Démétrius Platon Sémélas naquit au mois de mai 1883 à Silivri, petite ville sur la mer de Marmara à l’ouest d’Istanbul. Il était de religion grecque orthodoxe et avait fait ses études au Collège Français d’Istanbul. Il obtint son bachot à l’école commerciale grecque. Après avoir terminé ses études secondaires, il vint au Caire et là, il fut employé de commerce.
INITIATION
Alienation and freedom
The precepts of society enchain man in a fixed way of thinking, dictated by all kinds of beliefs and conformity that alienate and are foreign to his personality.
Modern education, like the education of the past, is based on principles of "conformity" to social behaviors that effectively prevent and alienate personal reflection on philosophical theories and beliefs. This conformity prevents the free expression of human thought and enslaves any possible independent manifestation of personality. This enchainment dilutes and weakens the individual's responsibility within the community and hinders the affirmation of his or her true personality.
Similarity and dissimilarity
Marie Routchine, founder of the Order of the Lily and Eagle, dedicated herself to solving this problem by relying mainly on the natural laws of disparity and conformity, that is, similarity and dissimilarity. In fact, every creature in nature fights for its own reproduction and the perpetuation of its own species (similarity), as well as for its freedom and independence (dissimilarity).
Affirmation of the personality
Depriving a person of independence prevents him from daring to become what he really is.
The result is a struggle, and this struggle lies precisely in the natural law of dissimilarity, because each man is unique and desires to impose his views on his fellow man, believing that his views will be more useful. This approach inevitably provokes in the other person a reaction of resistance in order to safeguard his own free will.
Alienated society and healthy society
The same is true on the community level, as evidenced by the history of ancient Greece, which set up the Republic in Athens to fight tyrants. The various political systems of today, some heavily controlled by government, have led to uniformity and centralization of powers, to the detriment of the independence of their citizens. People today have been conditioned by globalization, whose main concern is economic production, and often at the expense of the creativity of the individual. Thanks to the French Revolution (1789), the citizen was able to regain some of his rights and independence. Currently, the various struggles to bring relief to the life of the man valuing freedom and social justice are on-going because today man is taken only as a means, instead of using economic and political activities to focus on his personal growth and the affirmation of his true personality. Marie Routchine, in order to solve this problem, devised a methodical teaching based on three pillars:
-
To make each person conscious of the reasons for their alienation from a system that causes them to be alienated from themselves and from the world.
-
To give this person the tools to know him or herself in order to independently build and develop themselves.
-
To affirm the true personality of each person by awakening them to what they could become if they freed themselves from their chains.
(Summary from a text on the Teaching of Marie Routchine)
The human role in the community
Since its inception, the Order has asserted that the global problems faced by nations are the result of individual errors. The only real solution to social and collective problems is therefore the profound change of each individual. Each person bears the responsibility of working on themselves to in order to perfect themselves. Therefore, the initiation of the Order of the Lily and the Eagle is directed towards self-knowledge and the personal efforts needed to be made in order to change, develop and affirm an independent and authentic personality. Man, through the effort of his will, and guided in his search, can raise himself, evolve, and thus become a model for those around him.
The Order of the Lily and Eagle teaches how to break with the hold of materialism and so-called individualism to discover the deep nature of man.
As a principle, our approach is opposed to the present-day concepts of materialism and individualism. By means of a progressive teaching centered on a spiritual aim, we help each member to manifest his own unique and fraternal personality in society.
In order to guide its members, the Order's teaching is based on and supported by the immutable laws of Nature.
This teaching affirms that Nature is a silent educator, and is the most eloquent teacher that a man can have.
Without doubt this is the reason why D.P. Sémélas wrote his first theorem based on the writings of L.C. de St. Martin on the "Relationships that exist between God, Man and the Universe":
THEOREM 1: In order to multiply before our eyes the rays of its own light, The First Mobile, which contains fruitful and luminous Truths, has written all these truths in everything that surrounds us, in the living force of the elements, in the harmony of all the actions of the Universe, and notably in the distinctive character which constitutes Man.
This silent Nature is not subject to subjectivity or temporality.
The traditional and secular teachings of Initiation are studied in the Order so that by better understanding cosmic laws and the reason for our presence on earth, we can put into practice universal charity.