Old New Method Gathering in
AthensJoin us to explore the birthplace of Western philosophy and theater…
September 28 – October 4, 2025
Join us in Athens to explore the foundations of Western civilization. We will survey the mathematical precision of the temples of the Acropolis, the hillside theaters where the first dramatic performances took place, sculptures of long-forgotten deities, and the sacred site of the Oracle at Delphi. We will aim to understand how the ancient Greeks conveyed and preserved their wisdom in architecture, sculpture, and dramatic works—wisdom whose relevance continues to pulse through our lives today.
On the shores of Greece and Southern Italy, where only timber and tile had stood before, rose the most subtle temples ever built by man…
Rodney Collin
The Temple
Greek temples were not merely places of worship, but sophisticated structures designed to elevate human awareness through the marriage of sacred geometry, natural settings, and symbolic function. The Greeks pushed architecture to extraordinary mathematical precision, bequeathing us treasures that have endured for over two millennia. At the Acropolis, we will study the Parthenon’s sophisticated use of optical illusion. At the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, we will experience the importance of natural settings; and at Delphi, the creative transition from daylight to mysterious shadow. These structures demonstrate that the Greeks approached temple-building as a sacred science, understanding that properly constructed, and in the appropriate environment, they could reliably produce shifts in awareness that intellectual study alone could never achieve.
The Parthenon | Frederic Edwin Church | 1871
The god speaks to those who enter his temple, not as men speak; but, when a worshiper enters, the first word which he hears is ‘Be temperate!’
Plato
Achilles and Ajax Playing a Board Game | Ancient Greek Pottery | 530 B.C.E
Mythology
In the National Archaeological and Acropolis Museums, we will study painted amphorae, marble sculptures, and temple friezes. These visual textbooks depict carefully chosen episodes from Greek mythology that illustrate fundamental patterns of human experience: Myths such as Perseus overcoming Medusa, Theseus navigating the Minotaur’s labyrinth, and Heracles completing his twelve labors. We will examine how the Greeks understood these stories as practical psychology. They reveal how certain patterns lead to predictable consequences and how recognition of these patterns offers the possibility of transformation. The Greeks understood that truths must be felt and experienced. They used myth and imagery to bypass intellectual analysis and speak directly to the whole human being.
Realizing the imperfection and weakness of ordinary language, the people who have possessed objective knowledge have tried to express the idea of unity in ‘myths’ and in ‘symbols,’…
Theater
Given their understanding that transformative truths must be experienced and not just discussed, it was only natural that the Greeks would enact their myths. In hillside amphitheaters, they took the first steps to what would become the magical world of live performance. The surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of human psychology, of how characters’ unconscious patterns inevitably lead to their downfall. This theatrical tradition connects directly to the Eleusinian Mysteries, where initiates underwent transformative experiences through enacted ritual. Like the Eleusinian Mysteries, our theatrical efforts serve the same essential purpose: engaging all three centers simultaneously—intellectual, emotional, and physical—to create conditions for genuine insight.
Throughout our week in Athens, we will prepare our own theatrical presentation based on the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Greek explanation for the changing seasons that forms the foundation of our teaching’s structure. Throughout the week, our evenings and nights will be spent in rehearsal. We will perform our play on the last day of our gathering.
The Return of Persephone | Frederic Leighton | 1891
Ancient Mysteries represented a… way in which, side by side with a difficult and prolonged period of study, theatrical representations of a special kind were given that depicted in allegorical forms the whole path of the evolution of man and the world… For these demonstrations, they constructed a specially raised place which they called the ‘reflector-of-reality,’ but which subsequent epochs call ‘stages.’
George Gurdjieff
Old New Method Gathering in
AthensJoin us to explore the birthplace of Western philosophy and theater…
September 28 – October 4, 2025