Greek/Roman/Norse Adepts & Mystery Schools
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Many
a Wizard and Magus emerged from the Mystery Religions of Greece and Rome,
as well as the Teutonic, Gallic, and Norse Pagan religions. The Mystery
Religion in which initiates partook in secret rituals of instruction was
the primary mode in which higher Paganism was communicated. The Mystery
Schools of Egypt also operated on this level when revealing the outer mysteries
to the populace.
All of these magical functions and positions were very shamanic, involving
communication with higher beings, use of rune-galder or chant for invocation
as well as certain rituals, such as drinking potions, sometimes sexual union,
and ingesting magical ale from a sanctified cup. These magicians and priests
would be tested to see if their prophecies came true, their protection and
spells blessed, or if they displayed magical will. A Norse Adept would be
expected to know the extensive historical and rune lore of his people. They
would be expected to heal the sick and give advice on all manner of healing
arts. They would have to demonstrate their abilities as prophets, getting
their prognostications correct every time for awhile before being bestowed
the status of Eldar.
The Pagan mysteries of Greece and Rome, which were said at the time to be
derived from Atlantis, gave rise to a cosmology of many gods and goddesses,
and many types of Adept. The Atlantis legacy is commented upon by several
ancient authors. Proclus, in the 5th century B.C. writes, "The famous
Atlantis exists no longer, but we can hardly doubt that it did once, for
Marcellus, who wrote a history of Ethiopian affairs, says that so great
an island once existed and this is evidenced by those who compose histories
relative to the external sea. For they relate that in this time there were
seven islands in the Atantic sea, sacred to Proserpine; and beside these,
three of immense magnitude sacred to Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune. Besides
this, the inhabitants of the last island (Poseidonis) preserved the memory
of the prodigious magnitude of the Atlantic island as related by their ancestors
and of its governing for many periods all the islands of the Atlantic Sea."
The gods of Greece and Rome are well known, and they are the names we also
use for our planets just as the Romans did. Most of the gods lived on Mt.
Olympus, the abode of Zeus, the head of the gods. He lived there with his
wife Hera and family, often visited by the other gods including Artemis,
goddess of the hunt; Athena, goddess of wisdom, Aphrodite, goddess of love;
Mars, god of war; Hephastus (Vulcan), god of creation and works; and Hermes
(Mercury), god of wisdom, communication and magic, who are personified with
human characteristics and often based on human teachers and sages of ages
past. Hades (Pluto) ruled over the underworld where he lived and never came
into daylight except to capture his future wife Persephone, goddess of spiritual
rebirth, daughter of Ceres, goddess of the grains and harvests.
In Greek and Roman Mystery tradition, the gnostic revelation of personal
divinity isn't through the vast unified metaphysics of their cosmology,
but through the subtle mythological symbolism used by the pagan Mystery
schools to demonstrate profound truths. Usually initiates vowed to mimic
the precepts and lifestyles of the great Adept their tradition was based
on. The adepts of the schools would emulate their high priest or particular
ritual deity. Those who followed Pythagoras lived like him. Those in the
Orphic cult behaved and wandered like their poet founder Orpheus. The Bacchae
of Dionysos celebrated with orgy and wanton abandonment of social norms.
What could seem like a children's story would be used by the different mystery
schools to initiate and instruct their students in the same way the parables
and allegory of the New Testament is used to instruct higher truths that
are nearly unsayable.
The most famous of the ancient religious Mysteries were the Eleusinian,
whose rites were celebrated every five years in the city of Eluesis to honor
Ceres (Demeter, Rhea, or Isis) and her daughter Persephone. The initiates
of the Eluesian 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 Eleusian Mysteries, named for the community in Attica where
the sacred dramas were first presented, are generally believed to have been
founded by Eumolopus around 1400 B.C. Through the Platonic system of philosophy
their principles have been preserved to modern times. The rites of Eleusis,
with their mystic interpretations of nature's most precious secrets, overshadowed
the civilizations of their time and gradually absorbed many smaller schools,
incorporating them into their own system whatever valuable information the
lesser institutions possessed.
The rites of Eleusis were divided into greater and lesser Mysteries. The
lesser mysteries were celebrated in the spring at the vernal equinox in
the town of Agare and the Greater Mysteries at the time of the autumnal
equinox in Eleusis or Athens. The rituals of the Eleusinians were highly
involved. Understanding them required a deep knowledge of Greek mythology.
The lesser mysteries were dedicated to Persephone. In his Eleusinian and
Bacchic Mysteries, Thomas Taylor sums up their purpose succinctly, "These
mysteries were designed by the ancient priests to signify by occult means,
the condition of the unpurified soul invested with an earthly body and enveloped
in a material and physical nature." Below, I will recap the more detailed
story of Persephone than was covered in the UMS Gods, Goddesses &
Mythology Course, for it pertains to a particular sect of Adepts and
why their rituals and initiations were set up the way they were.