Didáskalia: how new Ophidians are forged.

The Didaskalia is the rigorous and official system of education within The Synodus.

It stands as the academic and disciplined structure that frames the aspirant for service and accession to the Administration. This ensures the intellectual integrity of the Gnōsis and provides the essential knowledge necessary to uphold the system.

Our purpose is not merely to educate, but to ensure that the foundational wisdom of the Synodus is preserved and advanced by an intellectual elite.

Our Courses

  • Propedeutic to Liturgical Latin

    Access position: Novice

    Description: Fundamentals of essential liturgical grammar and vocabulary, ensuring the correct understanding and recitation of fundamental rites in Classical Latin.

  • Liturgical Mastery and Ritual Axioms

    The Serpent: Theoretical Premises to Ophidism

    Access position: Neokoros

    Description: In-depth analysis of core theological concepts, including the nature of the Serpent, its autonomous manifestation, and the meaning of its symbology.

  • A stack of philosophy books arranged vertically on a dark surface, with a black background.

    Fundamentals of Ophidian Law: Origins of the Taxis

    Access position: Hierologos

    Description: This course offers a full analysis of the Synodus’ foundational texts, their democratic principles and the description of our member’s rights and duties within our system.

“The discipline of knowledge is the first prayer of the Ophidian. One does not ascend to the Serpent only through faith, but through the rigorous gnosis that forges the interpreter.

Access Your Reserved Area

Sunlight shines through a mountain cave opening, illuminating the rocky interior.
Novice
People holding candles and reading books during a ceremony, with a focus on individuals' faces and hands.
Neokoros
Several lit candles glowing in darkness, with the flames visible and flickering.
Sacrist
Close-up view of a burning matchstick with sparks and glowing tips, surrounded by swirling orange and yellow smoke against a dark background.
Hierologos
A vintage desk with an ink bottle, a quill pen, and historical documents.

Becoming Exegete: From Liturgy to Doctrine

The office of Liturgist marks the achievement of full ritual authority, yet the leadership must be founded upon supreme doctrinal and philosophical understanding. Progression to the office of Exegete is not an automatic ascent, but an intellectual conquest demanding rigorous self-discipline beyond the core curriculum of the Didaskalia.

The Exegete is the proper interpreter of Doctrine. To ensure the purity of the Gnōsis and the definitive resolution of all doctrinal disputes, it is essential that the candidate achieve autonomous mastery of canonical thought.

The Compendium of Hierarchical Readings

To this end, the Synodus mandates a compendium of readings. This is not a formal course, but an unforgiving path of individual study.

The prescribed texts cover the critical areas of philosophy, history, and Ophidian theology, serving as the necessary intellectual foundation for the Research Dissertation required for accession to the office. Only by demonstrating profound and autonomous mastery of these works will the Liturgist be permitted to submit their Will to the Synodus and complete their entry into the highest doctrinal authority.

    • Plato, Phaedrus (276a–278e) – the duality of pharmakon

    • Parmenides, Fragments (esp. B2, B3, B6, B8)

    • Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book XII

    • Jacques Derrida, Plato's Pharmacy (in Dissemination)

    • Giorgio Agamben, Language and Death

    • Reiner Schürmann, Heidegger on Being and Acting

    • Jean-Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community

    • Heidegger, The Principle of Reason

    • Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life (Ch. 1-2)

    • Thomas Sheehan, Making Sense of Heidegger (Ch. 3: Being as Meaning)

    • Heraclitus, Fragments (esp. B53, B80)

    • Empedocles, Fragments (esp. B17, B26, B35, B115)

    • Aristotle, Physics Book I-III

    • G. Colli, La Sapienza Greca, vol. II

    • Catherine Malabou, The Ontology of the Accident

    • Jean-Luc Marion, Being Given

    • Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude

    • Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition (Introduction, Ch. I)

    • Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society

    • Plato, Parmenides, Theaetetus

    • Plotinus, Enneads, esp. V.3, VI.9

    • Dionysius the Areopagite, Mystical Theology

    • Jean-Luc Nancy, The Sense of the World

    • Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View

    • Georges Bataille, Inner Experience

    • Michel Henry, The Essence of Manifestation

    • Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

    • Emanuele Severino, The Essence of Nihilism

    • Aristotle, Organon (esp. Categories, De Interpretatione)

    • Augustine, De Magistro

    • Aquinas, De Veritate, Q1, Q14

    • Umberto Eco, The Limits of Interpretation

    • Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor

    • Michel Foucault, The Order of Discourse

    • Elisa Paganini, Where not to look for fictional objects

    • Elisa Paganini, How to Create Indeterminately Identical Fictional Objects

    • Anthony Kenny, Frege: An Introduction to the Founder of Modern Analytic Philosophy

    • Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: the basis

    • E. Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, book I

    • Baruch Spinoza – Ethics

    • Gottlob Frege – The Foundations of Arithmetic

    • G.W.F. Hegel – Science of Logic

    • Charles Sanders Peirce – Philosophical Writings

    • Nicolai Hartmann – New Ways of Ontology