Highest state is 'friendship and interior communion with God'

[Guest guest]

, " Violet " <violetubb

wrote:

 

> (P.25)The ancient philosophers were not so foolish as to believe

> that the Mystery myths were literally true, but wise enough

> to recognize that they were an easy introduction to the

> profound mystical philosophy at the heart of the Mysteries.

>

> The Jesus Mysteries

> Was the Original Jesus A Pagan God?

> Chapter 2 - p.25

>

 

Dear All,

 

Yet perhaps, unknown to the ancient philosophers, in the Spirit World

in the Kingdom of God the mythologies do come true. It would seem

that these mythologies give a deeper spiritual truth of the 'Divine

within' that has to be individually realized - and in the Spirit

World these mythologies can be witnessed, according to the knowledge

that Kash and his siblings have given evidence of. Therefore, this

knowledge is not only important evidence to confirm Shri Mataji's

incarnation, but it is also knowledge that perhaps the ancient

philosophers did not know, about the Spirit World and the Kingdom of

God:

 

" This overriding unity of all messengers of various religions as One

was consistently witnessed by Kash throughout all his journeys into

the Kingdom of God. It was for this reason that on December 31, 1993,

his father requested him to wish Shri Mataji and all the Messengers

of God Almighty a " Happy New Year " .

 

This young child had been meditating for nearly two months and daily

provided his father with unassailable evidence that whatever he was

witnessing in the Kingdom of God within was not a figment of his

imagination, but a Reality greater than that of this earthly

existence. And he (together with his brother Arwinder and sister

Lalita) always maintained that all the Messengers of Hinduism,

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and others were living in

perfect harmony in the Spirit World. "

 

http://adishakti.org/meeting_his_messengers.htm

 

violet

 

 

Dear Violet and all,

 

Namaste - i bow to the Primordial Mother who resides in you!

 

This is the first time the Great Devi has revealed Herself this way

i.e., simultaneously and daily to three siblings from 1993-2007 who

bore witness to the Spirit World and the Kingdom of God. She has

given irrefutable evidence that Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is Her

incarnation, the Comforter promised by Jesus Christ. Of even greater

significance are Her revelations that She is the Shakti/Holy Spirit

of God Almighty entrenched in all religions stretching back into time.

But most important, relevant and comforting to humanity is Her Divine

Message and Sure Signs of the Resurrection--the promised redemption

and salvation of all humans--which is the heart and soul of Judaism,

Christianity and Islam.

 

We are Her disciples specifically empowered with the knowledge and

faith to bring about the salvation of lost souls:

 

" Jesus solemnly assures the disciples that they will, in the future,

perform even greater miracles than He. By this He means to say that

through the power of the Holy Spirit, they will bring about the

greatest miracle of all – the salvation of lost souls. "

(The Randall House Bible Commentary: The Gospel of John)

 

and even warn Muslims, " You persistently closed your mind to this

promise " of the Resurrection! (You need knowledge of the Qur'an to

say so.)

 

So whether you are a pagan, atheist, gnostic or religious person the

Divine Mother has given the knowledge and evidence to establish a

deep faith in the Divine. The Great Mother/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Adi Shakti/

Aykaa Mayee within personally leads Her devotee to the highest state

of human existence, the 'friendship and interior communion with God'.

 

However, all the bhakti--devotion and reverence for the Divine

expressed through rituals, sacrifices, ascetic practices, pilgrimages,

donations, idols, hymns, prayers, purifications--will not lead to this

highest state. Thus all the bathing at Benares, hajjs to Mecca,

drinking holy water at Lourdes, circumambulations of Mount Kailash,

flagellations for Hussain, Golden Temple recitations, Ramadan fasts,

Navratri penance, and other mammade rituals will never liberate. Of

course that includes the rituals and treatments of SYSSR, the Sahaja

Yoga Subtle System Religion. Knowledge need not arise from even total

dedication of these external religious rituals, as has been the case

for millennia.

 

In the Devi Gita the Divine Mother proceeds to describe Her essential

forms. The Devi declares that prior to creation, She is the only

existent entity, the one supreme Brahman and is pure consciousness.

The Devi Gita is clear about salvation and attainment of eternal

life: " Even when a person performs bhakti, knowledge need not arise.

He will go to the Devi's Island. Till the complete knowledge in the

form of my consciousness arises, there is no liberation. "

 

As we continue to extract ever more knowledge and evidence that

progressively eradicates our inherited religious ignorance and false

indoctrination, our consciousness and attention is slowly shifting

through daily meditation towards 'friendship and interior communion

with God' i.e., the complete knowledge in the form of consciousness.

The Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti/Aykaa Mayee/Comforter/Ruh/Antaryamin within

is nothing but pure consciousness. Your spirit or soul too is pure

consciousness. Conciousness is eternal.

 

The invisible Spirit is eternal, and the visible world is transitory.

The reality of these two is indeed certainly seen by the seers of

truth. The Spirit (Atma) by which all this universe is pervaded is

indestructible. No one can destroy the imperishable Spirit. Bodies of

the eternal, immutable, and incomprehensible Spirit are perishable.

The Spirit (Atma) is neither born nor does it die at any time. It

does not come into being, or cease to exist. It is unborn, eternal,

permanent, and primeval. The Spirit is not destroyed when the body is

destroyed.

 

The Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti/Aykaa Mayee/Comforter/Ruh/Antaryamin within

is nothing but pure consciousness. Your spirit or soul too is pure

consciousness. Conciousness is eternal. Only the knowledge, friendship

and interior communion with Her--all in the form of pure consciousness

--is liberation! That excludes all rituals, baths, sacrifices, ascetic

practices, pilgrimages, donations, idols, hymns, prayers, treatments,

circumambulations, flagellations, fasts, recitations, penance and

purifications erquired by religious institutions. The highest state

is when we understand the true meaning of the teachings of the Divine

Mother and begin experiencing the 'friendship and interior communion

with God'. The pagan civilization knew about Self-realization and

" The Mysteries " confirm they were far advanced, and still are today

over the religions that eradicated and replaced them.

 

regards to all,

 

 

jagbir

 

 

--------------------

 

" The Mysteries - Part 1

 

(P.18) 'Blest is the happy man

Who knows the Mysteries the gods ordain,

And sanctifies his life,

Joins soul with soul in mystic unity,

And, by due ritual made pure,

Enters the ecstasy of mountain solitudes;

Who observes the mystic rites

Made lawful by the Great Mother;

Who crowns his head with ivy,

And shakes his wand in worship of Dionysus.'[1]

 

- Euripides

 

 

Paganism is a 'dead' religion - or more accurately an 'exterminated'

religion. It did not simply fade into oblivion. It was actively

suppressed and annihilated, its temples and shrines desecrated and

demolished, and its great sacred books thrown onto bonfires. No

living lineage has been left to explain its ancient beliefs. So, the

Pagan worldview has to be reconstructed from the archaeological

evidence and texts that have survived, like some giant metaphysical

jigsaw puzzle.

 

(P.19) 'Pagan' was originally a derogatory term meaning 'country-

dweller', used by Christians to imply that the spirituality of the

ancients was some primitive rural superstition. But this is not true.

Paganism was the spirituality which inspired the unequalled

magnificence of the Giza pyramids, the exquisite architecture of the

Parthenon, the legendary sculptures of Phideas, the powerful plays of

Euripides and Sophocles, and the sublime philosophy of Socrates and

Plato.

 

Pagan civilization built vast libraries to house hundreds of

thousands of works of literary and scientific genius. Its natural

philosophers speculated that human beings had evolved from animals.

[2] Its astronomers knew the Earth was a sphere[3] which, along with

the planets, revolves around the sun.[4] They had even estimated its

circumference to within one degree of accuracy.[5] The ancient Pagan

world sustained a population not matched again in Europe until the

eighteenth century.[6] In Greece, Pagan culture gave birth to the

concepts of democracy, rational philosophy, public libraries, theatre

and the Olympic Games, creating a blueprint for our modern world.

What was the spirituality that inspired these momentous cultural

achievements?

 

Most people associate Paganism with either rustic witchcraft or the

myths of the gods of Olympus as recorded by Hesiod and Homer. Pagan

spirituality did indeed embrace both. The country people practised

their traditional shamanic nature worship to maintain the fertility

of the land and the city authorities propped up formal state

religions, such as the worship of the Olympian gods, to maintain

the power of the status quo.

 

It was, however, a third, more mystical, expression of the Pagan

spirit which inspired the great minds of the ancient world. The

thinkers, artists and innovators of antiquity were initiates of

various religions known as 'Mysteries'. These remarkable men and

women held the Mysteries to be the heart and soul of their culture.

(P.20) The Greek historian Zosimos writes that without the

Mysteries 'life for the Greeks would be unlivable' for 'the sacred

Mysteries hold the whole human race together'.[7] The eminent Roman

statesman Cicero enthuses:

 

'These Mysteries have brought us from rustic savagery to a cultivated

and refined civilisation. The rites of the Mysteries are called

" initiations " and in truth we have learned from them the first

principles of life. We have gained the understanding not only to live

happily but also to die with better hope.'[8]

 

Unlike the traditional rituals of the official state religions, which

were designed to aid social cohesion, the Mysteries were an

individualistic form of spirituality which offered mystical visions

and personal enlightenment.[9] Initiates underwent a secret process

of initiation which profoundly transformed their state of

consciousness. The poet Pindar reveals that an initiate into the

Mysteries 'knows the end of life and its God-given beginning'.[10]

Lucius Apuleius, a poet-philosopher, writes of his experience of

initiation as a spiritual rebirth which he celebrated as his

birthday, an experience for which he felt a 'debt of gratitude' that

he 'could never hope to repay'. [11] Plato, the most influential

philosopher of all time, relates:

 

" We beheld the beatific visions and were initiated into the Mystery

which may be truly called blessed, celebrated by us in a state of

innocence. We beheld calm, happy, simple, eternal visions, resplendent

in pure light.'[12]

 

The great Pagan philosophers were the enlightened masters of the

Mysteries. Although they are often portrayed today as dry 'academic'

intellectuals, they were actually enigmatic 'gurus'. Empedocles, like

his master Pythagoras, was a charismatic miracle-worker.[13] (P.21)

Socrates was an eccentric mystic prone to being suddenly overcome by

states of rapture during which his friends would discover him staring

off into space for hours.[14] Heraclitus was asked by the citizens of

Ephesus to become a lawmaker, but turned the offer down so that he

could continue playing with the children in the temple.[15]

Anaxagoras shocked ordinary citizens by completely abandoning his

farm to fully devote his life to 'the higher philosophy'.[16]

Diogenes owned nothing and lived in a jar at the entrance of a temple.

[17] The inspired playwright Euripides wrote his greatest tragedies

during solitary retreats in an isolated cave.[18]

 

All of these idiosyncratic sages were steeped in the mysticism of the

Mysteries, which they expressed in their philosophy. Olympiodorus, a

follower of Plato, tells us that his master paraphrased the Mysteries

everywhere.[19] The works of Heraclitus were renowned even in ancient

times for being obscure and impenetrable, yet Diogenes explains that

they are crystal clear to an initiate of the Mysteries. Of studying

Heraclitus he writes:

 

'It is a hard road to follow, filled with darkness and gloom; but if

an initiate leads you on the way, it becomes brighter than the

radiance of the sun.'[20]

 

At the heart of Pagan philosophy is an understanding that all things

are One. The Mysteries aimed at awakening within the initiate a

sublime experience of this Oneness. Sallustius declares: 'Every

initiation aims at uniting us with the World and with the Deity.'[21]

Plotinus describes the initiate transcending his limited sense of

himself as a separate ego and experiencing mystical union with God:

 

(P.21) 'As if borne away, or possessed by a god, he attains to

solitude in untroubled stillness, nowhere deflected in his being and

unbusied with self, utterly at rest and become very rest. He does not

converse with a statue or image but with Godhead itself. And this is

no object of vision, but another mode of seeing, a detachment from

self, a simplification and surrender of self, a yearning for contact,

and a stillness and meditation directed towards transformation.

Whoever sees himself in this way has attained likeness to God;

let him abandon himself and find the end of his journeying.'[22]

 

No wonder the initiate Sopatros poetically mused, 'I came out of the

Mystery Hall feeling like a stranger to myself.'[23]

 

What were these ancient Mysteries that could inspire such reverent

awe and heartfelt appreciation? The Mystery religion was practised

for thousands of years, during which time it spread throughout the

ancient world, taking on many different forms. Some were frenzied and

others meditative. Some involved bloody animal sacrifice, while

others were presided over by strict vegetarians. At certain moments

in history the Mysteries were openly practised by whole populations

and were endorsed, or at least tolerated, by the state. At other

times they were a small-scale and secretive affair, for fear of

persecution by unsympathetic authorities. Central to all of these

forms of the Mysteries, however, was the myth of a dying and

resurrecting godman.

 

The Greek Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis in honour of the Great

Mother goddess and the godman Dionysus were the most famous of all

the Mystery cults. The sanctuary of Eleusis was finally destroyed by

bands of fanatical Christian monks in 396 CE, but up until this

tragic act of vandalism the Mysteries had been celebrated there for

over 11 centuries.[24] At the height of their popularity people were

coming from all over the then known world to be initiated: men and

women, rich and poor, slaves and emperors [25] - even a Brahmin

priest from India.[26]...

 

Why did the myth enacted by the Mysteries have such a profound effect?

 

Encoded Secret Teachings

 

In antiquity the word 'mythos' did not mean something 'untrue', as it

does for us today. Superficially a myth was an entertaining story,

but to the initiated it was a sacred code that contained profound

spiritual teachings.[37] Plato comments, 'It looks as if those also

who established rites of initiation for us were no fools, but that

there is a hidden meaning in their teachings.'[38] He explains that

it is 'those who have given their lives to true philosophy' who

will grasp the 'hidden meaning' encoded in the Mystery myths, and so

become completely identified with the godman in an experience of

mystical enlightenment.[39]

 

The ancient philosophers were not so foolish as to believe that the

Mystery myths were literally true, but wise enough to recognize that

they were an easy introduction to the profound mystical philosophy at

the heart of the Mysteries. Sallustius writes:

 

(P.26) 'To wish to teach all men the truth of the gods causes the

foolish to despise, because they cannot learn, and the good to be

slothful, whereas to conceal the truth by myths prevents the former

from despising philosophy and compels the latter to study it.' [40]

 

It was the role of the priests and philosophers of the Mysteries to

decode the hidden depths of spiritual meaning contained within the

Mystery myths. Heliodorus, a priest of the Mysteries, explains:

 

'Philosophers and theologians do not disclose the meanings embedded

in these stories to laymen but simply give them preliminary

instruction in the form of a myth. But those who have reached the

higher grades of the Mysteries they initiate into clear knowledge in

the privacy of the holy shrine, in the light cast by the blazing

torch of truth.'[41]

 

The Mysteries were divided into various levels of initiation, which

led an nitiate step by step through ever deepening levels of

understanding. The number of levels of initiation varied in different

Mystery traditions, but essentially the initiate was led from the

Outer Mysteries, in which the myths were understood superficially as

religious stories, to the Inner Mysteries, in which the myths were

revealed as spiritual allegories. First the initiate was ritually

purified. Then they were taught the secret teachings on a one-to-one

basis.[42] The highest stage was when the initiate understood the

true meaning of the teachings and finally experienced what Theon of

Smyrna calls 'friendship and interior communion with God'.

 

The Jesus Mysteries

Was the Original Jesus A Pagan God?

p.18-26

Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy

Element (imprint of HarperCollins'Publishers')

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

ISBN-13 978-0-7225-3677-3

ISBN-10 0-7225-3677-1

 

 

 

Notes:

 

[1] Euripides, 'The Bacchae', 194, lines 74-83

 

[2] Kirk and Raven, (1957), 393, Anaxagoras fr. 532; see 141,

Anaximander fr. 140

 

[3] The earliest mention of a spherical Earth in the West is in

Plato, 'Phaedo', 110b, although Diogenes Laertius tells us that it

was Pythagoras who first called the Earth round, see Guthrie, K.S.

(1987), 154. The Alexandrian scholar Eratosthenes (275-194 BCE)

asserted that if one sailed westward from Spain one would eventually

reach India, see Marlow, J. (1971), 72.

 

[4] Kirk and Raven, op.cit., 257, fr. 329: 'Most people say that the

earth lies at the centre of the universe but the Italian philosophers

known as Pythagoreans take the contrary view. At the centre they say,

is fire, and the earth is one of the planets creating night and day

by its circular motion about the centre.' The Pythagorean theory was

later adopted by the astronomers of the Alexandrian library:

'Aristarchus of Samos hypothesises ... that the earth is borne around

the sun on the circumference of a circle.' See Walbank, F.W. (1981),

185. Aristarchus was Eratosthenes' successor as Chief Librarian; see

Marlow, op.cit., 74.

 

[5] Marlow, J. op.cit., 71. Eratosthenes' calculation was correct

with an error of less than 1 per cent.

 

[6] Lane-Fox, R. (1986), 47. Augustus ruled over an empire of over

100 million people. In Egypt, for example, the population did not

approach eight million again until the mid-nineteenth century.

 

[7] Quoted in Kerenyi, C. (1967), 11. Zosimos is commenting on the

laws passed in the fourth century CE by the Christian Emperor

Valentinian to prohibit the celebration of the Greek Mysteries of

Eleusis. They were regarded by local authorities as unworkable

because the Mysteries were still held in such high esteem.

 

[8] Campbell, J. (1964), 268, quoting Cicero, 'On the Laws', 2.36

 

[9] Burkert, W. (1985), 291:'Dionysus is the god of the exceptional.

As the individual gains in independence, the Dionysus cult becomes a

vehicle for the separation of private groups from the polis.

Alongside public Dionysiac festivals there emerge Dionysus

mysteries.' Guthrie, W.K.C. (1952), 50: 'It is this emergence of

mystery religions into the stream of history that is meant by

those who refer to the great religious revival of the sixth century.

Henceforth ... the choice of belief being a matter of individual

temperament.' See Wallis, R.T. (1992), 28, which records Jaeger's

view that 'From the fourth century BC on, the form of Greek religion

that appealed to most people of higher education was not the religion

of the Olympic gods but that of the mysteries, which gave the

individual a more personal relationship with the godhead.' The

Mystery religions were ideally suited to the conditions following

Alexander's conquest, when previously discrete cultures were thrown

together. The science of comparative religion was born and old

national and racial deities reinvented. The new Mediterranean 'koine'

presented to the individual new challenges and new opportunities. The

individualistic salvation cults of the Mysteries flourished

in this environment.

 

[10] Burkert, op.cit., 289. The mystical understanding that the end

and the beginning are One is a sentiment expressed by many initiates.

In Greek initiation is 'telete', meaning 'to finish', but when Cicero

translated the concept into Latin he used 'initiatio', meaning 'to

begin'. That both terms can be true is a reflection of this paradox.

To the initiate the moments of birth, death and initiation are the

same.

 

[11] Lucius Apuleius, 'The Golden Ass', 187, Chapter 18: 'This was

the happiest day of my initiation, and I celebrate it as my

birthday ... I remained for days longer in the temple, enjoying the

ineffable pleasure of contemplating the Goddess's statue, because I

was bound to her by a debt of gratitude that I could never hope to

repay.'

 

[12] Plato, 'Phaedrus', 250b-c

 

[13] Kingsley, P. (1995), Chapter 24. Kingsley states that the

current state of research on the Presocratic philosophers has reached

crisis point. Post-enlightenment classical scholars were as

embarrassed by the mysticism and 'miracle-mongering' of men like

Pythagoras and Empedocles as they were of the supernaturalism of the

New Testament. Consequently Plato's indebtedness to the Mysteries and

to Orphic/Pythagorean doctrines was ignored or misunderstood. Only

now are historians beginning to acknowledge that 'rational'

philosophy emerged from a wave of Oriental mysticism that swept

Greece in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. See Boardman, Griffin

and Murray (1986), 115:'The development of science and philosophy was

concurrent with, and to some extent implicated in, the spread of

untraditional doctrines derived not from pure reason but from

oriental myth.'

 

[14] Plato, 'Symposium', 220c-d

 

[15] Kirk and Raven, (1957), 183. Orphaned children in Ephesus were

looked after in the Temple of Artemis, the 'Great Mother' of Asia

Minor. It was to this temple that Heraclitus donated his famous book.

The bear was Artemis' totem animal, probably on account of its

fiercely protective mother instinct. The children of the temple were

known as 'cubs'.

 

[16] Plutarch, 'Life of Pericles', 16

 

[17] Diogenes and Antisthenes were the disciples of Plato and the

originators of Cynic philosophy.

 

[18] Euripides was the last of the Classical Greek tragedians; 'The

Bacchae' was his last work. The cave in which it is thought Euripides

worked and meditated has recently been discovered near Salamis.

 

[19] Kingsley, op.cit., 112, making clear his belief that large parts

of Plato's philosophy derive from the teachings of the Mysteries. The

Mysteries were shaped by the religious movement of Orphism and

Pythagoreanism which swept Greece in the sixth and fifth centuries

BCE. Pausanias, referring to a secret Pythagorean doctrine, says,

'Whoever has seen the Mysteries or read the books of Orpheus will

know what I mean,' implying that the sayings of Orpheus formed a

liturgical accompaniment to the performance of the sacred rites. A

recently discovered fragment by Plato's nephew Speusippus, who took

over the Academy after Plato, leaves us no doubt that he saw Plato as

the successor of Pythagoras, see Burkert, W. (1972), 62. Aristotle

also points out the dependence of Plato on Pythagoras, see Kingsley,

op.cit., 111. Photius said that Plato was entirely dependent on the

Italian Pythagoreans, and Numenius of Apamea claimed that Plato

derived all his doctrines from Pythagoras, see Boardman, Griffin and

Murray, op.cit., 700. Proclus tells us that 'Plato received all his

knowledge of divine matters from Pythagorean and Orphic writings' and

Moderatus of Gades severely criticized Plato, accusing him of using

the ideas of Pythagoras without giving him credit where it was due,

see Guthrie, K.S. (1987), 41. The Mysteries, Orphism, Pythagoreanism

and the philosophy of Plato can only be understood as a unified

whole. Unfortunately the key to this mystery was the secret imparted

during initiation, a secret which initiates invariably took with them

to the grave.

 

[20] Kahn, C.H. (1979), 95, quoting an epigram attributed to Cleanthes

 

[21] Angus, S. (1925), 70, quoting from 'Concerning the Gods and the

Universe', 4

 

[22] Quoted in Gregory, J. (1987), 188; slightly adapted

 

[23] Burkert, W. (1992), 90, quoting Sopatros, 'The Rhetorician',

8.114

 

[24] Angus, op.cit., vii. Eleusis was destroyed by Alaric the Goth

aided by Christian monks.

 

[25] Burkert, W. (1985), 286, and see Willoughby, H.R. (1929), 38,

which also presents evidence that women and slaves were admitted to

the rites. Numerous Roman nobles and Emperors were initiated at

Eleusis, including Sulla, Mark Antony, Cicero, Augustus, Claudius,

Domitian, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, see Magnien, V. (1938), 25ff.

 

[26] Kerenyi, C. (1967), 100ff. The Brahmin priest Zarmaros went as an

ambassador to Emperor Augustus from King Poros of India. Augustus,

initiated himself in 31 BCE, decreed that the Eleusinian Mysteries

should be celebrated out of season to initiate his guest. At the

climax of the Mysteries, when the sanctuary opened and the great fire

blazed forth, Zarmaros astonished onlookers by walking directly into

the flames.

 

[37] Fidler, D. (1993), 6: 'The teachings of the mystery religions

were characteristically embodied in allegory, myth, and symbolic

imagery, both as " teaching stories " and as basic paradigms of human

experience. Certain philosophical schools, especially the Stoics and

Platonists, drew upon traditional myths to illustrate insights which

transcend merely logical description. Moreover, they held that the

interpretation of the traditional myths, like the pursuit of

philosophy itself, constituted, at its core, a process of initiation.'

 

[38] Plato, 'Phaedo', 69c

 

[39] Ibid., 69d: 'As those who understand the mysteries say, " There

are many who bear the wand, but few who become Bacchoi. " ' Becoming

one with the godman was the goal of the Mysteries.

 

[40] Quoted in Fidler, op.cit., 23. Sallustius also writes: 'The

universe itself can be called a myth, since bodies and material

objects are apparent in it, while souls and intellects are

concealed,' see Ehrenberg, V. (1968), 5.

 

[41] Heliodorus, 'An Ethiopian Story', 9.9, quoted in Fidler,

op.cit., 322, note 46

 

[42] Kingsley, P. (1995), 367. A beginner was called a 'mystae',

which means 'eyes closed' and is the root of our words 'mystery'

and 'mysticism'. The 'mystae' were those who had not yet understood

the secret Inner Mysteries. The higher level of initiates were

called 'epoptae', meaning 'to have seen'. The 'epoptae' were those

who had understood the Inner Mysteries.

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