The Pilgrim of Life

By IOANNIS YIOMELAKIS

My dear friend and fellow pilgrim, we may never meet but through these lines you are now reading, our life paths have crossed.

I have been fortunate to have lived a Life full of challenges, to have met people from every walk of life. I immersed myself in the study of classical philosophy and mythology, of Esoteric Christianity, and Reiki, all in the pursuit of finding the meaning of Life, of finding happiness and success. Life hasn't been easy. Was it worth it? Yes.

It is with a great sense of responsibility and humility that I present you with this book. It is the culmination of my experiences, studies, and applications. In this journey of Life, everything begins with us, from us. Our quality of life begins with us taking responsibility for it. There are many traditions, many mystics and teachers, who across time and space have described this path. The cornerstone of them all, is 'Love'. Whichever tradition you decide to follow, 'Love' should be its essence.

If you decide not to purchase this book, I wish you the very best of journeys through life. If, however, you decide that this message appeals to you, you will discover the following in the pages of this book:

The meditations and exercises, found in the tradition of esoteric Christianity, to literally manifest a happy and successful life.

Who we are as human beings, and the impact our thoughts and emotions have on our lives. How we can become the masters of our thoughts and emotions, and through them, the masters of our lives.

What dreams reveal about human nature and the universes of existence.

The six pillars of success.

What are 'elementals' and the effect they have on our lives, whether positive or negative.

 How we can create a life of abundance through the conscious creation of elementals.

What is the true nature of 'sin', and why it has a detrimental effect on our lives.

What is 'paradise' and what is 'hell', and how we are creating either one of them through the quality of our thoughts and emotions.

The four reasons why 'bad' things happen to us, and what we can do to change this.

'Ask and it shall be given'. The seven reasons why we may not receive what we are asking for.

How taking responsibility for our lives allows us to use our inherent power of free will to manifest success, health, and happiness. 

I hope this book inspires you to take the necessary action, to make the changes that will lead you to live a happy and fulfilling life. I hope my experiences will help you understand what you may be experiencing. I hope to see you all at the top!

• Language: English
• Publisher: IOANNIS YIOMELAKIS
• Release date: Nov 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223154792

IOANNIS YIOMELAKIS

Ioannis Yiomelakis was born in Sydney, and while he has lived most of his life in Australia, he grew up in Greece. He is a Reiki Teacher/Master and a practitioner of Esoteric Christianity. He completed his studies in ancient and Modern Greek history and language, philosophy, and archaeology (BA Honours) at Macquarie University, where he was later given the opportunity to teach ancient Greek history, mythology, and Modern Greek language subjects. Over the past seventeen years, Ioannis has also worked with people with special needs. As a volunteer with a community radio station, he produced his own weekly program for five years, analyzing topics on philosophy, language, history, religion, and personal development. A member of a non-profit organization with a cultural and educational orientation, he has made numerous presentations and given talks on Greek history, mythology, and personal development. Ioannis is passionate about helping people evolve as human beings, realize their purpose in life, and through this process create a better world.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

What is life? Perhaps a biological procedure? We are born, we live, we reproduce, and we die. Maybe we are a whim of nature, an accumulation of atoms brought together by chance. All I have to do, is look at the smiling face of a child, watch a flower bloom and smell its sweet perfume, and listen to someone’s voice whispering ‘I love you!’, in order to realise that Life is much more. Whether I climb to the heavens when I am inspired or tumble down and drown myself into the abyss of my passions, I am much more than a chemical reaction.

Life is a Mystery that calls us to be initiated to her secrets like the old mystics of the past. It is a sacred, never-ending, alchemical process, and we are the alchemists of our emotions and our thoughts. It is a calling to change ourselves from a state of uncontrollable passions and desires, symbolised in alchemy by the elements of iron and lead, to a state of emotional and noetical perfection, represented by the element of gold. From now on, we shall refer to this perfection as psychonoetical. The mystics and the wise across time and space have described this process in one way or another.

In ancient Greece, mythology was a method of communication, a code of symbols which, according to the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus, led to the knowledge of the Divine and psychonoetical perfection, when decoded.

In one of the early ancient Greek works, the ‘Works and Days’ of Hesiod, the writer describes in alchemical terms the decline of humanity from the ‘golden’ age to the ‘silver’, the ‘bronze’, the age of heroes, and finally the age of ‘iron’, which was the time the writer lived. However, if Hesiod provides us with a description of the decline of humanity, then the opposite direction must lead to the ascent of humanity and to psychonoetical perfection. The people of the ‘iron’ age must first realise their current state and decide they want to escape. They must accept their heroic nature and like another Hercules, Perseus, and Odysseus, undertake and complete the labours that befit them. These labours are concerned with the cleansing of the self and more specifically the ‘ego’. This cleansing will eventually lead to psychonoetical perfection, symbolised by the ‘gold’, and after going through the stages of ‘bronze’ and ‘silver’. The tradition is reflected in the award of the gold, silver, and bronze medals during athletic events. The ancient Olympic Games, which took place in ancient Olympia, symbolised the process and the personal struggle that athletes must go through in order to overcome not just their fellow competitors, but their own self. This is why there were no team events in the ancient Games. The winner was awarded an olive wreath – a symbol of peace and wisdom – and was considered to have reached a perfect psychonoetical state. This is the true symbolic meaning of the athletic contests in ancient Greece.

Every one of us has the sacred duty to themselves, not anybody else, to undertake and complete this alchemical process and labours. Both the alchemical process and the labours are nothing more than the trials and tribulations of Life, who calls us to study her lessons vigorously, learn from them, apply the appropriate changes to ourselves, and evolve as human beings.

Through this process, we not only perfect ourselves but we also experience true happiness, create a better world, and leave a worthy heritage to our children and the future generations.

What is the value of Life? Or perhaps, to put it a little differently, what price do we put on Life? If we look around us, we could say ‘not much’ without doubt. Life is sacrificed daily on the altar of passions and desires, ruthlessly and thoughtlessly. The fact that Life is sacrificed in the name of freedom, humanity, and God is even more tragic. Paranoia in all its glory.

Yet, all the riches and power in the world are not worth one life. Nobody has the right to take away this divine gift from anyone. If we only knew and had a real understanding of what Life is, we would never dare to think about doing something like this.

Unfortunately, the great majority of us are ‘blind’. Fears, hatred, passions, uncontrollable desires, pride, the need for self-exposure, envy, the stress of everyday survival, all the above and many more create an insurmountable barrier to a peaceful and happy life. From now on, we will address these things as the ‘ego’.

It is the ‘ego’ that leads us to a continuous conflict with our fellow human beings, creating seeming differences that it uses for self-satisfaction. Differences in social class, employment, political and religious beliefs, appearance, skin colour, and many more. The ‘ego’ is happy to create differences because they feed the twisted notion of personal worth that it has created.

Of course, what is opposed to its system of values is an obstacle to the ‘ego’ and its satisfaction and is automatically considered an enemy that must be destroyed. The enemy is nothing more than other ‘egos’ with different value systems, different desires and passions, or the same, which inevitably lead to conflict on a personal, social, or even national and international level.

This conflict, opposition, and antagonism are supported on one hand by our uncontrollable materialism/consumerism mentality, and on the other hand, by every dogma on the face of this planet. I have listened to many people number the evils or the causes of our decline as human beings. Some of them include money, religion, the political systems and the politicians, the flag and what it stands for, racism, drugs, crime, technology, greed, poverty, materialism, consumerism, the banks, the rich, and the different secret societies, just to name a few.

How much ink and paper, energy and brain matter have been wasted in the research and description of these ‘evils’? Even more importantly perhaps, what were the results of these efforts? If we have a look at the state of our society and our planet, probably poor. The above leads humanity to a twisted understanding of the meaning of life with the well-known catastrophic results that we are witnessing.

Where is the solution?

The first step is to recognise that our angle of observation and understanding is erroneous. What we consider as ‘evils’ and their ‘sources’ are nothing more than the symptoms, the reflections of the true source and cause.

If we want to identify the real source for our world’s poor state, we must look in the mirror.

The common denominator for all the so-called ‘evils’ is us, for they are nothing more than a reflection of who we are as human beings. Instead of focusing on all these superficial differences that separate us from other people, let us concentrate on the one element that brings us together; we are all human beings.

Instead of trying to dominate each other, let us conquer our own selves, and more specifically, our ‘ego’. Here lies the secret of understanding the challenges we face daily, but also the solution and the key to a happy and successful life. Every human being dreams of living such a life. The code for a successful and happy life is probably simple. It is the application that is long and arduous. 

Life is a wonderful gift, a fantastic journey, and as such should be treated with respect and Love.

If you wish to declare war, declare war on yourself, not your fellow human being. If you declare war on yourself and conquer your own ‘ego’, then you will never feel the need to declare war on your fellow human being.

The writer of this book understands happiness and success not as the result of the accumulation of material goods and wealth, but as the result of our way of life and our evolution as human beings. Life has a miraculous way of providing us with everything we need when we walk our path towards our psychonoetical perfection, and use our gifts to help our fellow human beings by manifesting our life’s purpose and creating a better world.

We have all been born with a purpose. Whether or not we understand what this purpose is, or even accept that such a notion truly exists, is irrelevant. If you wish to understand what your purpose in life is, take a close look at yourself. What are your talents? What do you love doing so much that you wouldn’t mind doing it for free? Normally, when we identify such a thing, we don’t believe that people truly need what we have to offer since it comes so naturally to us. Let us keep in mind that our purpose has nothing to do with the accumulation of material wealth but with being of service to humanity. Wealth comes as a result of this; however, it cannot be our main motivator for doing something. Listen to your heart and close your ears to those who tell you that something cannot be done, or it cannot provide for you. What they are really saying is that they themselves couldn’t be successful in what you are doing or want to do. And how could they? This is your dream, your purpose, not theirs. Follow your path without paying attention to the negative and depreciative comments of others. You know your heart better than anybody else. Do not try to over analyse with ‘common sense’ something that exists in the depths of your being, and you know to be the true path for you. What we call ‘common sense’ has quite a narrow field of understanding. Just keep in mind that the right path does not cause harm to us and our fellow human beings. There is no need to envy other people’s success. Nobody knows the intimate details of other people’s lives. And if someday you come across a person that is living a life of purpose and has discovered happiness, drink from their success and give them your love.

The above are only some points that can help us discover whether we are truly following our life’s path and manifesting our purpose, for which we came into this world.

Experience, though, has taught us that whether we want it or not, in our journey towards a happy and successful life, we will be tested. Our trials will be in relation to our character’s weaknesses, our so-called ‘ego’, which we must overcome in order for us to reach success.

For example, let us assume that you have identified your life’s purpose as being a writer, but you are consumed by pride and greed and are easily angered. Until you are able to overcome these weaknesses, even though you have discovered your life’s purpose, you will have no or very limited success. Why? Because your weaknesses will always create problems that will cost you the opportunities coming your way or would have come your way if your attitude was different. This is bound to leave you confused. 

This book, based on my experiences, aspires to present to you both on a theoretical and a practical level how we can overcome our ‘ego’ and experience happiness and success.

Let us acknowledge from the beginning that we are responsible for our lives and our journey, regardless of the circumstances we may find ourselves in. We will make no excuses. We will take responsibility for our lives. And we will never blame others for the challenges we face.

For every weakness we have, we will have to successfully overcome three separate trials in three separate incidents. Life will continue to present us with challenges and trials until we completely overcome this weakness. Perhaps here lies the answer as to why we face the same challenges, day after day. Understand that this is Life.

My friends, in this journey called Life we are all fellow pilgrims. Even though we must overcome our challenges and trials on our own, for no one can do this for us, always remember that we are not alone in our journey, even in the darkest of hours. I wish that Life presents you with the very best.

Happy journey and see you at the top!

WHO ARE YOU?

How many of us have ever thought about or understood who we are as human beings? How many have wondered what ‘character’ is and how it affects our lives? How many of us have thought, ‘where does our behaviour and attitude come from?’ These questions are more complicated than they may seem at first. In essence, we are asking ourselves, ‘Who am I?’ Am I my job, my money, my house, my appearance, my friends and family, my desires, passions and feelings, my thoughts and actions, the colour of my skin, my religion, my gender? Or am I something different and totally independent from all the above? Are these things just a reflection of who I truly am or perhaps an illusion of my real self, and if that is the case, what is their source and what are they a reflection of? 

The maxim ‘Know Thyself’ that was erected at the temple of Apollo at Delphi for all to see, is not just an exhortation, but it contains the secret of Life, psychonoetical perfection, and happiness.

Life is a journey of self-discovery and the knowledge of ‘who we are’ arrives sooner or later, but it is also dependent on certain conditions and presuppositions. These have to do with both understanding Life’s lessons and implementing what we have learnt in our own lives. This leads to emotional and spiritual evolution, which in turn allows us to enter deeper in the sanctuary of knowledge. This method also works as a safety valve because the knowledge that is acquired, when placed in the hands of individuals who have not evolved to the appropriate level, can have catastrophic results for them and others.   

In order to avoid this, all of us must go through different stages of learning and evolution, during which we come to understand the journey that we are required to complete. We also begin to deeply examine human nature, the world around us, and the reasons human beings find themselves experiencing torturous events, which in extreme cases can only be described as ‘hellish’.

The alchemists and mystics from the time of Hermes Trismegistos have always claimed that:

‘As Above, So Below’

What exists in the macrocosm, exists in the microcosm. By understanding and knowing the universes – that’s right, there are many universes – we come to understand and know ourselves, and the reverse.

This wondrous universe we see all around us is but one of many and variant universes in existence. All of us, to some degree, have a certain amount of knowledge, understanding, and familiarity about the universe we live in. We know our surroundings, our neighbourhood, our town and its people. We know some things about our solar system, and that our galaxy with its billions of stars is but one amongst billions of other galaxies. Everything in our universe, which from now on we will refer to as ‘material’, functions according to specific laws. Everything within this universe, including human beings, cannot function properly if they ignore these laws. The ancient Greeks had acknowledged this truth and created the idea of ‘Hubris’ for those who transgressed them. There was no escape as ‘Hubris’ was always followed by ‘Nemesis’, divine punishment. If we were to describe today in scientific terms the above process, we could relate it to the Law of ‘Action-Reaction’. We will make a more extensive analysis of what this Law means for human beings later.

Right now, we will embark on a journey of discovery and, more specifically, we shall examine the existence of other universes, which will help us understand the nature of our material universe and of ourselves as human beings.

The other universes we need to examine are the so-called ‘psychical’ or ‘emotional’ and the ‘noetical’ universes. Just as a reference, we will say that there are other universes beyond these, but they are not the subject of this book and its purpose.

The reason why the reference to these universes is in the plural is because, unlike the fact that we have one material universe, we have many ‘psychical-emotional’ universes and many ‘noetical’ universes, forty-nine to be exact, all autonomous from each other. Their difference is one of vibrations and frequency, something that indicates a qualitative difference between them. This difference has to do with the quality of our emotions for the ‘psychical-emotional’ universes, and the quality of our thoughts for the ‘noetical’ universes. More specifically, the so-called ‘negative’ emotions of human beings like sadness, bitterness, hatred, anger, etc. correspond and are part of   the ‘lower’, in terms of frequency and vibration, ‘psychical-emotional’ universes. Whereas the so-called ‘positive’