Rosicrucian Beacon Magazine - 2012-09 - AMORC

I found it very peaceful sitting there,save for the incessant sound of the cicadaswhich however, strangely lulled me into aperiod of quiet introspection. There wereno other tourists near me, and what fewthere were on site were clustered aroundthe Temple of Athena, the ancient Greekgoddess of wisdom, further up the hill. Thecity had been built on the steep slopes ofMt Mycále (Μυκάλη,) which towers overthe city. At one time this was a peninsulajutting out into the sea, pointing towardsthe island of Samos across the strait wherePythagoras was born. Mount Mycále ispartly made of rocks laid down during thePalaeozoic era, the oldest of the geologiceras some 542-251 million years ago. Thatera was a time of dramatic geological,climatic and evolutionary change, whichwitnessed the most rapid and widespreaddiversification of life in Earth’s history.As I sat there alone, I felt the need to meditate, andwhat transpired surprised me. Sitting in the sun under themountain, I felt a presence, very ancient, but palpable. Asentience is the word I use to describe it: not unfriendly,but waiting. Waiting for what, I could only guess. Perhapsfor a resurgence of times long gone, of times when this partof the world was one of the great, intellectual hotspots ofthe planet, a sacred place from the dawn of civilisationitself ?After a while, I felt it was time to leave, so I walkeddown the hill, back to my car and made my way acrossthe one-time bay and through the cotton fields to thekhora or territory of Míletus, an area known as Milesia inancient times, some 25 kilometres (16 miles) away, and mysomewhat basic hotel in the nearby town for the night.Before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6 thcentury BCE, Míletus was considered the greatestand wealthiest of Greek cities.That evening I went out for a walk while overhead thegreat summer triangle, the first magnitude stars Deneb,Vega and Altair, dominated the night sky. This groupingof stars has always fascinated me; a great triangle in theheavens above, and a good sign for the next day. I sat forwhat seemed like hours, watching it as it crossed the sky,letting my imagination roam back through time some2,500 years to a time when someone else was watchingthe stars and contemplating the mysteries of the universe.The ruins of the Bouleuterion or Council House at the site of the ancient city of PriéneNew DawnThe new day saw me out after an early breakfast andheading as fast as possible towards the ruins of the pólisor city of Míletus. Another beautiful day, which wouldgive me time to look around before the first of the touristbuses arrived. Originally, the city had also been built ona peninsula jutting out into the sea, but the land hadreclaimed itself and the sea was now some 10 kilometres(6 miles) away. What is interesting though is that Míletuslies in a straight line between Priéne and the sanctuaryof Apollo at Dídyma (Δίδυμα,) which was, after Delphi,his most celebrated temple, with its own oracle. Apollohimself is thought to have had an Anatolian origin.After a walk around the site I made for the theatrewith its panoramic views and sat down to contemplatewhat I knew about the city, what I had seen andread about, and its most famous son. Míletuswas a marvellous city in what is now AydinProvince of Turkey, near the mouth of theMaeander River in ancient Caria. Before thePersian invasion in the middle of the 6 th centuryBCE, Míletus was considered the greatestand wealthiest of Greek cities. It had a large territorywhich included rich agricultural lands and tree-coveredmountains that supplied timber for its navy and grazingfor its flocks. The sea was the main connection with theother Greek city-states while the Maeander valley leddeep into Anatolia which was the ancient heartland ofcultures and ideas.In the early and middle Bronze Age the settlement,then known as Millawanda, had come under MinoanThe Rosicrucian Beacon -- September 20129