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The great spiritual and cultural institutions of antiquity·which were called The Mysteries were pre-eminently the fruitage of Hellenic civilization as mentioned in another place in these pages; beginning with the classic age of ancient Greece and continuing to a final and glorious climax in the Neo-Platonic Schools of Alexandria which, in the first three centuries after Christ, contributed strongly to the growth of nascent Christianity and gave it permanent coloration. Constantine had, indeed, in 333 A.O. made Christianity supreme in the Roman Empire, but it was in the reign of Theodosius, A.O. 378 to 395, that Christianity at last became, beyond all question of inter ference, the state religion, the ancient oracles of the Hellenic world were at last silenced and the Mysteries forced to close their doors: while at the same time the Greek tongue and the Greek culture were supplanted by the Latin tongue and Roman culture in the Western Empire.
Under Constantine the capital of the Empire had already been moved from Rome to Byzantium, called Constantinople after the Emperor, and this had left the \Vestern capital in a seriously weaker. ed condition, unable to protect itself from the barbarians who now cal}1e down from the North, bringing with them the Dark Ages of European history. The Church at Rome, however, which under the political patronage of the Roman Emperors had become the dominant religious power in the Western Empire, continued to press its author ity upon the World Church, and to the weakened states of Europe it offered the only hope of peace and unity. Finally repudiating the Eastern Church, the Roman Church declared itself the one and only Christian Church, and the Latin Fathers arrogated to themselves the supreme authority in all matters concerning the new, young Christian religion. This gave to the Church at Rome a concept of universal order derived from Roman law, which was reflected in the organization of the hierarchy, but it meant the loss of the original Hellenic elements which, by way of the Mysteries, had in fact been the matrix of Christianity in the earliest centuries. Thus the Wisdom Teaching (Gnosis) was lost to the Western World, surviving only among a few illumined members of the priesthood or hidden away in monasteries and nunneries where, gradually, it became little more than the memory of a tradition.
The Age of the Fish — Pisces — dawned, about 495 A.D., with the Western world severed from its ancient Hellenic root. Of the Mysteries relics only remained, embedded in the ritual of the Church and modified repeatedly as the ancient Wisdom receded farther and farther into the past. Today the ritual of the Mass is still called the Morning Sacrifice and a Mystery; and so also the Rosary devotions are called Mysteries, Joyful, Sorrowful and Glo rious, respectively. The making of the Stations of the Cross, al though from the historical point of view a substitution for pilgrimage, is again the relic of a Mystery by which the devout unthinkingly imitate antiquity. All such usages are mere shadows of the original Mysteries. For example Baptism "in the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost" is now a mere form, an act with but little meaning; but the ancient Hebrew initiate who "bathed in the Name of God" meant by this that he had immersed himself in contemplation of the Sacred Word, Tetragrammaton, in all its forms and permutations — much as the Moslem mystic counts the Ninety-Nine Sacred Names of God on his beads in meditation — and by such immersion had brought down upon himself the White Light of cosmic consciousness. To be thus immersed in the contem plation of the Beatific Vision is far different from a submersion of the body in, or sprinkling of the body with, water while pronouncing the Name of the Trinity. It is a true, mystical experience, of which the physical act of Baptism is only the outward symbol. Churchmen do to some extent recognize this fact, defining the sacraments as the outward symbol of an inward grace; but the Mystery teaching has been simplified to the point where it has almost disappeared in actual practice.
As the Mysteries continued to be more and more materialized and Church observances became (as they still are) mere fossil remains of the original living organism of the Body Mystical, the true Mysteries could be observed only in secret on the inner planes where none save the illumined could participate, all others being self-excluded by the darkness of their own consciousness. Now as the Piscean Age approaches its close, the Mysteries are once more to come forth into the light of day. And of what sort will these new Mysteries, the Mysteries of the Aquarian Age, be?
They will not be a mere repetition of the ancient Mysteries of the Arian Age, like ancient treasures recovered by archeologists from long-buried cities. They will be a new and living organism, not a rediscovery but a rebirth, of an ancient cultural institution which, while it resembled our great Universities in some respects, was at the same time much more than any University which exists in our time.
The ancient Mysteries have come down to the modern West chiefly by way of the Greeks, who received them from Egypt and the Orient at a period when Art, Science and Religion were together in the custody of the Temple.
ART had its twofold aspect, sacred and secular: both aspects were controlled by the Mysteries. Art included all of the activities necessary to a presentation of spiritual truth in outward figurative expression; Drama was its chief vehicle, and the Neophytes and Initiates partook in vast dramatic spectacles, the aim of which was to evoke within the soul of participant and audience alike an intuitive perception of the spiritual worlds. The ultimate Initiation, however, could not be celebrated en masse, but was instead individually ex perienced, for it meant the temporary separation of soul from body and a period of psychic incubation in the Mystery precincts themselves.
SCIENCE also was twofold, sacred (spiritual) and secular: but even secular sciences which pertained to the material world alone, such as mathematics and astronomy, were looked upon as revelations of Divine Intelligence, and as such important to a knowledge of God.
RELIGION, also twofold, was and is in essence what has been called the Practise of the Presence of God: i.e. Mysticism. This in cluded the expansion of consciousness through many illuminations until the ultimate Reality was reached. Its secondary or outer aspect was Theology, which sought to explain the mystic experience and degenerated into the credo of blind faith and obedience to authority.
In the New Age Mysteries of Aquaria, these three activities of the human spirit will again be united to produce great Mystery Schools which will function in full sight of men, and their graduates — or Initiates — will be recognized for what they are, no longer cloaked in secrecy and anonymity as in the present day.
Again in the Aquarian Age the basic activity of the Mystery School will be, as signified by the Autumn Equinox falling in the constellation Leo during that Age, the drama. In past ages the four Sacred Seasons were celebrated almost wholly on the physical plane, as they appeared geographically at various locales on the earth's surface; but in the future the New Mysteries will be celebrated pri marily as celestial festivals, correlated with their sidereal phenomena: for the New Age will leap out into space, to other planets and to other stars, and earth life will consequently be viewed relative to the other bodies of our universe. The egos which are now entering incarnation are plainly preparing themselves for such an era of superterrestrial life: no longer are western stories the favorites of our children but stories of adventures in space and time; not the cowboy with his gun bµt the space traveller and air wanderer. These are signs of things to come.
Signs of things to come, also, are the many youngsters who experiment with hypnotism with their playmates and conduct experiments with mesmerism and telepathy. This suggests a less desirable aspect of New Age conditions which must be controlled by the lni tiate leaders of the race of tomorrow.
The Mystery School of the Aquarian Age will teach the Science of Spirit, the Gnosis of metaphysics, the Art which is an expression of soul forces. the Mysticism which is the direct personal experience of the Divine Immanence; and all of this to cooperate harmoniously with the secular arts and sciences of the world.
Many of the ancient dramatic spectacles, recovered by New Age science from the scrolls of the Reflecting Ether, will be presented anew with modern techniques, and will thus be restored to a place of honor in our society such as the ancient Mysteries enjoyed.
The two greatest Mystery celebrations of ancient Greece took place at Eleusis, near Athens, and in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where Dionysus was also honored. Because of the deeply rooted influences which still, to this day, pour into the human soul from the Mysteries of Hellas, it is essential that the modern Disciple should know something of these wonderful Mysteries, mention of which has been scattered throughout the foregoing pages. Each Mystery School, even in our time, has a legend which portrays symbolically the purpose of the School and the work it seeks to accomplish. The sacred legend of the Eleusinian Mysteries pertained to Ceres ("the Mother", Demeter), Persephone, and Dionysus.
Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, had one fair daughter, Persephone. This lovely blue-eyed maiden was devoted to her mother and as Ceres was over-busy with her many tasks Persephone took it upon herself to care for all vegetation.
One bright morning Persephone, having finished her tasks, was spending the day with her nymphs in the woodland. They twined wreaths of flowers and sang joyously as they laughed and danced together. While thus making merry they heard a rustle in the bushes and looking up were frightened to see the dark, ugly face of Pluto, ruler of the dark realm, peering at them through the thick shrubbery.
They had reason to fear, for Pluto, seeing the beautiful Persephone among her maidens, longed to take her with him to share his dark and dismal throne; but knowing that she would never go with him willingly, he pushed back the branches and seized her, and bore her away in his chariot. Then lest he meet her mother and the maiden be taken from him, he struck the ground with his mighty spear and a great chasm opened into the earth. Down through this dark passageway Pluto drove his black steeds and soon arrived at his palace in the infernal regions. Here he tried to console Persephone, bestowing upon her many beautiful gifts and seating her on a handsome throne by his side to reign with him as his queen. But as the unhappy maiden was being carried down into the dark chasm, she had turned and tossed her gauzy mantle to the breezes, beseeching them to carry it to her mother.
It was many days before Ceres could find any trace of her beloved daughter. Day after day she sought her in vain. When at last the dainty mantle was laid at her feet and she was told where to find her daughter she was broken-hearted; and neglecting her duties she withdrew into a lonely cavern to grieve alone. All vegeta tion on the earth withered away, and being threatened by a dread ful famine the people implored the gods to help them. But Ceres was deaf to their cries of woe. So at last it was decided that Persephone might return to earth, provided she had eaten no food during her sojourn in the palace of Pluto. She had partaken of nothing but six pomegranate seeds, and so the gods ruled that as she had eaten six seeds in the Dark Regions she must spend that number of months there with Pluto; while during the other six she might be with her mother in the world of light.
And to this day, when Persephone returns to the upper world it is springtime, for the flowers bloom and the trees bud forth. All the earth presents itself in new foliage, and the birds trill in their gladness at her approach. But when she must leave again and re turn to the Dark Realm, joy on the earth ceases, the skies weep and all nature grieves at her departure.
This fanciful legend was given to the uninitiated as an explana tion of the cause for the annual rotation of the seasons from spring to autumn. The wise, however, understood its deeper meaning, and upon its hidden truths was founded that School of Initiation which out-shone all others in the magnificence of its sacred drama and in the multitude of its initiates; namely, the Mysteries of Eleusis.
This School, whence issued the holy and august wisdom of the ages, was divided into two sections, the Lesser Mysteries and the Greater. The former consisted of Nine Degrees which were prepara tory to the latter. Ordinarily there was a novitiate of three, and oftentimes of four or five, years. Magnificent ceremonials accompa nied the work belonging to each of the Nine Degrees.
Candidates were required to be of spotless reputation as well as of irreproachable character. During the Golden Age of Greece, it was necessary in order to hold a position of state that one be connected with either the Greater or Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis. Cicero declared that "Athens, among many excellent inventions, di vine and very useful to the human family, has produced none comparable to the Mysteries... They not only teach us to live in a manner more consoling and agreeable, but they soften the pains of death by the hope of a better life hereafter."
Gradually it came about that the non-initiated were numbered among the dishonored and were debarred from participation in all that was noble and beautiful in the life of the Athenian state, while the names of her illustrious ones were drawn from among those who observed the Equinoctial Feasts in the sacred village of Eleusis.
The Lesser Rites of Eleusis were considered to be the vesti bule of the Temple, and the Greater Rites were the Sanctuary. An early Grecian poet says that the former were but an imperfect shad ow of the latter, as sleep is of death. The Initiates of the Lesser Degrees received the name Mystes; those of the Greater Rite were called Seers.
The Lesser Mysteries, as previously stated, were divided into nine steps or grades, and commemorated the outflowing of the Great er Light in the East. They were observed at the time of the Spring Equinox and continued for nine days.
The First Degree consisted of fraternizing, and was observed on a day in which the bonds of fellowship were tested on both the inner and the outer planes. Those not capable of responding to the "Temple key" were not yet qualified for promotion into the next higher Degree.
The Second Degree introduced the purificatory processional. Clean hands and a pure heart were absolute requirements. The use of baptismal waters has always been a symbol of inner purification. In modern baptismal rites it is unfortunately true that the minister seldom possesses the power to see the condition of the candidate's inner vehicles, and so the rite loses much of its efficacy. Certain Eleusinian candidates were required to bathe seven times in Athens' sacred river, the lllysum, even as the Christ commanded in like circumstances an ablution "seven times in the Jordan". The signifi cance is the same in both instances.
The Third Degree was concerned with the Sacrifices and expiatory offerings, and had to do with the secret inner work rather than with the outer.
The Fourth Degree contained the triumphant processional which is so important a part of all initiatory work, and which is represented in the Christian Mysteries by the celebration preceding the Passion on Palm Sunday. In Eleusis the celebrants of this Degree bore in triumph a replica of the mystic wreath dropped by Persephone when she was taken away by Pluto. Sacred seed was carried in purple wrapped chests. This Degree also included work analogous to the Stations of the Cross in the Christian Mysteries, as the procession wound along the Sacred Way which led from the city up the slopes to Eleusis.
The "Station" marked a special degree of attainment and each devotee could proceed along the Path only as far as his develop ment permitted. It was the most highly advanced who could visit all "Stations". This was also true in the work of the early Church when the Passion constituted the heart of the Christian Mystery.
The Fifth Degree was that of the beautiful torch processional when each candidate lighted his torch from the "brother" who was just ahead of him. This Degree was commemorative of the search for Persephone, and together with the Fourth Degree included some of the most profound work dealing with the awakening of the latent seed by the sacred fires of Aries.
The Sixth Degree was dedicated to the ceremonial of the new life £ires represented as the young Light God, the son of Persephone. This Degree was filled with deep occult significance.
The Seventh Degree was devoted to the contests of the gym nasium, the music of the lyre and the poet's word. The victors were crowned within the Temple. "Ye are the temple of the living God" was a statement which found noble expression in the beauty, grace, and symmetry of Grecian youth. It was because physical training formed part of the Temple work that the Greeks achieved a bodily perfection such as no people have since equalled. It was, moreover, because the Temple played so prominent a part in the life of Greece that it attained a national culture which to this day remains unsur passed in all the world. The Wisdom of the Mysteries which the Greeks drew upon so freely, while now in almost complete obscurity, is still available and ready to serve the people who will receive and practice it by once again making Initiation the foundation stone of its civilization. When that occurs we shall again have a Golden Age comparable to that of ancient Hellas, but on a higher rung of the spiral of attainment.
The Eighth Degree dealt with the rites of Aesculapius, and had to do with the esoteric powers of healing. One who passed this Degree possessed the powers to "preach the Gospel, to heal the sick, and to cast out devils". It is significant that Socrates on his death bed performed the Mysteries of Aesculapius for his disciples. In other words, his final work was done to induct those of his pupils who were ready into the Rites of the Eighth Degree. "We owe it to the goddesses of Eleusis," said Socrates, "that we do not lead the wild life of the earliest man, and to them are due the flattering hopes which Initiation gives us for the moment of death and for all eternity."
The Ninth Degree was connected with the magic of transmuta tion whereby the forces of darkness could be used as the servitors of light. Two large vases, one gold and one silver, were filled with certain "divine essences" produced by the Disciple-Initiates themselves. These were set one toward the East and one toward the West, or in the directions of the lnpouring and Outpouring, respectively, of the two Equinoxes. A certain formula of mysterious prayers was pronounced above them. Both the living and the so called "dead" assembled together in this august and final Rite.
During the "Nine Holy Days" when the Mysteries were ob served, all secular business was held in abeyance. No arrests were made or prison fines imposed. No social display was allowed during this interval. The entire city of Athens and its environs were steeped in an atmosphere of holiness as citizens of high and low degree alike wended their way up the flowering slopes that led to the sacred village.
The Ninth Degree was celebrated on the Full Moon night of the equinoctical season. Easter Sunday in the Christian world is observed on the Sunday after the Full Moon which follows the Spring Equinox. This is always a time of deep mystic import and is fraught with great spiritual power for the aspirant to the higher life. The powers of polarity (Sun and Moon) are then manifest in nature and at the same time the aspirant is especially amenable to their action within himself, as we have shown in some detail in our discussion of the Spring Equinox.
What are now the corresponding Mysteries of the Western Wisdom Teaching of the Rosicrucians? The Mysteries today have no outer equivalent, for the Church repudiates Initiation; and Masonry, though it still possesses the vocabulary of the Mysteries and some of the ancient rites, has lost the science which gave meaning to these things. Neither Masonry nor Church, therefore, are representative of the Rosicrucian Mysteries. Both are but shells of their former selves, and both are destined to be cast aside as life moves on into higher forms and cycles.
But on the inner planes in what is called the Soul World, the great etheric Mystery Temples are still to be found. The mightiest is that Temple of the New Jerusalem in which the Greater Mysteries are celebrated, as intimated in these pages. Seven other Temples, among which is the Temple of the Rose Cross, confer Nine Lesser Initiations. Of these Nine Lesser Mysteries, the first Seven are celebrated on the seven nights of the week; the Eighth Initiation on the nights of the New and Full Moons: and the Ninth Initiation on the nights of the Summer and Winrer Solstices.
As in the Grecian Mysteries Hermes Psychepompos was the Guide of Souls in the spiritual worlds, so in the modern Mystery School the Lords of Mercury work with the individual aspirant, pre paring him for Initiation.
There are today five Schools which give the Four Greater Mysteries. Of these Four Greater Mysteries, or Initiations, the First confers immortality (Adeptship) upon the Initiate who has already taken the Nine Initiations of the Lesser Mysteries spoken of above. This First Great Initiation raises the Initiate to godhood; but even the gods are not free. Three more Great Initiations are required before the Adept achieves complete Liberation.
The Greater Mysteries of Hellas were a foreshadowing of these Greater Mysteries of the Christ Era.
The interval of preparation between the completion of the Nine Degrees of the Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis and reception into the Greater was for most candidates generally conceded to be about five years.
Regarding the latter, the Emperor Julian wrote: "We celebrate the Greater Mysteries of Ceres and Proserpine (Persephone) at the Autumnal Equinox to obtain the help of the Gods, that the soul may not experience the malignant action of the powers of darkness that is then about to have sway and rule in nature."
Clemens of Alexandria, the renowned Initiate-teacher of the early Christians, says that what was taught in the Greater Myster ies concerned the universe and was the completion and perfection of all instruction, wherein things were seen as they were in nature and also wherein all her works were made known.
After certain preparatory tests and vigils, the candidate was inducted into the Great Initiation, a work concerned primarily with the events of the Nocturnal Mystery. In this Rite the candidate had to pass alone, calm and undismayed, through the valley of the shadow of death. This Initiation and its results had been fore shown him in the story of Persephone, who annually visited the underworld whence she later returned, bringing with her the bright ness and fruitfulness of summer, even as the candidate was to pass through the valley of the shadow into the illumination of the resurrected life.
When the final veil was rent, the last and supreme experience of the Initiate was to behold the goddess Ceres revealed in all her golden splendor, which filled the sanctuary with dazzling light and the heart of the worshipper with bliss ineffable. Always afterward he would bear with him something of that divine radiance, and would, under all circumstances, be able to receive counsel and wisdom from the Mother Goddess.
The Christian Mysteries followed a like procedure. Christ Jesus passed from the Cross into the darkness of hell, there to work with its anguished spirits before He knew the triumph of Resurrection Morn. The holy men and women of the Gospel story participated with Him in these mystic Rites.
In the Greater Mystery of Eleusis the final or Resurrection Rite was known as the Degree of Perfection. Here the Initiate came face to face with the workings of nature and was able to comprehend something of the full significance of the Sacred Seasons. In harmony with the ebb and flow of nature's life, he perceived the span of darkness which means physical existence and the span of light which is liberation from the body and entrance into the heaven worlds. Thus he learned that to be born means really to die, and that to die is to be born again. The real object of Initiation is to partake of the waters of eternal life here and now, so that consciousness may henceforth continue without interruption, and death (forgetfulness, Lethe) overtake it no more. This was Paul's attainment when he described the natural and the celestial bodies, and sang in jubilant realization, "O death, where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory?"
An Initiate of the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries has written: "I approached the abode of death; with my foot I pressed the thres hold of Persephone's Palace; l was transported through the elements and back again. At midnight I saw the bright light of the sun shin ing. I stood in the presence of the Gods, the exalted of Heaven, and the shades below stood near and worshipped."
The worship accorded to Ceres, the Madonna of Grain, throughout Greece was due to the fact that this goddess represented Virgo, the Virgin of the Sky, who holds the secrets of fecundation and germination, as symbolized in her familiar emblem, the sheaf of wheat. These secrets she imparted to her best-loved sons and daughters who proved worthy to follow Her into the sanctum of the Mysteries.
Virgo, the zodiacal Mother Goddess, was the guardian deity of Greece. It was her feminine influence that led the Greeks to become the world's foremost worshippers at the shrine of beauty. So exquisite and ethereal are Her emanations that as humanity sank deeper into materiality her divine inspiration was lost in the en croaching grossness. With the coming Sixth Race, however, Grecian egos will reincarnate in their numbers, and once more under the tutelage of Virgo they will attain to great heights in the ministry of the beautiful.
Birth, death, resurrection, and ascension — these are the alter nating notes of the four Holy Seasons, and they are also the keys to Initiation in the Christ Mysteries. The cosmic world drama which is enacted from year to year is a struggle for supremacy between the forces of light and darkness, of life and death, of wisdom and ignorance.
Upon the alternating rhythms of the fall and the resurrection of the Cosmic Life Force the Eleusinian Initiation was formulated, representative of the mystic death and the mystic liberation. "His death brings about your salvation," the High Priest intoned in the ceremonial.
The seed must die before it can bring forth fruit, Paul said. This correspondence between the simple and the sublime, the familiar and the unfamiliar, has served as the key to the Mysteries from the days of early Egypt down to our own Christian era. Persephone is sacrificed that both men and nature may be born anew through the triumphant glory of the Resurrection.
Thus the candidate representative of Dionysus or Christ (Dionysus means Son of God), whether he be Greek or Christian, learns to descend into Hades, there to rescue the lost Virgin of the Skies, "the fallen Feminine Principle", and to consummate the Rites of the Mystic Marriage with Persephone, thus bringing life and beauty to nature, and the joy and gladness of eternal life to the soul.
"They whom Persephone guides in her Mysteries, who imbibe her instruction and spiritual nourishment, rest from their labors and know strife no more. Happy are they who witness and comprehend the sacred ceremonial! They partake of a benefit more valuable and enduring than the grain bestowed by Ceres: for they are exalted in the scale of intellectual existence, and obtain sweet hopes to console them after death."
— Corinne Heline
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