(3) Solar Logos

Considering such, It was far easier for me to return to early Greek
philosophical thought that led to the idea of the Solar Logos.

• Pythagoras. He held that all things are numbers. His study
of the mathematical ratios of musical scales and planets led
him to believe that the quantitative laws of nature could be
found in all subject matter.

• Plato considered the universe as the manifestation of God.

• Anaximenes. He put forth that the basic stuff of the world is
neither water nor boundless, but rather air. He likely chose
the term "air," because at that time it conveyed the idea of
"breath," the "soul" that animated man and animals.

• Democritus. His atomic theory is as follows: 1.) that matter
comes in separate small particles, atoms, which are uncuttable;
2.) that an empty space exists in which these particles move;
3.) that the atoms differ only in shape and volume; and 4.) that
all change is the result of transfer by momentum by the moving
atoms and such transfer can occur only by contact.

• Parmenides. He believe that atoms were small chunks of the
"One Being."

• Anaxagoras. He developed the view that matter is a continuum--
giving both space and time the property of infinite divisibility. Yet,
the world is made of a single "stuff" and there can be no change.
He also believed that in everything there is a part of everything.
Additionally, he addressed what he called "Nous" (Reason or
Mind). He believed that there was a Universal Mind that remained
"unmixed and pure," that saw and knew all things, and that this
Mind originally set the world (the Cosmos) in motion and continues
to power it. And, lastly, he thought that all things had some share
of this Universal Mind--Man, in particular.

• Heraclitus. He believed that the world is like a restless "fire."
It is a living fire that supplies the driving force of the world in
endless change. As surmised by others, this fire imagery is
analogous to Energy.

With this, these old Greek philosophers were talking about the
Solar Logos! They were moving towards the Plenum of the Cosmos!

I was beginning to suspect that there was a conceptual Continuum
when it came to the Logos, whether philosophical or religious.
And this became very obvious when I dipped into the various
Greco-Roman mystery religions prevalent in the Roman Empire.
The sun gods were major players.

To mention a few, there's Apollo, Helios, Mithras, unto the
Sol Invictus.

Apollo was considered a personfiication of cosmic harmony, as the
god of Light and Clarity.

Helios was considered the Light of Life, the Light of the World, It
was Helios who drove his chariot across the sky each day; i.e.,
the sun moving across the sky.

Mithras was probably originally a Persian god, but was adopted
as a favorite sun god of Roman legionaries throughout the Empire.
He was oft referred to as the "Sol Invictus Mithras."

However, following the Egyptian habit of *merging* their gods.
the Roman Emperor Aurelian revived (during the third cenury c.e.)
an old agriarian cult--the Sol Indiges--and synthesized Apollo,
Helios, and Mithras into the "Deus Sol Invictus."

Ultimately this invincible sun god became the companion to
the Emperor. Statuettes of the Sol Invictus were carried by the
standard-bearers of the Roman legions.

Emperors up to (and including) Constantine portrayed the
Sol Invictus on their official coinage. It was represented by
the radiated solar crown, oft seen worn by the emperors. The
solar crown displayed shootings of solar fire, and the halo
was an extension of this. Constantine decreed Sunday--
"dies Solis," the day of the Sun--as the Roman day of rest.
Interestingly, even after the Emperor Constantine declared
Christianity as the State Religion of the Roman Empire, he
continued striking his coinage depicting the Sol Invictus.