{"id":7252,"date":"2015-01-17T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-01-17T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/allergicpagan\/?p=7252"},"modified":"2015-01-15T16:19:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T21:19:27","slug":"the-neo-pagan-mysteries-part-1-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/allergicpagan\/2015\/01\/17\/the-neo-pagan-mysteries-part-1-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"The Neo-Pagan Mysteries, Part 1: Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Neo-Paganism has multiple centers, including Earth, Deity, and Self<\/a>.\u00a0 This is the first in an 8-part series that explores Neo-Paganism as a Self-Centric \u201cmystery religion\u201d. This essay was originally published at Neo-Paganism.org<\/a>.<\/em>\n
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\"576951_286792278088676_548827086_n\"<\/a>
Demeter depicted with her Eleusinian attributes, serpents, grain, and poppies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe mysteries are what is wild in us, what cannot be quantified or contained. But the mysteries are also what is common to us all: blood, breath, heartbeat, the sprouting of seed, the waxing and waning of the moon, the turning of the earth around the sun, birth, growth, death, renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Starhawk<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/header>\n<\/head>

Some Neo-Pagans see themselves as the modern-day heirs to the classical mystery religions, like the Eluesinian and Isian mysteries. The rituals of mystery traditions focused on the themes of birth, death, and rebirth and the mystic unity of humanity with divinity. The mysteries emphasized experience over dogma or doctrine. They are called \u201cmysteries\u201d because some aspects of the traditions were kept secret, but also because the experiences conveyed by the rituals were ineffable; they could not be communicated, only experienced. Aristotle stated that \u201cthe initiated learned nothing precisely, but they received impressions and were put into a certain frame of mind. Not to learn (mathein<\/em>) but to suffer (pathein<\/em>) was the reason for participation in the Eleusinian ritual; and this was exactly the effect of the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Jung\u2019s<\/a> analytical psychology has had a profound impact on some forms of Neo-Paganism. Jung described the psychological process of \u201cindividuation\u201d<\/a> \u2014 the evolution of the ego into the Self<\/a> \u2014 as an initiation and compared it to the Mithraic mysteries. In her essay, \u201cWicca as a Modern-Day Mystery Religion\u201d, Wiccan priestess and Jungian psychologist (and fellow Patheos blogger), Vivianne Crowley, states that the goal of many \u201cmystery religions\u201d, ancient and modern, is self-knowledge, or rather Self-knowledge: \u201cthe realization of a stable core of the personality\u2013the Self\u201d as distinguished from the conscious ego. She describes Wicca as a modern-day mystery religion. The term can be equally applied to some forms of Neo-Paganism. In both cases, \u201cthe approach to the Self is made through an external expression of the inner psychological process\u2013religious ritual\u201d, specifically \u201cinitiation ceremonies that are intended to produce profound psychological effects\u201d. The goal of these rituals is personal psycho-spiritual transformation. According to Crowley, mystery religious share with mysticism a concern for returning to a state of oneness with the divine source. While mysticism seeks the union through introverted techniques, like meditation, mystery cults \u201cexternalize the inner journey of the spirit to the divine by representing it through symbolism and ritual.\u201d Much of the imagery associated with these rituals is overtly or implicitly sexual or related to\u00a0death, both of which are forms of union.<\/p>\n

\"Villa<\/a>
Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historically, a mystery religion was a secret initiatory religion. Because some forms of Neo-Paganism eschew the occultist aspects of traditional Wicca and do not require initiation into a group, it might be argued that Neo-Paganism is not a true mystery religion. However, there is an important distinction to be drawn between initiation into a group<\/em> and initiation as a form of personal transformation<\/em>. It is in the latter sense that some forms of Neo-Paganism may be understood as an initiatory or mystery religion. While Wiccan initiation is an example of both group and personal initiation, Neo-Pagans can experience a personal initiation without joining any group.<\/p>\n

The initiation into the ancient mystery cults involved a ritual death, often a ritualized participation in the mythical death of a fertility deity<\/a>, like Persephone or Dionysus or Attis. The Greek historian Plutarch explained: \u201cThe soul at the moment of death, goes through the same experiences as those who are initiated into the great mysteries. The word and the act are similar: we say telentai<\/em> (to die) and telestai<\/em> (to be initiated).\u201d\u00a0 The initiatory ritual often follows the form of Joseph Campbell\u2019s monomyth<\/a>: a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life-enhancing return. This is the pattern described by the Roman author, Apuleius, describing one such initiation into a mystery cult:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI saw the sun shining at midnight. Gods of above and gods of below I saw face to face and worshiped. I approached the frontiers of death and having walked on the threshold of Proserpine and having been ravished by all the Elements, I returned.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Through this experience, initiates learn what J.J. Bachofen called \u201cthe law of Demetrian motherhood\u201d, \u201cthe reciprocal relation between perishing and coming into being, disclosing death as the indispensable forerunner of higher rebirth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some Neo-Pagans today celebrate in ritual form a psycho-spiritual journey which follows the same pattern as the ancient mysteries described above. The Neo-Pagan Wheel of the Year<\/a> may be understood as a year-long initiation into the Neo-Pagan mysteries. The \u201cmysteries\u201d of contemporary Neo-Paganism that will be discussed in subsequent posts include:<\/p>\n