In his aphorism 76, Sri Aurobindo says: “Europe prides herself on her practical and scientific organisation and efficiency. I am waiting till her organisation is perfect; then a child shall destroy her.”
When Mother was asked to comment on this aphorism, she said (Agenda, 11 December 71): “Naturally, it is not the soil that will be destroyed, it is simply the power that is destroyed, because the earth cannot be destroyed”.
I began with this quotation to tell you that it is not at all the subject of the conference. We will not be looking at Europe in terms of its influence in the world or its power – or rather its loss of power, which is becoming more and more obvious as time goes by – but rather at what the soul of Europe is; its mission as seen by the ancient Greeks.
What was its mission, as defined almost 5,000 years ago, and what role did it have to play in the evolution of the world? We will try to answer this question in the light of Greek mythology.
Of course, it could be said that it was by chance that the territory we now call Europe took on this name, and that there are no grounds for seeing a connection with Greek mythology. But we believe that there is no such thing as chance, and that it is no “chance” that this territory is called Europe. If everyone agrees that the name comes from the myth of Europe in Greek mythology, then there must be a reason for it.
For those who do not know me, I have been working for nearly 30 years on an interpretation of Greek mythology, writing several volumes on the subject, and it is based on this research that I am going to tackle the myth of Europa.
So, let us start by looking at what the myth says:
Europa was a beautiful Phoenician princess and because she was so beautiful, Zeus, the king of the gods, fell in love with her. While she and her attendants were strolling along a Phoenician beach, Zeus took the form of a magnificent white bull and came to lie down beside her. Europa, who was not suspicious, caressed the bull and climbed onto his back. Zeus immediately entered the sea and carried her to Crete. There he returned to his divine form, in human guise, and Europa bore him two children, Minos and Rhadamanthus.
That is the myth. It is very short and does not tell us much, except that Europa lived somewhere in the East – we will see later where Phoenicia was – that she was very beautiful and that she was a princess. We do not know much more than that.
When you study Greek mythology, you cannot understand a myth if you do not look at the genealogy into which it fits – otherwise you can make it say anything, as Freud did when he used the myth of Oedipus to illustrate his thesis on psychoanalysis. So that is what we are going to look at first, to try and understand where this myth fits in.
The Greeks had described two great lineages. The first – the lineage of Iapetus – corresponds to the evolution of mental consciousness according to the seven planes of consciousness that Sri Aurobindo described and that some people may be familiar with. They are represented by the seven Pleiades. This lineage corresponds to the ascension of the planes of consciousness and it is in this lineage that we find great heroes such as Bellerophon, Hector and many others.
The other field of work that Sri Aurobindo indicated to us – the lineage of Oceanos, to which Europa belongs – illustrates a process of purification/liberation, the aim of which is to purify the traces of the evolution that has been directed by Nature since the origin of the earth.
Progress is made through a series of innumerable ascents/purifications; the two processes being partly linked: the higher we climb, the further we can descend to purify and liberate ourselves.
With Oceanos, we are in the process of purification. It begins with Inachus, whose name means “evolution of concentration” – note in passing that the whole purification process is based, according to the Greeks, on a progressive development of concentration.
The son of Inachus, Epaphus, whose name means ‘contact with the divine’, evokes a first spiritual experience. It occurs when, for example, in childhood, we have an experience of “what is Real”, an experience of “It exists”, something unusual and extraordinary that really surprises us.
And it is this experience, this very first “contact with the Divine” that, one day or other, will put us on the path and set in motion our spiritual progression. It is this experience that we want to rediscover in the myth of Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece, and later make permanent in the myth of Ulysses.
It is also worth noting that this genealogical scheme also deals with the organisation of the dominant spirituality in the different regions of Antiquity.
Epaphus’ daughter had twins, Agenor, and Belus. The first settled in Phoenicia and had two children, Cadmos and Europa. The second stayed in Egypt and had twins, Danaos and Egyptus.
When there are twins in a family tree, it means that the two processes illustrated by their descendants occur simultaneously, in other words that what develops with Belus continues at the same time in the descendants of Agenor.
With Belus, the myth is linked to the Danaids you may have heard of: the Danaids were women whose punishment was to try to fill a pierced barrel… indefinitely. So, let us look at this myth.
It takes place in ancient Egypt, around 4, 5 or 6,000 years ago. Egyptus had 50 sons and Danaus had 50 daughters. In Greek mythology, women represent goals and experiences (or achievements when they have a union with a god) and men represent the qualities to be developed and the practices that enable these goals to be achieved.
Yet Egyptus and Danaus represent a spirituality that has reached full maturity. Why full maturity? Because 50 is the symbol of perfection in the world of forms. So here we have 50 goals or perfections and 50 practices and qualities, in other words a totality of practices and qualities and a totality of experiences and spiritual goals.
Egyptus absolutely wanted his sons to marry his brother’s daughters, but his brother did not agree. To escape the pressure exerted by his brother, he emigrated to Greece with his daughters. Egyptus pursued him with his 50 sons and Danaus finally told him that he agreed to marry his daughters to his sons. But in secret, he gave each of his daughters a dagger and ordered them to kill their husbands on their wedding night. They all did so, except one, Hypermnestra, who spared her cousin Lynceus.
This shows us that, in a short space of time, all the practices, all the efforts to develop certain qualities, all the spiritual forms had been annihilated except one. All that remained was Lynceus, ‘the Lynx’, who symbolises the ability to ‘see with precision’, to ‘discern’ in every detail. Lynceus represents discernment and Hypermnestra, superior intelligence. The myth of the Danaids indicates that at that time there was a complete rethinking of spirituality.
It is interesting because that is exactly what is happening right now, when we are being forced to rediscover spirituality and establish new foundations. Sri Aurobindo wrote an aphorism on this subject: “Break the moulds of the past, but keep its gains and spirit intact, otherwise you have no future”.
So, what happened in ancient Egypt – and the myth of Europa is happening at the same time, because Agenor and Belus are twins, so it is simultaneous – is happening again today, 6,000 years later. This means that humanity progresses by leaps and bounds, and that at certain points we must make a radical clean sweep of ancient forms and practices, since 49 out of the 50 sons of Egyptus were killed, but not the goals, since all the daughters were saved.
As for the Danaids, the traditions differ. In one tradition, the Danaids have remarried, indicating that new practices are being developed to meet these goals. In another, the punishment of the Danaids in the kingdom of the god Hades shows that these old goals are incapable of generating new yoga practices. In the latter case, these goals will also have to be renewed by the descendants of the Lynceus-Hypermnestra couple.
Although this is not the purpose of today’s conference, we should mention the presence of two great heroes in this lineage.
Perseus, the conqueror of the Gorgon, i.e. the conqueror of fear. And Heracles, who symbolises the general work of purification/liberation that begins with the Lion of Nemea – victory over the ego – and the Hydra of Herne – victory over desire. There are thus twelve great labours or achievements that the ancient Greeks defined as the general process of purification/liberation that leads to the hero’s apotheosis.
Let us now look at what happens in the other branch of the family tree, remembering that mythology tells the story of the past, but also and above all describes a process that each of us must go through as we evolve.
We have seen that this was a refoundation of spirituality. This means that Egyptian spirituality was based on the ‘powers’ of vitality that enabled the pyramids to be built, at a time when man had capacities far superior to those we can acquire today. But it was a ‘childhood’ spirituality, a spirituality of faith, a bit like our own Middle Ages, where the relationship with Nature and human unity were given greater prominence, a form of spirituality subject to a great deal of superstition and a great lack of discernment.
That is why, at some point, humanity had to evolve towards greater individuation through discernment. But individuation means breaking free from the herd! So, the phase we have been going through for the last 12,000 years is a process of liberation from the masses and the development of a new spirituality. And Europa is part of this quest.
Let us go back to the twins Agenor and Belus.
The descendants of Belus mainly indicate the goals of the liberation process, while those of Agenor illustrate the means and obstacles.
Agenor means “that which sets in motion” and his wife Telephassa means “purity in the distance”, the goal of the purification/liberation process.
Agenor settled in Phoenicia. His son Cadmus, after searching in vain for his sister Europa, settled in Greece. He is the ancestor of Oedipus. This is not the purpose of today’s lecture, but what is most interesting in the myth of Oedipus is the story of his sons, who speak of the purification of the seven chakras through the two successive wars of Thebes. The first saw Oedipus’ children, Eteocles and Polynices, confront each other. It ended with Polynices’ failure to reconquer the city, in other words, a failure of purification. The second war took place ten years later and was a success: it enabled all the chakras to be gradually opened, one by one, and to radiate.
Now let us return to Europa and see what the myth tells us. Since she is a princess, she is at the highest level of this yoga process. She represents the most advanced goal in relation, according to her name, to Euru, ‘vast’ and Ops, ‘vision’. It is therefore the development of a vast vision, a broadening of consciousness. Its union with Zeus indicates that a new influence from the highest plane of the mind, the overmind, appeared in humanity at this time. It was a manifestation of the Divine who, considering at that moment that a sufficient enlargement of vision or consciousness had taken place in humanity, brought about a reorientation of spirituality.
The myth tells us that Europa was very beautiful. Beauty is the sign of Truth. The beautiful heroines of Greek mythology all point to the right path of Truth that we must follow. This is why Zeus, who is an overmind force, supports evolution by uniting with the beautiful women who appear along the way. In this way, he had many, many unions, with goddesses and mortals alike.
Europa remained in Phoenicia. This region, which corresponds to part of present-day Syria, Israel, and Lebanon, was a major economic and spiritual centre at the time. It provided a link between Egypt, Crete, and Greece. We can assume that there was a transfer of the dominant form of spirituality from Phoenicia to Greece and then later to Italy.
Phoenix, from which the name Phoenicia derives, means ‘purple’. According to Sri Aurobindo, the colour purple expresses vital power. This spirituality, represented by Europa, initially inherited the power of vital realisation from the Egyptian civilisation.
Zeus, the highest of the overmind, was transformed into a magnificent white bull. According to Sri Aurobindo, the cow is the symbol of enlightenment and the bull, the power of realisation of the luminous mind. In other words, at a given moment, when the seeker is at the frontier between the intellect and the higher mind and has begun a yoga of purification, the mind expands and the seeker receives help – represented by this white bull – on which he can rely.
Europa married Zeus and gave him two children, Minos, and Rhadamanthus. Their first action was to give Crete remarkable laws: the myth tells us that this mental openness, this broadening of consciousness, relying on the power of realisation of the luminous mind represented by the white bull, made it possible to organise the new spirituality. And this is confirmed by the fact that Minos and Rhadamanthus will both be judges in the realm of Hades, that of the unconscious, where they will be able to discern truth from falsehood.
A link can be made with Genesis in the Bible, since Europa is the gateway to discernment and, in Genesis, when Eve agreed to take the apple of discernment and offered it to Adam, both were accused of being “like gods”, since they would now be able to distinguish between good and evil.
Minos was also famous for the extent of his maritime empire, in other words for the mastery he acquired over the vital, the world of desires and emotions.
So, so far, so good. Minos represents an evolution of receptivity, and Rhadamanthus will be a great judge with a great capacity for discernment, even in the body, since he will sit in the kingdom of Hades, sorting out souls.
This gives us an initial indication: following this evolution in spirituality, Europa’s role was to develop discernment combined with a mastery of the vital.
Has it succeeded? Over these centuries – and over the last 5,000 years or so – have Europe and each of its constituent countries succeeded in developing discernment within a pacified vitality?
We could stop here, but it is interesting to look at the traps Minos fell into. When we speak of Minos, we are referring as much to the individual seeker as to the countries that make up Europe or even Europe as a whole, and we are going to try to see to what extent they ‘fell’ into the trap of the Minotaur and the labyrinth. The seeker – or the country – has had an initial opening, but then, because his ego has not been purified, he can enter a zone that Sri Aurobindo called the ‘intermediate zone’, a zone where a fall can occur, where the seeker can stray from the path temporarily or permanently. And that is what is going to happen.
First, after this broadening of his consciousness, the seeker (represented by Minos) does not really know where to go. He is a bit lost. He has got rid of the forms of his old spirituality, but he does not know where the new path is: Minos met many women, which means that the seeker pursues many different goals.
But his lawful wife Pasiphae, “she who shines for all”, disagreed. She put a curse on him so that his seed would be full of snakes and scorpions and the women he united with would die immediately. This means that these varied goals, these spiritual orientations, do not lead the seeker down any satisfactory path.
I do not know if any of you have had this kind of experience: each time you say to yourself: “this isn’t it, this isn’t it, this isn’t it…” until you finally find your way. That is what happened to Minos at the beginning.
Now let us look at the Minotaur.
The oldest myth simply states that “a woman gave Minos the Minotaur”, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull.
In later versions of the myth by spiritual masters, Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur with the white bull she had fallen in love with. Some disciples no doubt wondered how an ordinary woman could have given birth to such a monster, so the Masters of Wisdom had to find an answer and brought Daedalus into the myth. Let us go back a little to understand the scenario they invented, even if these somewhat secondary stories do not convey the profound meaning of the myth.
To legitimise his power as King of Crete, Minos boasted that the gods would grant any request he made of them, and he asked Poseidon to send him a bull, promising to sacrifice it to him. He built an altar for the god and immediately a magnificent white bull emerged from the sea. As we have seen, according to Sri Aurobindo, the bull symbolises the power of realisation of the luminous mind. Minos had promised to sacrifice it to Poseidon, but he found it so beautiful that he kept it in his herds. In revenge, Poseidon made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull. But she did not know how to unite with the bull. So, she asked Daedalus, an excellent craftsman who knew how to build automata that gave the illusion of being alive, to help her. Daedalus built her a wooden cow into which she could slide, and so she conceived the Minotaur.
The Minotaur, this man with a bull’s head, is the symbol of a slightly advanced seeker who has had his first openings of consciousness but who is totally dominated by a mental power that he has developed himself. He believes he holds “The Truth”, but he is totally dominated by this slightly more luminous mind which is in the higher mind, i.e. in the plane just beyond the intellect.
Not knowing what to do with the Minotaur, Minos asked Daedalus to build a habitat for the Minotaur. Some authors say that it was a palace that gave the illusion of something perfectly accomplished and magnificent on the outside, but that it was a very tortuous palace on the inside. Others have simply said that it was a labyrinth, in other words a mental construction built around a spiritual experience in which everything that enters is absorbed but from which nothing can leave. This means that the seeker has constructed his or her own idea of the spiritual path within an extremely rigid mental structure that incorporates everything but is not open to any change. It is therefore an imprisonment as in a religious creed or certain philosophical systems, or in anything that develops in a rigid mental system, however powerful it may be in the lower planes.
From there, we can ask ourselves how Europe or the countries that make it up became locked into systems of thought, belief systems and religious systems as they evolved.
Let us return now to the great curve of 26,000 years, which is broken down into 12 small cycles of 2,160 years, alternating between phases of fusion and separation, between intuition and reason, because man is not capable of making the process of individuation and the process towards unity work in him at the same time. We need to achieve mental silence for the two brains to work together in complete harmony.
There is therefore a kind of superior wisdom that has ensured that the process of distancing oneself from the Divine, which enables autonomy, and the process of bringing oneself closer to the Divine function according to a great cosmic cycle of 26,000 years, comprising small cycles of 2,160 years.
In this great cycle, the story of the Minotaur takes place around 3,000 BC, around 5,000 years ago, at the time of ancient Crete and ancient Egypt, in other words around the middle of the Age of Taurus – and this is no doubt not by chance.
Sri Aurobindo also told us that the Vedas were the last legacy of the Ages of Intuition. Those ages can be situated 10,000 years before our era, at a time when people did not need writing to understand each other, when they could communicate from mind to mind, from soul to soul. Writing did not appear until the Age of Taurus, when humans gradually lost the ability to communicate in the way that animals still can.
So, what the Greeks brought to life in mythology occurred during what we might call the ‘rebirth’ period of this great cycle. These periods are times when we emerge from what we think of as ages of obscurantism and are in fact ages of fusion and sharing, but also with a lot of superstition because not everything is black and white.
The myth of the Minotaur therefore takes place at the ‘renaissance’ of the great cycle, and today we are experiencing a tipping point where we are going to reorient ourselves towards unity (fusion phase) in the great cycle.
To come back to the Minotaur, he represents the seeker who has come a long way but who, at some point, has allowed himself to be completely dominated by the power of a luminous mind, of a slightly wider consciousness.
On an individual level, this can be expressed by the desire to be a “little guru”, with a desire to shine and to be recognised – for oneself of course and not for the divine, since the bull was not sacrificed to Poseidon as it should have been. In other words, this luminous mind is put at the service of the ego and not at the service of the divine. The seeker uses it for himself and this is a major deviation. This is one of the risks when crossing the zone that Sri Aurobindo calls the intermediate zone. It can also translate into mental arrogance, a feeling of superiority: superiority of race, intelligence, skills, practical organisation… and as Mother says, mental arrogance is the greatest obstacle to the action of divine grace. So, this Minotaur really is a problem.
So of course, we can ask ourselves whether, throughout their history, the countries that make up Europe have fallen into this deviance of the Minotaur, when, and how? Did they ever get out of it? It would be interesting to look at each country individually, and even at Europe as a whole, and ask whether the fundamental mission entrusted to Europe, namely discernment, is being fulfilled. And this discernment must not be lost, since it is what humanity was supposed to acquire over the millennia. To be discerning, reason alone is not enough; you must add an element of intuition. In other words, it is a superior intelligence.
We left the Minotaur in the middle of his labyrinth. After a while, Athens decided to go to war with Crete, but lost the war. Minos then asked Athens to pay him tribute.
Athens represents the structure or yoga established for the evolution of the inner being (the letter N represents evolution and the letter Theta, the inner being). The kings of Athens symbolise what guides the inner evolution of seekers within this structure.
Every year, Athens had to send seven young men and seven young women to be fed to the Minotaur.
Obviously, this weakens the spiritual quest, since young men and women are the lifeblood of the quest and of inner development. So, if this Minotaur exists and this tribute is paid to Crete, the seeker cannot progress. The same thing has happened to Europe and the countries that make it up: periods of stagnation due to a mental confinement that thinks itself superior.
Because of this mental arrogance, the spiritual path or evolution comes to a standstill until Theseus decides to go and confront the Minotaur. To do so, he had to travel a long way, since the Minotaur was in Crete, in his labyrinth, in the magnificent palace that “creates illusions” and is trusted by everyone.
Theseus had to travel a long way on foot before embarking for Crete. Along the way, he met several brigands who represent what the seeker must clean up before he can kill the Minotaur.
– Periphetes, the first brigand, had an iron club because he had “weak legs” and killed passers-by with it. Theseus got hold of it and killed him with a blow from his club.
This points to a first error at the individual level, but also at the level of countries: How can a spirituality that lacks incarnation (weak legs) develop in the right direction? We probably all know seekers who escape into the mind for lack of incarnation and thus leave the path.
– The second mistake relates to the brigand Sinis. He bent pine trees (the symbol of vitality) and forced the traveller to hold them in this position until, exhausted and no longer able to bear the tension, the traveller was thrown into the air and died falling back to the ground. In another version, tied to two pine trees that he had to keep bent, he died quartered.
This too can interrupt yoga. In this second error, the seeker constrains his vitality by asceticism that is too harsh. He is thrown uncontrollably into the heights of the mind or torn apart in his being.
– Then, continuing his way, Theseus killed the Phaia goose.
The goose is the female of the wild boar and ‘Pha’ means ‘to shine’. So, we are talking about a spirituality that merges with the lower vital, just as we do when we mix sexuality and spirituality.
– Then, on the seashore, he met Sciron, another brigand, who forced passers-by to wash his feet and threw them off the cliff into the sea as they did so.
This illustrates a forced humility before men and not before the Divine alone, or the belittling of a part of one’s own nature. Each seeker, or country in Europe, must follow its own path and not that imposed by another, even if that path seems better. He must also integrate the whole of his nature into his yoga, without rejecting any part of it.
– Theseus then arrived at Eleusis where he met King Cercyon who forced travellers to wrestle with him and killed them. Theseus lifted him into the air and killed him by throwing him to the ground.
There were two very important schools of initiation in ancient Greece. Samothrace and Eleusis. Samothrace trained the beginners and Eleusis the more advanced seekers. By wrestling with him, Cercyon forced the traveller to compare himself with him. As he was a king, this refers to a hierarchical system that corresponds to spiritual paths in which comparisons or grades are imposed between seekers. At a national level, it is a question of seeing whether one country is more advanced than another in terms of general evolution.
This is, of course, the opposite of humility, and there is still something to be destroyed in oneself or in the country concerned before one can “kill the Minotaur”. For this erroneous movement to cease, the researcher must separate himself from his usual supports and certainties (Theseus isolated the brigand from the ground).
– Finally, the 6th and the last brigand Theseus met was called Procrustes. He put small travellers in large beds and stretched them to the size of the bed, and he put large travellers in small beds and cut off anything that stuck out.
Procrustes tried to “make everyone the same”. But you cannot do yoga if you do not follow your own nature. Wanting to “be like everyone else” or moulding yourself into a framework that does not correspond to your own nature does not work for you, for a country or for Europe.
Having killed all the brigands, Theseus was ready for the fight against the Minotaur. The Minotaur’s death indicates that this major deviance has been cancelled and that the seeker can proceed on his way. To kill the monster, he received help from Ariadne, who showed him how to get out of the labyrinth, but that is another story…
So, in the context of Europe, but also for each of us, it is interesting to see in all areas – spiritual teaching, politics, etc. – how each country has followed its Dharma, its soul mission. For Europe, let me remind you, this was a mission to broaden and open our consciousness, to discern.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question: In the great 26,000-year cycles you mentioned, we would now be reaching the top of the curve, only to fall back down again. The Age of Aquarius will gradually return to an age of fusion and intuition, so we would be at the end of rationalism, in this transition where things tip over to return to intuition and for us, at least in Sri Aurobindo’s vision, this would be a breakthrough into the supramental.
Claude de Warren: I think this cycle is independent of the supramental. The supramental is situated on a plane above the one on which this cycle acts; the cycle of the mind will continue, like the biological cycles, like day and night; these are cycles that are independent of human evolution. Their influence will remain on humanity, which is not ready. But when we change levels, we rise above them and are no longer dependent on them.
Q: You talked about the enlightened mind, so it is a bit of a peak in terms of past evolution…
CdW: I spoke of the “luminous mind”, which is not the same as the “enlightened mind”. Sri Aurobindo said that the bull is the symbol of the power of a luminous mind; he is not talking about the enlightened mind, it is not the same thing. It is a luminous mind that we begin to touch as soon as we reach the higher mind (the higher planes of the mind after the intellect or mind of reason are the higher mind, the illumined mind, the intuitive mind and the overmind). The myth of Europa therefore lies at the junction between the intellect and the higher mind.
Q: As I understand it, Sri Aurobindo saw in Greek myths the same idea of evolution as in Indian yoga (sadhana)?
CdW: Sri Aurobindo was perfectly aware of esoteric Greek spirituality and the symbolism of Greek mythology, since he wrote a poem with 5,000 lines, the title of which is Ilion and the action of which takes place on the last day of the Trojan War – it is a poem that I am in the process of explaining in a series of books. He intuitively understood the whole of Greek mythology and its relationship to spirituality. In Savitri, there are also many similarities with Greek mythology.
But Sri Aurobindo never wanted to explain it or talk about it; This poem is very interesting because it speaks of the present time and what we are going through now. Ilion is the story of the reversal of the yoga that reached the heights of the liberation of the Spirit to tackle the yoga of the body. It describes all the difficulties and obstacles involved in making this shift, both for the individual seeker and for humanity, as is the case now. This poem allows us to see how, both individually and collectively, we remain clinging to the past, and how this prevents the new from appearing. It is fascinating to discover, once you have the keys to Greek mythology, but Sri Aurobindo never gave them away; so, I am doing my best to pass them on, at least in part, what I have understood of them… And Sri Aurobindo insists: we must turn towards the new, detach ourselves from the past: “Break the moulds of the past, break the moulds of the past….” And it is difficult, because if you break the moulds of the past, what are you supposed to do?
We are lost… Mother used to say, for example, that as long as the idea that the spiritual path was meditation, if this nonsense was not eradicated from human thought, there would be no hope… so people who are told that meditation is useless, or at least just one tool among many, ask themselves: “But then, what can I do”?
We need to open new paths, and that’s why Mother’s Agenda is so exciting. Because Mother opens all the paths, she never sticks to the same things, it is always new, new, new…
The fact that no one has based any spirituality or teaching on Greek mythology is simply because, over time, the profound meaning of the myths has been lost. In ancient Greek times, anyone who spoke of them was put to death. For example, Aeschylus, who lived three centuries after Homer, had to swear that he was not an initiate to avoid being put to death. The ancient sages were very strict; anyone who said anything about the secret rites of the Mystery Schools and the deeper meaning of the myths was put to death, so as time went by, the deeper meaning of the myths was lost.
By some miracle, some of them have survived… Of the seven great epics, only two have survived: the Iliad and the Odyssey. That is not bad, and it gives us a good idea of the level to which the Ancients had reached in their spiritual evolution on an individual level: right up to the overmind. They also already had experiences of supramental consciousness. I have written several books trying to explain how Greek mythology describes the spiritual path, at least the part that is common to us all. The theoretical part about purification, the eradication of fears, ego, desires, etc., is the same as the theoretical part. These are the same foundations as those given by Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
Q: Do you think that the Greeks, precisely through what Sri Aurobindo says in Ilion, had begun this work of transformation?
CdW: Apollonius of Rhodes, in the myth of Jason, tells us that the Egyptians engraved the entire path in stone. Mother said that certain Ancients, on an individual level, had probably reached the supramental consciousness. But whether they used the supramental force to transform the body is another question, because I think Sri Aurobindo said that they were the first, along with Mother, to have done so. It is very likely that the Vedic Rishis and the Egyptians, and perhaps the Greeks, also achieved supramental consciousness. Homer, there is a good chance, the others…
Q: What do you base your interpretation of myths on?
CdW: I did not try to interpret Greek mythology, I did not study for it, it did not interest me, until the day Mother took me by the hand and asked me to do this work. I say Mother and Sri Aurobindo because they really took me there, step by step, and helped me to find the coding keys that I apply mathematically. Freud used them only to illustrate his theory of psychoanalysis. As far as I am concerned, I have rediscovered the coding keys and I can explain any detail, any variant within an overall coherence.
Q: How has present-day Europe evolved in a way that can be explained by the symbols of mythology?
CdW: Europe was for a long time the dominant world power in terms of thought… At present, it is clear that Europe is no longer the leading spiritual power in the world. Neither spiritually, nor commercially. It is as if the time for the mission it was given had come to an end. But has it fulfilled its mission properly? That is another question. Has it used the gift given to it for its own purposes, to develop its economic power, for its wealth… that is a question we can ask ourselves.
We are now entering a global consciousness. We need to see, at the level of each country and Europe as a whole, whether the symbolic work linked to all these brigands has been done. Has it shed its arrogance, its so-called mental superiority? Now Europe must find its own way, a new way.
Q: We could ask the question for the rest of the world, not just for Europe…
CdW: I do not know. The European tradition was the idea of mental superiority over the rest of the world, a certain arrogance… I could be wrong, but it seems to me that is what it is. These are centuries of almost global domination and the imposition of a way of being and thinking, the imposition of European culture as the basis of the ideal civilisation. Has Europe finished cleaning up its act? Is it still convinced that this is the only way forward? You might ask, but I do not have the answer for today’s Europe. In my opinion, it is looking for itself.