Personal Anecdote Time:
I once wrote to Jan N. Bremmer, a Dutch #historian , because I was interested in #eleusinianmysteries .
I told him I'm a random layperson but thought his talk (a lecture at a German uni at the time) was great but I can't afford his books (still can't).
After 6 months, I received a massive envelope in the mail from Mr Bremmer - it contained an entire book chapter on the mysteries & a note that he hopes this will help!
Has anyone seen a source actually connecting the phrase "hekas, hekas, este bebeloi" to the Eleusinian Mysteries?
There are lots of mentions in occult literature (and Walt Whitman), and in a surprising number of reconstructionist polytheist sites, but they all do that circular "was used in the Eleusinian Mysteries" phrasing that goes nowhere. I have never seen an actual citation to scholarship or primary sources.
Given that the mysteries were, in fact, mysterious, I remain skeptical and would love to stop repeating something without grounding. Anyone have something more concrete?
"Peyote, eaten in the ritual context, enables the individual to commune with God and the spirits (including those of the departed) in contemplation and vision and so to receive from them spiritual power, guidance, reproof, and healing.” as practiced in the Native American Church Britannica #psychedelics #eleusinianmysteries #plantmedicine #peyote #psychedelicmedicine #mysticalexperience #mescaline
Another informative piece by Joshua J. Mark (one of my sources for "Women in the Ancient World"). Also, ever wonder where #Christianity got some of their ideas about the #afterlife? Pretty much, they took what they wanted (or what was popular), then banned the Rites.
The #EleusinianMysteries: The Rites of #Demeter
by Joshua J. Mark
published on 18 January 2012
"The #RitesOfEleusis, or the Eleusinian Mysteries, were the secret rituals of the mystery school of #Eleusis and were observed regularly from c. 1600 BCE - 392 CE. Exactly what this mystic ritual was no one knows; but why the ancient Greeks participated in it can be understood by the testimonials of the initiated.
"The Eleusinian Mysteries, held each year at Eleusis, Greece, fourteen miles northwest of Athens, were so important to the Greeks that, until the arrival of the Romans, The Sacred Way (the road from Athens to Eleusis) was the only road, not a goat path, in all of central Greece. The mysteries celebrated the story of Demeter and #Persephone but, as the initiated were sworn to secrecy on pain of death as to the details of the ritual, we do not know what form these rituals took. We do know, though, that those who participated in the mysteries were forever changed for the better and that they no longer feared death.
"The rituals were based on a symbolic reading of the story of Demeter and Persephone and provided initiates with a vision of the afterlife so powerful that it changed the way they saw the world and their place in it. Participants were freed from a fear of death through the recognition that they were immortal souls temporarily in mortal bodies. In the same way that Persephone went down to the land of the dead and returned to that of the living each year, so would every human being die only to live again on another plane of existence or in another body."
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/32/the-eleusinian-mysteries-the-rites-of-demeter/
#ReligiousHistory #AncientGreece #AncientRome #Eschatology #ImmortalSoul #Hallucinogens
Something I have learned and come to believe is that initiations never really end. My own initiation has been almost entirely Spirit-led, but I imagine this could be true of all initiations.
Maybe that's why initates of the Eleusinian Mysteries were encouraged to return yearly; the Mysteries are so vast that one, albeit hugely transformative, experience isn't enough to transmit a full understanding.
#religion #EleusinianMysteries #Mysteries #faith #omnism #initiation
@religion @theology
The idea of initiation into a practice or religion goes a long way back. The Eleusinian Mysteries were ancient Greek initiation ceremonies, honouring Demeter and Persephone, and transformed the lives of their initiates. Dr Angela Puca of the YT channel Angela's Symposium gives us an academic overview of these ceremonies and what the initiates would have experienced.
https://www.youtube.com/@drangelapuca/community
#magic #paganism #hellenism #Greece #AncientGreece #EleusinianMysteries #religion #intitation
"It's time to cut out the middleman in the private search for transcendence"
--Brian C. Muraresku
#psychedelics #shamanism #EleusinianMysteries
@ethnobiology @bookstodon
For those of you who are curious about the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries and would like to learn more, I've compiled a list of free resources to kickstart your research!
I also periodically update the list to add new resources that I come across in my studies.
Hope y'all enjoy!
https://orphic-eleusinian.carrd.co/
#pagan #paganism #polytheism #orphic #orphism #orphicmysteries #eleusinian #eleusinianmysteries
