To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

50 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
bly would also remember the failures and successes of others,
and this could be damaging indeed.
People have always tried to peer into the past and future,
looking for counsel and insight. In ancient days the Greeks
sought guidance from oracles at Delphi, Trophonius,
Mount Olympus, and other sacred shrines. If the heart was
pure, the mind disciplined, the answers received reawakened
inner sources of wisdom. What lines of communication
existed then between gods and humans? Today we seek
guidance as of old, seek light upon the vexing problems of
fear and despair which long ages of folly, ignorance, and
greed have precipitated upon us in the present confusion of
ideals.
Alas, the woods are full of quack oracles, counterfeit
priests and priestesses who, professing communion with the
divine, sell their unholy wares to the foolish and emotionblinded.
Nonetheless, communion between god and man
is and always will be possible, for the power to tap the secret
wellspring of truth is resident within the soul. Knowledge
of such, however, is reserved for those who consort with
Nous, the Knower within, personified as Mnemosyne,
Goddess of Memory. Who is this goddess and what is her
function?
Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses, is the counterpart of
Nous, whose duty it is to arouse Psyche, the soul, to recollection
of truth so that, remembering her divine origin, she
will at last claim union with Nous. Among the relics of the
Orphic mysteries, recovered from tombs in Crete and
southern Italy, are eight small and very thin gold-leaf tablets
finely inscribed in Greek characters. One of these found