Themelia: Philia as foundation of our Community
[ENG]
Dear Brothers, Dear Sisters,
On this equinox day, we gather with the very same spirit that always guides our assembly, for the Serpent is ever worthy of praise. However, today is no ordinary liturgy; it is the celebration of what Ophidism calls Philia. We must not fall into the error of the profane, who reduce this concept to mere sympathy or a fleeting emotional bond. For us, Philia is the metaphysical tension that allows diversity to become unity without self-annihilation. It is the profound recognition that, although each of us proceeds on a personal path of awakening, no one is an island in the sea of becoming.
Let us reflect today on how the Serpent, the icon of our faith, is never static; it moves, it intertwines, it sheds its skin. So should our relationship with the other be: a constant dynamism in which my reason is mirrored in yours, finding not a limit, but an expansion. In the Disoterie, we celebrate liberation, but what kind of freedom would it be if obtained at the price of one's own solitude before the Unknowable? The true emancipation of the Ophidian occurs the moment we understand that our brother and our sister are not obstacles to our faith, but pillars of our very stability.
Philia is what transforms this Synodus from a mere organization into a living home, a source of altruism and support where the need of the other becomes the opportunity to exercise the highest form of our ethics. It is the warmth that makes the shedding of the skin possible: in a climate of discord, the soul hardens and stagnates; in the warmth of Philia, the soul softens and renews itself.
On this sacred day, I invite you, therefore, to look upon your brothers and sisters not with the eyes of judgment, but with those of relationship, seeking in every exchanged word a spark of Truth that only the encounter between two consciousnesses can release. For it is precisely through the care of the other, in mutual support during the arduous 'poisoning' of knowledge, that we honor the divinity within us. Philia is our medicine against the isolation of the modern world, now governed by the coldness of technology and social media; it is the tangible proof that our reason is not a cold instrument of calculation, but a bridge cast toward eternity through the hearts of our fellow beings.
Therefore, Brothers and Sisters, I invite you now to abandon every remnant of isolation and to celebrate this web that unites us. Open yourselves to dialogue without fear, seek the gaze of those near you, and exchange gestures of recognition that mirror our common quest. Share these unique moments, letting word and touch become the nourishment of our community. May this celebration not remain confined to thought, but become flesh and living relationship: love one another in knowledge, support one another in doubt, and rejoice, together, in the light of the Synodus.
Long live the Synodus. Eternal glory to the Serpent.
Ita fiat.