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intensified degree the sufferings to which flesh is heir.
(a) These savior-gods had known the agony of parting from
loved ones, of persecution, of mutilation, of death itself. In this
hard way they had won salvation for their devotees and now they stood
ready to help all men who had need.
(2) The rites of these mystery religions were impressively
arranged to represent the sufferings and triumphs of the savior-gods.
(a) In this way it was possible for the initiate to feel as
his God had felt, and sometimes more realistically, to repeat the
archetypal experiences of his lord. His initiation was a time of great
uplift, that elevated him above commonplace worries and gave him an
exalted sense of security. In after days the memory of that great
event remained with him to bouy him up amid the hardships of his daily
lot, or in such special crises as might come to him.
4. By means of initiatory rites of great impressiveness, the
mystery cults were able to satisfy the desire for realistic guarantees
in religion.
a. The majority of people were not satisfied with a merely
emotional assurance that the desired mystical union had taken place.
(1) Something more tangible and objective was required to
supplement the evidence furnished by subjective experience.
(a) Both the Greek and Romans conceived of their Gods as
being very real and humanistic.
(b) They gave them admirable representation in painting and
sculpture and sought to secure their favor by rites that were
correspondingly realistic.
[1] At the beginning of the imperial period, when the
uncertainties of life made man feel more dependent than ever on
supernatural assistance, the operations whereby they strove to assure
themselves of the desired aid became, if anything, more realistic than
ever. In such an age and amid people who thought in these vivid terms,
the rites of religion, in order to satisfy, had to give actual and
dramatic representation of the processes they were intended to typify
and induce. This was what the ceremonies of the mystery cults did, and
this was another reason for the great attractive power of the cults.
b. Most of the rites of the mystery religions had come down in
traditional forms from an immemorial antiquity.
(1) Originally performed among primitive people in order to
assure the revival of vegetable life in springtime, they were enacted
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in these later imperial days for the higher purpose of assuring the
rebirth of the human spirit.
(a) Yet, among the masses at least, the efficacy of these
ceremonials was as little questioned as it had been in their original
primitive settings.
(2) The baptismal rite, in particular, whether by water or
blood, was regarded as marking the crucial moment in a genuinely
regenerative process.
(a) Once reborn the initiates were treated as such, their
birthday was celebrated and they were nourished in a manner
appropriate for infants.
(b) Childish though those rites may seem, yet they were
frought with spiritual significance for the initiate.
(3) The semblance of mystic marriage and the partaking of
consecrated foods were other realistic sacraments in which the
neophyte found assurance that he was really and vitally united with
his lord and endowed with the divine spirit.
(a) What usually gives the modern student pause is the very
sincere conviction of pagan initiates that their spiritual
transformation was not only symbolic, but was also really accomplished
by these dramatic ceremonies.
5. The personal transformation which was the initial feature of
cult mysticism had its ethical as well as its religious aspect, thus
producing a blend of ethics and religion.
a. The early imperial period was a time of great moral disorder
and confusion, paralleling the stress and strain in other areas of
life.
b. The continuous social upheavals of the Hellenistic and
republican times, the free mingling of populations in commerce and
conquest, and the enormous increase of slaves furthered the process of
cutting thousands of human beings loose from moral restraints.
c. However, the general trend in society as a whole was not only
a period of moral anarchy but of ethical awakening as well.
(1) Interest was alive on moral questions.
(a) Almost every characteristic vice in Roman society was
being met with the most vigorous protests and sometimes by active
measures to correct them.
(2) There was at this time a particular demand for a greater
correctness in ethical teaching.
(a) Teachers of the time studied the writings of
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philosophers and moralists to find texts and maxims to use with their
pupils.
(b) Catalogues were made of virtues and vices and the
former were summarized as certain cardinal qualities especially to be
desired.
(c) There was a call for living examples, which could be
referred to as demonstrations of the practicality of these ideals.
(3) The conditions of life were such that most men did not
have confidence in their own unaided ability to achieve character.
(a) They looked to the supernatural realm for the powers
that controlled personal conduct as well as the more ultimate
destinies of humanity.
[1] What the men of the 1st century wanted was not so
much ideals, but the power to realize those ideals; not a code of
morals, but supernatural sanctions for morality. In the last analysis,
it was divine will, and not human welfare, that was the generally
accepted criterion whereby the validity of any ethical system was
tested. Accordingly, the religion which could furnish supernatural
guarantees along with its ethical ideals had a preferred claim to 1st
century loyalty.
(b) The stern morality of Judaism was very attractive. The
element that fascinated was not the inherent excellence of Jewish
rules for living, but the fact that there were venerable sanctions
bearing the impress of divine authority.
[1] The Law of the Jews was quoted as the ipse dixit of
Yahweh himself and the scriptures were referred to as authentic
documents proving the genuineness of the representation. Such
confirmation was impressive to men who were seeking for divine
authority to make moral conduct obligatory.
(c) The religion of the Egyptian Hermes was one that offered
supernatural guarantees for its ethical ideals.
[1] In the process of Hermetic rebirth, the powers of the
God drove out hordes of vices and left the regenerated individual
divinely empowered for right living.
(d) That was Mithraism's point of strength also, and accounted
not a little for the vogue it continued to enjoy for some time after
the beginning of the Christian Era.
[1] The "commandments" of Mithraism were believed to be
divinely accredited. The Magi claimed that Mithra himself revealed
them to their order.
[2] One of the chief reasons why the high Mithraic ideals
of purity, truth, and righteousness had real attraction, was because
file:///X|/B2DvD_1008____Wisdom_Ancient/Wicca%20101%20-%20Instruction%20[TXT][DOC]/Wicca%20101/LESSON3.TXT[8/19/2009 6:31:40 PM] [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]