Ixion and the War of the Lapiths against the Centaurs symbolize on the one hand spiritual pride, on the other hand a deep purification of the vital.
The War of the Lapiths against the Centaurs – Louvre Museum
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To begin with, it must be said that sincerity is progressive. To be perfectly sincere it is indispensable not to have any preference, any desire, any attraction, any dislike, any sympathy or antipathy, any attachment, any repulsion. One must have a total, integral vision of things, in which everything is in its place and one has the same attitude towards all things: the attitude of true vision.
One must have a total, integral vision of things, in which everything is in its place and one has the same attitude towards all things: the attitude of true vision.
The Mother, Questions and Answers 1956
The Lapiths dwelt in northern Thessaly, the region of the most advanced ‘ordinary’ seekers, as demonstrated by the study of the heroes Ixion and Pirithoos, the latter described by Homer as a friend of Theseus and a Lapith.
Some say that this group displaced that of the Pelasgians, the first inhabitants of the Peloponnese, pointing to an emergence from common ignorance and an entry into the path. Contingents of Lapiths still appear in the Trojan War. Their presence is therefore lastingly maintained in myths and probably explains why the initiates of ancient times did not clearly establish their genealogy, which includes more than seventy characters of often imprecise ancestry.
See Family tree 20
We have already encountered in Volume 2, Chapter 2, one of the Lapithian families in the study of Coronis, the mother of Asclepius. It is the genealogical branch of Antion and of his son Ixion which is of interest to this analysis.
The historian Diodorus of Sicily links these characters to the Titan Oceanus through one of his sons, the river god Peneus, representative of the current of evolution of consciousness that leads to mastery. In this he is in agreement with the poet Pindar, who mentions Hypseus, ‘he who is elevated or above’, as a son of Peneus and a Lapithian king (Pythian Odes 9.12). This is the genealogical relationship which we have indicated on the diagrams and that we will detail below.
The error displayed by Ixion – spiritual pride and ingratitude towards the Divine – apply to seekers who have had advanced experiences and realisations, for he is one of the few heroes who is permitted to dine with the gods, to nourish himself with the nectar of immortality and even to be transported by Zeus to the heights of Spirit (Ouranos). Whichever may be the origin of this error, it is to be imperatively redressed on the path of purification and liberation (Oceanos), as it constitutes a major deviation of yoga.
Ixion
According to the genealogy given by Diodorus, Ixion appears on the genealogical branch of the river Peneus, son of Oceanos. According to Homer, this is a river with “silver swirls”, symbols of relatively pure movements of consciousness. Through its structuring characters, the name Peneus signifies ‘the evolution of the right balance and equality (Π+Ν)’. Peneus united with Creusa, whose name signifies ‘flesh’, indicating a path of incarnation turned towards what is Real.
The progression of the work of consciousness in incarnation brings about a psychic opening; his two daughters, Daphne and Stilbe, both became lovers of Apollo, as did his granddaughter Cyrene, the daughter of Hypseus.
We have already mentioned in Volume 2, Chapter 5, Hypseus, ‘he who is elevated or above’ as well as Cyrene, ‘sovereign authority’, in the study on Autonoe, which refers to the deviances of the too-perfect seeker. In fact, Cyrene bore Apollo a son named Aristaeus, ‘he who holds the first place’, who was himself joined in marriage to Autonoe.
Daphne, the laurel, is only considered to be a descendant of Peneus by Ovid. She initially belonged to the royal lineage of Sparta in the descendance of Taygete, the sixth Pleiad, who also cor