The God who listens
and smiles

Richly bejeweled with jewelry pieces that combine the art of Selfica with animal, artistic and astronomical symbols, Apollo — the sun god of ancient Greece — smiles enigmatically from the walls of the Labyrinth in the Temples of Humankind. In the Damanhurian calendar, his image embellishes the month of June, when the Sun is celebrated through the Solstice: the sun as the physical and spiritual center of energy, knowledge, and life.

The origins of the cult of Apollo arise from the encounter between Syrian and Mycenaean mythology. Traces of his presence date back to the last centuries of the second millennium B.C., when the worship of an androgynous hunter divinity who liberates human beings was transformed into the worship of two gods, brother, and sister, masculine and feminine… an event that mirrors the deep division of these principles, within each one of us as well. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto and the twin of Artemis. He is the god of the sun, music, poetry, and the arts. He is the god of knowledge as Light that opens the mind. He is an important god of divination, and the Oracles of Delphi and Delos were under his protection. Delos is a sacred island in the Aegean sea where Apollo came to life, or rather to light. In fact, the island has a unique brilliance, and the ancient Greeks saw the sunrise in the far east as if from the middle of the sea. This is where the light of Apollo came to Earth, on Delos. Like all the gods of light, Apollo has a mission to dispel the darkness and to fight and kill the monsters that lurk there. Apollo is a bearer of health, and he is able to ward off all evil. For this reason, he is the father of Asclepius, the god of medicine. The sun is fire, and fire purifies. Apollo is also a purifying god and can liberate states, cities, and human beings from any kind of contamination, both material and moral. His is the spiritual and moral Light that is needed more than ever in this time period to heal humanity and create a new civilization.

The Divine Forces painted on the walls of the Labyrinth speak to us, admonish us, and suggest solutions for facing the problems and turning points that life offers us. Inside of ourselves, as cells in the great body of the whole of humanity — present, and past — there are connections with all the divine forces we have encountered in the millenary history of humankind. If we wish, if we know how to listen, we can recall their frequency and enter into dialogue with them.

The god of the sun and of the arts seems to be intent on observing us, on reflecting, almost as if he were trying to understand our voices. He is the one who listens to us. He — the god of poetry and the arts — is the one who reads our words, listens to our songs, and finds lines and colors in our drawings to tell a new story, that a narrative indicating the new future we are going toward.

Apollo smiles. It is a barely noticeable smile, as mysterious as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and full of meaning. Apollo, the father of the god of medicine and protector of health, knows how to value the health of human beings and the people he cares for. In this difficult period, his smile gives us hope and the near certainty that humanity can succeed, that we are on our way toward Reawakening.

We can succeed in overcoming divisions, reconciling religions, restoring dignity to women and listening to their voice, respecting every human being, feeling as one with the environment, and with life, recuperating profound values that eliminate the false myths of consumerism, appearance, and money. As Apollo himself demonstrates, humanity can succeed if, after a period of healing and purification, we will give the right space to poetry, music, and science. These are the arts that can open our minds and hearts to beauty and harmony, to new thoughts and to behavior that is free, ethical, and supportive.

Apollo says,

“Live with poetry and carefully observe the reality.”

In this way, we will join him, through the divine aspect that each one of us carries within. To do this, it may be useful to explore the approach that Apollo demonstrates in his image: observe, listen, reflect, and smile at others, remembering that reflecting also means weaving a dialogue with ourselves, one that is rich with love. Most importantly, we will never stop smiling; we smile with the intention of reflecting the light of the sun on our faces.