BUILDING THE ARK

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THE LEGEND OF THE ARK ON MOUNT ATHOS

There exists a legend among the twenty great monasteries of the monastic republic of Mount Athos which claims that the semantron used in Athonite monasteries represents Noah hammering on the Ark, telling everyone that it is time to come aboard. 

Monks on Mount Athos not only use bells to summon worshippers to the church, but also beat with hammers for the same purpose, sometimes on iron, like the cook in a cowboy film, but more often on a tuned plank of wood called a semantron. This custom was introduced centuries ago, when the Turkish conquerors forbade the use of bells. 

The traditional rhythm for this ‘call’ is repeated three times; once for the fish, says the myth, once for the animals, and once for man. Modern esotericism extends this to say that the idea of the Ark is a description of an esoteric school.  Such arks, according to this possibly recent tradition, come into being to preserve essential knowledge when it is about to become lost.  The Flood is sometimes described as a natural disaster that occurs in response to the corruption of human society.  At other times it is suggested that it is an event in people’s minds; something that has taken them so far from what some people would call God’s plan. Others speak in terms of evolutionary possibilities, or say that the planet itself is troubled by the human situation.

For those who are aware of spirituality as a real and important factor in human life, as well as for those who are aware of the need for a stronger spiritual element in their own lives, it is necessary today that we begin to understand in depth not only the basic fact that the West is in an almost terminal spiritual decline that reaches from centuries-old monastic orders to the recently formed New Age esoteric schools. If we are to have any hope of remedying the situation, it is also necessary to understand not only that this decline is a significant factor in the changes occurring in the world today, but that it is rooted so far back in the history of Christendom that only by detailed understanding can we hope to improve the situation. The only visible hope of a resolution is the rediscovery of an early Christian therapeutic tradition and the raising of one of its main discoverers - Hierotheos Vlachos - to the rank of Metropolitan (a senior Archbishop) in the Greek church.

Special feature - Building the Ark

Introduction to the concepts behind Praxis.

Inner tradition says that when people forget God in forgetting themselves, life deteriorates until the inner truth is once again made available to everyone who wants it. In the pages below this, Robin Amis uses the image of building the Ark to introduce the concepts behind the work and purposes of Praxis Research Institute.