The Eleusinian Mysteries were annual initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries later spread to Rome. The rites and cultic worships and beliefs were kept secret, and initiation rites united the worshipper with god including promises of divine power and rewards in life after death. Eleusinian Mysteries - The Mysteries. Eleusis ...

Including:

• Eleusinian Mysteries - The Mysteries
• Eleusinian Mysteries - End of the Eleusinian Mysteries
• Eleusinian Mysteries - Entheogenic theories

Read more here: » Eleusinian Mysteries: Encyclopedia - Eleusinian Mysteries

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Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - The Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - End of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - Entheogenic theories

Read more here: » Eleusinian Mysteries: Encyclopedia II - Eleusinian Mysteries - The Mysteries

The Roman emperor Theodosius I closed the sanctuaries by decree in CE 392 in an effort to destroy pagan resistance to the imposition of Christianity as a state religion. The last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in CE 396, when Alaric, King of the Goths, invaded accompanied by Christians "in their dark garments", bringing Arian Christianity and desecrating the old sacred sites. The closing of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the 4th century is reported by Eunapios, a historian and biographer of the Greek philosophers. Eunapios had been in ...

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Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - The Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - End of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries - Entheogenic theories

Read more here: » Eleusinian Mysteries: Encyclopedia II - Eleusinian Mysteries - End of the Eleusinian Mysteries

Cerealia was a 7-day holiday celebrated in ancient Rome in honor of the goddess Ceres. The exact dates of the April festival are uncertain: it may have started on April 12 and ended on April 19 (Or it may have started on the Ides of April, i.e. April 13, or even on April 7.) In Rome, this was the primary festival of Ceres and was accompanied by the Ludi Ceriales or "Games of Ceres" in the Circus Maximus. Ovid's description (Fasti iv.494) mentions that Ceres/Demeter's search for her lost daughter Proserpina was represented by women clothe ...

Including:

• Cerealia - External link

Read more here: » Cerealia: Encyclopedia - Cerealia

The Eumolpidae (Ευμολπιδαι) were one of the sacred Eleusinian families of priests that ran the Eleusinian Mysteries during the Hellenic era. They popularized the cult and allowed many more to be initiated into the great secrets of Demeter and Persephone. The Eumolpidae were descendants of Eumolpus, one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis, through his second son, Herald-Keryx. Through Eumolpus ...

Read more here: » Eumolpidae: Encyclopedia - Eumolpidae

Ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove uncleanliness, which may be real or symbolic. Most of these rituals were created long before the germ theory of disease. Many religions have a ritual cleansing of the dead before burial. Some religions have special treatment of particular body fluids such as semen and menses which are viewed as particularly unclean. There are strong similarities between the cleansing actions engaged in by obsessive compulsive dis ...

Including:

• Ritual purification - Judaism
• Ritual purification - Christianity
• Ritual purification - Islam
• Ritual purification - Hinduism
• Ritual purification - Ayyavazhi
• Ritual purification - Shinto

Read more here: » Ritual purification: Encyclopedia - Ritual purification

This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. The information in this article appears to be more suited for a dictionary rather than an encyclopedia. Wikipedia is not a dictionary, but Wiktionary is. Please verify that this article meets the Wiktionary criteria for inclusion. If this article can be modified to be more than a dictionary entry, please do so and remove this message. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the bakchoi were the branches that initiates swung along the ground along the Sacred Way, the

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The role of the hierophant in religion is to bring the congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. The word comes from Ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ta hiera, "the holy," and phainein, "to show." In Attica it was the title of the chief priest at the Eleusinian Mysteries. An analogous modern role would be that of a Catholic priest at Mass. It is taught, in occult and mystic groups and in Esoteric Christianity, that in the spiritual worlds Initiation i ...

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Elefsina (Greek: Ελεύσινα, Ancient/Katharevousa: Ἐλευσίς Eleusis) is a small town about 30 km NW of Athens. It is best known for having been the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, one of the major cults of ancient Greece. It was also the birth place of the great tragic poet of antiquity, Aeschylus. See also Metanira. Today, the city has become a suburb of Athens, and is linked by the freeway, the Athens metro freeway (Attiki Odos), and Athens metro (transi ...

Including:

• Eleusina - Nearest places
• Eleusina - Historical population
• Eleusina - Persons

Read more here: » Eleusina: Encyclopedia - Eleusina

Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but also to areas of Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, southern France, sout ...

Including:

• Ancient Greece - Origins
• Ancient Greece - The rise of Hellas
• Ancient Greece - Social and political conflict
• Ancient Greece - The Persian Wars
• Ancient Greece - The dominance of Athens
• Ancient Greece - The Peloponnesian War
• Ancient Greece - Spartan and Theban dominance
• Ancient Greece - The rise of Macedon
• Ancient Greece - The conquests of Alexander
• Ancient Greece - Society
• Ancient Greece - Social Structure
• Ancient Greece - Way of Life
• Ancient Greece - Education

Read more here: » Ancient Greece: Encyclopedia - Ancient Greece

Dêmêtêr (or Demetra) (DEH-MEH-ter) ("mother-goddess" or perhaps "distribution-mother") is the Greek goddess of agriculture, the pure nourisher of youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. She is invoked as the "bringer of seasons" in the Homeric hymn, a subtle sign that she was worshiped long before the Olympians arrived. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian p ...

Including:

• Demeter - Titles and functions
• Demeter - Demeter and Poseidon
• Demeter - Demeter's Relationship With Persephone
• Demeter - Demeter's stay at Eleusis
• Demeter - Portrayals and Miscellanea

Read more here: » Demeter: Encyclopedia - Demeter

Celeus was a king in Greek mythology. While Demeter was searching for her daughter, having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. He asked her to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family hearth every night. She was unable to complete the ritual because Metanira walked in on her one night. Instead, ...

Read more here: » Celeus: Encyclopedia - Celeus

The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) is "the first Wiccan church with full legal status and recognition by the governments of three nations" (the USA, Canada, and Australia) and was founded as a coven by Pete "Pathfinder" Davis, the current archpriest, in 1979. The current Archpriestes is Deborah K. Hudson. The church is based on English Traditional Wicca but the purpose is to provide services to the larger Pagan(or Neopagan) community such as open worship, festivals, and a lending library. The policy of open attendance assists this g ...

Including:

• Aquarian Tabernacle Church - External link

Read more here: » Aquarian Tabernacle Church: Encyclopedia - Aquarian Tabernacle Church

Baubo is an old woman in Greek mythology who jested with Demeter when she was down. In his 'Greek Myths', Robert Graves writes that Demeter (in disguise) was the guest of King Celeus in Eleusis. The lame daughter of the King, Iambe, "tried to console Demeter with comically lascivious verses, and a dry nurse, old Baubo, persuaded her to drink barley-water by a jest: she groaned as if in great travail and, unexpectedly, produced from beneath her skirt Demeter's own son Iacchus, who leapt into his mother's arms and kissed her." (Robert G ...

Read more here: » Baubo: Encyclopedia - Baubo

Eleusinian Mysteries

A Greek initiatory cult honoring Demeter and Persephone celebrated in the town of Eleusis from prehistoric times through the fifth century.

(See also: Eleusinian Mysteries, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Eleusinia or Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek) (from eleusinia things that are to come)

The most famous Mysteries in ancient Greece and, next to those of Samothrace, the most ancient. Even the Christian writer Epiphanius traces them to the days of Inachos (which some writers place so close to our time as 1800 BC, which is far too near), while others make the founder Eumolpos. Both these founders are described as at once kings and of divine parentage.

The Greater Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated at the time of the autumnal equinox, the time of grape gathering, and the Mysteries were in honor of Demeter -- in Latin Ceres and in one range of mythologic thought also the Egyptian Isis -- the Earth-Mother, presiding over fertility.

The celebration of the complete Eleusinia consisted of Less and Greater Mysteries. In the former the produce of the earth was given a part, while in the latter emphasis was laid on its higher correspondences in connection with Mystery-teaching. As its name implies, at Eleusis were taught the doctrines concerning what will happen to man after death.

Iacchos, the god of wine in more senses than one, plays an important part in these Mysteries. Demeter's daughter Persephone, goddess of the underworld, was also honored. The usual accounts, vague and fragmentary only, describe the dramatic representations of the adventures of these deities, the esoteric meaning of which was given in the Greater Mysteries.

(See also: Eleusinia, Eleusinian Mysteries, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Various cultures throughout the ages have used psychedelic fungi for shamanistic and other purposes. Mesoamerican mushroom stones of the pre-classic Mayans representing deified mushrooms date back to approximately 500 BC, while rock paintings in the Sahara of mushroom effigies date back to 7000 BC. Some scholars believe that Soma, the drink mentioned in Vedic literature, was derived from psychedelic mushrooms (R. Gordon Wasson suggests that this was amanita muscaria), while Albert Hofmann and Carl Ruck contend that the Eleusinian Mysteries made use of the psychedelic fungus ergot in the Kykeon. Amanita muscaria i ...

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Psychedelic mushroom, Psychedelic mushroom - History, Psychedelic mushroom - Effects, Psychedelic mushroom - Dosage, Psychedelic mushroom - Legal Status, Psychedelic mushroom - Nomenclature, Psychedelic mushroom - Books

Read more here: » Psychedelic mushroom: Encyclopedia II - Psychedelic mushroom - History

Hinduism holds that bathing in the Ganges is a particularly effective form of spiritual cleansing. ...

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Ritual purification, Ritual purification - Judaism, Ritual purification - Christianity, Ritual purification - Islam, Ritual purification - Hinduism, Ritual purification - Ayyavazhi, Ritual purification - Shinto

Read more here: » Ritual purification: Encyclopedia II - Ritual purification - Hinduism

See Ablution in Judaism. The Hebrew Bible has many rituals of purification relating to menstruation, childbirth, sexual relations, disease, and animal sacrifices. These laws were observed by the ancient Israelites. Judaism is based on the Hebrew Bible as viewed through the oral law, including the Mishnah and Talmud. Judaism still observes laws concerning ritual purity in regard to sexual relations between married couples. Other ritual purity rules still followed include those for washing in the morning, and washing one's ...

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Ritual purification, Ritual purification - Judaism, Ritual purification - Christianity, Ritual purification - Islam, Ritual purification - Hinduism, Ritual purification - Ayyavazhi, Ritual purification - Shinto

Read more here: » Ritual purification: Encyclopedia II - Ritual purification - Judaism

In the Olympian pantheon, Persephone is given a father: according to Hesiod's Theogony, Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of Zeus and Demeter. "And he [Zeus] came to the bed of bountiful Demeter, who bore white-armed Persephone, stolen by Hades from her mother's side". Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing, however, Persephone has no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from the other gods, a goddess within Nature before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In th ...

See also:

Persephone, Persephone - Overview, Persephone - The Abduction Myth, Persephone - Modern Scholarship on Persephone, Persephone - Persephone Before the Greeks?, Persephone - Life-Death-Rebirth, Persephone - Consorts/Children, Persephone - The 1911 Britannica's account of the myth

Read more here: » Persephone: Encyclopedia II - Persephone - The Abduction Myth