seven planes of the mind embodied by the seven Pleiades, both the ordinary seekers, the Hellenes, descendants of the hero by the same name, and the adventurers of consciousness following Protogenia. This is the process of “ascent “.
The lineage of Oceanos and Tethys describes, in the line of descent of the river-gods (the currents of energy-consciousness), the progress towards Reality supporting itself on past human evolution and the ways of Nature. Two orientations hold a privileged place: concentration, Inachos, and equality, Peneus. It is the process of “integration” or the path of purification, liberation and the fulfillment of equality.
With a third lineage, that of the river Asopos, a new prospect of evolution opens up for mankind. It is in this lineage that appears Achilles, the supreme hero without whose participation the Trojan War could have never been won by the Greeks,
While the lineages originating with Iapetus answer the call of what beckons from above, those originating with Oceanos follow the movement of Nature with an insistence on a purification of our nature from the impurities and slag of