Occult Theocracy Chapter VII

CHAPTER VIII

ORPHEISM AND THE PAGAN MYSTERIES

There is no greater or more erudite authority than

Fabre d'Olivet (1768-1825) on Orpheus or Dyonisius '

and to such an eminent source, among many others,

must the reader be referred.

The feats of the white Dorian race of Greece and the

mysticism of its priests of Thrace as well as the cen-

turies-long rivalry between the solar or male cult and

the lunar or female cult, have provided inexhaustible

sources of religious and literary lore.

The legendary birth of Orpheus adorned with his

descent from Apollo, his flight from Thrace, initiation

in the temple of Memphis and return to his own coun-

try as a high adept of the most profound mysteries,

constitute but the first part of his life.

After his return to Greece, he united the cults of

Dyonisius and Zeus, reformed that of Bacchus and

instituted the Mysteries. To him was allotted the task

of reducing the power of the Bacchantes, priestesses

of Hecate, by a magic superior to theirs, and their ven-

geance, which caused his death, has been the theme of

many a poet.

1. Pythagore, Les Vers Dores.

One follows the evolution of Greece from Orpheus

to Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato and one searches for

the remnants of Egyptian esoterism in the utmost

recesses of the Delphic temples and in the ceremonies

of initiation to the Eleusinian mysteries. These, having

still been practised until the Emperor Theodosius I,

the Great, (379-395) prohibited them and ordered the

destruction of the Eleusinian Temple, much material

is available for their description.

We are indebted to Bishop Lavington, an erudite

member of the Anglican Church, for a graphic descrip-

tion of the perversion to which they gave rise, but we

preface this article with that author's apology to the

reader, which, like the text of most of this chapter, we

quote verbatim from the Bishop's book The Enthusiasm

of Methodists and Papists compared, Part III :

" We wallow indeed in the mire, by publishing these

things. But lest any one should fall into the mire of these

heretics, from mere ignorance, I purposely and knowingly

defile my own mouth, and the ears of the auditors, because

it is beneficial. For it is much better to hear absurdity and

filthiness in accusing others, than to fall into them out of

ignorance. Much better to be informed of the mire, than,

for want of information, to fall into it. "

Bishop Lavington then proceeds with the explana-

tion of the Pagan Mysteries from which we quote : 2 —

" The Gods and Goddesses each had their special

mysteries. Even Cotytto, the Goddess of Turpitude, had

her rites and devotees.

" A high opinion of the Mysteries was very far from

being general, or received by great and good Persons.

Those great Men, Agesilaus and Epaminondas, would not submit to an Initiation The

Athenians asking

2. Bishop Lavington, The Enthusiasm of Methodists and

Papists compared, p. 313 et seq.

Diogenes to be initiated because such had the Prece-

dency in a future State ; he replied, ' Ridiculous thing !

that Agesilaus and Epaminondas must rowl in dirt;

and every Scoundrel initiated, such as Patecion the

Thief, be happy in the Elysian Fields. ' Nor shall

we entertain the better Notion of the Mysteries when

we find so wise and good a Man as Socrates refusing

initiation. For which (though perhaps he had stronger)

he gives this Reason : ' If the Mysteries were bad, he

should not be able to conceal the Secret, but must

discourage every one from Initiation; and if good,

Humanity would oblige him to discover it for the public

Benefit. '

" Rut whether the Mysteries were good or bad,

Authors are pretty well agreed as to the preparatory

Ceremonies, and manner of Initiation : whereby they

were to Represent, and Act over again, the Actions and

passions of the Deities, for whose Honour the Mys-

teries were instituted.

" That Initiation might seem a venerable and solemn

Thing, the Devotees were taught to qualify themselves

by Prayer to the Demons, Fastings, Watchings, Con-

fession to the Priest, and other Lustrations. We read

in Plutarch, ' that fasting is to precede the Mysteries

of Ceres, ' and that Confession was required ; ' Antal-

cidas being examined by the Priest, in order to his

initiation, what grievous crimes he had committed,

made Answer, ' If I have been guilty of any such Crime,

the Gods know it already. ' The Confession was a

trick of the Masters of the Ceremonies to get the people

under their Girdle.

" Tertullian says, ' As to the superstition of the

Eleusinian Mysteries, what they conceal is the Shame

of them. Therefore they make the Admission tortuous,

take Time in the Initiation, set a Seal on. the Tongue,

and instruct the Epoptae for five Years, to raise a

high Opinion of them by Delay and Expectation. But

all the Divinity in the sacred Domes, the Whole of

what they aspire to, what sealeth the Tongue, is this :

Simulacrum membri Virilis revelatur. But for a

Cover of their Sacrilege, they pretend these Figures are

only a mystical Representation of venerable Nature. '

" The original Reason of such figures being exposed

to View, and had in Veneration, in the Mysteries, we

learn from others. Clemens Alexandrinus giveth a full

account of this religion of the Mysteries, too prolix

to be transcribed ; — 'Of their wicked Institution,

Cruelty, Stupidity, Madness, making Goddesses of

Harlots, corrupting Mankind : — the Mysteries of

Ceres are nothing but representations of incestuous

Deities : — their ridiculous Exclamations upon Admis-

sion were, I have eat out of the Timbrel, I have drank

out of the Cymbal, I have carried the Chest, I have

crept into the secret Chamber. ' In the Chest Pudendum

Bacchi inclusum erat. — Cistam et veretrum nova Reli-

gione colenda tradunt. — It is a shame to mention the

filthy circumstances in the story of Ceres...

" The Pagan Mysteries being of such an immoral

Nature, and Tendency, it might justly be thought

strange, were no Notice taken of them in the Holy

Scriptures. And therefore, though such an Enquiry

might carry us into too great a Length, yet I shall

not entirely pass it over. There can be then little Doubt,

but they are pointed out by St. Paul : ' It is a Shame

even to speak of those Things that are done of them

in Secret. ' And where Christianity is termed the Mys-

tery of Godliness, it is set, I am persuaded, in Opposi-

tion, not only to the Mystery of Iniquity that was

to work in the Christian World, but likewise to the

preceding Mysteries among the Gentiles. Nor is it

improbable, that the Apostle writeth in direct Opposi-

tion to the Appearances, Pretences, and Impostures

of those false Divinities : Without Controversy great

is the Mystery of Godliness...

" In the Old Testament, Deut. xxiii. 17 (not indeed

in the Hebrew, but in the Septuagint) after the Words,

' There shall be no Whore, — nor Sodomites of the

Sons of Israel, ' we find added Words of this Import,

' There shall not be an Initiator, nor an Initiated, of

the Sons or Daughters of Israel. ' ' Tis possible this

additional Clause may have been inserted by the

Seventy, by Way of Interpretation of the preceding

Words. They knew the Nature of the Mysteries full

well; and we are led to this Meaning by the Impu-

rities forbidden, and by the Price of the Dog in the next

Verse ; the Egyptian God Anubis being usually figured

with a Dog's Head. (Edit. Daniel. Schol.)

" We may observe also, that Philo the Jew (de

Sacrific.) expressly ranketh the Prohibition of the

Mysteries among the Laws of Moses. ' The Law, saith

he, expressly excludeth the whole of the Mysteries,

their Inchantments and execrable Scurrilities, from the

Holy Ordinances : not permitting those educated in

her Society to celebrate such Heathen Rites; nor,

depending on such mystical Ceremonies, to disregard

the Truth ; and to follow the Works of Night and

Darkness, omitting what deserveth the Light and

the Day. Let none therefore among the Disciples of

Moses either initiate, or be initiated : it being equally

wicked either to teach, or to learn the Mysteries. —

1 Tis generally the Case with them, that no good Per-

son is initiated ; but Thieves, and Pirates, and mad

Gangs of abominable and immodest women; after

parting with their Money to the initiating Priests. "

Several of the Fathers have taken Notice of the same

Passage in the Septuagint, and explained it in the same

manner.

" For further Proof of the Turpitude in the Mysteries

of Isis and Osiris, and that it was so from the Begin-

ning, we need only consult Diodorus Siculus, Lib. I.

' Isis being overwhelmed with Grief for the Loss of

her Husband Osiris, took particular Care in deifying

him to consecrate his Pudenda ; which she ordered to

be peculiarly honoured and adored in the Mysteries.

And the same holy Institution was observed with the

same Ceremonies, when carried into Greece by Orpheus :

where the common People, partly from Ignorance,

and partly from a Love of the new god (Phallus), were

very fond of being initiated. '

" Much more might be collected (even from initia-

ted Authors, however, generally shy) concerning the

infamous Origin of the Mysteries, which I pass over

" The celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries com-

menced in Greece about 1400 years before Christ but

' whenever or however they were brought into Greece,

and transferred to the Honour of Ceres and Proser-

pina, they were of the same Nature, and observed with

equally chaste Ceremonies, with those of Isis... '

" One contrivance for ' giving the Initiated a Sight

of the Divinities, was by means of a Looking-glass,

wherein none could see their own Faces, but had a

clear View of the Gods and Goddesses. ' This we have

from Pausanias : and Eusebius relates the same Thing.

- So easily might weak People, and under the utmost

Astonishment, be deluded by Figures behind a glass,

in a proper Habit and Posture ; and especially by living

Persons, personating the Deities in any Manner they

thought fit.

' As a proof of the Indecencies, Sozomen writeth,

' that Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, egregiously

ridiculed and exposed to public View the shameful

Figures belonging to the Mysteries, the Phallus, etc.

which he brought out of the Pagan Temple. For which

the enraged Heathens raised a Tumult, and massacred

a great Number of the Christians. ' — Even the initia-

ted Pausanias (notwithstanding his usual Reservedness)

sometimes blurts out a little too much, and intimates

something shameful — : ' as frequent assignations ;

— the proneness of the religious Females to venery

— a Mixture of the Obscene and Miraculous ; —

the continuance of the Eleusinian Festival for a

week ; on the third Day whereof all Males, even the

Dogs, are excluded ; but the next Day the Men are

admitted among them, when they pass the Time in

sporting, and light Discourse ; — the Amours of Ceres,

of a very strange Kind ; with the Secrecy enjoined ; —

The Obscenities in the Mysteries of Cupid, and suitable

Hymns. '

" A man initiated, and under an Oath of Silence,

could not well have discovered more of the true Nature

of the Mysteries, and the Reason why they ought not

to be divulged. We are assured too, that one Day of

the Eleusinian Festival was set apart for the Rites of

Venus and Cupid, and another for those of Bacchus :

both of which were confessedly beyond measure abomi-

nable. Nor will our Opinion be more favourable,

when we remember what Athenoeus writes ; ' Apelles,

being extremely desirous of drawing a Venus from the

famous Phryne, could find no Opportunity of seeing

her naked, without going to the Eleusinian and Nep-

tunian Games ; where she stripped herself in the Sight

of all the Men, and went into the sea to wash herself...'

" I apprehend therefore that no great Stress is to

be laid upon those initiated Authors, who have thought

themselves obliged to say nothing but what was good

of the Mysteries ; or have talked of the Unity of the

Deity, as the great Secret of them; perhaps to avoid

the Shame of being thought Dupes to a foolery, or

inquisitive into something worse. "

On the same subject the Chevalier de Ramsay, repu-

ted founder of Scottish Rites, writes the following : 4 —

" About the fifteenth Olympiad, six hundred

Years before the Christian aera, the Greeks having lost

the traditional Knowledge of the Orientals, began to

lay aside the Doctrine of the Ancients, and to reason

about the Divine Nature from Prejudices which their

Senses and Imagination suggested. Anaximander lived

at that time, and was the first that set himself to de-

stroy the Belief of a supreme Intelligence, in order to

account for everything from the Action of blind Matter,

which by necessity assumes all Sorts of Forms. He was

followed by Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, Strato,

Lucretius, and all the School of the Atomical Philo-

sophers.

" Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aris-

totle, and all the great Men of Greece, opposed this

impious Doctrine, and endeavoured to prove the

ancient Theology of the Orientals. These Philosophers

of a superior Genius observed in Nature, Motion,

Thought and Design. And as the Idea of Matter in-

cludes none of these three Properties, they inferred

from thence, that there was another Substance different

from Matter.

" Greece being thus divided into two Sects, they

disputed for a long time, without either Party being

3. Lavington.

4. The Chevalier de Ramsay, A Discourse upon the Theology

and Mythology of the Antients in The Travels of Cyrus, vol. II,

P. 76 et seq. (published 1728).

convinced. At length about the 120th Olympiad Pyrrho

formed a third Sect whose great Principle was to doubt

everything, and determine nothing. All the Atomists

who had laboured in vain to find out a Demonstration

of their false Principles, presently struck in with the

Pyrrhonian Sect. They ran wildly into the System of

an universal Doubt, and carried it almost to such an

Excess of Frenzy, that they doubted of the clearest

and most sensible Truths. They maintained without

any Allegory, that everything we see is only an Illusion,

and that the whole Series of Life is but a perpetual

Dream of which those of the Night are only so many

Images.

" At last Zeno set up a fourth School about the 130th

Olympiad. This Philosopher endeavoured to reconcile

the Disciples of Democritus with those of Plato, by

maintaining that the first Principle was indeed an infi-

nite Wisdom, but his Essence was only a pure Aether,

or a subtile Light, which diffused itself everywhere,

to give Life, Motion,' and Reason to all Beings.

" In these last Ages the modern Freethinkers have

done nothing but revive the ancient Errors. Jordano

Bruno, Vannini and Spinoza, have vamped up the

monstrous System of Anaximander; and the last of

the three has endeavoured to dazzle weak Minds, by

dressing it up in a geometrical Form.

" Some Spinosists, finding that they were every

Moment at a Loss for Evidence in the pretended Demon-

strations of their Master, are fallen into a senseless sort

of Scepticism, called Egomism, where every one fan-

cies himself to be the only Being that exists.

" Mr. Hobbes and several other Philosophers, with-

out setting up for Atheists, have ventured to main-

tain, that Thought and Extension are Properties of

the same Substance.

" Descartes, F. Malebranche, Leibnitz, Dr. Bentley,

Clarke, and several Philosophers of a Genius equally

Mile and profound, have endeavoured to refute

these Errors, and brought Arguments to support the

ancient Theology. Besides the Proofs which are drawn

from the Effects, they have insisted on others drawn

from the Idea of the first Cause. They shew plainly

that the Reasons of believing, are infinitely stronger

than any Arguments there are for doubting. This is

all that can be expected in metaphysical Discussions.

"The History of former times is like that of our

own Human Understanding takes almost the same

Forms in different Ages, and loses its Way in the same

Labyrinths.