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A. Fundamental Force Behind Development
1. Once, there was no purely 'native' or 'hermetic' tradition;
only a universal response by the Firstborn to the Earth-lore and the
Star-magic of their shamanic priests.
a. Later, as the single religious impulse of the Foretime split
into separate cults, these two approaches, which we may think of as
earthly (or chthonic) and stellar, grew further apart, until the
beginnings of the Hermetic traditions were seeded in Egypt and the
Hellenic world, while in Europe the Native traditions remained more or
less grounded in the magic of the earth.
(1) This is not to say that Greece and Egypt did not have
their own native traditions, or that development of religion and magic
in the Celtic West was so primitive and slow that it required cross-
fertilization with other sources to pull it into subtle realms of
experience.
B. The Major Mystery Religions.
1. It has often been said the the Egyptian mysteries are the true
foundation upon which the Western Hermetic systems are built.
a. This is due in part to the early identification of the
Egyptian God Thoth, scribe and guardian of mysteries, with Hermes
Trimegistos, the supposed founder of Western occult practice.
(1) Egypt had many mysteries, none more important that those
of Isis.
(a) Her name is said to mean 'throne', 'wisdom', or
'savior', though she possessed many other titles which testify to the
universality of her cult.
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(2) The deepest mysteries of Isis, and her consort- brother
Osiris, the God of the Sun, revolve around his death at the hands of
his brother Set, who cut Osiris' body into 14 parts and scattered them
through the world.
(a) Isis undertook a terrible journey, suffering great
hardship, seeking out the broken body of her lord and reassembling the
parts.
[1] She found and reassembled all but one part, the
phallus, which was thrown into the Nile and consumed by a fish.
b. Despite this, such was the creative power of Isis that she
was able to conceive by means of an artificial phallus, and bore the
child Horus who avenged his father by killing Set.
(1) This is an archetypical mystery-telling, introducing
themes found later in the teachings of the Hellenistic schools and in
the work of modern esoteric orders.
(a) It prefigures the death and rising of many gods and
show forth the power of the Creative Principle.
(b) It also establishes Isis as Queen of Heaven, more
powerful in the eyes of many than even the great god Ra himself, whose
representative upon earth was the Pharaoh.
3. In Mithraism, which descended from the Persian Mysteries,
Mithra stands as a mediator between light and dark, a position adopted
by his followers.
a. In humanity, the battle for the soul is fought out in the
territory of the flesh. Mithra, entering there, keeps all in balance.
(1) Mithraism was the Freemasonry of the Roman world.
(a) Like the other cults of Oriental origin, it moved with
the vast commerce in human beings that was such a notable feature of
the ancient world.
(b) The cult of Mithra is one that traveled well, from
Syria to Scotland.
(c) The Mithraic community was all men: women gravitated
to the parallel cult of Cybele or the exclusively female one of Bona
Dea.
(d) The congregations were small; no surviving Mithraeum
could house more than a hundred, but of course bigger lodges may have
formed, and dissolved, at army camps, because Mithraism was extremely
popular among the Roman Legions.
(e) There were no social barriers, so that slaves and
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privates could become high initiates. The ceremonies were solemnly
enacted and the initiations were quite awe-inspiring.
b. Mithra was born on the 25th of December, called the "Birthday
of the Unconquered Sun."
(1) This date was not taken over by the Christians for the
birth of their Savior until the 4th century BCE.
c. Some said that Mithra sprang from the union of sun god and
his own mother.
(1) Some claimed his mother to be a mortal virgin.
(a) Others said Mithra had no mother, but was miraculously
born of a female Rock, the petra genetrix, fertilized by the Heavenly
Father's phallic lightning.
2. In the many histories of the ancient world, only one figure is
described as being of greater importance than Hermes. This is the
Persian mage Zoroaster, who may actually have lived around 1000 BCE.,
or even earlier, but who clearly did not predate the foundation of the
Egyptian mysteries from which he drew heavily for his own system.
a. It is from the Persian mysteries that we derive the dualistic
spectre which has haunted esoteric philosophy and teaching ever since.
(1) In the Zoroastrian pantheon these opposing forces are
Ormuzd and Ahriman, who derive ultimately from Ahura Mazda, the divine
principle.
(a) Known as the Holy Immortals, or Amesha Spentas, they
correspond to the levels of creation, clearly foreshadowing the
teaching of later mystery schools such as those of Orpheus and Mithra.
(b) Against the Spentas are arrayed the Devas, the
companions of the Evil One, who are seen as ruling over the earth.
[1] The position of Persian dualism is confused by a
Zoroastrian heresy called Zurvanism, which is often mistaken for
mainstream Zoroastrianism.
[a] In Zoroastrianism proper, Ahura Mazda is supremely
god: his Spentas are not on the same footing.
[b] In Zurvanism, however, Ahura Mazda is made into a
lesser creator or demiurge, hence the cosmic struggle of good against
evil which takes place in the world of matter.
(2) In Zoroastrian teaching, a savior or saoshyant was to be
born, who would combat evil and bring the struggle to an end once and
for all, thus betokening the Frasokereti, the making perfect at the
end of time.
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(a) In this we see an echo of the Egyptian mysteries, and a
prefiguring of the gnostic position, as well as the appearance of a
third figure which becomes a requirement of all dualistic thinking
sooner or later. This third figure who will balance out the struggle
is a Messiah.
(b) Mithra's birth was witnessed by shepherd and Magi, who
brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock.
d. Mithra performed the usual assortment of miracles - raising
the dead, healing the sick, making the blind to see and the lame to
walk, casting out devils.
(1) As a 'Peter', son of petra, he carried the keys of the
kingdom of heaven.
e. His triumph and ascension to heaven were celebrated at the
spring equinox, when the sun rises toward its apogee.
(1) Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last
Supper with his 12 disciples, who represented the signs of the zodiac.
(a) In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a
sacramental bread marked with a cross.
[1] This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments. It
was called mizd, in latin-missa, in english- mass.
(2) Mithra's image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]