Seven Sibylline Sayings by Hetty

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Seven Sibylline Sayings

 

 

Seven Sibylline Sayings
[Mostly by Erica H. Sophia (reprinted from Thesmophoria). Some of this is mine]

 

1. Pain is the primordial evil.
Actively interfere with avoidable, meaningless pain, keeping balance and the big picture in mind.

2. Pleasure is the Primordial Good.
Promote your own pleasure as long as it causes no harm to yourself or others.

3. Balance is the mainspring of the universe
Search for balance and meaning in all things, experiences, and living beings. Search everywhere for a deeper meaning and balance.

4. Creativity is the secret of life
Be creative in your own way, with whatever resources become available, with your own body, mind, and spirit.

5. Courage is the Cardinal Virtue
In fulfilling the first four sayings and in all aspects and moments in your life, be courageous.

6. Consciousness is what makes us human.
Increase your own and others’ consciousness, when it is (and even when it isn’t sometimes) compatible with the other sayings.

7. Celebration is a necessity for the spiritual life.
Rejoice in your femininity; celebrate your feminine nature in all things, big or small, hourly, daily, and on special occasions.

 

The Sibylls were female oracles in Greek and Roman traditions. These sayings are often used during the ordination of a High Priestess in some Pagan covens and/or groves. They are also a guideline many Pagans, myself included, try to live by.

The Sibylls predate the Bible and some say they helped to prophesize some Biblical events.

A link describing Sibylls in Greek tradition is: http://www.greek-thesaurus.gr/Delphi-oracle-sibyl.html

Another is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumaean_Sibyl

http://www.abcgallery.com/R/raphael/raphael77.html

However, the original Sibylls, Apollo’s Priestesses, are mentioned in a bit more detail in the following link (not mine):

“Our knowledge of the origins of these women is obscured by the mists of myth and time, the first written record of them coming from Heraclitus, who wrote of one -- perhaps the only one at the time -- in a fragment dating to the 6th century before Christ. It reads:
The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.
• The number of these Sibyls is reckoned differently throughout the ages, with Heraclitus and Plato mentioning one, the Greeks mentioning nine, the Romans and early Christians mentioning ten, and medieval Christians enumerating up to twelve. Whatever their number, the Sibyls most often came to be referred to by the places they inhabited. The Christian apologist, Lactantius (b. ca. A.D. 250) listing ten Sibyls, describes them thus in Book I, Chapter VI of his "Divine Institutes" (link to full text below):
the Persian Sibyl: "of her Nicanor made mention, who wrote the exploits of Alexander of Macedon"

• the Libyan Sibyl: "of her Euripides makes mention in the prologue of the Lamia"

• the Delphic Sybil: "concerning whom Chrysippus speaks in that book which he composed concerning divination"

• the Cimmerian Sibyl: "whom Naevius mentions in his books of the Punic war, and Piso in his annals"

• the Samian Sibyl: "respecting whom Eratosthenes writes that he had found a written notice in the ancient annals of the Samians"

• the Hellespontine Sibyl: "born in the Trojan territory, in the village of Marpessus, about the town of Gergithus; and Heraclides of Pontus writes that she lived in the times of Solon and Cyrus"

• the Phrygian Sibyl: "who gave oracles at Ancyra"

• the Tiburtine Sybil: "by name Albunea, who is worshipped at Tibur [modern Tivoli] as a goddess, near the banks of the river Anio, in the depths of which her statue is said to have been found, holding in her hand a book. The senate transferred her oracles into the Capitol."

• the Erythraean Sybil: "whom Apollodorus of Erythraea affirms to have been his own country-woman, and that she foretold to the Greeks when they were setting but for Ilium, both that Troy was doomed to destruction, and that Homer would write falsehoods"

• the Cumaean Sibyl: "by name Amalthaea, who is termed by some Herophile, or Demophile and they say that she brought nine books to the king Tarquinius Priscus, and asked for them three hundred philippics, and that the king refused so great a price, and derided the madness of the woman; that she, in the sight of the king, burnt three of the books, and demanded the same price for those which were left; that Tarquinias much more considered the woman to be mad; and that when she again, having burnt three other books, persisted in asking the same price, the king was moved, and bought the remaining books for the three hundred pieces of gold: and the number of these books was afterwards increased, after the rebuilding of the Capitol; because they were collected from all cities of Italy and Greece, and especially from those of Erythraea, and were brought to Rome, under the name of whatever Sibyl they were."
From: http://www.fisheaters.com/sybils.html
For a Biblical account of these oracles and how they fit in even in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, see the following link. http://www.fisheaters.com/sybils.html