The Time Before Time (Ο Χρόνος Πριν από τον Χρόνο)

-From the Meletic Scrolls.

In the lineage of Meletic thought, there arises a question more ancient than the cosmos, more delicate than language and deeper than thought itself. The question is what existed before time as we know it? The response is not found in chronology, nor in cosmology, but in the silent awareness that resides beyond the division of all things. Meleticism teaches that before cosmic time, there was being, and this being was not fragmented, not evolving, and not marked by the passing of moments. It was, and is still, (To Ένa) the One.

This is not a theological statement, nor a mystical incantation. It is a philosophical realisation, grounded in the thought of To Ena's eternal essence. In Meleticism, To Ena is not subject to the passage of time. It is not an entity dwelling at the start of a timeline, nor a deity set apart from its nature. Rather, it is the indivisible presence prior to motion, prior to change, and prior to thought. It is a presence that gives rise to all things, including the very notion of time itself.

To speak of the time before time is to refer not to a past epoch, but to a condition of being that is present yet rarely perceived. It is not the 'beginning of time' in a physical sense, but it is rather the awareness that transcends the construct of time. In this light, time is not primary, but secondary. It is not the ground of being, but a direct consequence of becoming.

Modern understanding frequently mistakes time as the foundation of all reality. Our thoughts, identities and institutions are built upon it. Meleticism regards time as a phenomenon born of separation between cause and effect, between self and other, between past and future. Time is the language of distinction. It speaks in terms of 'before' and 'after', of progression and regression.

To Ena is undivided. It does not progress; it does not recede. It is not in time; it allows time to arise as a veil over its eternal stillness. In this way, time is an emanation from a deeper order, one which is not measured by clocks or calendars but by genuine presence, essence and being.

The recognition of this deeper order is what Meleticism calls the hyparxis, not merely existence, but the manner of existing prior to identity, unbound by duration or dimension. In the hyparxis, there is no waiting, no moving forth. All things are held together in a form of simultaneity, not frozen, but fulfilled. This is the condition of the soul before fragmentation, before it became separate in narratives and temporal expectations.

To speak of the time before time is also to speak of a silence that resides beneath all noise, beneath all words, beneath even the mind’s incessant activity. It is this silence that one occasionally encounters in the deepest states of meditation, when the inner narration grows still and the soul finds itself suspended in a presence it cannot explain.

In that presence, there is no past, no future, no planning. One is simply there, utterly, completely and peacefully. That is not the void; that is To Ena. The One is not an absence, but a fullness so whole that it requires no additions, no improvements, no stories. It is not becoming; for it is being itself.

This silence, when perceived, reveals that time is not real in the way we often believe. It is useful, certainly; even necessary for physical navigation. Ontologically, it is a rhythm imposed on the formless. The ousia that one truly reflects as our true essence is not tied to time’s rhythms. The ousia moves through time, but its core is timeless. And so, within each person, there lies a certain memory, not of events, but of states. A memory of having once known a condition without sequence, without urgency, without fragmentation. A memory of wholeness.

The self, in Meletic understanding, inclines not forwards, but inwards. Not towards novelty, but towards origin. It is not as nostalgia, but as orientation. The self yearns not for the future it exists in the present. It is the stillness it has momentarily forgotten. It remembers To Ena, when it realises its attachment to our mortality. In this remembrance, there is both sorrow and serenity: sorrow for the distance felt; serenity for the certainty that it was never truly lost.

Thus, the time before time is not behind us, but beneath us. It is not what once was, but what always is. Meleticism does not imply a return to the past, but a reconnection with the timeless present, which is a form of now that does not belong to the ticking of seconds, but to the presence of being.

This is the pre-temporal awareness: the soul’s capacity to know without time, to perceive without sequence, and to exist without a script. It is the same awareness through which one may acknowledge To Ena, not through mere belief, but through sheer awareness. Not through worship, but through presence.

To live Meletically is to understand the function of time. Time is not to be forgotten. It is the canvas upon which many beautiful things are drawn, such as growth and creation. Time should not be mistaken for the source. It is a tool, not a truth. It is a vessel, not the water.

Thus, the Meletic soul walks through time lightly. It engages with hours and days and tasks, but never forgets that the deeper self is not bound by any of them. The Meletic acts in time, but lives from the eternal. Experiencing change without being undone by it, aging without decay of soul, and dying without vanishing. For death itself is not a terminus in Meleticism; it is but another moment in time, and To Ena is beyond all ephemeral moments.

The virtue of reason, which is valued in Meletic philosophy, plays an inherent role here. Reason allows the soul to discern what belongs to time and what belongs to the eternal. It reminds us that not all urgencies are real, and not all delays are failures. It encourages patience, awareness and a form of gentle detachment. Through reason, we gain not control over time, but freedom from it.

There are moments, which are rare and unbidden, when one feels the material world pause. These may occur during profound silence, in the midst of wonder, or in the intimacy of solitude. In such moments, something more than tranquillity is felt: a resonance with a deeper order. One feels oneself part of something that has no beginning and no end. Time seems to dissolve, and what remains is a singular presence that is complete, indivisible and whole.

This is the time before time awakening within oneself.

In Meletic practice, the goal is not to remain in such states, but to remember them and to allow their wisdom to inform one’s conduct, one’s perception, one’s way of being in the world. To remember the timeless cannot be truly disturbed by the temporary, it makes us become serene, conscious and attuned to the quiet rhythm of existence beneath its unfolding drama.

To Ena is not an escape from life, but the truest entry into it. It is the foundation beneath our fleeting selves, the constant remnant behind our changing minds. When one lives in harmony with both the temporal and the eternal, one lives Meletically. It is to live with balance, awareness and philosophical poise.

The time before time is not something to wait for. It is something to return to, inwardly, repeatedly and reverently. It is already here, beneath the seconds, between the thoughts, inside the breath.

It is not divine.

It has never left.

It simply is.

And so are we.

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