Mediterranean Voyage Part II: Know Thyself. Malta to Greece

You’ve heard it before, the maxim, “Know Thyself.”  Attributed to the great philosopher Socrates, it’s often interpreted that to live a meaningful life one should contemplate the self in order to understand better their character, motivations, and limitations– ultimately achieving wisdom.  To highlight a bit of such wisdom, let us continue and close off the story of my summer’s Mediterranean Voyage, with Malta, then to the heart of Ancient philosophy itself– Greece. 

With the work trip over in Malta, I was able to stay a few days to do a little exploring before being repatriated.  Malta had always been on my radar as a dream destination, and most specifically after seeing it on the Netflix show, Ancient Apocalypse, I was even more keen to venture to the island’s ancient ruins.  The main island of Malta and its sister islands are home to an amazing, six megalithic temple sites– most dating back to between 3600 BC and 2500 BC, (according to conventional historians and archaeological evidence, not ancient astronaut theorists ;).  Next to Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, they are the oldest free-standing structures on the planet.  

Another interesting fact is that like so many of the ancient megalithic structures, such as Stonehenge, in England or El Castillo in Chichen Itza, Mexico, the Maltese temple, Mnajdra, was constructed approximately so that its main axis aligns with the rising sun on the spring and autumn equinoxes.  On these days, sunlight passes through the main entrance and illuminates a specific stone on the rear wall, perhaps suggesting the structures served as ancient astronomical calendars or observatories.  And so, I lived out my Graham Hancock dream, and hopped on a bus over to Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim.  Even on the hot summer day, these limestone temples were nothing short of incredible to walk through and witness their sacredness.

Before heading back to London and chilly weather, there was just one last Mediterranean adventure to complete.  Draw a line east from Malta and you hit Greece!  The flight from Malta to Athens is just over an hour and a half, and seeing as my novel trilogy is set in Ancient Greece, it was the perfect opportunity to visit the ancient sites I’d be referencing in the second novel.  Oh, and it just so happened my gorgeous Greek goddess and longtime friend was home on the east coast with her wonderful husband.  

The ancient site at Delphi was and is still considered one of the most spiritual or sacred places on the planet.  It was home to the entire Greek world as a religious and spiritual sanctuary.  Home to the god Apollo and the famous Oracle of Delphi, pilgrims from all over the world would travel there for guidance and worship.  So, in great pilgrimage style, I hopped in my little Fiat and journeyed the 3 ½ hours west.  Halfway in, you leave the highway and wind into remote landscapes.  Painted mountains, deep-forested green, rocky faces and silvery sun.  The road climbs, curving its way up mountains and valleys below.  The more I rose, the more remote and the more it was as if journeying back through time. 

Slipping past tourists, I did my best to feel into the site.  There was definitely something auspicious to the placement of this sanctuary tucked into the navel of this mountain.  Peace lingered; a vibration sang.  I took in the still impressive temple of Apollo, imagining how at one time the famous axiom, “Know Thyself” had been inscribed on its wall.  What did this maxim truly mean? I contemplated.  Then I followed the climb to the stone theater, marveling that 5,000 people could fit together there.  Climbing further, I made it to the huge long stadium which used to host the Pythian Games every four years, and marveled further, imagining how it must have been so long ago.  

Veering off the main path, I meandered down a dirt one through the pine forest, finding myself alone at last.  Wind snaked through, rustling tree leaves, silencing the outside world.  Captivated, I tuned in to its song, listening amongst the stillness of a place so entwined with ancient allure– calling to those who dare tap in to her secrets and wisdom.

I left Delphi feeling elevated.  At peace.  Windows down and sun still gleaming, I sang and sang, and sang and sang…  I was indeed on pilgrimage this entire summer, I realized.  My pilgrimage.  To “know myself.”  I soaked up the sensations of my freedom, savoring the sun’s rays while feasting my eyes on a blue only the Mediterranean can exude.  With my body finally almost back to balance without the tiring strain of work’s endless hours, and a long drive back to Athens, I was finally fully present to delve deeper into the quiet– my quiet.  I could be present with the emotions simmering within me.  The sadness, the loneliness, the displacement.  I was present to face head-on all that my life cycle and experience was handing me.  Unplugged from any consistency, and without the filler of doing, what was it like to just simply just BE?  I was knowing myself more, and I learned the depths that my heart can care for someone I loved.  I learned that caring so much was one of my super powers, yet too, it carried its shadow.  It was up to me only to balance that dynamic.  Too, I learned just how full of love I actually am– how a part of my essence love is.  I saw deeper that I have so much love to give and offer someone.  I was learning just how to give that love to myself– so much of that being compassion.

With one last day of my Mediterranean voyage to go, I was off to the east coast to meet the beautiful Marina.  We caught up like girls do, communing, basking on the beach, and dipping in the cool sea.  At lunch time we joined her husband and had a PROPER Greek feast.  My tastebuds were sizzling with goodness, washed down with a local white wine.  Soul-stirring and heart-warming company, conversations and food.  How does it get better than that? <3

A quick drive south and I arrived to the temple of Poseidon– a towering structure standing gloriously alongside the jeweled sea.  

Now it was time for some more first person research at Eleusis,  the ancient site where the Eleusinian Mysteries were held.  Another drive west, and I arrived to the sanctuary that would be the climax setting for the sequel novel to Unforgetting.  Golden hour was descending upon the site and a strange sensibility loomed throughout its corners.  Because it was so late, I was the only person inside and was able to venture the sacred grounds by myself.  The unique thing about this archaeological site is that you can actually walk anywhere throughout the grounds, unlike the other ancient temples, which are roped off and forbidden.  I stepped onto the giant stones of the Sacred Court, and was amazed at the mightiness I felt below me.  Echoes of the past rose up within me, beckoning me forward and on to the Ploutonion, with its atmospheric cave backdrop– the mythical portal to the underworld.  I lingered for a while then traced the steps to the great hall of initiation–the Telesterion–where the rituals were once enacted, culminating the final stages marking initiates’ transformations.  I felt a rare symmetry with these ancient seekers, initiates.  I too longed for something…something deeper.  I too felt initiated after this summer.

It was all starting to make sense now.  My summer Mediterranean voyage was an initiation.  After the demanding work-load and stress, and through my emotional seas, I had been transformed after plunging deeper within myself.  I had weathered the storms and a new version of me had been sculpted.  If it hadn’t been for the emotional “suffering,” the impulses to go deeper within my own self, and “know thyself,” I wouldn’t have come out on the other side renewed with so much growth, understanding, and realignment with something bigger than myself.  

I learned too, that know thyself means too that we are all connected to something greater and divine.  By going within, you experience how we are ALL connected to Source, to God. We are all beautiful sparks of the divine.  We are also all connected by our sufferings and the trials nurturing us for greater Good.  The summer voyage was full of “rough seas.”  It had tested me; it had initiated me.  I experienced that everything I needed and sought, was already inside me.  Everything is within us.  Know Yourself.

Please enjoy this poem I wrote which aligns beautifully to this post's theme. 

Know Thyself

What’s real and true is what’s inside you

The source

of knowing

Where lies pure joy, love and truth

The rest– the outside, is only a construct

Mental, fabricated.

This inner world is what is meant to “know thyself”

This is what we are meant to discover

To realize, to remember

Being guided in the light of Source

A welcoming home

A recalling of greater belonging

Where trueness and purity honor the light

of the one great soul

Linked we are

If only we could remember

that you in fact are me, and I you

And we are an unstoppable force

For good and wholeness