The Mysteries

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The Mysteries

An individual who followed such a 'Mystery' was a mystes "one who has been initiated," from myein "to close, shut," a reference to secrecy (closure of "the eyes and mouth") or that only initiates were allowed to observe and participate in rituals. Mysteries were often supplements to civic religion, rather than competing alternatives of such, and that is the reason these are referred by many scholars as "mystery cults" rather than religions.

The Mysteries were thus cults in which all religious functions were closed to the non-inducted and for which the inner-working of the cult were kept secret from the general public. Although there are no other formal qualifications, mystery cults were also characterized by their lack of an orthodoxy and scripture. Religions that were practiced in secret only in order to avoid religious persecution are not by default Mysteries.

The mysteries were indeed secret cults, to which only certain initiated people were admitted after a period of preliminary preparation. After this initial period of purification came-the mystic communication or exhortation, then the revelation to the neophyte of certain holy things, the crowning with the garlands, and lastly the communion with the deity. But the mysteries appear to have circled round the semi-dramatic representation or mystery-play of the life of a deity.
The Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries are undoubtedly those of most importance to the occult student; and from the results of archaeology, such as vase-painting and so forth, we have been able to glean some general idea of the trend of these.

The celebration of the mysteries, so far as can be gleaned, was somewhat as follows: In the month of September, the Eleusinian Holy Things were taken from the sacred city to Athens, and placed in the Eleusinion. These probably consisted to some extent of small statues of the goddesses. Three days afterwards the catechumens assembled to hearken to the exhortation of one of the priests, in which those who were for any reason unworthy of initiation were solemnly warned to depart. All must be Greeks or Romans above a certain age, and women and even slaves were admitted; but foreigners and criminals might not partake. The candidates were questioned as to their purification, and especially as regards the food which they had eaten during that period. After this assembly, they betook themselves to the sea-shore and bathed in the sea, being sprinkled afterwards with the blood of pigs. A sacrifice was offered up, and several days afterwards the great Eleusinian pro-session commenced its journey along the sacred way, its central figure being a statue of lacchus. Many shrines were visited on the way to Eleusis, where, upon their arrival, they celebrated a midnight orgy.