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Demeter | | Demeter:
Spiritual - Theosophy
Dictionary on
Demeter | | |
Demeter (Greek) (possibly from Doric da earth + meter mother) The Earth-Mother; one of the great Olympian deities, in popular mythology specially associated with the earth and its products, patron of agriculture, goddess of law and order, and protector of marriage and the birth of offspring. As the grain goddess, counterpart of the Egyptian Isis, Roman Ceres, and corn mothers, corn maidens, and harvest goddesses of the various native cultures of the Americas today, and of the early Teutonic and Scandinavian races of central and northern Europe. Popular legend describes Demeter as mother of Persephone, who while gathering flowers on the Nysian plain was seized by Hades and carried to the Underworld. Searching disconsolate for her lost child, Demeter came to the dwelling of Celeus at Eleusis, where she was hospitably received although her identity was unknown. On condition of being given the sole care of the king's son who was ill with fever, she remained and became the child's nurse. Each night she placed the child on a bed of living coals, but the mother, discovering this, snatched the child away in alarm. Demeter then revealed herself as a goddess and, declaring that had she been left alone she would have made the child immortal, she relinquished her post in wrath. Before leaving Eleusis, however, she founded a mystical school or cult to keep alive certain otherwise secret teachings about human divinity and the life after death. The Eleusinian Mysteries, reputed to have sprung from this earlier effort, dealt particularly with the afterdeath states and the progress and experiences of the soul between earth lives. The great Eleusinian divinities, as far as is known, were three: Demeter-Thesmophoros as goddess of law and order; Persephone-Kore the divine maid; and Iacchos the divine son (the divine man whom it was the object of the Mysteries to bring forth from the "tomb" of the human man). Probably because of her association with Persephone, Demeter was in one of her aspects a divinity of the underworld and was worshiped as such in Sparta and at Hermione at Argolis. In the Orphic teachings Demeter is not only the earth goddess, but is also Demeter-Kore the divine maid. This aspect is twofold: as Persephone the Virgin-Queen of the Dead; and as the mortal maid Semele, mother of the mystic savior Dionysos, and later enthroned as Semele-Thyone (Semele the Inspiried). As both maid and mother she is the immortal wife of Zeus, and is also called the mother of Zeus, as an Orphic verse declares: "The goddess who was Rhea, when she bore Zeus became Demeter." In one of her aspects, Demeter is the one to whom, in the Orphic legend, is given the still beating heart of the murdered Zagreus-Dionysus. Demeter belongs to the class of the kabiria (kabir, kabiri): "beneficent Entities who, symbolized in Prometheus, brought light to the world, and endowed humanity with intellect and reason" (SD 2:363), great beings to whom are credited the invention of the arts of peace -- letters and the alphabet, law, philosophy, science, art, architecture, music, spinning, weaving, and agriculture.
(See also: Demeter , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)
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| | | Demeter:
Spiritual - Theosophy
Dictionary on
Demeter
Demeter (Greek) (possibly from Doric da earth + meter mother) The Earth-Mother; one of the great Olympian deities, in popular mythology specially associated with the earth and its products, patron of agriculture, goddess of law and order, and protector of marriage and the birth of offspring. As the grain goddess, counterpart of the Egyptian Isis, Roman Ceres, and corn mothers, corn maidens, and harvest goddesses of the various native cultures of the Americas today, and of the early Teutonic and Scandinavian races of central and northern Europe. Popular legend describes Demeter as mother of Persephone, who while gathering flowers on the Nysian plain was seized by Hades and carried to the Underworld. Searching disconsolate for her lost child, Demeter came to the dwelling of Celeus at Eleusis, where she was hospitably received although her identity was unknown. On condition of being given the sole care of the king's son who was ill with fever, she remained and became the child's nurse. Each night she placed the child on a bed of living coals, but the mother, discovering this, snatched the child away in alarm. Demeter then revealed herself as a goddess and, declaring that had she been left alone she would have made the child immortal, she relinquished her post in wrath. Before leaving Eleusis, however, she founded a mystical school or cult to keep alive certain otherwise secret teachings about human divinity and the life after death. The Eleusinian Mysteries, reputed to have sprung from this earlier effort, dealt particularly with the afterdeath states and the progress and experiences of the soul between earth lives. The great Eleusinian divinities, as far as is known, were three: Demeter-Thesmophoros as goddess of law and order; Persephone-Kore the divine maid; and Iacchos the divine son (the divine man whom it was the object of the Mysteries to bring forth from the "tomb" of the human man). Probably because of her association with Persephone, Demeter was in one of her aspects a divinity of the underworld and was worshiped as such in Sparta and at Hermione at Argolis. In the Orphic teachings Demeter is not only the earth goddess, but is also Demeter-Kore the divine maid. This aspect is twofold: as Persephone the Virgin-Queen of the Dead; and as the mortal maid Semele, mother of the mystic savior Dionysos, and later enthroned as Semele-Thyone (Semele the Inspiried). As both maid and mother she is the immortal wife of Zeus, and is also called the mother of Zeus, as an Orphic verse declares: "The goddess who was Rhea, when she bore Zeus became Demeter." In one of her aspects, Demeter is the one to whom, in the Orphic legend, is given the still beating heart of the murdered Zagreus-Dionysus. Demeter belongs to the class of the kabiria (kabir, kabiri): "beneficent Entities who, symbolized in Prometheus, brought light to the world, and endowed humanity with intellect and reason" (SD 2:363), great beings to whom are credited the invention of the arts of peace -- letters and the alphabet, law, philosophy, science, art, architecture, music, spinning, weaving, and agriculture.
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For articles
related to Demeter , see: Demeter , Occultism, Occultism Dictionary,
Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul.
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.
.
Definition
of Demeter is extracted from the home
page of The Theosophical Society, International Headquarters, Pasadena,
California. A Society founded in 1875 in an effort to promote the expressed
awareness of the Oneness of Life.
"The Encyclopedic
Theosophical Glossary is presented to the public as a work in progress. The
manuscript, produced originally in the 1930s and '40s, is currently being
revised and expanded by the Editorial Committee. Theosophical University Press
is presenting this working version online because, even in its present
unfinished form, we feel that the contents will be of value to students of
theosophical literature, particularly of the works of H. P. Blavatsky. "
Please visit http://www.theosociety.org for more
information.
.
.
LIST OF
ABBREVIATIONS
BCW - H. P. Blavatsky: Collected
Writings, BG -
Bhagavad-Gita, BP
- Bhagavata Purana, cf - confer, ChU - Chandogya Upanishad , Dial, Dialogues - The Dialogues of G. de
Purucker, ed. A. L. Conger, Echoes - Echoes from the Orient, by William Q. Judge (comp.
Dara Eklund),
Demeter , ET - The Esoteric Tradition, by G. de
Purucker, FSO
- Fountain-Source of Occultism, by G. de Purucker, Fund - Fundamentals of the Esoteric
Philosophy, by G. de Purucker, IU - Isis Unveiled, by H. P. Blavatsky, MB - Mahabharata , MIE - Man in
Evolution, by G. de Purucker, Demeter , ML
- The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, ed. A. Trevor Barker, OG - Occult
Glossary, by G. de Purucker, Rev - Revelations, RV - Rig Veda , SD - The Secret Doctrine, by H. P.
Blavatsky, SOPh
- Studies in Occult Philosophy, by G. de Purucker, TBL - Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge
(Secret Doctrine Commentary), by H. P. Blavatsky, TG - Theosophical Glossary, by H. P.
Blavatsky, Demeter ,
Theos - The Theosophist (magazine), VP - Vishnu Purana , VS - The Voice of the Silence, by H. P.
Blavatsky, WG
- Working Glossary, by William Q. Judge, ZA - Zend-Avesta
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