A Wisdom Archive on Ancient mysteries

The Hebrew word aron is used in the Bible to designate any type of ark, chest or coffer, for any purpose (Genesis 50:26; 2 Kings 12:9, 10). The Ark of the Covenant is distinguished from all others by such titles as "Ark of God" (1 Samuel 3:3), "Ark of the Covenant" (Josh. 3:6; Hebrews 9:4), "Ark of the Testimony" (Ex. 25:22). The Ark is referred to by several names in the Bible. The following is a list of common references to the Ark: The Ark The Ark of the Testimony The Ark of the Covenant < ...

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The Bible describes the Ark as made of acacia or shittah-tree wood. It was a cubit and a half broad and high and two cubits long (about 130 × 80 × 80 cm). The Ark was covered all over with the purest gold. Its upper surface or lid, the mercy seat, was surrounded with a rim of gold. On each of the two sides were two gold rings, wherein were placed two wooden poles (with a decorative sheathing of gold), with which the ark could be carried (Num. 7:9; 10:21; 4:5,19, 20; 1 Kings 8:3, 6). Over the Ark, at the two extremities, were two che ...

Read more here: » Ark of the Covenant: Encyclopedia II - Ark of the Covenant - Description

Samothrace (Ancient Greek). An island famous for its Mysteries, perhaps the oldest ever established in our present race. The Samothracian Mysteries were renowned all over the world.

 
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Mystagogy (Ancient Greek). The doctrines or interpretations of the sacred mysteries.

 
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Basileus (Ancient Greek). The Archon or Chief who had the outer super-vision during the Eleusinian Mysteries. While the latter was an initiated layman, and magistrate at Athens, the Basileus of the inner Temple was of the staff of the great Hierophant, and as such was one of the chief Myste and belonged to the inner mysteries.

 
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Key. A symbol of universal importance, the emblem of silence among the ancient nations. Represented on the threshold of the Adytum, a key had a double meaning: it reminded the candidates of the obligations of silence, and promised the unlocking of many a hitherto impenetrable mystery to the profane.
 
In the "Œdipus Coloneus" of Sophocles, the chorus speaks of "the golden key which had come upon the tongue of the ministering Hierophant in the mysteries of Eleusis", (1051). "The priestess of Ceres, according to Callimachus, bore a key as her ensign of office, and the key was, in the Mysteries of Isis, symbolical of the opening or disclosing of the heart and conscience before the forty-two assessors of the dead".
(R. M. Cyc1opedia).

 
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Mysteries. Greek teletai, or finishings, celebrations of initiation or the Mysteries.
 
They were observances, generally kept secret from the profane and uninitiated, in which were taught by dramatic representation and other methods, the origin of things, the nature of the human spirit, its relation to the body, and the method of its purification and restoration to higher life. Physical science, medicine, the laws of music, divination, were all taught in the same manner.
 
The Hippocratic oath was but a mystic obligation. Hippocrates was a priest of Asklepios, some of whose writings chanced to become public. But the Asklepiades were initiates of the Esculapian serpent-worship, as the Bacchantes were of the Dionysia; and both rites were eventually incorporated with the Eleusinia. The Sacred Mysteries were enacted in the ancient Temples by the initiated Hierophants for the benefit and instruction of the candidates.
 
The most solemn and occult Mysteries were certainly those which were performed in Egypt by "the band of secret-keepers", as Mr. Bonwick calls the Hierophants. Maurice describes their nature very graphically in a few lines. Speaking of the Mysteries performed in Phile (the Nile-island), he says that "it was in these gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess (Isis) were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymn of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony recesses".
 
The word "mysteries" is derived from the Greek muo, "to close the mouth", and every symbol connected with them had, a hidden meaning. As Plato and many other sages of antiquity affirm, the Mysteries were highly religious, moral and beneficent as a school of ethics.
 
The Grecian mysteries, those of Ceres and Bacchus, were only imitations of the Egyptian; and the author of Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, informs us that our own "word chapel or capella is said to be the Caph-El or college of El, the Solar divinity".
 
The well-known Kabiri are associated with the Mysteries. In short, the Mysteries were in every country a series of dramatic performances, in which the mysteries of cosmogony and nature, in general, were personified by the priests and neophytes, who enacted the part of various gods and goddesses, repeating supposed scenes (allegories) from their respective lives. These were explained in their hidden meaning to the candidates for initiation, and incorporated into philosophical doctrines.

 
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Hydranos (Ancient Greek). Lit., the "Baptist". A name of the ancient Hierophant of the Mysteries who made the candidate pass through the "trial by water", wherein he was plunged thrice. This was his baptism by the Holy Spirit which moves on the waters of Space. Paul refers to St. John as Hydranos, the Baptist. The Christian Church took this rite from the ritualism of the Eleusinian and other Mysteries.

 
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Mystica Vannus Iacchi. Commonly translated the mystic Fan: but in an ancient terra-cotta in the British Museum the fan is a Basket such as the Ancients’ Mysteries displayed with mystic contents: Inman says with emblematic testes.

 
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