Introduction
The Mystery of the Sacred Mountain
Rila - the Oldest Spiritual University on Earth
The Mythological Summit Mussala
The Sacred Mountain Rila and the
Initiation of the World Teacher Beinsa Douno
The Vision of Christ
The Last Golden Age
The Orpheus Mysteries
Zoroaster’s Nirvana
Plato’s Legends
The First Christian Communities
The Testament of St. Ivan Rilski
The Steiner Celestial Library
The Inspiring Vision of the New Eve
Conclusion – The New Activation of the Sacred Mountain

Plato's Legends 

Life at the Bottom of the Cave

Working on my PhD in Moscow I became very interested in philosophy, methodology and culturology. I attended many seminars in the Moscow Methodological Circle, led by the prominent methodologist G.P. Shedrovitzki. Searching for the philosopher stone, I studied some of the great philosophers in human history such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Fichte, Shelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Bergson, Spengler, Husserl, Heidegger, Jung and others.  Of course, one of them was the great Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato was a great initiate in the ancient Greek mysteries, who translated them into the language of philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and epistemology. In other words, he took the living archetypes of the mysteries and, while keeping something of their essence, presented them transformed into intellectual concepts.  It is not surprising then, that he compared the life of human beings to life at the bottom of a cave where the dazzling light of the higher world of Divine ideas appears only as shadows.

In our Summer spiritual camps on Rila in the 70s we felt as if we were in our true celestial home. Often when we were leaving we had the feelings that we were entering again into the "clouds" of ordinary earthly life ("the bottom of the cave").  Many times on Rila we witnessed dazzling light in the mountains and deep fog in the valleys. This was a perfect illustration of Plato’s myth: the bottom of the cave is our material world, the shining mountains symbolise the higher spiritual worlds. 

Rila - Pepa Girginova

 

The deep understanding of Plato’s myth came in connection with the  Three-fold structure of Creation . We have to ascend from the restricted material consciousness (the bottom of the cave), firstly to the celestial worlds woven by spiritual light, love, music, harmony, archetypal thought- forms, and then to reach the highest Divine world in the mind of God – the supreme cosmic intelligence,  the Universal Spirit, the absolute origin of Creation. This according to Plato is the dazzling world of the pure creative Divine Ideas.

 

In time I realised that the ascent from the bottom of the cave to the World of Divine Ideas is an ascent to the top of the mythological Sacred Mountain and entry into the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth. For this purpose the people have to open their seven spiritual centres (chakras), to gain a living experience of the supramundane worlds related to the chakras and to realise that they are micro-models of the Universe.  This is like a great spiritual ascent, from the base camps (the Divine valley) through five intermediary camps (corresponding to the opening of the chakras) up to the top of the Sacred Mountain.  When someone reaches the top they are initiated into the deepest esoteric mysteries of a particular world religion and become able to communicate directly with God and the founder of the religion (becoming an initiate, a holy person, saint or apostle). So, the task then is to climb the Sacred Mountain, to link with the Divine Masters and the Personifications of the Divine Mother and to receive their initiations. And of course, for this purpose the sacred mountain Rila was one of the best places in the world.

 

The key to Plato's myth is the shift from the Babylonian civilisation to the New Jerusalem civilisation, described in the Book of Revelation (Chapters 18, 21).  It will be achieved by adopting the New Spiritual Paradigm. Through the New Spiritual Paradigm we will move in the opposite direction: from the abstract reality of philosophy, ideology, religion, ethics, aesthetics, forward to the reality of living mysteries. This is a move which will be initiated by the new creative impulse of God.  So, if Plato translated Greek mythology into the language of philosophy and ideology, now humankind has to move from contemporary philosophy, ideology and religion to the new living mythology of the Second Coming and the New Reality which integrates the mysteries of all spiritual traditions.  Thus, humankind will ascend from the 'bottom of the cave' to the transcendental world of Divine ideas. 

The Search for the Soul Mate

Another great myth in Plato’s philosophy is the Search for the Soul Mate. According to Plato the human being is in eternal search for his or her unique soul mate. In his Symposium it is written: "The original human nature was not as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two."

 

This myth reflects one of the main tasks of our incarnation on Earth. The dream for an ideal partnership is deeply inscribed in every one of us. It is not only a life-desire, but it is connected with the process of self-realisation, liberation and merging together in God.

 

The key to this quest is to find the partner with whom we could work for the development of our three perfect bodies. For this purpose the soul mates have to work together for the opening of the seven chakras and to build together seven Temples of life.

                                                     

              Photo by Pepa Girginova 

 

In general, it is not easy for anyone to achieve complete self-realisation on Earth. To find the soul mate and to achieve self-realisation together, through love and co-creation, is even more difficult. This is why Plato speaks about the Soul Mate who is the only One with whom we could achieve Enlightenment and the One we search for incarnation after incarnation.

 

The process of self-realisation together with the Beloved is a great existential dream. Nevertheless, even to understand the richness and the scale of this process and to try to make this dream a reality is a wonderful achievement.  I am very grateful to the Lord and to the Divine Mother that They provided me with this understanding and allowed me to have some spiritual and mystical experience of this dream. 

 

The deciphering of this myth is a vast and emotional theme. One could write many books about the mystery of love and the relationship between Soul Mates. It is not by chance then that some of the most inspiring pieces of Art (books, poems, music, paintings, etc.) are consecrated to this eternal theme. Here I would like only to mention some keys for the realisation of this fundamental myth. 

 

In order to open the seven chakras the human being has to embark on the great journey of the soul. This is the purpose of human incarnation on Earth and all spiritual traditions, in one or another way, trace the steps of this great journey. When the human being opens the chakras he or she restores the Axis Mundi of their consciousness and become able to live in all worlds of the three-fold structure of the Universe (with enlightened personality in the physical world, with an open soul in the angelic world and with an awakened Divine Self in the highest Divine world). Thus they become completely self-realised cosmic-spiritual beings, Sons and Daughters of the Living God.

 

Usually this journey is undertaken on an individual level but within a spiritual community and with the great help (or hindrance) of the opposite sex.  Of course, there are some examples of achieving Enlightenment through a common journey with the Beloved Partner, but they are more the exception than the rule. In general every human being, at some stage of his or her life, experiences Divine Love but it is quite rare to undergo the whole journey of Enlightenment with the Beloved.

 

Because our epoch brings us to the end of the Indo-European Cycle and the beginning of the New Cycle, the archetype of the Divine Wedding plays an important role. Moreover, the common spiritual journey with the Beloved towards Enlightenment could become a part of the general stream of spirituality.  Thus Plato’s myth of the search for the eternal Beloved could be transformed into a reality. 

 

If the first myth of Plato about Life at the Bottom of the Cave was activated on Rila when the clouds covered the valleys and the summits were in dazzling sunshine, the second myth was activated in the area of the Seven Lakes, on the Plateau which leads to the Fifth Lake. This area resembles a majestic Divine Temple, where the Plateau is the holy ground of the Temple, while the Summits, from Kabul and Ostretz to the Salonite are the Altar. During the seventies I had a beautiful vision of walking with the Beloved in peace, love and meditation towards the Fifth Lake as if entering into the Temple of Creation. In this Temple the Soul of the Beloved and my Spirit (and vice versa) entered into a Divine Wedding and merged with the Lord God and the Divine Mother. There we were able to open the seven chakras and to experience an ecstatic Enlightenment through Love, Tenderness and Unity.

Over the years this vision developed into a revelation about the common intimate spiritual journey with the Beloved towards self realisation and Enlightenment. The Soul Mates could open their chakras through the practice of love, tenderness, mutual appreciation and the full bouquet of human virtues. The opening of each chakra is connected with building a Temple of Love with the energies appropriate for the chakra.  As a result they build seven different Temples, in every one of which the mutual love is manifested differently – from the passionate human love of the energies of the two lower chakras, through the emotional ecstatic love of the energy of the fourth chakra, the Soul level, up to the blissful Divine co-creative Love of the sixth and seventh chakras (the energies of the third and the fifth chakras are intermediary between the levels).

The process of building the seven Temples of Love together stretches through the whole common spiritual journey with the Beloved.  In accordance with their life stages, from youth to old age, the Soul Mates develop the various Temples, one after another, and produce wonderful fruits in each one of them: the birth of children comes, a spiritual family of friends is formed, they enter into an eternal journey in the Kingdom of God as co-creators with the Lord and the Divine Mother.

The common life-journey of Soul Mates and the process of building the seven Temples of Love is too large a theme to cover in detail here. However, Plato’s myth of the search for the eternal Beloved is deciphered and this mystery could be shared at any time.