Why is Nostos a ‘spiritual homecoming’?

Nostos is an old Greek word which indicates a homecoming, the return to a home that was lost – usually after a long and arduous journey. It’s most often used in association with Odysseus’ quest to find his way back to Ithaka, after many years lost at sea following the Trojan War. Here at the Nostos Institute, we wanderers are retracing our own steps, coming home to a beautiful old spiritual and philosophical tradition steeped in myth, creativity and the imagination – and which has been a defining thread in the complex weave of our Western philosophical and religious lineage for more than two and a half millennia. Our aim is to trace a living, spiritual desire path that responds to the challenges and opportunities of today’s world: a path that passes through and beyond personal transformation, opening into a dancing, animate cosmos saturated in the Divine.

Many of us are very familiar with the spiritual void at the heart of the contemporary West, but can’t find the answers we’re looking for in patriarchal religions that are wedded to an excess of dogma, embedded in institutions that are often difficult to trust or respect. On the other hand, it’s hard to find alternative European traditions that are coherent and authentic, and which offer us the rigour and depth we yearn for. Pagan/ pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices in most European countries are very poorly attested, and the few traces that remain can seem unresponsive to the demands and complexities of contemporary life. Because of this lack, spiritual seekers have increasingly turned to Eastern religions which have their roots in very different lands, cultures and histories. Others have tried to satisfy themselves with practices that have been lifted out of these traditions, such as meditation, bodywork and breathwork. But activities that are primarily aimed at wellbeing or ‘self-improvement’, divorced from the context of community, ethics, an identified cosmological worldview and focused sense of the sacred, can’t fill our need for deeper meaning and purpose.

At the Nostos Institute, then, we’re going back to basics, returning to our roots: delving into those early philosophical ideas which were then taken up and transformed in different ways by so many other religions – including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. We’re looking to forge from them a different path: one that’s freer, more open, less dogmatic and institutional; one that’s directly relevant to our current reality, and to the challenges and opportunities of the world we find ourselves in today.

The Western philosophical heritage that we’re reclaiming at the Nostos Institute (read more about that heritage here) is a container for our deepest longings, for transforming the way we understand the world and the nature of reality. It has underpinned theological traditions in the West (and beyond) for more than two thousand years, and it invites us to learn how to lean into the sacred without at the same time abandoning the faculty of reason. It offers up an abundance of insights from the long line of remarkable wayfarers who’ve trodden parts of this path before us, but it also stresses the importance of gnosis: each individual’s direct understanding and experience of the Divine – and through this the uncovering and embrace of our own unique, purpose-filled and creative life.

This philosophy, at its heart, is simple enough. It tells us about the One: the Divine, the ground of all being. It tells us about the anima mundi, the world soul that permeates and animates the physical world, and from which human souls are derived. It tells us about our soul’s journey, our calling, and our journey back to the source. It’s not about holy books or divine revelations or a program of worship. It doesn’t require a church, though it’ll find itself at home in the churches and holy places of many religions. It was entirely compatible with the honouring of the gods in the Greek tradition, of angels in the Sufi tradition, and the spiritual beings and guides that can be found in a variety of other traditions.
 
Above all, this ancient philosophical and spiritual tradition offers us a practical wisdom to live by. It emphasises the interconnectedness of all beings and tells us that each of our actions causes a ripple in the web of life. It encourages us to learn how to think, how to evaluate our choices and recognise their profound impact on the world. It encourages us to align ourselves with the natural patterns and workings of the cosmos, and to search for truth, beauty and the good in all areas of our lives.

Until the Reformation, medieval culture in Western Europe was characterised by contemplative practices which depended on harnessing the imagination in order to connect us with the Divine. But purposeful engagement with the imaginal as an everyday activity or as a way of being in the world is a rare thing here in the contemporary West. But in cutting ourselves off from the imaginal world, and in neglecting the cultivation of the mythic imagination, we are also cutting ourselves off from what philosophers and poets throughout history have understood to be the underlying reality of our existence. Because it is imagining which allows us to penetrate the veil, to see beyond the everyday, to encounter the rich, mysterious dimensions of human experience which lie beyond rational, materialistic frameworks. These traditions, then, want us to reflect on the deeper truths of existence and the nature of reality, and the quest for wisdom that they encourage serves as a driving force for personal as well as cultural growth and transformation.

The ideas and practices that we work with at the Nostos Institute, then, don’t require us to live according to the tenets of one book and repel all others, everything reduced to rules, or to believe in one truth to the exclusion of all others. They require us rather to find joy in the mystery of not-knowing. To look up at the richness of the night sky and recognise the divine in the twinkle of a star and the shape of the constellation it belongs to; to stand still in the forest and hear the voice of the sacred in the hooting of an owl. They require us not to slavishly follow but to take responsibility and think for ourselves. To embark on a journey of discovery, to wake up. To remember who we are. These ideas and practices, then, speak to our longing to rediscover our mythic ground, to re-enchant ourselves and find a sense of deeply embodied belonging to this beautiful, animate Earth.

Although our ethos is one of curiosity and open-minded enquiry, it’s important to stress that this project is not about offering up a universal pick-and-mix bag of spiritual traditions or of ‘anything goes’. This isn’t in any way to suggest that we’re not inclusive: the Nostos Institute welcomes everyone, whatever your spiritual orientation or religious background. There are many paths which can lead to a genuine understanding of the sacred; we can learn from them and they’re worthy of respect. But today, many of us remain spiritually unhomed, and what we’re looking for is a clearer path that’s free of the accrued baggage of too many centuries: a creative but coherent system of study and practice, rooted in a pre-existing Western tradition which has a long and authentic lineage.