Discoveries at Delphi

Why Delphi changed my mind and how it will forever inspire me.

High up on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus, in the valley of Phocis, there lays a site of such breathtaking beauty that it has undoubtedly altered the life of millions of pilgrims since the dawn of its creation as an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary. Such is its importance in history and in ancient religion the area have been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. This place, or Delphi as it has been called for more than two millennia, has, for some, a strange sense of spirituality not found elsewhere.   

 Christened but never a devout churchgoer I was privileged in my choice of secondary school which allowed me the opportunity to visit Greece in the Easter of my final year. Last stop on our six day journey all over Greece was Delphi. Before reaching the site I was well aware of its history as taught to me through my classical history lessons. However, I was unprepared for the spiritual awakening that I was about to experience.

 I did not find god. I did not find Apollo. Rather I found life within every leaf and flower. I even felt it emanating from the sun warmed rocks and in the water which flowed into the pool. The birds seemed to speak to one another, more loudly than I had ever heard and their silhouettes against the sun caused me to dwell on ancient prophecy. The sky had a sharpness to the blue and the clouds, the clouds contained the water which would fall and later tumble down the mountainside in the fast flowing aqueduct. Everything around me breathed, spoke; whispering or singing to its fellows, everything seemed to move; gracefully, quickly, slowly, violently, everything had its own pace, its own motion, its own life. The world had never seemed so vibrate, so busy, so wonderfully exquisite in every tiny detail. There was a fantastical quality to the air, to the scenery, to the voices. Nothing quite seemed possible and yet I had never experienced a place feel so real.

 

My body yearned to become part of the pool, or the olive trees, or wheel in the air on the thermals with the birds. I could have leapt up and taken flight, like Icarus, a dark outline against the sun, but he had burnt there and I could not follow him. If at that moment an immortal had appeared to me in human form there would have been no surprise showing on my face just a simple acceptance that their presence was just another aspect of this unbelievable reality.

I had been told of the power of this place but I had not quite believed it. I felt as if the gates had been opened on an Eden, as if I had been shown a world so unlike that in which I had been born into. I was somewhere I never had the pleasure to enter but had wished to my entire life without even knowing it.

Is this what an epiphany is? I asked myself now. Maybe it was, but at the time all that I cared about was the beauty of my natural surroundings and the life that burst forth from them in abundance. I think, When I visit again will I feel the same? And I know I shall not, as it will not be new to me and I know that when this becomes reality I shall feel a bitter disappointment. There are somethings that you only truly experience once, and I believe this was one of them. Amyx