arrangement of the world, was used for the reception of the Initiates.
Zoroaster, says Eubulus, first introduced this custom of consecrating
caves. They were also consecrated, in Crete, to Jupiter; in Arcadia, to
the Moon and Pan; and in the Island of Naxos, to Bacchus. The Persians,
in the cave where the Mysteries of Mithras were celebrated, fixed the
seat of that God, Father of Generation, or Demiourgos, near the
equinoctial point of Spring, with the Northern portion of the world on
his right, and the Southern on his left.
Mithras, says Porphyry, presided over the Equinoxes, seated on a Bull,
the symbolical animal of the Demiourgos, and bearing a sword. The
equinoxes were the gates through which souls passed to and fro, between
the hemisphere of light and that or darkness. The milky way was also
represented, passing near each of these gates: and it was, in the old
theology, termed the pathway of souls. It is, according to Pythagoras,
vast troops of souls that form that luminous belt.
The route followed by souls, according to Porphyry, or rather their
progressive march in the world, lying through the fixed stars and
planets, the Mithriac cave not only displayed the zodiacal and other
constellations, and marked gates at the four equinoctial and solstitial
points of the zodiac, whereat souls enter into and escape from the world
of generations; and through which they pass to and fro between the
realms of light and darkness; but it represented the seven planetary
spheres which they needs must traverse, in descending from the heaven of
the fixed stars to the elements that envelop the earth; and seven gates
were marked, one for each planet, through which they pass, in descending
or returning.
We learn this from Celsus, in Origen; who says that the symbolical image
of this passage among the Stars, used in the Mithriac Mysteries, was a
ladder, reaching from earth to Heaven, divided into seven steps or
stages, to each of which was a gate, and at the summit an eighth, that
of the fixed stars. The first gate says Celsus, was that of Saturn, and
of lead, by the heavy nature whereof his dull slow progress was
symbolized. The second, of tin, was that of Venus, symbolizing her soft
splendor and easy flexibility. The third, of brass, was that of Jupiter,
emblem of his solidity and dry nature. The fourth, of iron, was that of
Mercury, expressing his indefatigable activity and sagacity. The fifth,
of copper, was that of Mars, expressive of his inequalities and variable
nature. The sixth, of silver, was that of the Moon: and the seventh, of
gold, that of the Sun. This order is not the real order of these
Planets; but a mysterious one, like that of the days of the Week
consecrated to them, commencing with Saturday, and _retrograding_ to
Sunday. It was dictated, Celsus says, by certain harmonic relations,
those of the fourth.
Thus there was an intimate connection between the Sacred Science of the
Mysteries, and ancient astronomy and physics; and the grand spectacle of
the Sanctuaries was that of the order of the Known Universe, or the
spectacle of Nature itself, surrounding the soul of the Initiate, as it
surrounded it when it first descended through the planetary gates, and
by the equinoctal and solstitial doors, along the Milky Way, to be for
the first time immured in its prison-house of matter. But the Mysteries
also represented to the candidate, by sensible symbols, the invisible
forces which move this visible Universe, and the virtues, qualities, and
powers attached to matter, and which maintain the marvellous order
observed therein. Of this Porphyry informs us.
The world, according to the philosophers of antiquity, was not a purely
material and mechanical machine. A great Soul, diffused everywhere,
vivified all the members of the immense body of the Universe; and an
Intelligence, equally great, directed all its movements, and maintained
the eternal harmony that resulted therefrom. Thus the Unity of the
Universe, represented by the symbolic egg, contained in itself two
units, the Soul and the Intelligence, which pervaded all its parts: and
they were to the Universe, considered as an animated and intelligent
being, what intelligence and the soul of life are to the individuality
of man.
The doctrine of the Unity of God, in this sense, was taught by Orpheus.
Of this his hymn or palinode is a proof; fragments of which are quoted
by many of the Fathers, as Justin, Tatian, Clemens of Alexandria, Cyril,
and Theodoret, and the whole by Eusebius, quoting from Aristobulus. The
doctrine of the LOGOS (word) or the Noos (intellect), his incarnation,
death, resurrection or transfiguration; of his union with matter, his
division in the visible world, which he pervades, his return to the
original Unity, and the whole theory relative to the origin of the soul
and its destiny, were taught in the Mysteries, of which they were the
great object.
The Emperor Julian, explains the Mysteries of Atys and Cybele by the
same metaphysical principles, respecting the demiurgical Intelligence,
its descent into matter, and its return to its origin: and extends this
explanation to those of Ceres. And so likewise does Sallust the
Philosopher, who admits in God a secondary intelligent Force, which
descends into the generative matter to organize it. These mystical ideas
naturally formed a part of the sacred doctrine and of the ceremonies of
initiation, the object of which, Sallust remarks, was to unite man with
the World and the Deity; and the final term of perfection whereof was,
according to Clemens, the contemplation of nature, of real beings, and
of causes. The definition of Sallust is correct. The Mysteries were
practised as a means of perfecting the soul, of making it to know its
own dignity, of reminding it of its noble origin and immortality, and
consequently of its relations with the Universe and the Deity, what was
meant by _real_ beings, was _invisible_ beings, _genii_, the _faculties_
or _powers_ of nature; everything not a part of the _visible_ world,
which was called, by way of opposition, _apparent_ existence. The theory
of Genii, or Powers of Nature, and its Forces, personified, made part of
the Sacred Science of initiation, and of that religious spectacle of
different beings exhibited in the Sanctuary. It resulted from that
belief in the providence and superintendence of the Gods, which was one
of the primary bases of initiation. The administration of the Universe
by Subaltern Genii, to whom it is confided, and by whom good and evil
are dispensed in the world, was a consequence of this dogma, taught in
the Mysteries of Mithras, where was shown that famous egg, shared
between Ormuzd and Ahriman, each of whom commissioned twenty-four Genii
to dispense the good and evil found therein; they being under twelve
Superior Gods, six on the side of Light and Good and six on that of
Darkness and Evil.
This doctrine of the Genii, depositaries of the Universal Providence,
was intimately connected with the Ancient Mysteries, and adopted in the
sacrifices and initiations both of Greeks and Barbarians. Plutarch says
that the Gods, by means of Genii, who are intermediates between them and
men, draw near to mortals in the ceremonies of initiation, at which the
Gods charge them to assist, and to distribute punishment and blessing.
Thus not the Deity, but His ministers, or a Principle and Power of Evil,
were deemed the authors of vice and sin and suffering: and thus the
Genii or angels differed in character like men, some being good and some
evil; some Celestial Gods, Archangels, Angels, and some Infernal Gods,
Demons and fallen Angels.
At the head of the latter was their Chief, Typhon, Ahriman, or Shaitan,
the Evil Principle; who, having wrought disorder in nature, brought
troubles on men by land and sea, and caused the greatest ills, is at
last punished for his crimes. It was these events and incidents, says
Plutarch, which Isis desired to represent in the ceremonial of the
Mysteries, established by her in memory of her sorrows and wanderings,
whereof she exhibited an image and representation in her Sanctuaries,
where also were afforded encouragements to piety and consolation in
misfortune. The dogma of a Providence, he says, administering the
Universe by means of intermediary Powers, who maintain the connection of
man with the Divinity, was consecrated in the Mysteries of the
Egyptians, Phrygians, and Thracians, of the Magi and the Disciples of
Zoroaster; as is plain by their initiations, in which mournful and
funereal ceremonies mingled. It was an essential part of the lessons
given the Initiates, to teach them the relations of their own souls with
Universal Nature, the greatest lessons of all, meant to dignify man in
his own eyes, and teach him his place in the Universe of things.
Thus the whole system of the Universe was displayed in all its parts to
the eyes of the Initiate; and the symbolic cave which represented it was
adorned and clothed with all the attributes of that Universe. To this
world so organized, endowed with a double force, active and passive,
divided between light and darkness, moved by a living and intelligent
Force, governed by Genii or Angels who preside over its different parts,
and whose nature and character are more lofty or low in proportion as
they possess a greater or less portion of dark matter,--to this world
descends the soul, emanation of the ethereal fire, and exiled from the
luminous region above the world. It enters into this dark matter,
wherein the hostile Principles, each seconded by his troops of Genii,
are ever in conflict, there to submit to one or more organizations in
the body which is its prison, until it shall at last return to its place
of origin, its true native country, from which during this life it is an
exile.
But one thing remained,--to represent its return, through the
constellations and planetary spheres, to its original home. The
celestial fire, the philosophers said, soul of the world and of fire, an
universal principle, circulating above the Heavens, in a region
infinitely pure and wholly luminous, itself pure, simple, and unmixed,
is above the world by its specific lightness. If any part of it (say a
human soul) descends, it acts against its nature in doing so, urged by
an inconsiderate desire of the intelligence, a perfidious love for
matter which causes it to descend, to know what passes here below, where
good and evil are in conflict. The Soul, a simple substance, when
unconnected with matter, a ray or particle of the Divine Fire, whose
home is in Heaven, ever turns toward that home, while united with the
body, and struggles to return thither.
Teaching this, the Mysteries strove to recall man to his divine origin,
and point out to him the means of returning thither. The great science
acquired in the Mysteries was knowledge of man's self, of the nobleness
of his origin, the grandeur of his destiny, and his superiority over the
animals, which can never acquire this knowledge, and whom he resembles
so long as he does not reflect upon his existence and sound the depths
of his own nature.
By doing and suffering, by virtue and piety and good deeds, the soul was
enabled at length to free itself from the body, and ascend along the
path of the Milky Way, by the gate of Capricorn and by the seven
spheres, to the place whence by many gradations and successive lapses
and enthralments it had descended. And thus the theory of the spheres,
and of the signs and intelligences which preside there, and the whole
system of astronomy, were connected with that of the soul and its
destiny; and so were taught in the Mysteries, in which were developed
the great principles of physics and metaphysics as to the origin of the
soul, its condition here below, its destination, and its future fate.
The Greeks fix the date of the establishment of the Mysteries of Eleusis
at the year 1423 B.C., during the reign of Erechtheus at Athens.
According to some authors, they were instituted by Ceres herself; and
according to others, by that Monarch, who brought them from Egypt,
where, according to Diodorus of Sicily, he was born. Another tradition
was, that Orpheus introduced them into Greece, together with the
Dionisiac ceremonies, copying the latter from the Mysteries of Osiris,
and the former from those of Isis.
Nor was it at Athens only, that the worship and Mysteries of Isis,
metamorphosed into Ceres, were established. The Bœotians worshipped the
Great or Cabiric Ceres, in the recesses of a sacred grove, into which
none but Initiates could enter; and the ceremonies there observed, and
the sacred traditions of their Mysteries, were connected with those of
the Cabiri in Samothrace.
So in Argos, Phocis, Arcadia, Achaia, Messenia, Corinth, and many other
parts of Greece, the Mysteries were practised, revealing everywhere
their Egyptian origin and everywhere having the same general features;
but those of Eleusis, in Attica, Pausanius informs us, had been regarded
by the Greeks, from the earliest times, as being as far superior to all
the others, as the Gods are to mere Heroes.
Similar to these were the Mysteries of Bona Dea, the Good Goddess, whose
name, say Cicero and Plutarch, it was not permitted to any man to know,
celebrated at Rome from the earliest times of that city. It was these
Mysteries, practised by women alone, the secrecy of which was impiously
violated by Clodius. They were held at the Kalends of May; and,
according to Plutarch, much of the ceremonial greatly resembled that of
the Mysteries of Bakchos.
The Mysteries of Venus and Adonis belonged principally to Syria and
Phœnicia, whence they passed into Greece and Sicily. Venus or Astarte
was the Great Female Deity of the Phœnicians, as Hercules, Melkarth or
Adoni was their Chief God. Adoni, called by the Greeks Adonis, was the
lover of Venus. Slain by a wound in the thigh inflicted by a wild boar
in the chase, the flower called anemone sprang from his blood. Venus
received the corpse and obtained from Jupiter the boon that her lover
should thereafter pass six months of each year with her, and the other
six in the Shades with Proserpine; an allegorical description of the
alternate residence of the Sun in the two hemispheres. In these
Mysteries his death was represented and mourned, and after this
maceration and mourning were concluded, his resurrection and ascent to
Heaven were announced.
Ezekiel speaks of the festivals of Adonis under the name of those of
Thammuz, an Assyrian Deity, whom every year the women mourned, seated at
the doors of their dwellings. These Mysteries, like the others, were
celebrated in the Spring, at the Vernal Equinox, when he was restored to
life; at which time, when they were instituted, the Sun (ADON, Lord, or
Master) was in the Sign Taurus, the domicile of Venus. He was
represented with horns, and the hymn of Orpheus in his honor styles him
"the two-horned God;" as in Argos Bakchos was represented with the feet
of a bull.
Plutarch says that Adonis and Bakchos were regarded as one and the same
Deity; and that this opinion was founded on the great similarity in very
many respects between the Mysteries of these two Gods.
The Mysteries of Bakchos were known as the Sabazian, Orphic, and
Dionysiac Festivals. They went back to the remotest antiquity among the
Greeks, and were attributed by some to Bakchos himself, and by others to
Orpheus. The resemblance in ceremonial between the observances
established in honor of Osiris in Egypt, and those in honor of Bakchos
in Greece, the mythological traditions of the two Gods, and the symbols
used in the festivals of each, amply prove their identity. Neither the
name of Bakchos, nor the word _orgies_ applied to his feasts, nor the
sacred words Used in his Mysteries, are Greek, but of foreign origin.
Bakchos was an Oriental Deity, worshipped in the East, and his orgies
celebrated there, long before the Greeks adopted them. In the earliest
times he was worshipped in India, Arabia, and Bactria.
He was honored in Greece with public festivals, and in simple or
complicated Mysteries, varying in ceremonial in various places, as was
natural, because his worship had come thither from different countries
and at different periods. The people who celebrated the complicated
Mysteries were ignorant of the meaning of many words which they used,
and of many emblems which they revered. In the Sabazian Feasts, for
example [from Saba-Zeus an oriental name of this Deity], the words EVOI,
SABOI, were used, which are in nowise Greek; and a serpent of gold was
thrown into the bosom of the Initiate, in allusion to the fable that
Jupiter had, in the form of a serpent, had connection with Proserpina,
and begotten Bakchos, the bull; whence the enigmatical saying, repeated
to the Initiates, that a bull engendered a dragon or serpent, and the
serpent in turn engendered the bull, who became Bakchos: the meaning of
which was, that the bull [Taurus, which then opened the Vernal Equinox,
and the Sun in which Sign, figuratively represented by the Sign itself,
was Bakchos, Dionusos, Saba-Zeus, Osiris, etc.], and the Serpent,
another constellation, occupied such relative positions in the Heavens,
that when one rose the other set, and _vice versa_.
The serpent was a familiar symbol in the Mysteries of Bakchos. The
Initiates grasped them with their hands, as Orphiucus does on the
celestial globe, and the Orpheo-telestes, or purifier of candidates did
the same, crying, as Demosthenes taunted Æschines with doing in public
at the head of the women whom his mother was to imitate, EVOI, SABOI,
HYES ATTÊ, ATTÊ, HYES!
The Initiates in these Mysteries had preserved the ritual and ceremonies
that accorded with the simplicity of the earliest ages, and the manners
of the first men. The rules of Pythagoras were followed there. Like the
Egyptians, who held wool unclean, they buried no Initiate in woolen
garments. They abstained from bloody sacrifices; and lived on fruits or
vegetables or inanimate things. They imitated the life of the
contemplative Sects of the Orient; thus approximating to the tranquility
of the first men, who lived exempt from trouble and crimes in the bosom
of a profound peace. One of the most precious advantages promised by
their initiation was, to put a man in communion with the Gods, by
purifying his soul of all the passions that interfere with that
enjoyment, and dim the rays of divine light that are communicated to
every soul capable of receiving them, and that imitate their purity. One
of the degrees of initiation was the state of inspiration to which the
adepts were claimed to attain. The Initiates in the Mysteries of the
Lamb, at Pepuza, in Phrygia, professed to be inspired, and prophesied;
and it was claimed that the soul, by means of these religious
ceremonies, purified of all stain, could see the Gods in this life, and
certainly, in all cases, after death.
The sacred gates of the Temple, where the ceremonies of initiation were
performed, were opened but once in each year, and no stranger was ever
allowed to enter it. Night threw her veil over these august Mysteries,
which could be revealed to no one. There the sufferings of Bakchos were
represented, who, like Osiris, died, descended to hell and rose to life
again; and raw flesh was distributed to the Initiates, which each ate,
in memory of the death of the Deity, torn in pieces by the Titans.
These Mysteries also were celebrated at the Vernal Equinox; and the
emblem of generation, to express the active energy and generative power
of the Divinity, was a principal symbol. The Initiates wore garlands and
crowns of myrtle and laurel.
In these Mysteries, the aspirant was kept in terror and darkness to
perform the three days and nights; and was then made [Greek: Aϕα
υισμος], or ceremony representing the death of Bakchos, the same
mythological personage with Osiris. This was effected by confining him
in a close cell, that he might seriously reflect, in solitude and
darkness, on the business he was engaged in: and his mind be prepared
for the reception of the sublime and mysterious truths of primitive
revelation and philosophy. This was a symbolic death; the deliverance
from it, regeneration; after which he was called [Greek: διϕυης] or
twin-born. While confined in the cell, the pursuit of Typhon after the
mangled body of Osiris, and the search of Rhea or Isis for the same,
were enacted in his hearing; the initiated crying aloud the names of
that Deity derived from the Sanscrit. Then it was announced that the
body was found; and the aspirant was liberated amid shouts of joy and
exultation.
Then he passed through a representation of Hell and Elysium. "Then,"
said an ancient writer, "they are entertained with hymns and dances,
with the sublime doctrines of sacred knowledge, and with wonderful and
holy visions. And now become perfect and initiated, they are FREE, and
no longer under restraint; but, crowned and triumphant, they walk up and
down the regions of the blessed, converse with pure and holy men, and
celebrate the sacred Mysteries at pleasure." They were taught the nature
and objects of the Mysteries, and the means of making themselves known,
and received the name of Epopts; were fully instructed in the nature and
attributes of the Divinity, and the doctrine of a future state; and
made acquainted with the unity and attributes of the Grand Architect of
the Universe, and the true meaning of the fables in regard to the Gods
of Paganism: the great Truth being often proclaimed, that "Zeus is the
primitive Source of all things; there is ONE God; ONE power, and ONE
rule over all." And after full explanation of the many symbols and
emblems that surrounded them, they were dismissed with the barbarous
words [Greek: Κογξ] and [Greek: Ομπαξ], corruptions of the Sanscrit
words, Kanska Aom Pakscha; meaning, _object of our wishes, God,
Silence_, or _Worship the Deity in Silence_.
Among the emblems used was the rod of Bakchos; which once, it was said,
he cast on the ground, and it became a serpent; and at another time he
struck the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes with it, and the waters receded
and he passed over dry-shod. Water was obtained, during the ceremonies,
by striking a rock with it. The Bakchæ crowned their heads with
serpents, carried them in vases and baskets, and at the [Greek:
Ευρησιϛ], or finding, of the body of Osiris, cast one, alive, into the
aspirant's bosom.
The Mysteries of Atys in Phrygia, and those of Cybele his mistress, like
their worship, much resembled those of Adonis and Bakchos, Osiris and
Isis. Their Asiatic origin is universally admitted, and was with great
plausibility claimed by Phrygia, which contested the palm of antiquity
with Egypt. They, more than any other people, mingled allegory with
their religious worship, and were great inventors of fables; and their
sacred traditions as to Cybele and Atys, whom all admit to be Phrygian
Gods, were very various. In all, as we learn from Julius Firmicus, they
represented by allegory the phenomena of nature, and the succession of
physical facts, under the veil of a marvellous history.
Their feasts occurred at the equinoxes, commencing with lamentation,
mourning, groans, and pitiful cries for the death of Atys; and ending
with rejoicings at his restoration to life.
We shall not recite the different versions of the legend of Atys and
Cybele, given by Julius Firmicus, Diodorus, Arnobius, Lactantius,
Servius, Saint Augustine, and Pausanias. It is enough to say that it is
in substance this: that Cybele, a Phrygian Princess, who invented
musical instruments and dances, was enamored of Atys, a youth; that
either he in a fit of frenzy mutilated himself or was mutilated by her
in a paroxysm of jealousy; that he died, and afterward, like Adonis,
was restored to life. It is the Phœnician fiction as to the Sun-God,
expressed in other terms, under other forms, and with other names.