Lupelius - The School for Gods

By using the techniques of fasting and breathing, by adopting a new vision, new ideas andmaking special efforts, a man can change himself and the situations he finds himself in. Hecan make the transition from an incomplete being, mortal and ridden with conflict, to onewho is whole, harmonious and immortal.Every deprivation, every effort made towards frugality, is part of the preparation for ourescape from the hell of ordinariness, freeing us from the emotional encrustations built upover the years. According to Lupelius, only a man from the School, guided by a flawlessteacher, can confront such a healing process and overcome the hurdles and obstacles of suchan undertaking.Man is generally incapable of understanding the signs that announce and accompany anact of purification. Ordinary men read these in reverse and rather than seeing them as signs ofhealing, perceive them to be a true sickness. The pain involved in the effort required issomething no one wants to face. This is why, according to Lupelius, every act of abstinence isabandoned just when it starts to work.Through his long voyages, intense study and tireless research, Lupelius had got to know theancient schools of initiation and had met extraordinary men who belonged to the great asceticschools and mystic traditions. In every age and in all civilizations, otium, the art of not doing,had been the mainstay of every discipline and inner search; the golden thread that kept everyman who aimed at the conquest of the highest levels of responsibility committed to the greatadventure.Following the ideal map indicated by the manuscript, the abstinence of the ascetic, thesolitude of the hermit and the frugality of the monk, revealed themselves to be expressions ofa single School, different aspects of one, timeless quest that was connected to the martialdisciplines and to the wakefulness of the warrior.Upon further investigation, I discovered that Arriano, one of the two historians whofollowed the exploits of Alexander the Great, had, in the ‘Anabasis Alexandrou’, summed upthe dietary rules and the secret of his boundless energy in a single sentence: “…he had beentrained to be frugal: for breakfast, a march before dawn, for dinner, a light meal.” TheMacedonian warriors themselves, considered throughout all antiquity to be the unmatchedmodels of bravery and strength, were of legendary frugality. They slept on the naked earthand, even at times of extreme endurance and while undertaking the most dauntingendeavours, would eat only a handful of olives. And yet, they were tireless, the mostfearsome of warriors, a true nightmare for their enemies.The deliberate elimination of just one gram of food and abstinence from just one minute ofsleep were, in Lupelius’ opinion, so powerful as to cast serious doubt on man’s entire systemof beliefs and upset his artificial equilibrium. His School advocated the absence of sickness,old age and death as an inalienable birthright and natural condition of man.A diseaseless, ageless, deathless man.Since the beginning of time, throughout the centuries and in all traditions, the quest forself‐mastery had required practice and discipline, intended as a means by which to bring to32