A Wisdom Archive on Mystery Cult

Mystery Cult:
A group of people who get together regularly to perform sacred mysteries and to study their meanings.

 
(See also: Mystery Cult, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary )

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KONX-OM-PAX
Ancient Greek power words that some say were shouted during the Eleusinian Mysteries, during the ecstasy of initiation (i.e., "the descent of the light"). The words are, however, not Greek, but a corruption of Khabs Am Pekht, taken from the Egyptian Isis cult.
 

 
(See also: KONX-OM-PAX , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)
 

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Konx-Om-Pax (Ancient Greek). Mystic words used in the Eleusinian mysteries. It is believed that these words are the Greek imitation of ancient Egyptian words once used in the secret ceremonies of the Isiac cult. Several modern authors give fanciful translations, but they are all only guesses at the truth.

 
(See also: Konx-Om-Pax, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Sabean, Sabaean, Sabian, Sabianism [from Hebrew tsaba host, army, celestial hosts]
 
A name given by the Shemitic peoples to those who worship the spiritual beings in the universe; and because the celestial bodies were the most evident manifestations of some classes of these spiritual beings, this religion naturally became confused with the worship of the celestial bodies themselves as the dwellings or mansions of the regents above, in, and behind the visible orbs. Hence the Sabeans were called astrolaters or star-worshipers; but it was not the physical bodies of the celestial orbs which were worshiped, but the spiritual entities, powers, or spirits which ensouled these orbs. This was one of the very archaic religions of the human race, found all over the globe in various forms; and in its origins Sabianism was undoubtedly an outpouring of occult teaching from the archaic Mysteries.
 
The word Sabean itself has come down to us mainly through Greek and Latin writers, but so thoroughly imbued were the ancient Hebrews with this idea of the celestial hosts or cosmic spirits that the Bible is full of references where the context even wrongly endows the celestial hosts with the properties of the Most High God, and it has been so understood by Christian theologians; forgetting, however, that manifested deities, however high, are but the manifestations of the infinite and ineffable Mystery or parabrahman, from which all the celestial hosts flow or emanate. Thus not only ancient and modern Judaism, but Christianity itself, is filled with the thought of the ancient Sabeans.
 
Sabeanism was unquestionably the main religious belief of the ancient Chaldeans and Assyrians, but likewise the very foundation stone of practically all the great religions of all the great peoples of the past. Upon the authority of the Jewish scholar Maimonides, scholars have considered the Sabeans as an ancient race whose principal religion was that of star-worship and closely affiliated with the Babylonians and Syrians. But the Sabeans were not a race, but those who followed and practiced the divine astrological astrolatry of the hoariest antiquity. Mohammed in the Koran mentions a sect between the Jews and Christians called Sabi una -- to whom certain privileges were granted; older Moslem theologians were agreed that the Sabeans possessed manuscripts which they regarded in the light of a revelation, and the Mandeans came under the same protection granted to the Sabeans; hence the Mandeans also came to be regarded as Sabeans. Another sect of polytheists, the Harranians (830 AD), also affiliated with the Sabeans and shielded themselves under the same privileges; they were a remnant of a Mesopotamian cult, and star-worship had a prominent place in their system.
 
Certain Arabian writers termed the Sabean language the science of astronomy, but what we now call astronomy was but a minor portion of ancient astrolatry; they also state that Seth or Set was the founder of Sabeanism, and that the pyramids were regarded as the place of sepulture of Seth or Agathodaimon. We see here confusion, reductions of general principles to details, and anthropomorphizations of cosmic principles. Hermes is in many senses the same as Seth, and the pyramids were consecrated to the regents of the stars, rather than to the orbs (SD 2:362).

 
(See also: Sabean, Sabaean, Sabian, Sabianism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary )

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NIANTIEL
The watcher of the 24th Tunnel. This figure from The Nightside of Eden corresponds to death in the conventional Tarot In Kenneth Grant''s distortion, however, this is the path of sodomy, the reverse of Tiphareth, the "infernal sun in Amenta, the phallus in anus as distinct from the supernal sun." He also includes the scorpion and beetle as symbols of the "Dark Sun." The mysteries here evoked are sex magic and death magic, naturally, as well as "black magic" and Voodoo generally.
 
The sickness attributed to Niantiel was cancer, even before the advent of AIDS. The engineers of this disease, however, have sealed themselves off from all possibility of Salvation. The evil that Kenneth Grant saw -- to turn the Qliphah of Death into sodomy -- has at last been realized and the Kingdom of Hell is complete. The path between Tiphareth and Netzach is now the paved highroad between Belphagor and Baal.
 
999
Eternal Evolution (past, present, future). This is the most mystical number of all. It is the number of the Archon of the Ending Aeons. 999 is the year in which Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl) died. It is the name of a very high IQ Society. 999 is the final transmutation of the current that began with 333, reached its culmination of evil mysticism in 666 and which will unlock the gates of the Otherworld at the end of this cycle''s unfolding. It has also been appropriated by the J. R. "Bob" Dodds mock-cult (The Church of the Sub-Genius) as its seal, but is (for them) totally without significance or occult purpose, except as another symbol to subvert in their addiction to chaos.
 
9 to the 9th power is 387,420,489, which is sure to have some important meaning. Breaking that
down, 3 + 8 + 7 = 18 = 9; 4 + 2 + 0 = 6; 4 + 8 + 9 = 21 = 3; and ultimately 9 + 6 + 3 = 18 =
1 + 8 = 9. (See NUMEROLOGY.)
 
 

 
(See also: NIANTIEL , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)
 

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Troy, Trojans Since Schliemann rediscovered at Hissarlik the several superincumbent sites of ancient Troy, there has been increasing reason for placing confidence in the historicity of what have been regarded as fables. The Trojan War, for instance, is now known to be a historical fact, although according to The Secret Doctrine it should be dated much earlier than the 1200 BC or so at present allowed by archaeology. In Isis Unveiled the Homeric account of this war is described as a Greek counterpart of the Ramayana. Allegory and fact are curiously mixed in such narrations, but it is well known that mythoi were originally and intentionally built on a basis of former factual occurrences.
 
Ragon, in his defense of the antiquity of Masonry, recalls the statements of classical writers that Neptune and Apollo offered themselves to Laomedon as masons "to build the city" of Troy, a well-known expression symbolically interpreted as meaning to establish a religious cult or Mystery school. Troy lay in a strategic position in regard to the trade routes of the ancient world and relics from distant lands prove that it was an active center of traffic. Even the first city, built in what archaeologists call the Neolithic period, was a strong and dominant center. Excavations at the lowest level revealed a great fortified wall with two towers and a stone carving of a human face, antedating by some 18 centuries the Troy of which Homer sang and which was the seventh city of the nine, counting upwards, that successively occupied the same site.

 
(See also: Troy, Trojans, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Voodoo or Voodooism [from Fongbe dialect vodunu from vodu moral and religious life of the Fons of Dahomey]
 
A definite system of African black magic or sorcery, including various types of necromantic practice. It reached the Americas with the African slaves brought from the West Coast, and in and around the Caribbean various degrees of the cult persist and constitute a recognized if little understood social feature in the history and life of the people.
 
Especially significant in the original Fon religion are the principal temples in the sacred forests, with symbolic hieroglyphics on the walls, depicting the exploits of their kings, voodoo legends, etc., and explaining their belief in the unknowable god Meru (Great Master); this unmanifest god, too far removed from men for them to give to him any form, dealt with them through lesser gods and nature spirit, i.e., voodoo; the priestesses serving the temple in a secret cult with four degrees of initiation, and having passwords unknown to laymen; the cult of the snake or adder as the most primitive form of the religion.
 
Such findings in voodoo history, however degraded in course of time and overlaid by beliefs and customs of cruder native tribes, have the basic elements of a hierarchic religion so enveloped in mystery as to indicate an origin far beyond the creative imagination of any people. Rather, here in strange temples of dark mystery, were the lingering echoes of some ancient wisdom teaching of those who were truly "as wise as serpents." The least altered of the original system is probably the voodoo music with its solemn, insistent rhythm in the mood of prayer or an invocation. This rhythm persists, even when the ritual songs in Haiti are composed entirely of Creole words, or of a series of unintelligible sounds.
 
Counterparts of the debasing and malign system of voodoo are found elsewhere under many different names, like the left-hand Tantrika of India, and the Dugpas of Tibet. In general, all of these unholy practices date back to the abuse of spiritual knowledge and power by the late Atlanteans.

 
(See also: Voodoo, Voodooism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Bread and Wine. Baptism and the Eucharist have their direct origin in pagan Egypt. There the "waters of purification" were used (the Mithraic font for baptism being borrowed by the Persians from the Egyptians) and so were bread and wine. "Wine in the Dionysiak cult, as in the Christian religion, represents that blood which in different senses is the life of the world" (Brown, in the Dionysiak Myth). Justin Martyr says, "In imitation of which the devil did the like in the Mysteries of Mithras, for you either know or may know that they also take bread and a cup of water in the sacrifices of those that are initiated and pronounce certain words over it". (See "Holy Water".)

 
(See also: Bread and Wine, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Wicca: Wicca is a religion of veneration of Nature and the worship of Divinity as containing both feminine and masculine aspects. It is founded upon the spiritual roots of pre-Christian European beliefs and practices. When Wicca first came to public attention in the early 1950s through the efforts of Gerald Gardner, it was portrayed as the remnant of an ancient European fertility cult. Practitioners referred to Wicca as the Old Religion. It was also known as the Craft of the Wise. On the surface modern Wicca appears to be a folklore and folk magick system. On the inner initiate level Wicca contains pre-Christian European Mystery Teachings.

 
(See also: Wicca, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca )

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Until 3,000 years ago, all religions were pantheistic and polytheistic as Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto still are. They tolerated the religions of other tribes and cultures, recognising in their worship the same divine energies as their own, albeit with different names.
 
Why then did patriarchal, monotheistic religions arise in the Middle East 3,000 years ago, and spread in their Christian forms throughout Europe and then on to the European colonised overseas territories during the last 1,500 years? Why did these monotheistic religions fight so fiercely to eradicate nature worship in the lands they controlled? Why did Christianity promote a dualistic antagonism between the spirit and the flesh, with only the former conceived as being in the "image of God"?

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

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