Orphism is the ancient religious system established by Orpheus from Thrace, an impressive personality with extraordinary talents. The existence of Orpheus is lost in the depths of the centuries.
The Orphic practice aims to free the human soul from the material “walls” of the body and unite it with the divine element. To achieve this, the soul is incarnated many times, until it is completely purified and completes its cycle in the material world. Orpheus established the Orphic Mysteries or Mysteries of Dionysus, special mystical ceremonies in which the believer comes into contact with the divine part of his soul, through ecstasy. Then, a lifelong struggle began with the goal of purifying the soul.
The liberation from matter, in order to develop the divine element, required daily effort and strict adherence to specific principles and habits that are of exceptional interest. Many of these have survived in Christian ethics and are familiar to us, although few follow them anymore. Others seem outdated and strange.
The first and main duty of the Orphic is selfless devotion to the gods. Prayer is the means of communication with the divinity, and therefore with the divine element that is trapped in the soul oppressed by matter. The Orphic does not ask for favors from the god; he knows that he must succeed on his own, no matter how difficult it may be. The liberation of the soul from matter also requires control of the desires of the body. This is not an easy task, but it is achieved with daily exercise. The Orphics, like the Pythagoreans, reverently observed specific rules daily, in every activity they did. The way of life that benefits the soul had to become a habit.
Then comes piety towards parents. No one can purify his soul if he does not respect those who brought him into life. Respect is also owed by the Orphic to his or her spouse. Marriage is primarily a spiritual union, and carnal union is of little importance.
In relations with their friends and other people, Orphics must be just. When we act unjustly, we do so in order to satisfy humble desires. We succumb to the demands of our material self and cause disturbance to our soul and to the god that lies within it.
The most interesting spiritual process for the Orphists and Pythagoreans is the search for knowledge. Contrary to the established view, in Orphism knowledge is not a new conquest, but memory! The soul is not a blank slate, but already knows the truth about the world and life before entering the material body. But when it is incarnated, it ceases to remember and seems to learn everything from the beginning.
In reality, however, learning is simply the recollection of known things. Plato explains in detail in the dialogues “Meno” and “Phaedo” how through questions and associations the soul remembers, as a result of which man can acquire knowledge even about issues for which he has no empirical data.
The influence that the teaching of Orpheus had on subsequent religious and philosophical movements is impressive and lasting. Apart from Pythagoras, who adopted both the doctrine of reincarnation and the rules of life and behavior of the Orphics, and Plato, who expanded on the theory of the immortality of the soul, the Stoics and Neoplatonists were greatly influenced during the Hellenistic period. What is even more impressive, however, is how much Christianity was influenced.
Christianity borrowed the doctrine of the immortality of the soul from the Orphics, although it did not share reincarnation. Also, the Redeemer was, like Dionysus, the offspring of a god and a mortal woman and before he could undertake his mission he had to die and be resurrected. If you study the issue more deeply, you will find many more similarities.
What one understands, however, without studying it too much, is that selfless love for God is a rare phenomenon in our world today. Nor do we achieve respect and justice so easily. So, if Orpheus was right, our souls have many more lives to endure before they are redeemed. Except, perhaps, for those who can endure living in the Orphic way.
