Mystery schools

[Mr H]

I am, wondering, what specific teachings were taught in the ancient mystery schools?

 

If there any documents of what they were actually doing?

Edited April 6 by Mr H

[EnigmaticWorld]

As far as I know, a lot the teachings that have been passed down through the ages are coded and encrypted so it's hard for the uninitiated to make sense of, but it's an interesting question, and I would also be interested on what others here have to say on the matter.

[Stone Lion]

I've been reading about Gnosticism. Haven't finished the book yet.

From what I think, based on what I've read and researched so far, the gnostics were formed by people seeking and finding truth (or gnosis to be more specific) and they found much with Ancient Egyptian mystery schools. The teachings of the gnostics are about the world being a simulation, YHWH the false god and the archons angels, 3 sorts of people (Hylic, Psychic and Pneumatic.) on this world, reincarnation etc.

 

What I found interesting during the book, is the fact that they were teaching about specific "escapes" from this vibrational prison. So they'd prepare themselves for after death, through astrology, knowing certain names of archons, where to go after death, what not to do etc. 

What also interesting is the fact, that they did have a hierarchy of secrecy (due to the "competition" of Apostolic Christians and Judaism). Part of the secrecy was for self-protection. In what I've read they were certainly aware of life after death (or death after life, call it what you want, what a world).  Gnosticism was a ecstatic religion, meaning they look outside of their bodies for what they call gnosis. Meaning they got what they knew from outside of the regular 5 senses reality.

 

About Gnosis, in the book the following example is used:

You could be in a room, knowing everything about an apple, training your whole life for it. Every detail of it's existence. But stepping outside of the room and seeing an apple for the first time, is what is called gnosis or knowledge.

 

Gnosis really points to, what I think, secrets were in these mystery schools. 

 

I think when you study what the gnostics believed according to their scriptures, you might get an idea of what must've been passed down, in secret.

For other groupings, the same would count I guess.
 

 

The book (The Gnostic New Age by April D. DeConick): http://www.gnosis.org/bookstore1.htm

 

Hope this helps!

[Mr H]

1 hour ago, Stone Lion said:

I've been reading about Gnosticism. Haven't finished the book yet.

From what I think, based on what I've read and researched so far, the gnostics were formed by people seeking and finding truth (or gnosis to be more specific) and they found much with Ancient Egyptian mystery schools. The teachings of the gnostics are about the world being a simulation, YHWH the false god and the archons angels, 3 sorts of people (Hylic, Psychic and Pneumatic.) on this world, reincarnation etc.

 

What I found interesting during the book, is the fact that they were teaching about specific "escapes" from this vibrational prison. So they'd prepare themselves for after death, through astrology, knowing certain names of archons, where to go after death, what not to do etc. 

What also interesting is the fact, that they did have a hierarchy of secrecy (due to the "competition" of Apostolic Christians and Judaism). Part of the secrecy was for self-protection. In what I've read they were certainly aware of life after death (or death after life, call it what you want, what a world).  Gnosticism was a ecstatic religion, meaning they look outside of their bodies for what they call gnosis. Meaning they got what they knew from outside of the regular 5 senses reality.

 

About Gnosis, in the book the following example is used:

You could be in a room, knowing everything about an apple, training your whole life for it. Every detail of it's existence. But stepping outside of the room and seeing an apple for the first time, is what is called gnosis or knowledge.

 

Gnosis really points to, what I think, secrets were in these mystery schools. 

 

I think when you study what the gnostics believed according to their scriptures, you might get an idea of what must've been passed down, in secret.

For other groupings, the same would count I guess.
 

 

The book (The Gnostic New Age by April D. DeConick): http://www.gnosis.org/bookstore1.htm

 

Hope this helps!

Awesome thanks.

 

And what happened to the Gnostics today? Are they all gone? Or underground?

[Campion]

42 minutes ago, Mr H said:

Awesome thanks.

 

And what happened to the Gnostics today? Are they all gone? Or underground?

 

There's one or two gnostics in this forum, hopefully they'll pick up this thread and explain further. I've come across some in different internet forums, and perhaps there's organised groups these days too. But the gnostics got genocided in the middle ages by various crusades and inquisitions so the remainders probably went underground. Some authors suggest the Knights Templars were gnostics, who morphed into other secret society networks such as the Freemasons. But I'm getting a bit out of my depth now, and will leave it there. 

[Campion]

One good programme I saw on the ancient mystery schools was in the Forbidden History series, where they visited one of the sites where they used to do rituals and initiations, in Greece if I remember correctly. There is a long narrow tunnel, followed by crossing an underground river (symbolically the river Styx), and opening out into a cave-room where the candidates would undergo ceremonies including ritualised dying and stay for three days and nights. Followed by emerging back into daylight as a symbolic rebirth as an initiate. Sounds familiar? Hence various theories about links with Christianity. 

[Stone Lion]

I'm no expert in this field but I share what I think to know!

In the book she explains different groupings of Gnostic, like Sethian, Valentinian, etc. that all had their own way of doing things. But it died down, because of suppression. I don't think Gnosticism has an official grouping. They left their mark on the world with the Nag Hammadi scriptures, and that I think is part of their legacy. In my view, they were right, and because of that they got what happened to them, sadly enough.
 

In a way, I take what they say seriously. Feeling that they were right about a lot of topics. 

The concepts I think, that are shared by them, are secrets in plain sight.

Personally, as a living experience, As soon as you obtain the knowledge or gnosis, these secrets are revealed and you learn more secrets, so to speak.

I feel like a seer or something typing this down, thaha.

[shabbirss]

this is one branch im certain...
egyptian energy science - dr ibrahim karim

 

 

[Bombadil]

Bill Coopers, Mystery Babylon goes into this a bit.

[pi3141]

On 4/6/2023 at 2:43 AM, Mr H said:

I am, wondering, what specific teachings were taught in the ancient mystery schools?

 

If there any documents of what they were actually doing?

 

Pagan mystery schools celebrated around the regeneration principle as does Christianity. Its symbolic death and rebirth.

 

Paraphrasing but heres a general guide of what i know.

 

pagan temples were usually in caves or underground or remote groves where secret initiations would take place and these were done at night.

Prior to initiation the initiate would be trained (brainwashed) into the sects beliefs, they would swear solemn oaths not to reveal what they learn. Temples/oracles would often have lights in the form of lamps outside.

During the training periods the initiates attending the temple would often be given a drink containing a psychedelic or dissociative drug. The instructions would often take the form of plays with artificial effects like Camera Obscura to induce vivid hallucinations where the initiate believed he had actually seen a God in person on the stage.

There are many ways to influence and brainwash people like this - the Freemasons, a system based on the Pagan mystery schools use a tool called 'shock of enlightenment' The candidate is blindfolded and led around the Lodge by a cable tow for quite sometime - his eyes become accustomed to the dark and he becomes disorientated. At the end of the initiation the Master rips off the blindfold saying 'Let their be Light' and all the Brethren are lined up in V formation making the due sign. the spectacle is meant to be awe inspiring to come out of darkness and disorientation to see all the brothers lined up by candlelight. This simple trick alone is enough to sway people and put people under a spell. Imagine what a person tripping seeing demons dressed up on stage would believe.

 

During initiation the candidate is obviously made to swear he has revealed no secrets - obviously at this point the candidate is bricking himself cos he in a cave or a remote place in the middle of the night with serious people who might just kill him as per his oath if they do not believe him.

 

There is then performed some kind of ritualized death and rebirth with wailing and groaning and ecstatic visions performed by the priests and the initiate is raised from the dead (like the Masons do today 3rd degree I think) and becomes reborn as a brother of the order and keeper of the secrets.

 

So after the initiation the initiate heads out to the world to the rising of the new Sun, its always timed that way, with the effects of the drugs wearing off - quite a spectacle and relief - and really believes they have been transformed.

 

The Egyptian Mystery Schools were quite extreme, their initiates had to swim under a pool of crocodiles to prove their fearlessness before initiation.

 

Pythagoras required his new students to spend a year in silence not uttering one word or asking any questions before he admitted them to his school.

 

There is an initiation training where the candidate is told never to use the word 'I' for instance.

 

These sorts of tricks train or even dislodge the mind and can cause cognitive dissonance and absolute obedience to the faith.

 

Pythagoreans taught about the magic of numbers and how everything in the universe could be harmonised through music and maths. He believed in the One God and the Eternity of the soul through metamorphoses.

 

Most Mystery schools I've read about believed in the One God and the Eternity of the soul.

 

The Druids performed similar rituals in Sacred Groves at night - when the first Christian missionaries came to Britain to convert the Druids, the Druids recognized the doctrine as similar to their own and readily accepted Christianity and encouraged the Church to build their Churches in the sacred groves.

 

Not much difference between Christian ritual and Mystery School ritual.

 

Both adopt a special position and hand gesture in Prayer, singing. chanting, lighting of candles, burning of incense, eating special foods and drinks, marking special days as holy, praying in Temples and Churches or 'Sacred places' Its all Pagan.

 

Hope that helps.

[Mr H]

@pi3141thanks that helps a lot.

 

Glad I wasn't an initiate at the Egyptian school....

[Mr H]

I found a little more info on that in the book the secret of the flower of life vol 2 

 

"Egyptian Initiations 

 

Crocodile Initiation at Kom Ombo

 

When you, the initiate, stepped out of the water at E [see top view, Fig. 10-14b], you were told that you had just failed. Then you would have to go through more and more and more training. When your teachers thought you were ready, they would put you through this ceremony a second time. This time you knew about the crocodiles, that you had only one breath, and that the way out was not past the crocs toward the light. So you would go down to the bottom again, and at the moment of your greatest fear. when you could actually see the crocodiles, you had to search for an other way out. The opening at H is where we went down and came up for my friend’s ceremony. So if you found the opening at H, you had to go far- —- down and under wall B before you could swim up and out another pitch-black channel, not knowing for sure that it was even the way out.

 

This was the kind of initiation the Egyptians performed in these schools very calculated experiences. And these experiences were many and varied. This building had all kinds of special rooms designed to overcome fear. This temple also had a positive side, where they studied tantra—not just sexual pleasures, but understanding the sexual currents and other sexual energies and their relationship to resurrection. They also studied breathing and its relationship to all things that arc human. The mundane ability to simply stay under water that long was quite a feat."

[alexa]

On 4/6/2023 at 5:20 PM, Campion said:

 Some authors suggest the Knights Templars were gnostics, who morphed into other secret society networks such as the Freemasons.

 

This sounds about right, this is where 'The priory of sion' sprang from and the 'Arthurian tales', a secret mystery school that believed in the Holy Grail, and the lies they spun was so believable especially through the book 'Holy book and the Holy Grail'.

 

 

[Campion]

16 hours ago, Mr H said:

I found a little more info on that in the book the secret of the flower of life vol 2 

 

Thanks for the detailed info Mr H. I tried looking up this book and it was written in 2000, as a modern reconstruction of the ancient rites. Which isn't a problem for me as I'm looking into Druidism at the moment, and original sources are a bit limited. Are you trying any of this practically, or is your interest more theoretical? 

[Campion]

11 hours ago, alexa said:

 

This sounds about right, this is where 'The priory of sion' sprang from and the 'Arthurian tales', a secret mystery school that believed in the Holy Grail, and the lies they spun was so believable especially through the book 'Holy book and the Holy Grail'.

 

 

 

Maybe, if so what do you reckon was their agenda in making it up? Just cashing in on the public hunger for mysteries and conspiracies, or a red herring to hide something real behind a web of lies and half-truths? 

[alexa]

8 minutes ago, Campion said:

 

Maybe, if so what do you reckon was their agenda in making it up?

 

To hide God & to make out the Bible (Gods word) is just all fabricated.

[Mr H]

16 minutes ago, Campion said:

 

Thanks for the detailed info Mr H. I tried looking up this book and it was written in 2000, as a modern reconstruction of the ancient rites. Which isn't a problem for me as I'm looking into Druidism at the moment, and original sources are a bit limited. Are you trying any of this practically, or is your interest more theoretical? 

Hey. Practically I do have some experience in mystery schools and magic. When I was in my seeking phase I did a lot of stuff.

 

Mainly ancient Toltec magic and also sex magic. I did stop firstly because I needed something more grounded and rational and advaita provided that. And also I wasn't sure if this stuff was "evil" or not.

 

When I spoke to my Toltec teacher his opinion was that these things are neutral and can be used for both good and evil. These are just laws and exercises that work. According to him all the elites in Mexico know and practice Toltec magic and that's how they keep their statuses through many Lifetimes as elites. But we could and should be using it for forces of good for all instead.

 

I am tempted to re-dabble in these fields.

 

The Greek and Eygptian.schools I have no idea about -so at the moment they are theoretical interests of study.

[Campion]

12 minutes ago, alexa said:

 

To hide God & to make out the Bible (Gods word) is just all fabricated.

 

Thanks, I see where you're coming from. Fabrications aren't necessarily a bad thing tho, if the raw materials and construction are good quality. I'd say that all language is fabrication: God's, human and animal. 

[Campion]

16 minutes ago, Mr H said:

Hey. Practically I do have some experience in mystery schools and magic. When I was in my seeking phase I did a lot of stuff.

 

We certainly live in extraordinary times when we can pick and choose our spirituality from practically any geographical region and historical time. It's heady stuff. But I'm now looking back home to my own cultural heritage because it's rather disorienting to keep taking on regular practices from other cultures. All part of my questioning multiculturalism I suppose, I'd not thought about it that way before. 

[Macnamara]

Probably over time things became corrupted but initially i would imagine the purpose was to take the initiate through an experience that awoke them to a wider reality then the 5 sense reality. Direct experience of something beyond that veil would then be a form of gnosis that enabled the initiate to then see themselves as part of something bigger than themselves.

 

When people want to control society they then have to prevent that process from occurring so that they can keep people locked into a limited perception range and i'd imagine that would be when the mystery schools then became corrupted

 

Also, even without a wider conspiracy, there will always be people who seek to gain something by placing themself as a middle man: ego games

 

 

Edited April 8 by Macnamara