Greek Mysteries, Mythos and the Five Ages

[Lakonian]

We all know the word myth in Greek means an oral tradition, one which was passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Plato considered the myths as "vehicles of great truths well worth the seeking." Even Ruskin( anglo poet) declared that "to the mean person the myth always meant little to the noble person, much."

We of the present day are content to accept a monkey as our ancestor ( i fall trap to Darwinism aswell), but our proud ancestors traced their lineage to the Gods. These gods were divided into three distinct classes: the Immortals, who dwelt on Mount Olympus; the inferior gods, who animated Nature; and the demi-gods, half mortal and half immortal. Here we have the three lines of evolution -- Monadic, physical, and intellectual.

The meaning of the myths depends on the personification of the gods, which may be any of the following: of the noumena of the intelligent powers of nature of Cosmic Forces, of celestial bodies, of self-conscious gods, of psychic and spiritual powers, of Divine Kings on earth, and finally, as actual historical characters.
If our myths are interpreted from this last point of view, we will have a picture of the four races which preceded our own.....the four Races as four Ages, using the four metals -- gold, silver, bronze and iron -- to symbolize the steps of descent into materiality or lets just say, the jewish system.

The Greek Mysteries were the last surviving relics of the archaic wisdom enacted under the guidance of high Initiates. With their loss, the Dark Ages of Europe began.

Within the sacred crypts of the Mystery Schools the hidden secrets of nature and man were unfolded. Clement of Alexandria says that the evolution of the entire universe was divulged in the Greater Mysteries, "for in them was shown to the initiated Nature and all things as they are." Their moral value was stressed by Epictetus, while Plato asserted that their real object was to restore the soul to its primordial purity, that state of perfection from which it had fallen.

Herodotus said that the Mysteries were introduced into Greece by Orpheus, the son of Apollo, from whom he received his seven-stringed lyre, or the sevenfold mystery of initiation.
According to Orpheus, all things may be traced back to a great Principle to which men have tried to give a name, although it is really indescribable and ineffable. Just like the Egyptian symbolism, Orpheus speaks of this Principle as "thrice-unknown darkness,like a void, in the contemplation of which all knowledge is refunded into ignorance." Proclus, one of the most scholarly commentators on the philosophy of Orpheus, says he taught that a progeny of principles issued from the original Principle, each one of which was stamped with the occult characters of Divinity.

I for one believe that these mysteries either taught, or revealed the secret to the principle, or the one....the universe.The Orphic system describes the Great Year of the Universe, at the end of which "Kronos squares the account of the gods, and re-assumes dominion of the most primeval Darkness." Orpheus declares that man's evolution is accomplished by means of innumerable reincarnations. Plutarch expresses the opinion that the myth of Dyonisus (which means twice born), which was enacted in the Orphic Mysteries, is a sacred narrative concerning reincarnation.I have read in the sixth book of the Aeneid, which is an allegorical record of some of the Mystery rites,and Virgil speaks of the time elapsing between earth lives:

All these souls, after they have passed away a thousand years, are summoned by the divine ones in great array, to the Lethean river. In this way they become forgetful of the former earth-life, and re-visit the vaulted realms of the world, willing to return again into living bodies.

Now if you have read Platos Republic, book X, in a section where he speaks about the death of Er, his soul comes across the river of forgetfulness.

The oldest Mystery School of Greece was situated on the island of Samothrace, which was first colonized by the Pelasgians, who as we know were the first settlers of Greece. The most famous of the Mystery Schools, and the last to be destroyed, was the Eleusinian, located in the hamlet of Eleusis, not far from Athens.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were divided into the Lesser and the Greater. The former were held at Agrae where, after a period of probation, the neophytes were known as the Mystae, or the "veiled." The latter were held at Eleusis, and those who were initiated therein were known as the Epoptae, or those who saw "face to face."
This sort of divine interview between mortal and gods demonstrated the bliss of the soul which had been purified through spiritual vision and Self-realization.You probably have heard of Gnothoun safton...know thyself.....and you will know the secrets of the universe?

Now there where rules before these secrets where revealed, the first task undertaken by the probationary disciples at Agrae was that of purification: "For the Mysteries are not imparted to all who are willing to be initiated. It is necessary that those who are not excluded from initiation should first undergo certain Purifications." (Theon of Smyrna: Mathematica.) In this degree of the Mysteries the student learned to control his appetites, to restrain his emotions, to discipline his mind through the study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Only when the lower nature is under control, Plotinus says, "will the inner eye begin to exercise its clear and solemn vision."

The student who had passed through this period of probationary discipline successfully was then admitted to the Greater Mysteries of Eleusinia. Where at Agrae he had been permitted to see things "through a glass, darkly," he was now ready to see "face to face." Where before he had observed life through the eyes of Proserpine, the unpurified soul, he was now ready to look through the eyes of Ceres, the Higher Self. He was now prepared to have the myth of Ceres and Proserpine explained to him, and its different aspects unveiled in philosophical doctrines.

The instructions in the Greater Mysteries were given out by a high Initiate who was known as the Hierophant, or Interpreter. He was a sage, bound to celibacy, who devoted his entire time to this holy task. None of the students contacted him personally, and no one was allowed to mention him by name. The instructions were read from a book made of two stone tablets, known as the Petroma. They were imparted to the candidate orally, "at low breath," and were received under the pledge of secrecy, the breaking of which meant death. I guess this whre the term mysteria came from.

The initiations took place in dark underground crypts, and were described as the "descent into Hades." After remaining in "Hades" for three days and nights, the candidate was then transported into the "Elysian Fields," after which he was considered as "one newly born," an Epoptes. This compound word means a spectator and a Master Builder. The latter title, as found in Freemasonry, came directly from the Mysteries. When St. Paul spoke of himself as a Master Builder, he declared himself an Initiate of the Mysteries, having the right to initiate others.

The first initiation of the Mysteries was that of purification. The second was called the "tradition of the mystery." The third was known as "inspection." The fourth was called the "binding of the head and the fixing of the crowns," which Plato says is equivalent to having the ability to lead others to knowledge. The fifth and most awe-inspiring of the Mystery rites is described as "friendship and interior communion with God." Plato says that in that initiation he found himself liberated from the body and united with his Higher Self. At that time, he says, he became the spectator of "blessed visions, resident in pure light." Proclus hints as to what these visions really were by declaring that the gods "exhibit themselves in many forms and appear in a variety of shapes."
The Mysteries were not designed merely to initiate a chosen few into the secrets of nature, setting them apart from the rest of mankind. Their true purpose was rather to enable students to acquire an understanding of the ancient wisdom in order to be the better able to help and teach others. Every one initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries, therefore, bound himself by the age old pledge: "I swear to give up my life for the salvation of my brothers, who constitute the whole of mankind, and, if called upon, to die in the defense of truth."

Fascinating to say the least.

Il point out here aswell that as time went on, the mysteries faded, probably right after Platos death. The iniciates where asked to pay a fee!! And then Christianity came, saw the money bag, and the rest is history.

Its realy sad when dark skepticism will constantly interpose its threatening, ugly shadow between the truth and the spiritual vision of mankind; and many are those who, infected by the mortal epidemic of our century,hopeless materialism,will remain in doubt and mortal agony as to whether, when man dies, he will live again, although the question has been solved by long bygone generations of sages. The answers are there.

Call me crazy, but if you believe christ walked on water, then you can believe greeks walking down a narrow cold and dark hall, and seeing the meaning of life.....we all know it was more complex than that. I strongly believe myth hold secrets, ignorance cannot comprehend.....im ashamed that i myself cannot see past the physical interpretations of the gods.....its a harder task for us to reveal the truth i say.

Kostas (Lakonian)

[Lakonian]

Heres a translated piece from Iamblichus's (neoplatonist) works:

IN the first place, therefore, you ask me to explain to you distinctly, "what that is which is effected in the foreknowledge of future events?" Immediately, however, that which you endeavour to learn is impossible. For, according to the meaning of your question, you think that foreknowledge is something which is generated, or subsists in becoming to be, and pertains to things which have a natural subsistence. It is not, however, one of the things which have their existence in becoming to be, nor is it effected after the manner of physical mutation, nor is it invented and devised as something useful for the purposes of life, nor in short, is it a human work, but is divine and supernatural, and is supernally sent to us from the heavens. It is also unbegotten and eternal, and spontaneously has a precedaneous subsistence.

The greatest remedy, therefore, for all such doubts is this, to know the principle of divination, that it neither originates from bodies, nor from the passions about bodies, nor from a certain nature, and the powers about nature, nor from any human apparatus, or the habits pertaining to it. But neither does it originate from a certain art, externally acquired, about a certain part of such things as are subservient to life. For the whole authority of it pertains to the Gods, and is imparted by them ; it is also effected by divine works, or signs ; and it possesses divine spectacles, and scientific theorems. All other things, however, are subjected as instruments to the gift of foreknowledge transmitted from the Gods; viz. such things as pertain to our soul and body, and such as are in the nature of the universe, or are inexistent in particular natures. But some things are previously subjacent, as in the order of matter, such as places, or certain other things of the like kind.

If some one, however, dismissing primordial causes, should refer divination to secondary offices, such as the motions of bodies, or the mutations of passions, or certain other motions, or the energies of human life, or animal or physical reasons, and should think that in so doing he asserts something manifest ; or if, considering the symmetries of these with reference to each other, as causes, he should apprehend that he can assign something accurate concerning divination, he wholly deviates from the truth. But the one right boundary, and the one principle of all these particulars, is by no means to produce without a cause the foreknowledge of futurity, from things which have no prescience in themselves, but to survey from the Gods who contain in themselves the terminations of all the knowledge of beings, divination distributed about the whole world, and about all the natures that are separately contained in it. For such a cause as this is primordial, and is especially most common, containing in itself primarily those things which it gives to its participants, and particularly imparting truth, of which divination is in want ; and antecedently comprehending the essence and cause of future events, from which foreknowledge necessarily and incessantly proceeds. Let such a principle as this, therefore, be the origin in common of all divination, from which it is possible to discover scientifically all the species of it; which we shall now unfold, conformably to the questions proposed by you.

CONCERNING the divination, therefore, which takes place in sleep, you say as follows : "We frequently obtain through dreams, when we are asleep, a knowledge of future events, not being in an ecstasy, through which we are much agitated, for the body is quiet, but we do not apprehend what we see in the same clear manner as when we are awake." It is usual, however, for what you here say, to happen in human dreams, and in dreams which are excited by the soul, or by some of our conceptions, or by reason, or by imaginations, or certain diurnal cares. And these, indeed, are sometimes true and sometimes false ; and in some things they apprehend reality, but in many deviate from it. But the dreams which are denominated theopemptoi, or sent from God, do not subsist after the manner which you mention; but they take place either when sleep is leaving us, and we are beginning to awake, and then we hear a certain voice, which concisely tells us what is to be done; or voices are heard by us, between sleeping and waking, or when we are perfectly awake. And sometimes, indeed, an invisible and incorporeal spirit surrounds the recumbents, so as not to be perceived by the sight, but by a certain other cosensation and intelligence. The entrance of this spirit, also, is accompanied with a noise, and he diffuses himself on all sides without any contact, and effects admirable works conducive to the liberation of the passions of the soul and body. But sometimes a bright and tranquil light shines forth, by which the sight of the eyes is detained, and which occasions them to become closed, though they were before open. The other senses, however, are in a vigilant state, and in a certain respect have a cosensation of the light unfolded by the Gods; and the recumbents hear what the Gods say, and know, by a consecutive perception, what is then done by them. This, however, is beheld in a still more perfect manner, when the sight perceives, when intellect, being corroborated, follows what is performed, and this is accompanied with the motion of the spectators. Such, therefore, and so many being the differences of these dreams, no one of them is similar to human dreams. But wakefulness,* a detention of the eyes, a similar oppression of the head, a condition between sleeping and waking, an instantaneous excitation, or perfect vigilance, are all of them divine indications, and are adapted to the reception of the Gods. They are also sent by the Gods, and a part of divine appearances antecedes according to things of this kind.

Take away, therefore, from divine dreams, among which also divination is contained, "the being asleep," and also the assertion, "that we do not apprehend what we see in sleep, in the same clear manner as when we are awake." For the Gods are no less clearly present with us in these dreams than when we are awake. And, if it be requisite to speak the truth, the presence of the Gods, in the former case, is necessarily clearer and more accurate, and produces a more perfect perception than in the latter. Some, therefore, not knowing these indications of prophetic dreams, and conceiving that they have something in common with human dreams, rarely and casually obtain a foreknowledge of futurity, and in consequence of this, reasonably doubt how dreams contain any truth. And this, also, appears to me to disturb you, in consequence of your not knowing the true indications of dreams. It is necessary, however, that, admitting these to be the elements of the true knowledge of dreams, you should attend to the whole of the discussion concerning divination in sleep.


For Iamblichus ,divine dreams are not produced in sleep, but either when sleep leaves us, or between sleeping and waking, or when we are perfectly awake. The necessity of this emendation is also evident from what Iamblichus shortly after adds, viz. that we must take away from divine dreams the being asleep, like being in a profound sleep.