The Mysteries

 

Dual Character of the Mysteries

The whole essence of truth cannot be transmitted from mouth to ear. Nor can any pen describe it, not even that of the recording Angel, unless man finds the answer in the sanctuary of his own heart, in the innermost depths of his divine intuitions. It is through personal experience that knowledge is gained.

How are those "innermost depths" to be sounded, so that knowledge of reality may be won? It is won through training, discipline, and self-born wisdom. Such training and soul-discipline is the distinguishing mark of the Mystery colleges, which since their inauguration have been divided into two parts: the exoteric form commonly known as the Lesser Mysteries, open to all sincere and honourable candidates for deeper learning; and the esoteric form, or the Greater Mysteries, whose doors open but to the few and whose initiation into adeptship is the reward of those whose interior nobility enables them to undergo the solar rite.

Universal testimony of stone and papyrus, symbol and allegory, cave and crypt, tells of the twofold trial of neophytes. Jesus the Avataras spoke to the multitudes in parable, but "when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples" (Mark 4:34). The Essenes had their greater and minor Mysteries, in the former of which Jesus of Nazareth is believed to have been initiated.

The Chinese Buddhists hold to a well-loved tradition that Buddha Gautama had two doctrines: one for the people and his lay-disciples; the other for his arhats. His invariable principle was to refuse no one admission into the ranks of candidates for Arhatship, but never to divulge the final mysteries except to those who had proved themselves, during long years of probation, to be worthy of Initiation.

Intensity of purpose marks the Hebrew initiates in their shrouding of inner teaching. To the multitude they taught the Torah, the "Law," but to the few they taught its unwritten interpretation, the "Secret Wisdom" -- hokhmah nistorah -- "in 'darkness, in a deserted place, and after many and terrific trials.' . . . Delivered only as a mystery, it was communicated to the candidate orally, `face to face and mouth to ear.' '' The Persian and Chaldean Magi also were of two castes: "the initiated and those who were allowed to officiate in the popular rites only".

Eleusis and Samothrace are limned in exquisite silhouette against the blue-black sky of history. Classical scholars tell us that the Lesser Mysteries were conducted in the springtime at Agrai near Athens, while the Greater Mysteries were celebrated in the autumn at Eleusis. In the Lesser Mysteries the candidates who experienced the first rites were called mystai (the closed of eye and mouth). In the Greater Mysteries the mystai became epoptai (the clear-seeing), who participated in the mysteries of the Divine Elysion -- i.e., communion with the divine.

Similarly, the Hindu arhat, the Scandinavian skald, and the Welsh bard guarded the soul of esotericism with the sanctity of their lives and the discipline of their sacred tradition:

Belonging to every temple there were attached the "hierophants'' of the inner sanctuary, and the secular clergy who were not even instructed in the Mysteries.

Further, in all ancient countries "every great temple had its private or secret Mystery-School which was unknown to the multitude or partially known," and which was attached to it as a secret body. A Mystery school is not necessarily a school of people situated at some specific place, with definite and fixed locality throughout time, and with physical conditions of environment always alike. Wherever the need is great, work must be done; and the "mistake of all scholars and mystics is to put too much emphasis upon places as Mystery-Schools".

What about the temples of Greece and Rome, of Syria and Judea; the cave-temples of Elephanta and Karli in India; the dagobas of Buddhist countries; the pyramids of Egypt and Peru, Mexico and Yucatan? What of Stonehenge in England; Carnac in Brittany; Sippara in Assyria; Babylon, Borsippa and Erech in Babylonia; Ecbatana in Media; Bibracte in Gaul; and last but not least, Iona in Scotland whose secret learning was as a jewel of wisdom set in the heart of the northern land? Where are they now? They are mere names, relics, remnants of forgotten splendour -- or so it would appear.

A Mystery school is not dependent on location; rather it is an association or brotherhood of spiritually disciplined individuals bound by one common purpose, service to humanity, a service intelligently and compassionately rendered because born of love and wisdom. It is a fact, nevertheless, that certain centres appear to be more favourable to success in spiritual things than others. Why, for instance, were the ancient seats of the Mysteries almost invariably in rock-temple or subterranean cave, in forest or mountain pass, in pyramid chamber or temple crypt? Because the currents of the astral light become quieter, more peaceful, cleaner, the farther removed from the madding crowd. Rarely will one find a seat of esoteric training near a large metropolis, for such are "swirling whirlpools . . . ganglia, nerve-centres, in the lower regions of the Astral Light".

Hence the locations of the Greater Mysteries were usually carefully chosen and their schools were those which paid no attention to buildings of any kind, mainly for the reason that buildings would at once attract attention and draw public notice, which is the very thing that these more secret, more esoteric Schools tried to avoid. Thus sometimes, when the temples were mere seats of exoteric ritual, the Mystery-Schools were held apart in secret, conducting their gatherings, meetings, initiations, initiatory rites, usually in caves carefully prepared and hid from common knowledge, occasionally even under the open sky as the Druids did among the oaks in their semi-primeval forests in Britain and in Brittany; and even in a few cases having no permanent or set location; but the Initiates receiving word where to meet from time to time, and to carry on their initiatory functions.

It is the places of quiet, of peace, of strong silence, where the Adepts find themselves drawn, and where the secret or Greater Mysteries can most effectively function. There in the recesses of their initiation chambers the forces and currents are those of the higher astral light, the akasa, the tenuous substance which responds to the higher currents of spirit and intellect. In this way does the Brotherhood transmit its potent spiritual vitality to the initiation halls, and the candidate whose seven-rayed soul is attuned may receive the divine imprint.

The Lesser Mysteries

The Lesser Mysteries are a preparation of the neophyte for initiation in the Greater Mysteries through various degrees of purification and discipline combined with training in intellectual and spiritual perception. As indicated in the previous chapter, seven were the degrees usually reckoned, the first three comprising the Lesser Mysteries. The fourth degree is the turning or deciding point where those who underwent the discipline and training of the preliminary stages are put to the test of actual experience in self-identification. If the candidate passes this fourth trial successfully, he enters upon more stringent discipline and purification, and a more intimate relationship between teacher and pupil. Henceforth he is a pledged disciple, his will is set firmly to pass successfully the fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees which comprise the Greater Mysteries.

The trials of the Lesser Mysteries are comparatively simple, but as the disciple proves his earnestness and ability to stand the probationary tests, the training becomes more rigorous, the demands upon his nature more severe, and the hand of karma deals more sternly with error.

Two particular features mark the Minor Mysteries: (a) instruction in the deeper sciences of the cosmos; and (b) dramatic rites portraying that which the initiate must go through without outside help in the Greater Mysteries. In the Eleusinian mysteries, for example, the sacred rites acted as a spiritual aid in stimulating the candidate to live the higher life, as well as familiarizing him with the routes of the initiatory process.

To witness or participate in a drama is quite different from suffering the actual experience; even so, this serves as preliminary fortification to the neophyte when the time comes for the greater initiations. The Lesser Mysteries have been known and recognized by the keenest minds of all ages as institutions of higher learning for those who had proved themselves worthy and fit.

From the Mystery schools, knowledge of truth permeates the mental strata of the surrounding country, as initiates in the preliminary degrees mingle with the world. In Greece and Rome, nearly all the great men of historic note were initiates of one or more degrees of the Lesser Mysteries. This did not pertain to murderers or conquerors by the sword, for almost universally these were not initiates of the Mysteries, although in the declining days of the Roman Empire many applicants of indifferent calibre underwent the introductory rites in a more or less perfunctory fashion.

In fact, the Mysteries in olden times were regarded so highly that preparation for entrance was deemed the most royal gift a father could bequeath his sons. At the age of seven years, boys were received and disciplined in heart and mind, so that on reaching adulthood they either took their places in the world and exerted an edifying influence among the people; or if they were especially favoured by right of inner fitness, they remained within the Sanctuary and passed as far as they could into the Greater Mysteries. Certain ones were trained for the sole purpose of teaching the laws of life in seats of higher learning; others received the preliminary rites in order to prepare them to govern the State with equanimity and honour. Still others underwent the discipline and purification of the first degrees and then devoted their lives to bringing beauty to mankind, whether in sculpture or colour, in verse or harmony. Thus did these early civilizations ripen in spiritual things under the guidance of initiated philosophers and statesmen, artists, and musicians.

Many branches of the arts and sciences were taught in the Lesser Mysteries, notably geography, astronomy, chemistry, physiology, psychology, geology, meteorology, as well as music, the "most divine and spiritual of arts"; similarly art and architecture were studied, whose lost "canon of proportion" immortalized the Greek temples. These sciences were held as secret studies of the Mysteries, not because they would not have been understood if taught as schools and universities teach them today, but because such sciences and arts were studied from their causal rather than their effectual aspect.

Much derision has been cast on the ancients for withholding knowledge that even a child can understand in its simpler forms. Certainly the simpler forms were taught openly, but their occult background was kept rigidly secret (as it is even now, though the world at large little dreams of this fact) as fit only for those who would not misuse the knowledge obtained. Can as much wisdom be shown today when, as soon as scientists discover some new device, opportunity is instantly found to turn that invention to destructive uses? One is driven to admire the strength and wisdom of the ancients who knew better than to turn knowledge over indiscriminately to those lacking moral control. With all our boasted superiority, we have not yet caught up on all lines with the scientific knowledge of our ancient forebears.

If modern masters are so much in advance of the old ones, why do they not restore to us the lost arts of our postdiluvian forefathers? Why do they not give us the unfading colours of Luxor -- the Tyrian purple; the bright vermilion and dazzling blue which decorate the walls of this place, and are as bright as on the first day of their application? The indestructible cement of the pyramids and of ancient aqueducts; the Damascus blade, which can be turned like a corkscrew in its scabbard without breaking; the gorgeous, unparalleled tints of the stained glass that is found amid the dust of old ruins and beams in the windows of ancient cathedrals; and the secret of the true malleable glass? And if chemistry is so little able to rival even with the early mediaeval ages in some arts, why boast of achievements which, according to strong probability, were perfectly known thousands of years ago? The more archaeology and philology advance, the more humiliating to our pride are the discoveries which are daily made, the more glorious testimony do they bear in behalf of those who, perhaps on account of the distance of their remote antiquity, have been until now considered ignorant flounderers in the deepest mire of superstition.

In the Mysteries, geography was not merely a study of topography; rather the periodical risings and sinking of continents was the subject of investigation in accordance with the cyclic events of racial history; secret centres of the earth were learned of, and our intimate relation to the two poles and the four points of the compass.

The two poles are called the right and left ends of our globe -- the right being the North Pole -- or the head and feet of the earth. Every beneficent (astral and cosmic) action comes from the North; every lethal influence from the South Pole. They are much connected with and influence "right" and "left" hand magic.

Meteorology was the study of the currents of wind and rain, not from the effectual standpoint, but as bearing streams of vital energy from all parts of the solar system and beyond. Lightning and thunder, etc., were not merely electromagnetic phenomena -- words that are accurate enough, yet unless occultly understood convey little more than a statement of effects produced. When considered from the causal aspect they are seen to be outer manifestations of interior forces bursting from cosmic space into our atmosphere and affecting the lives of earth.

In Chaldea, Egypt, Mexico and Peru, Wales, Iceland, and India, astrology was regarded with veneration. Its deeper teachings were transmitted from mouth to ear, so sacred and profoundly spiritual were they then considered. Mere fortune-telling and other similar trifles were held vulgar in the eyes of the hierophants. The recognized influences of the sun and planets upon human beings were not viewed as simply mechanical, compelling individuals to this or that character or mode of conduct. Such interchange of planetary and solar life energies among terrestrial beings was understood as springing from our common galactic heritage. The septenary nature of the planets was taken into account in reckoning septenary human nature. Hence the intermingling of life-atoms from the various planetary systems with the earth, and vice versa, constitutes one of the major studies of esoteric astrology.

Furthermore, the science of prediction of tremendous cyclic occurrences on earth was mastered not only in India to a fine hair's breadth but also in ancient Chaldea, whose modern representatives of some four and five thousand years ago still held archaic astrology as a major characteristic of their secret Mysteries. The famous ziggurat or high tower of Borsippa in Babylonia is clear testimonial to knowledge of the sevenfold planetary influence on humanity. Called the stages of the seven spheres, each of its stories bore a different colour, representative of one of the seven sacred planets. At the top of a ziggurat was a sacred shrine, often with a table or couch of gold.

Thus what may have seemed to the public mere astronomical observatories were secret training centres within whose inner recesses esoteric astrology formed one of the important studies of the Lesser Mysteries. Medicine and surgery, physics and alchemy, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy likewise were studied from their inner standpoint. This instruction consists not in the learning by rote of scores of formulae, but in the inner perception of occult rationale, so that knowledge benevolently applied for others may in time become wisdom.

However fascinating to the imagination and of whatever degree of intellectual and psychic stimulation to the neophyte were these studies, they were not the major aim of the Mysteries. Behind all training of the mind was the impelling urge for soul purification through discipline and contemplation. As stimulus and guidance, dramatic presentations were given of the descent of the candidate into the underworld, his trial in the nether regions through meeting and conquering himself, his ascent into the stream of life and light, culminating in final communion and "friendship" with the divinities. So effective were the dramatic rites that participation in them constituted a signal part of the initiatory training in preparation for the Greater Mysteries.

Comparison of the ritual of the Lesser Mysteries, as practiced in the ancient world with slight variations of detail, reveals the universal story of the descent into the underworld in the symbol of the wheat or corn deity. The seed or grain represents the candidate. As the seed enters into the dark regions of the moist earth, many are the difficulties of soil and environment to contend with; it "dies" in giving birth to root and stalk. Finally, as the period of germination expires, tender shoots of the grain sprout above the surface of the earth, and in time the seed-that-was bursts forth in flower with the aid of sun and rain. In like manner the candidate "dies" in the regions of the underworld, the lower spheres, where he meets and conquers the difficulties of environment; shedding his impermanent self, he dies in giving birth to budding masterhood. At the appropriate hour, the disciple-that-was rises to the spheres of light and life; taken into the presence of other plants of divinity, he finds friendship with the gods and blooms into the full flower of adepthood.

Thus is dramatized in esoteric imagery the spiritual travail of those "giving birth to themselves"  as an ancient manuscript describes the birth of the adept within the neophyte, the supreme initiation.

The Greater Mysteries

The Greater Mysteries entered upon by the neophyte, after the successful consummation of the preliminary degrees, constitute the becoming by individual experience of that which had been learned in the Lesser Mysteries. In this higher department of esoteric training, no quarter is given. The neophyte must face himself and conquer -- or die. All the stretches of his complex nature, from the divinely inspired to the grossly material, must be investigated and controlled. By this time the aspirant must have developed sufficient spiritual stamina to withstand reality. He must become nature in her lower and higher regions, pass the supreme test of self-identification, and yet retain his soul integrity.

Even as late as the second century, the rites of the Egyptian Mysteries, however modified by Greek influence, were carried on with due and appropriate reverence. Disciples from surrounding countries sought initiation there as a fitting advancement following their own ceremonies. Apuleius, Latin Platonic philosopher, describes in his Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, the initiation in the Mysteries of Isis of one Lucius Patras, now uniformly believed to be Apuleius himself:

Hear, then, and believe, for what I tell is true. I drew nigh to the confines of death, I trod the threshold of Proserpine [Hades], and I was borne through all the elements and returned to earth again. I saw the sun gleaming with bright splendour at dead of night; I approached the gods above, and the gods below, and worshipped them face to face. Behold, I have told thee things of which, though thou hast heard them, thou must yet know naught.

I will recount, therefore, only that which may without sin be imparted to the understanding of the uninitiated. As soon as it was morning and the rites were accomplished, I came forth clothed in the twelve cloaks that are worn by the initiate, a raiment that is most holy. . . . The precious cloak hung from my shoulders down my back, even to my heels, and I was adorned, where ever thou mightest cast thine eye, with the figures of beasts broidered round about in diverse colours. . . . This cloak the initiates call the cloak of Olympus. In my right hand I bore a torch flaming with fire, and my head was garlanded with a fair crown of spotless palm, whose leaves stood out like rays . . . adorned as the sun and set up like to the image of a god.

In the Greater Mysteries, the passage into the underworld ceases to be a mere ritual of the Lesser Mysteries in which the candidate participates. He must now approach "the confines of death" with full knowledge and in the garment of soul-consciousness pass beyond the veil of visible nature into the arena of worlds invisible:

It is one of the fundamental teachings of occultism that nothing can be truly known which is not experienced, lived through. . . . Different stages or degrees of initiation are really a kind of forcing-process, for certain chosen spirits, certain chosen souls, who have proved themselves worthy: . . . These different stages or degrees of initiation are marked by preparatory purifications, first. Then came the "death," a mystic death. The body and lower principles, so to say, are paralyzed, and the soul is temporarily freed. And, to a certain extent, the freed inner man is guided and directed and helped by the initiators while it passes into other spheres and to other planes and learns the nature of these by becoming them, which is the only way by which knowledge thereof roots itself into the soul, into the ego: by becoming the thing.

This mystic death constitutes the fourth initiation, which consists not only in one's ability to receive spiritual light, but likewise in one's power to face with equanimity and awakened morality the darkness of evil. To become a thing is actually to unite one's cognizing intelligence with the essence of that being or thing; in other words, to take on the nature of such entity for the time being. Hence, to weld one's consciousness with beings in spheres lower than the human is greatly to test the stamina of the individual: will the malefic fumes of the lower spheres stifle the delicate petals of the budding adept? Will the sensuous delights of the lower hells have any attraction for the neophyte stern in his resolve? Conversely, to assume the nature of beings in spheres higher than the human calls for an equally tempered constitution: will the brilliance and splendour of truth undimmed blind the soul? Will vision of reality shatter the awakening eye of wisdom?

This fourth degree may be considered a prelude to, a minor reflection of, the final and seventh degree of initiation in which the individual must undergo the trial of identification with all spheres of being. To complete the full initiatory cycle, therefore, demands the awakening and strengthening of all seven human principles. The candidate must have so tuned his seven-stringed lyre, so energized it with spiritual harmony that it will vibrate in perfect synchrony with the spiritual essence of the seven principles or spheres of the cosmos. The degrees of an Adept's initiation mark the seven stages at which he discovers the secret of the sevenfold principles in nature and man and awakens his dormant powers.

Of these higher degrees scarcely anything is known to us. This is natural, and indeed appropriate; for how could words describe that which can be understood only by the initiate? How could that which is essentially esoteric be revealed and still retain its mystic integrity? Important hints, however, have been given regarding the fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees.

In the fifth initiation, the initiate "meets his own god-self face to face, and for a longer or shorter time becomes one with it''. This degree was called by the Greeks theophany, a word signifying "divine appearance" or "showing forth of a divinity," the appearance or manifestation of man's own higher self to himself. And while in the average candidate this sublime moment of intellectual ecstasies and high vision lasted but a short time, with further spiritual progress of the candidate the theophanic communion became more enduring and lasting, until finally, ultimately, man knew himself, not merely as the offspring spiritually of his own inner god, but as that inner god itself, in his essential being.

The sixth initiation was consummated as the inevitable course of events following upon the successful spiritualization of the entire nature. This was called theopneusty by the Greeks -- a word literally signifying "god-breathing" or "divine inspiration" -- where the disciple felt the inbreathing from his own inner god and became, thus, inspired, the very word inspiration meaning "inbreathing." With the passing of time and the greater purification of the soul-vehicle, which is man himself, this inbreathing or inspiration became permanent. -- Ibid.

In this degree "the inner god of the candidate breathes down into him, for a longer or shorter time, depending upon his advancement, the wisdom and the knowledge of all the universe . . ."; and "in the sixth degree, instead of one's own Higher Self, the initiate meets another One, . . .".

Then comes the seventh and last of the degrees of initiation before masterhood is achieved. This initiation usually took place at the winter solstice. The ancient pagan initiates considered the four points of the year, the winter and summer solstices and the spring and autumnal equinoxes, as representative of holy workings in the cosmos. The birth of the sun at the beginning of the year symbolized to them the mystic birth of the initiate, and it is significant that nearly all the great world saviours, such as Jesus the Christ, Krishna the Avatara, Apollonius of Tyana, and others, celebrate their "birthdays" at this sacred time: the rebirth of the solar deity.

This seventh degree, which is called theopathy -- a Greek word meaning "god-suffering" or "divine- enduring" -- is the most sublime mystery of all, . . . the initiate, the candidate, suffered himself to become, abandoned himself fully to be, a truly selfless channel of communication of his own inner god, his own higher self; he became lost as it were in the greater self of his own higher self.

Few indeed are those whose soul strength is so great that they can suffer in fullness the presence of divinity. This is the reward of the highest adepts, those whose sacrifice and wisdom surround humanity with a guardian wall diamond-like in compassion and protection.

In the seventh degree, the neophyte passes the portals of the sun; "he becomes for a passing moment the Wondrous Watcher himself ''. The solar initiation is complete: the neophyte dies, and the hierophant is born.

 

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