The secret teachings of all ages by manly P hall the ancient Mysteries and secret societies part 3 brought to you by Masonic audiobook Library the most famous of the ancient religious Mysteries were the ellisonian whose rights were celebrated every five years in the city of eluses to honor series
Demeter Ria or Isis and her daughter Persephone the initiates of the ellisinian school were famous throughout Greece for the beauty of their philosophic Concepts and the high standards of morality which they demonstrated in their daily lives because of their Excellence these Mysteries spread to Rome and Britain and
Later the initiations were given in both these countries the ellessinian Mysteries named for the community in Attica where the sacred dramas were first presented are generally believed to have been founded by umalpas about 1400 years before the birth of Christ and through the platonic system of philosophy their principles have been
Preserved to modern times the rights of eluses with their Mystic interpretations of Nature’s Most Precious Secrets overshadowed the civilizations of their time and gradually absorbed many smaller schools incorporating into their own system whatever valuable information these lesser institutions possessed heckathorn sees in the mysteries of Cyrus and bactus a metamorphosis of the
Rights of Isis and Osiris and there is every reason to believe that all so-called secret schools of the ancient world were branches from One philosophic Tree which with its root in heaven and its branches on the earth is like the spirit of man an invisible but ever-present cause of the objectified
Vehicles that give it expression the Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophic light was disseminated and their initiates resplendent with intellectual and spiritual understanding were the perfect fruitage of the Divine tree bearing witness before the material world of the recondite source of all light and Truth
The rights of ellusis were divided into what were called the Lesser and the greater Mysteries according to James Gardner the Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the spring probably at the time of the vernal equinox in the town of a gray and the greater in the fall the time of
The autumnal equinox adalusis or Athens it is supposed that the former were given annually and the latter every five years the rituals of the ellisinians were highly involved and to understand them required a deep study of Greek mythology which they interpreted in its esoteric light with the aid of their secret keys
The Lesser Mysteries were dedicated to Persephone in his ellucinian and backic Mysteries Thomas Taylor sums up their purpose as follows the Lesser Mysteries were designed by the ancient theologists their Founders to signify occultly the condition of the unpurified Soul invested with an earthy body and enveloped a material and physical nature
The legend used in the Lesser writes is that of the Abduction of the goddess Persephone the daughter of Ceres by Pluto the lord of the underworld or Hades while Persephone is picking flowers in a beautiful Meadow the Earth suddenly opens and gloomy Lord of death riding in a magnificent Chariot emerges
From its somber depths and grasping her in his arms carries the screaming and struggling goddess to his Subterranean Palace where he forces her to become his Queen it is doubtful whether many of the initiates themselves understood the Mystic meaning of this allegory for most of them apparently believe that referred
Solely to the succession of the seasons it is difficult to obtain satisfactory information concerning the mysteries for the candidates were Bound by inviolable Oaths never to reveal their inner secrets to the profane at the beginning of the ceremony of initiation the candidate stood upon the skins of animals sacrificed for the purpose and
Vowed that death should seal his lips before he would divulge the sacred truths which were about to be communicated to him through indirect channels however some of their secrets have been preserved the teachings given to the neophytes were substantially as follows the soul of man often called psyche and
In the ellisanian Mysteries symbolized by Persephone is essentially a spiritual thing its true home is in the higher worlds where free from the bondage of material form and material Concepts it is said to be truly alive and self-expressive the human or physical nature of man according to this Doctrine
Is a tomb a quagmire a false and permanent thing the source of all sorrow and suffering Plato describes the body as the Sepulcher of the soul and by this he means not only the human form but also the human nature the Gloom and depression of the Lesser Mysteries
Represented the agony of the spiritual Soul unable to express itself because it has accepted the limitations and illusions of the human environment the Crux of the ellisinian argument was that man is neither better nor wiser after death than during life if he does not rise above ignorance
During his sojourn here man goes at death into eternity to wander about forever making the same mistakes which she may hear if he does not outgrow the desire for material possessions here he will carry it with him into the invisible world where because he can never gratify the
Desire he will continue in Endless agony Dante’s Inferno is symbolically descriptive of the sufferings of those who never freed their spiritual Natures from the cratings habits viewpoints and limitations of their plutonic personalities those who made no Endeavor to improve themselves whose Souls have slept during their physical lives passed
At death into Hades where lying in rows they slept through all eternity as they had slept through life to the ellessinian philosophers Birch into the physical world was death in the fullest sense of the word and the only true birth was that of the spiritual
Soul of man rising out of the womb of his own fleshly nature the soul is dead that Slumbers says Longfellow and in this he strikes the keynote of the ellessinian Mysteries just as narcissus gazing at himself in the water the Ancients used this mobile element to symbolize the transitory
Illusionary material Universe lost his life trying to embrace a reflection so man gazing into the mirror of Nature and accepting as his real self the senseless clay that he sees reflected loses the opportunity afforded by physical life to unfold his Immortal invisible self an ancient initiate once said that the
Living are ruled by the dead only those conversant with the ellisinian concept of life could understand that statement it means that the majority of people are not ruled by their living spirits but by their senseless hence dead animal personalities transmigration and reincarnation were taught in these Mysteries but in a
Somewhat unusual manner it was believed that at midnight the invisible worlds were closest to the terrestrial sphere and that souls coming into material existence slipped in during the Midnight Hour for this reason many of the illicinian ceremonies were performed at midnight some of those sleeping spirits who have
Failed to awaken their higher Natures during the Earth life and who now floated around in the invisible worlds surrounded by a darkness of their own making occasionally slipped through at this hour and assume the forms of various creatures the mystics of ellusis also laid stress upon the evil of
Suicide explaining that there was a profound mystery concerning this crime of which they could not speak but warning their disciples that a great sorrow comes to all who take their own lives this in substance constitutes the esoteric Doctrine given to the initiates of the Lesser Mysteries as the degree
Dealt largely with the miseries of those who failed to make the best use of their philosophic opportunities the chambers of initiation were Subterranean and the horrors of haze were vividly depicted in a complicated ritualistic drama after passing successfully through the torturous passageways with their trials and dangers the candidate received the
Honorary title of Mists this meant one who saw through a veil or had a clouded vision it also signified that the candidate had been brought up to the veil which would be torn away in the higher degree the modern word Mystic as referring to a Seeker after truth according to the
Dictates of the heart along the path of faith is probably derived from this ancient word for faith is belief in the reality of things unseen or veiled the greater Mysteries into which the candidate was admitted only after he had successfully passed through the ordeals of the Lesser and not always then were
Sacred to Sears the mother of Persephone and represent her as wandering through the world in quest of her abducted daughter Sears carried two torches intuition and reason to Aid her in the search for her Lost Child the Soul at last she found Persephone not far from eluses and out
Of gratitude taught the people there to cultivate corn which is sacred to her she also founded the Mysteries Sears appeared before Pluto God Of The Souls of the dead and pleaded with him to allow Persephone to return to her home this the god at first refused to do
Because Persephone had eaten of the pomegranate the fruit of mortality at last however he compromised and agreed to permit Persephone to live in the upper World half of the year as she would stay with him in the darkness of Hades for the remaining half the Greeks believed that Persephone was a
Manifestation of the solar energy which in the winter months lived under the Earth with Pluto but in the summer returned again with the goddess of productiveness there is a legend that the flowers love Persephone and that every year when she left for the dark Realms of Pluto the plants and shrubs
Would die of grief while the profane and uninitiated had their own opinions on these subjects the truths of the Greek allegories remain safely concealed by the priests who alone recognized the Sublimity of these great philosophic and religious parables Thomas Taylor epitomizes the doctrines of the greater mysteries in the falling
Statement the greater Mysteries obscurely intimated by Mystic and Splendid Visions the Felicity of the Soul both here and Hereafter when purified from the defilement of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual spiritual vision just as the Lesser Mysteries discussed the prenatal Epoch of man when the
Consciousness in its nine days embryologically months was descending into the realm of Illusion and assuming the veil of unreality so the greater Mysteries discussed the principles of spiritual regeneration and revealed to initiates not only the simplest but also the most direct and complete method of liberating their higher Natures from the
Bondage of material ignorance like Prometheus chained to the top of Mount Caucasus man’s higher nature is chained to his inadequate personality the nine days of initiation were also symbolic of the nine spheres through which the human soul descends during the process of assuming a terrestrial form the secret exercises for Spiritual
Unfoldment given to Disciples of the higher degrees are unknown but there is every reason to believe that they were similar to The brahmanic Mysteries since it is known that the ellicinian ceremonies were closed with the Sanskrit words conks impacts that part of the allegory referring to the two six-month periods during one of
Which Persephone must remain with Pluto while during the other she may revisit the upper World offers material for deep consideration it is probable that the ellessinians realize that the soul left the body during steep or at least was made capable of leaving by the special training which undoubtedly they were in
A position to give thus Persephone would remain as the queen of Pluto’s realm during the waking hours but would Ascend to the spiritual worlds during the periods of sleep the initiate was taught how to intercede with Pluto to permit Persephone the initiate soul to ascend from the
Darkness of his material nature into the light understanding when thus freed from the shackles of clay and crystallized Concepts the initiate was liberated not only for the period of his life but for all eternity for never thereafter was he divested of those Soul qualities which after death were his vehicles for
Manifestation and expression in the so-called Heaven world in contrast to the idea of Hades as a state of Darkness below the gods were said to inhabit the tops of mountains a well-known example being Mount Olympus where the twelve deities of the Greek pantheon were said to dwell together
In his initiatory wanderings the Nia fight therefore entered chambers of ever-increasing brilliancy to portray the ascent of the spirit from the lower worlds into the Realms of bliss as the climax to such wanderings he entered a great vaulted room in the center of which stood a brilliantly illumined statue of the Goddess series
Here in the presence of the hierophant and surrounded by priests in magnificent robes he was instructed in the highest of the secret Mysteries of the ellusis at the conclusion of this ceremony he was hailed as an epox which means one who has beheld or seen directly for this reason also initiation was
Termed autopsy the epos was then given certain sacred books probably written in sephir together with tablets of stone on which secret instructions were engraved in the Obelisk and Freemasonry John a Weiss describes the officiating personages of the ellisinian Mysteries as consisting of a male and a female hierophant who directed The initiations
A male and a female torchbearer a male Herald and a male and a female altar attendant there were also numerous minor officials he states that according to porphyry the hierophant represents Plato’s demyergus or creator of the world the torchbearer of the Sun the altar man the moon the herald Herms or
Mercury and the other officials minor Stars from the records available a number of strange and apparently supernatural phenomena accompanied the rituals many initiates claim to have actually seen the living Gods themselves whether this was the result of religious ecstasy or the actual cooperation of invisible Powers with the visible priests must
Remain a mystery in the metamorphosis or golden ass apuleus thus describes what in all probability is his initiation into the ellisonian Mysteries I approached to the confines of death and having trod on the threshold of proser pinai returned from it being carried through all the elements at midnight I saw the sun
Shining with a splendid light and I manifestly drew near to the gods beneath and the gods above and proximately adored them women and children were admitted to the ellisinian Mysteries and at one time there were literally thousands of initiates because this vast host was not prepared for the highest spiritual and mystical
Doctrines a division necessarily took place within the society itself the higher teachings were given to only a limited number of initiates who because of superior mentality showed a comprehensive grasp of their underlying philosophical Concepts Socrates refused to be initiated into the ellessinian mysteries for knowing its principles
Without being a member of the order he realized that membership would seal his tongue that the mysteries of ellusis were based upon great and eternal truths is attested by the veneration in which they were held by the great minds of the ancient world M overoff asks would Pinder Plato Cicero
Bacteris have spoken of them with such admiration if the hierophant had satisfied himself with loudly proclaiming his own opinions or those of his order the garments in which candidates were initiated were preserved for many years and were believed to possess almost sacred properties just as the soul can
Have no covering save wisdom and virtue so the candidates being has yet without true knowledge were presented to the Mysteries unclothed being first given the skin of an animal and later a consecrated Rogue to symbolize the philosophical teachings received by the initiate during the course of initiation the candidate passed through two gates
The first led downward into the lower worlds and symbolized his birth into ignorance the second LED upward into a room brilliantly lighted by unseen lamps in which was the Statue of Cyrus and which symbolized the upper world or the Abode of light and Truth shrabo states that the Great temple of ellusis would
Hold between 20 and 30 000 people the caves dedicated by zerathustra also had these two doors symbolizing The Avenues of birth and death the following paragraph from porphyry gives a fairly adequate conception of ellessinian symbolism God being a luminous principle residing in the midst of the most subtile fire he remains forever
Invisible to the eyes of those who do not Elevate themselves above material life on this account the site of transparent bodies such as Crystal Perry and marble and even Ivory recalls the idea of Divine Light as the site of gold excites an idea of its Purity for gold
Cannot he sullied some have thought by a black stone would signify the invisibility of the Divine Essence to express Supreme reason the Divinity was represented under the human form and beautiful for God is the source of beauty of different ages and in various attitudes sitting or upright of one or
The other sex as a virgin or a young man a husband or a bride that all the shades and gradations might be marked everything luminous was subsequently attributed to the gods the sphere and all that is spherical to the universe to the sun and the moon sometimes to
Fortune and to hope the circle and all circular figures to Eternity to the celestial movements to the circles and zones of the heavens the section of circles to the phases of the moon and pyramids and obelisks to the atheneous principle and through that to the gods
Of Heaven A Cone expresses the Sun a cylinder the Earth the phallus and triangle a symbol of the Matrix designate generation from essay on the mysteries of eluses by m overoff the ellessinian Mysteries according to heckathorn survived all others and did not cease to exist as an institution
Until nearly 400 years after Christ when they were finally suppressed by theodosius styled the Great who cruelly destroyed all who did not accept the Christian faith of this greatest of all philosophical institutions Cicero said that it taught men not only how to live but also how to die
The or Phi State and wise to your eyes Orpheus The thracian Bard the great initiator of the Greeks ceased to be known as a man and was celebrated as a Divinity several centuries before the Christian era has to Orpheus himself asterisk asterisk asterisk writes Thomas Taylor scarcely a Vestige of his life is
To be found amongst the immense ruins of time for who has ever been able to affirm anything with certainty of his origin his age his country and condition this alone may be depended on from General assent that their formerly lived a person named Orpheus who was the founder
Of theology among the Greeks the instituter of their lives and morals the first to prophets and the prince of poets himself The Offspring amuse who taught the Greeks their sacred rights and Mysteries and from whose wisdom as from a perennial and abundant Fountain the Divine use of Homer and the sublime
Theology of Pythagoras and Plato flood see the mystical hymns of Orpheus Orpheus was founder of the Grecian mythological system which he used as the medium for the promulgation of his philosophical doctrines the origin of his philosophy is uncertain he may have got it from the brahmanas there being Legends to the
Effect that he got it was a Hindu his name possibly being derived from orphanios meaning dark Orpheus was initiated into the Egyptian mysteries from which he secured extensive knowledge of magic astrology sorcery and Medicine the mysteries of the kibiri at samath race were also conferred upon him and these undoubtedly
Contributed to his knowledge of medicine and music the romance of Orpheus and Yuri dice is one of the tragic episodes of Greek mythology and apparently constitutes the outstanding feature of the orphic right Yuri dice in her attempt to escape from a villain seeking to seduce her died
From the Venom of a poisonous serpent which stung her in the heel Orpheus penetrating to the very heart of the underworld so Charmed Pluto and Persephone with the beauty of his music that they agreed to permit yuridus to return to life if Orpheus could lead her
Back to the sphere of the Living Without once looking round to see if she were following so great was his fear however that she would stray from him that he turned his head and Yuri diced with a heartbroken cry was swept back into the land of death Orpheus wandered the Earth
For a wild disconsolate and there are several conflicting accounts of the manner of his death some declare that he was slain by a bolt of lightning others that failing to save his beloved Yuri dice he committed suicide the generally accepted version of his death however is
That he was Torn to Pieces by zirconian women whose advances he had spurned in the tenth book of Plato’s Republic it is declared that because of his sad fate at the hands of women the soul that had once been Orpheus upon being destined to live again in the physical World shows
Rather to return the body of a swan than be born of woman the head of Orpheus after being torn from his body was cast with his liar into the river hebris down which it floated to the Sea where wedging in a cleft and a rock it gave
Oracles for many years the liar after being stolen from its Shrine and working the destruction of the thief was picked up by the gods and fashioned into a constellation Orpheus has long been sung as the patron of Music on his sudden strange liar he played such perfect harmonies that the
Gods themselves were moved to Acclaim his power when he touched the strings of his instrument the birds and beasts gathered about him and as he wandered through the forest his enchanting Melodies cause even the ancient trees with Mighty effort to draw their gnarled roots from out the Earth and follow him
Orpheus is one of the many Immortals who have sacrificed themselves that mankind might have the wisdom of the Gods by the symbolism of his music he communicated the divine secrets to humanity and several authors have declared that the gods though loving him feared that he would overthrow their Kingdom and
Therefore reluctantly encompassed his destruction has time passed on the historical Orpheus became hopelessly confounded with the doctrine he represented and eventually became the symbol of the Greek School of the ancient wisdom thus Orpheus was declared to be the son of Apollo the Divine and perfect truth and
Calip the Muse of Harmony and rhythm in other words Orpheus is the secret Doctrine Apollo revealed through music Kalia some of the Titans hurled his Thunderbolts and slew them burning their bodies to ashes with Heavenly Fire power of the ashes of the Titans which also contained a portion of the Flesh of
Bactus whose body they had partly devoured the human race was created thus the mundane life of every man was said to contain a portion of the backyard life for this reason the Greek Mysteries warned against suicide he who attempts to destroy himself raises his hand against the nature of batchus within him
Since man’s body is indirectly the tomb of this God and consequently must be preserved with the greatest care represents the rational soul of the inferior world he is the chief of the titans the artificers of the mundane spheres the pythagoreans called him the Titanic Monet thus Bacchus is the
All-inclusive idea of the Titanic sphere and the Titans or gods of the fragments the active agencies by means of which Universal substance is fashioned into the pattern of this idea the backic state signifies the unity of the rational soul in a state of self-knowledge and the Titanic State the
Diversity of the rational Soul which being scattered throughout creation loses the consciousness of its own essential Oneness the mirror into which Baptist gazes and which is the cause of his fall as the Great Sea of Illusion the lower World fashioned by the Titans backed us the mundane rational Soul
Seeing his image before him accepts the image as a likeness of himself and insoles the likeness that is the rational idea and souls Its Reflection the irrational Universe by insoling the irrational image implants in it the urge to become like its source the rational image therefore the Ancients said that man
Does not know the gods by Logic or by reason but rather by realizing the presence of the Gods within himself after bactus gazed into the mirror and followed his own reflection into matter the rational soul of the world was broken up and distributed by the Titans throughout the mundane sphere of which
It is the essential nature but the heart or source of it they could not scatter the Titans took the dismembered body of bactus and boiled it in water symbol of immersion in the material Universe which represents the incorporation of the batkick principle and form the pieces were afterwards roasted to
Signify the subsequent Ascension of the spiritual nature out of form when Jupiter the father of bactus and the demyergus of the universe saw that the Titans were hopelessly involving the rational or Divine idea by scattering its members through the constituent parts of the lower world he slew the
Titans in order that the Divine idea might not be entirely lost From the Ashes of the Titans he formed mankind whose purpose of existence was to preserve and eventually to release the backic idea or rational soul from the Titanic fabrication Jupiter being the Denarius and fabricator of the material
Universe is the third person of the creative Triad consequently the Lord of death for death exists only in the lower sphere of being over which he presides disintegration takes place so that reintegration may follow upon a higher level of form or intelligence the Thunderbolts of Jupiter are emblematic of his disintegrative power
They reveal the purpose of death which is to rescue the rational soul from the devouring power of the irrational nature man is a composite creature his lower nature consisting of the fragments of the Titans and his higher nature the sacred Immortal flesh life of Bacchus therefore man is capable of either a
Titanic irrational or a back kick rational existence the titans of hezid who were 12 in number are probably analogous to the celestial zodiac whereas the Titans who murdered and dismembered backdest represent the zodiacal powers distorted by their involvement in the material world
source
