Antiquity
91-472: A mystic is a person who practices mysticism , or a reference to a mystery, mystic craft, first hand-experience or the occult . Mystic may also refer to: Mysticism Medieval Early modern Modern Iran India East-Asia Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute , but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which
182-498: A form of prayer distinguished from discursive meditation in both East and West. This threefold meaning of "mystical" continued in the Middle Ages . According to Dan Merkur, the term unio mystica came into use in the 13th century as a synonym for the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence." Mysticism
273-519: A Mithraic mystery cult in Tarsus , even though no mystery cult existed there nor did a Mithraic mystery cult exist before the end of the 1st century. The attitudes of scholars began to change as Egyptology continued emerging as a discipline and a seminal article published by Arthur Nock in 1952 that noted the near absence of mystery terminology in the New Testament . While some have tried to tie
364-654: A broad spectrum of religious traditions, in which all sorts of esotericism , religious traditions, and practices are joined together. The term mysticism was extended to comparable phenomena in non-Christian religions, where it influenced Hindu and Buddhist responses to colonialism, resulting in Neo-Vedanta and Buddhist modernism . In the contemporary usage "mysticism" has become an umbrella term for all sorts of non-rational world views, parapsychology and pseudoscience. William Harmless even states that mysticism has become "a catch-all for religious weirdness". Within
455-425: A form of mysticism, in which the world of spirits is accessed through religious ecstasy . According to Mircea Eliade shamanism is a "technique of religious ecstasy ". Shamanism involves a practitioner reaching an altered state of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with spirits, and channel transcendental energies into this world. A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in,
546-525: A great influence on medieval monastic religiosity, although it was mostly a male religiosity, since women were not allowed to study. It was influenced by Neo-Platonism , and very influential in Eastern Orthodox Christian theology . In western Christianity it was a counter-current to the prevailing Cataphatic theology or "positive theology". In the 1400s, leading theologian Jean Gerson wrote several books on "mystical theology" which
637-553: A myth concerning the kidnapping of Persephone , daughter of Demeter , the goddess of agriculture, by Hades , the god of the underworld, as told in the Homeric Hymns . Anguished by this event and wishing to persuade Zeus , the king of the gods, to allow the return of her daughter, Demeter caused famine and drought across the land, killing many and depriving the gods of proper sacrifice and worship. Eventually, Zeus permitted Persephone to rejoin her mother, prompting Demeter to end
728-412: A niche for the preservation of ancient religious ritual, which was especially in demand by the time of the late Roman Empire, as cultic practices supported the established social and political orders instead of working against them; numerous early strands of Judaism and Christianity, for instance, appeared in opposition to such conditions, whereas the mystery cults, by their very nature, served to strengthen
819-442: A phenomenological de-emphasis, blurring, or eradication of multiplicity, where the cognitive significance of the experience is deemed to lie precisely in that phenomenological feature". Mysticism involves an explanatory context, which provides meaning for mystical and visionary experiences, and related experiences like trances. According to Dan Merkur, mysticism may relate to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness, and
910-443: A religious framework. Ann Taves asks by which processes experiences are set apart and deemed religious or mystical. Some authors emphasize that mystical experience involves intuitive understanding of the meaning of existence and of hidden truths, and the resolution of life problems. According to Larson, "mystical experience is an intuitive understanding and realization of the meaning of existence." According to McClenon, mysticism
1001-531: A sense of unity, but of nothingness , such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Meister Eckhart . According to Merkur, Kabbala and Buddhism also emphasize nothingness . Blakemore and Jennett note that "definitions of mysticism [...] are often imprecise." They further note that this kind of interpretation and definition is a recent development which has become the standard definition and understanding. According to Gelman, "A unitive experience involves
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#17327660242891092-471: A spirit world, and is associated with New Age practices. Greco-Roman mysteries Mystery religions , mystery cults , sacred mysteries or simply mysteries ( Greek : μυστήρια ), were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai) . The main characteristic of these religious schools was the secrecy associated with the particulars of
1183-546: A transcendental reality. An influential proponent of this understanding was William James (1842–1910), who stated that "in mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness." William James popularized this use of the term "religious experience" in his The Varieties of Religious Experience , contributing to the interpretation of mysticism as a distinctive experience, comparable to sensory experiences. Religious experiences belonged to
1274-540: A vague understanding. A system of grades or levels was present in the hierarchical structure of Mithraic religion, the first of these being the rank of Corax (raven), followed by Nymphus or Gryphus (bridegroom), Miles (soldier), Leo (lion), Perses (Persian), Heliodromus (sun-runner), and finally Pater (father) as the highest. Though precise details are difficult to determine and certainly varied between locations, one general depiction of an initiation ritual at Capua has it that men were blindfolded and walked into
1365-417: A visual reminder of his eastern origins. The cultic acts of adherents were new and distinct, involving underground initiation rituals reserved exclusively for soldiers and complex, allegorical rites only vaguely understood today due to an absence of written sources. Feasting was the primary religious experience of initiated members, along with reenactments of core Mithraic imagery, such as the meal shared between
1456-408: Is "the doctrine that special mental states or events allow an understanding of ultimate truths." According to James R. Horne, mystical illumination is "a central visionary experience [...] that results in the resolution of a personal or religious problem." According to Evelyn Underhill, illumination is a generic English term for the phenomenon of mysticism. The term illumination is derived from
1547-686: Is attributed in a religious way, mysticism as "enlightenment" or insight, and mysticism as a way of transformation, "mysticism" can be found in many cultures and religious traditions, both in folk religion and organized religion . These traditions include practices to induce religious or mystical experiences, but also ethical standards and practices to enhance self-control and integrate the mystical experience into daily life. Dan Merkur notes, though, that mystical practices are often separated from daily religious practices, and restricted to "religious specialists like monastics, priests, and other renunciates . According to Dan Merkur, shamanism may be regarded as
1638-453: Is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences. The term "mysticism" has Ancient Greek origins with various historically determined meanings. Derived from the Greek word μύω múō , meaning "to close" or "to conceal", mysticism came to refer to
1729-536: Is human transformation, not just experiencing mystical or visionary states. According to McGinn, personal transformation is the essential criterion to determine the authenticity of Christian mysticism. In the Hellenistic world, 'mystical' referred to "secret" religious rituals like the Eleusinian Mysteries . The use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental. A "mystikos"
1820-415: Is looking at, gazing at, aware of divine realities." According to Peter Moore, the term "mysticism" is "problematic but indispensable". It is a generic term which joins together into one concept separate practices and ideas which developed separately. According to Dupré, "mysticism" has been defined in many ways, and Merkur notes that the definition, or meaning, of the term "mysticism" has changed through
1911-488: Is more accurate than "union", since not all mystics spoke of union with God, and since many visions and miracles were not necessarily related to union. He also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's presence, rather than of "experience", since mystical activity is not simply about the sensation of God as an external object, but more broadly about "new ways of knowing and loving based on states of awareness in which God becomes present in our inner acts." However,
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#17327660242892002-656: Is now "largely dismissed by scholars", most scholars using a contextualist approach, which considers the cultural and historical context. "Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μύω , meaning "I conceal", and its derivative μυστικός , mystikos , meaning 'an initiate'. The verb μύω has received a quite different meaning in the Greek language, where it is still in use. The primary meanings it has are "induct" and "initiate". Secondary meanings include "introduce", "make someone aware of something", "train", "familiarize", "give first experience of something". The related form of
2093-452: Is popularly known as union with God or the Absolute. In the 13th century the term unio mystica came to be used to refer to the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence." In the 19th century, under the influence of Romanticism, this "union" was interpreted as a "religious experience", which provides certainty about God or
2184-622: The Mithraic Mysteries , Thracian/Phrygian Sabazius , and Phrygian Cybele . The Eleusinian Mysteries were the earliest and most famous of the mystery cults and lasted for over a millennium. Whenever they first originated, by the end of the 5th century BCE, they had been heavily influenced by Orphism , and in Late Antiquity, they had become allegorized. The basis for the Eleusinian Mysteries can be found in
2275-658: The stoa of the sanctuary. The initiation of the second night was also concluded by a banquet. Worship of the god Mithras was extremely popular among men of the Roman army for several centuries, originating in the 1st century BCE and ending with the persecution of non-Christian faiths within the Empire in the 4th century CE. Imported from Persia and adapted for Roman purposes like many other previously foreign deities, Mithras bears little relation to his Zoroastrian precursor, Mithra, retaining his Phrygian cap and garments, for instance, as
2366-523: The "Samothracian gods" or the "Great Gods". This makes it difficult to reconstruct who they were, though comparisons between the "gods of Samothrace" and the Cabeiri, chthonic deities of an indeterminate amount (sometimes twins, or multiple distinct beings) from comparable, pre-Greek or entirely non-Greek cultures such as Thrace or Phrygia have been made. The similarities in regards to what each deity or set of deities were purported to offer—protection on
2457-403: The "personal religion", which he considered to be "more fundamental than either theology or ecclesiasticism". He gave a Perennialist interpretation to religious experience, stating that this kind of experience is ultimately uniform in various traditions. McGinn notes that the term unio mystica , although it has Christian origins, is primarily a modern expression. McGinn argues that "presence"
2548-460: The Absolute, the Infinite, or God—and thereby the perception of its essential unity or oneness—was claimed to be genuinely mystical. The historical evidence, however, does not support such a narrow conception of mysticism. Under the influence of Perennialism , which was popularised in both the west and the east by Unitarianism , Transcendentalists , and Theosophy , mysticism has been applied to
2639-597: The Divine as residing within human, an essence beyond the varieties of religious expressions. The 19th century saw a growing emphasis on individual experience, as a defense against the growing rationalism of western society. The meaning of mysticism was considerably narrowed: The competition between the perspectives of theology and science resulted in a compromise in which most varieties of what had traditionally been called mysticism were dismissed as merely psychological phenomena and only one variety, which aimed at union with
2730-633: The Eucharist. The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God. Until the sixth century, the Greek term theoria , meaning "contemplation" in Latin, was used for the mystical interpretation of the Bible and the vision of God. The link between mysticism and the vision of the Divine was introduced by the early Church Fathers , who used the term as an adjective, as in mystical theology and mystical contemplation. Theoria enabled
2821-463: The Fathers to perceive depths of meaning in the biblical writings that escape a purely scientific or empirical approach to interpretation. The Antiochene Fathers, in particular, saw in every passage of Scripture a double meaning, both literal and spiritual. Later, theoria or contemplation came to be distinguished from intellectual life, leading to the identification of θεωρία or contemplatio with
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2912-584: The Greek mustḗrion 'revealed secret' is not entirely clear, though scholars have traditionally thought it to have derived from the Greek múō 'to close, shut; to be shut (especially of the eyes)' (chiefly referring to shutting the eyes, hence one who shuts their eyes and is initiated into the mysteries). Hittite scholar Jaan Puhvel suggests that the Greek term derives from the Hittite verb munnae 'to conceal, to hide, to shut out of sight'. Mystery religions formed one of three types of Hellenistic religion ,
3003-475: The Latin illuminatio , applied to Christian prayer in the 15th century. Comparable Asian terms are bodhi , kensho , and satori in Buddhism , commonly translated as "enlightenment" , and vipassana , which all point to cognitive processes of intuition and comprehension. Other authors point out that mysticism involves more than "mystical experience". According to Gellmann, the ultimate goal of mysticism
3094-529: The Theatral Circle. Livy records that here, the initiates would listen to a proclamation concerning the absence of crime and bloodshed. Near the beginning of the rituals, like at Eleusis, sacrifices and libations were likely made, where the prospective animal for the sacrifice would have been a ram. The initiates would have moved to a building where the actual initiation took place at night with torches, though archaeologists are unsure of which building it
3185-524: The academic study of religion the apparent "unambiguous commonality" has become "opaque and controversial". The term "mysticism" is being used in different ways in different traditions. Some call to attention the conflation of mysticism and linked terms, such as spirituality and esotericism, and point at the differences between various traditions. Based on various definitions of mysticism, namely mysticism as an experience of union or nothingness, mysticism as any kind of an altered state of consciousness which
3276-411: The ages. Moore further notes that the term "mysticism" has become a popular label for "anything nebulous, esoteric, occult, or supernatural". Parsons warns that "what might at times seem to be a straightforward phenomenon exhibiting an unambiguous commonality has become, at least within the academic study of religion, opaque and controversial on multiple levels". Because of its Christian overtones, and
3367-453: The agora of Athens , the gathering limited to those that spoke Greek and had never killed (as the emphasis on purity grew, this ban would include those who had "impure" souls). Like other large festivals such as the Diasia and Thesmophoria , the prospective initiates would bring their own sacrificial animals and hear the festivals proclamation as it began. The next day, they would have gone to
3458-401: The aim at the "union with the Absolute, the Infinite, or God". This limited definition has been applied to a wide range of religious traditions and practices, valuing "mystical experience" as a key element of mysticism. Since the 1960s scholars have debated the merits of perennial and constructionist approaches in the scientific research of "mystical experiences". The perennial position
3549-415: The allegorical interpretation of the bible, and condemned Mystical theology, which he saw as more Platonic than Christian. "The mystical", as the search for the hidden meaning of texts, became secularised, and also associated with literature, as opposed to science and prose. Science was also distinguished from religion. By the middle of the 17th century, "the mystical" is increasingly applied exclusively to
3640-421: The audience by the skilled Eleusinian clergy, and the climax of the event which must have included displaying a statue of Demeter and showing of an ear of wheat and a "birth" of agricultural wealth. Hence, these mysteries had associations with fertility and agriculture. In an attempt to solve the mystery of how so many people over the span of two millennia could have consistently experienced revelatory states during
3731-404: The biblical, liturgical (and sacramental), spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity . During the early modern period , the definition of mysticism grew to include a broad range of beliefs and ideologies related to "extraordinary experiences and states of mind". In modern times, "mysticism" has acquired a limited definition, with broad applications, as meaning
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3822-507: The city on an hours-long 15-mile journey constantly interrupted by celebration, dances, etc, to the city of Eleusis . The initiates would carry torches on the way to the city. Once the city was reached, the pilgrims would dance into the sanctuary. The next day would begin with sacrifices, and at sunset, the initiates would go to a building called the telestêrion where the actual initiations would commence. The initiates washed themselves to be pure and everyone sat together in silence surrounded by
3913-487: The culminating ceremony of the Eleusinian Mysteries, numerous scholars have proposed that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon 's functioning as an entheogen . The day of the completion of the initiation was called the Plemochoai (after a type of vessel used to conclude a libation), and the new members could now wear a myrtle wreath like the priests. Eventually, the initiates would leave and utter
4004-402: The cult at Samothrace. The bowls used for the libation were also left behind, revealed by the thousands of discovered libation bowls at the cult sites. The participants occasionally left behind other materials, such as lamps. In addition to the purple fillet, they also left with a 'Samothracian ring' (magnetic iron ring coated in gold) and some initiates would set up a record of their initiation in
4095-402: The dead becomes known as βάκχος . Such initiates were believers in the god Dionysus Bacchus who took on the name of their god and sought an identification with their deity. Until the sixth century the practice of what is now called mysticism was referred to by the term contemplatio , c.q. theoria . According to Johnston, "[b]oth contemplation and mysticism speak of the eye of love which
4186-492: The earth for the months that Persephone is gone, only doing so when she returns, until the process repeats again. These episodic periods became the winter and spring seasons, with the "death" and "rebirth" of Persephone being allegorical for the cycle of life and the experience of all beings. In the 15th of the month of Boedromion (September/October) in the Attic calendar , as many as 3,000 potential initiates would have gathered in
4277-531: The god Sol Invictus and Mithras, or the bearing of torches by men representing the twins of the rising and setting sun, Cautes and Cautopates . Traditionally, scholarship surrounding Mithras' mythological beginnings purport that followers believed the common image of the god emerging from a rock, already a young man, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other, was representative of his birth and nativity. New perspectives have appeared in light of continuous study which suppose that this scene instead displays
4368-496: The handshake". Little is known about the cult's practices subsequent to initiation, as the highly secretive nature of the religion as well as a substantial absence of written texts makes it difficult to determine what precisely took place in regular meetings, beyond the payment of a membership fee. Towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, it was becoming more popular in German scholarship to connect
4459-414: The hidden wills of humans, but is more often used for the hidden will of God. Elsewhere in the Bible it takes the meaning of the mystic or hidden sense of things. It is used for the secrets behind sayings, names, or behind images seen in visions and dreams. The Vulgate often translates the Greek term to the Latin sacramentum ( sacrament ). The related noun μύστης (mustis or mystis, singular) means
4550-467: The idea of "union" does not work in all contexts. For example, in Advaita Vedanta, there is only one reality (Brahman) and therefore nothing other than reality to unite with it—Brahman in each person ( atman ) has always in fact been identical to Brahman all along. Dan Merkur also notes that union with God or the Absolute is a too limited definition, since there are also traditions which aim not at
4641-461: The ideas and explanations related to them. Parsons stresses the importance of distinguishing between temporary experiences and mysticism as a process, which is embodied within a "religious matrix" of texts and practices. Richard Jones does the same. Peter Moore notes that mystical experience may also happen in a spontaneous and natural way, to people who are not committed to any religious tradition. These experiences are not necessarily interpreted in
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#17327660242894732-433: The initiate, the person initiated to the mysteries. According to Ana Jiménez San Cristobal in her study of Greco-Roman mysteries and Orphism , the singular form μύστης and the plural form μύσται are used in ancient Greek texts to mean the person or persons initiated to religious mysteries. These followers of mystery religions belonged to a select group, where access was only gained through an initiation. She finds that
4823-490: The initiates were given a purple fillet . There was also a second night of initiation, the epopteia where the "usual preliminary lustration rites and sacrifices" took place though not much else can be known besides that it may have been similar to the epopteia at Eleusis and would have climaxed with the showing of a great light. The initiation of the first night was concluded by banqueting together and many dining rooms have been uncovered by archaeologists in association with
4914-540: The initiation and the ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders. The most famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries , which predated the Greek Dark Ages . The mystery schools flourished in Late Antiquity ; Emperor Julian , of the mid-4th century, is believed by some scholars to have been associated with various mystery cults—most notably the mithraists . Due to
5005-434: The institutional/historical, the intellectual/speculative, and the mystical/experiential. For Erasmus , mysticism subsisted in contemplating the deep secrets contained in the Bible, notably the startling personality of Christ. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century mysticism came to be used as a substantive. This shift was linked to a new discourse, in which science and religion were separated. Luther dismissed
5096-563: The lack of similar terms in other cultures, some scholars regard the term "mysticism" to be inadequate as a useful descriptive term. Other scholars regard the term to be an inauthentic fabrication, the "product of post-Enlightenment universalism". Richard Jones notes that "few classical mystics refer to their experiences as the union of two realities: there is no literal 'merging' or 'absorption' of one reality into another resulting in only one entity." He explicates mysticism with reference to one's mode of access in order to include both union of
5187-404: The mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace) had no content but rather limited themselves to showing objects in initiation. Later interaction between Christianity and mystery religions did take place. Christianity has its own initiation ritual, baptism , and beginning in the fourth century, Christians began to refer to their sacraments , such as baptism, with the word mysterion , the Greek term that
5278-533: The mysteries of the deities of Cabeiri . Philip II of Macedon and his later wife Olympias were said to have met during the initiation ceremony at Samothrace. Heracles , Jason , Cadmus , Orpheus and the Dioscuri were all said to have been initiated here. Little is known about any core foundational myths for the entities worshipped by cult initiates at Samothrace; even their identities are unknown, as they tended to be discussed anonymously, being referred to as
5369-529: The mystery cults resembled each other. Reacting to these claims by outsiders, early Christian apologists , such as Justin Martyr , denied that these cults had influenced their religion. The seventeenth-century Protestant scholar Isaac Casaubon brought up the issue again by accusing the Catholic Church of deriving its sacraments from the rituals of the mystery cults. Charles-François Dupuis , in
5460-476: The mystic with some transcendent reality and the non-sensory revelation of that reality. The mystic experience can be defined by the mystic's purported access to "realities or states of affairs that are of a kind not accessible by way of ordinary sense-perception structured by mental conceptions, somatosensory modalities, or standard introspection." Whether or not such an experience is veridical remains undecided. Deriving from Neo-Platonism and Henosis , mysticism
5551-567: The neighboring regions. While the information here is even more scarce than that available with the Eleusinian Mysteries (and more late, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods), it's known that the Samothracian Mysteries significantly borrowed from the ones at Eleusis (including the word 'Mysteries'), furthermore, archaeological and linguistic data continues elucidating more of what happened at Samothrace. These rituals were also associated with others on neighboring island such as
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#17327660242895642-487: The origins of Christianity with heavy influence from the mystery cults, if not labeling Christianity itself as a mystery cult. This trend was partly the result of the increasing growth of critical historical analysis of Christianity's history, as exemplified by David Strauss 's Das Leben Jesu (1835–36) and the secularizing trend among scholars that sought to derive Christianity from its pagan surroundings. Scholars, for example, began attempting to derive Paul's theology from
5733-615: The origins of rites in Christianity such as baptism and the Eucharist to mystery religions, it has been demonstrated that the origins of baptism rather lie in Jewish purificatory ritual and that cult meals were so widespread in the ancient world that attempting to demonstrate their origins from any one source is arbitrary. Searches for Christianity deriving content from mystery religions has also been unsuccessful; many of them (such as
5824-566: The others being the imperial cult , or the ethnic religion particular to a nation or state, and the philosophic religions such as Neoplatonism . This is also reflected in the tripartite division of " theology "—by Varro —into civil theology (concerning the state religion and its stabilizing effect on society), natural theology (philosophical speculation about the nature of the divine), and mythical theology (concerning myth and ritual ). Mysteries thus supplement rather than compete with civil religion . An individual could easily observe
5915-484: The pestilences which deprived the world of its prosperity. However, because the Fates decreed that whoever ate or drank in the underworld was doomed to spend eternity there, Persephone was still forced to remain in the realm for either four or six months of the year (depending on the telling), as she was tricked by Hades into eating pomegranate seeds of a corresponding amount. Thus, Demeter, in her sadness, neglects to nourish
6006-424: The phrases paks or konks , which referenced the proclamation of a conclusion of an event. The clothing worn by the new members during their journey were used as lucky blankets for children or perhaps were given to their sanctuary. The second most famous Mysteries were those on the island of Samothrace and promised safety to sailors from the perils of the sea, and most participants would come to be initiated from
6097-525: The popular Roman religio-philosophical theme of ascent, whereby the god's emergence from the stone serves to depict his divinity and power over "earthly mundaneness". The visual and metaphorical components to the core cult image of Mithras slaying a bull, known as the tauroctony , have also been greatly debated. Propositions that the scene depicts nothing more than the act of sacrifice, well known to Romans through their civil religions and obligatory state festivals, have been accepted for some time, but belief that
6188-415: The religious realm, separating religion and "natural philosophy" as two distinct approaches to the discovery of the hidden meaning of the universe. The traditional hagiographies and writings of the saints became designated as "mystical", shifting from the virtues and miracles to extraordinary experiences and states of mind, thereby creating a newly coined "mystical tradition". A new understanding developed of
6279-411: The rites of the state religion, be an initiate in one or more mysteries, and at the same time adhere to a certain philosophical school. Many of the aspects of public religion such as sacrifices, ritual meals, and ritual purification were repeated within the mystery, but with the additional requirement that they take place in secrecy and be confined to a closed set of initiates. The mystery schools offered
6370-644: The root word of the English term "mystery". The term means "anything hidden", a mystery or secret, of which initiation is necessary. In the New Testament it reportedly takes the meaning of the counsels of God, once hidden but now revealed in the Gospel or some fact thereof, the Christian revelation generally, and/or particular truths or details of the Christian revelation. According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon,
6461-412: The scene displays a star-map of major constellations in addition to the usual action of sacrifice has appeared in recent years. As is the case with most other mystery religions, almost no written sources pertaining to the practices, much less the beliefs of adherents, survive. Thus, conjecture and assumption based almost exclusively on archaeological finds and modern interpretations provide only somewhat of
6552-408: The sea and purified themselves and the animals. Three days of rest would pass until the 19th, the agora was once more filled with the initiates at the procession at the sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter Persephone . Two Eleusinian priestesses were at the front of the procession followed by many Greeks holding special items in preparation for the rest of the ceremony, and the procession would leave
6643-522: The seas and help in difficult times—display a definite connection, though to what extent is impossible to conclude. It is therefore likely that if the Samothracian gods are not the Cabeiri themselves, elements from this comparative religion, along with Thracian elements of worship present on the island before an established Greek presence, heavily influenced the ideas and practices central to the mystery cult. Unlike at Eleusis, initiation at Samothrace
6734-490: The secret nature of the schools, and because the mystery religions of Late Antiquity were persecuted by the Christian Roman Empire from the 4th century, the details of these religious practices are derived from descriptions, imagery and cross-cultural studies. Justin Martyr in the 2nd century explicitly noted and identified them as "demonic imitations" of the true faith; "the devils, in imitation of what
6825-470: The smell of extinguished torches. The initiation may have taken place over two nights. If so, the first night may have concerned the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades and ended with the goddess's return, whereas the second night concerned the epopteia (the higher degree of the Mysteries) which was a performance that included singing, dancing, potentially the showing of a phallus, a terrifying experience for
6916-408: The statue of Hermes at Kyllene. The aforesaid statues are images of the primal man and of the regenerated, spiritual man who is in every respect consubstantial with that man. The scarcity of information precludes understanding what went on during the initiation, though there may have been dancing such as at Eleusis associated with the mythology of the search for Harmonia . At the end of the initiation,
7007-843: The status quo. For this reason, what evidence remains of the older Greek mysteries has been understood as reflecting certain archaic aspects of common Indo-European religion , with parallels in Indo-Iranian religion . The mystery schools of Greco-Roman antiquity include the Eleusinian Mysteries , the Dionysian Mysteries , and the Orphic Mysteries . Some of the many divinities that the Romans nominally adopted from other cultures also came to be worshipped in Mysteries; for instance, Egyptian Isis , Persian Mithras from
7098-433: The subterranean chamber known as a Mithraeum where the rites and practices of the cult would be performed. Initiates were naked, bound with their arms behind them, and knelt before a priest, whereupon they would be released from their bondage, crowned, but not permitted to rise until a particular moment. The initiation was confirmed by a handshake, as members would henceforth be referred to as syndexioi , or those "united by
7189-517: The term μυστήριον in classical Greek meant "a hidden thing", "secret". A particular meaning it took in Classical antiquity was a religious secret or religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to be communicated by them to ordinary mortals. In the Septuagint and the New Testament the meaning it took was that of a hidden purpose or counsel, a secret will. It is sometimes used for
7280-548: The terms were associated with the term βάκχος ( Bacchus ), which was used for a special class of initiates of the Orphic mysteries. The terms are first found connected in the writings of Heraclitus . Such initiates are identified in texts with the persons who have been purified and have performed certain rites. A passage of Cretans by Euripides seems to explain that the μύστης (initiate) who devotes himself to an ascetic life, renounces sexual activities, and avoids contact with
7371-533: The third century, and especially after Constantine became emperor, components of mystery religions began to be incorporated into mainstream Christian thinking, such as is reflected by the disciplina arcani . The English word 'mystery' originally appeared as the Ancient Greek plural Mustḗria 'the Mysteries', and developed into the Latin mysterium , where the English term originates. The etymology of
7462-464: The verb μυέω (mueó or myéō) appears in the New Testament . As explained in Strong's Concordance , it properly means shutting the eyes and mouth to experience mystery. Its figurative meaning is to be initiated into the "mystery revelation". The meaning derives from the initiatory rites of the pagan mysteries. Also appearing in the New Testament is the related noun μυστήριον (mustérion or mystḗrion),
7553-475: The world of benevolent and malevolent spirits , who typically enters into trance during a ritual , and practices divination and healing . Neoshamanism refers to "new"' forms of shamanism , or methods of seeking visions or healing, typically practiced in Western countries. Neoshamanism comprises an eclectic range of beliefs and practices that involve attempts to attain altered states and communicate with
7644-462: Was also manifested in various sects of the time such as the Waldensians . Under the influence of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite the term mystical theology came to denote the investigation of the allegorical truth of the Bible, and "the spiritual awareness of the ineffable Absolute beyond the theology of divine names." Pseudo-Dionysius' Apophatic theology , or "negative theology", exerted
7735-518: Was also used for a mystery rite. In this case, the word meant that Christians did not discuss their most important rites with non-Christians who might misunderstand or disrespect them. Their rites thus acquired some of the aura of secrecy that surrounded the mystery cults. Even in ancient times these similarities were controversial. Non-Christians in the Roman Empire in the early centuries CE, such as Lucian and Celsus , thought Christianity and
7826-647: Was an antidote the "self-aggrandizing hyper-inquisitiveness" of Scholasticism and was attainable even by simple and uneducated people. The outcome of affective mysticism may be to see God's goodness or love rather than, say, his radical otherness. The theology of Catherine of Sienna was analysed in terms of mystical theology by Baron Friedrich von Hügel in The Mystical Element of Religion as Studied in St. Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends (1908). Von Hügel proposed three elements of religious experience:
7917-408: Was an initiate of a mystery religion. In early Christianity the term "mystikos" referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative. The biblical dimension refers to "hidden" or allegorical interpretations of Scriptures. The liturgical dimension refers to the liturgical mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of Christ in
8008-426: Was any theology (or divine-human knowledge) that occurred in the affective (relating to the will including the emotions) realm rather than the intellective. This kind of mysticism was a general category that included the positive knowledge of God obtained, for example, through practical "repentant activity" (e.g., as part of sacramental participation), rather being about passive esoteric/transcendent religious ecstasy: it
8099-732: Was considering the abundance of possibilities including the Hall of Choral Dancers, the Hieron, the Anaktoron and the Rotunda of Arsinoe II. In the 3rd century, Hippolytus of Rome in his Refutation of All Heresies quotes a Gnostic author who provides a summary of some of the images here; There stand two statues of naked men in the Anaktoron of the Samothracians, with both hands stretched up toward heaven and their pudenda turned up, just as
8190-530: Was not restricted to a narrow few days of the year and lasted from April to November (the sailing season) with a large event likely taking place in June but may have taken place over two nights. Like in Samothrace, the future initiates would enter the sanctuary of Samothrace from the east where they would have entered into a 9-meter in diameter circular space with flagstones and a grandstand of five steps now called
8281-433: Was said by Moses , asserted that Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter , and instigated the people to set up an image of her under the name of Kore" ( First Apology ). Through the 1st to 4th century, Christianity stood in direct competition for adherents with the mystery schools, insofar as the "mystery schools too were an intrinsic element of the non-Jewish horizon of the reception of the Christian message". Beginning in
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