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    "slug": "06-plato-the-mysteries-of-eleusis",
    "title": "Plato: The Mysteries of Eleusis",
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    "words": 11507,
    "text": "## Plato: The Mysteries of Eleusis\n\n\nThe Mysteries of Eleusis\n\nMen have called Love Eros because he has wings; the gods called him Pleros, for he has the power\n\nof giving wings.\n—Plato, The Banquet\n\nIn heaven, learning is seeing; on earth, it is remembering. Happy is he who has gone through the\n\nMysteries; he knows the source and end of life.\n—Pindar\n\n35. The Youth of Plato and The Death of Socrates\n\nSince we have attempted to make the greatest of the initiates of Greece live again in Pythagoras, and\nthrough him to examine the primordial and universal basis of religious and philosophic truth, it\nwould be possible to omit mentioning Plato, who simply gave the truth a more imaginative and\npopular form. However, for this very reason we shall pause before the noble figure of the Athenian\nphilosopher.\n\nThere is a basic doctrine and synthesis of religions and philosophies. It is developed and deepened in\nthe course of ages, but the foundation and heart remain the same. We have presented its main\naspects, and is this not sufficient? No. It still remains for us to show the providential reason for its\ndiverse forms, according to races and times. It is necessary to re-establish the chain of the Great\nInitiates, who were the real initiators of mankind. The strength of each of them will then be\nmultiplied by that of all the others, and the unity of truth will appear in the very diversity of its\nexpression.\n\nLike everything living, Greece had her aurora, her noon-time and her sunset. This follows the law of\ndays, men, peoples, earths, heavens. Orpheus is the initiate of the dawn; Pythagoras, that of\nnoontime; Plato, that of the sunset of Hellas, a sunset of glowing red, which in turn becomes the pink\nof a new dawn, the aurora of mankind. Plato follows Pythagoras, as in the Mysteries of Eleusis the\ntorchbearer followed the hierophant. With him once again we shall enter by a new road, through the\navenues of the sanctuary to the very heart of the temple, to the contemplation of the great arcanum.\n\nBefore traveling to Eleusis, however, let us listen to our guide, to the divine Plato. Let him cause us\nto see his native skies; let him tell us the story of his soul and lead us to his beloved master.\n\nHe was born in Athens, the city of the Beautiful and of humanity. Attica, exposed to all winds, sails\nlike a ship in the Aegean Sea, and like a queen rules the islands, those white sirens lying on the deep\nblue of the waves. He grew up at the foot of the Acropolis under the eye of Pallas Athena, on that\nwide plain bordered by purple mountains and enveloped with a luminous blue, between the\nPentelicus with its marble sides, the Hymette, crowned with scented pines where bees hum, and the\nquiet Bay of Eleusis.\n\nSomewhat somber and troubled was the political horizon during Plato's childhood and youth. He\npassed his childhood during the dreadful Peloponnesian War, that fratricidal battle between Sparta\nand Athens which paved the way for the dissolution of Greece. The great days of the Medic wars\nhad passed; the time of Marathon and Salamis had gone. The year of Plato's birth, 429 B.C., is that\nof the death of Pericles, the greatest statesman of Greece, as honest as Aristides, as clever as\nThemistocles, the most perfect representative of Hellenic civilization, the tamer of that turbulent\ndemocracy, the burning patriot who knew how to preserve the calm of a demi-god in the midst of\ngeneral revolts. Plato's mother doubtless told her son about a scene she must have witnessed two\nyears after the birth of the future philosopher. The Spartans had invaded Attica; Athens, its national\nexistence already threatened, had fought through an entire winter, and Pericles was the soul of its\ndefense. In that dark year an impressive ceremony took place in the Ceramicus. The coffins of\nwarriors who had died for the country were placed on funeral chariots and the people were called\ntogether before the monumental tomb which was destined to unite them. This mausoleum seemed a\nmagnificent and sinister symbol of the grave Greece was digging for herself by her criminal fighting.\nIt was then that Pericles uttered the most beautiful speech that has been preserved from antiquity.\nThucydides transcribed it on tablets of brass, and this address shines there like a shield on the\npediment of a temple. \"The tomb of heroes is the whole universe, not columns covered with insipid\ninscriptions.\" -- Does not the consciousness of Greece and her immortality breathe in this saying?\n\nBut with Pericles dead, what remained of the Greece who had lived in her men of action? Inside\nAthens were the discords of a demagoguery at bay; outside, the Lacedaemonian invasion ever at the\ngates, war on land and sea and the king of Persia's gold circulating like a corrupting poison in the\nhands of tribunes and magistrates. Alcibiades had replaced Pericles in the public favor. From a\ndeceitful youth of Athens, this individual had become the man of the hour. Adventurer, politician,\nintrigant, charmer, he led his country to its ruin while he laughed. Plato had observed him well, for\nlater he gave an excellent psychological study of this personality. He compares the mad lust for\npower which filled Alcibiades' soul with a great winged hornet \"around whom the passions, crowned\nwith flowers, perfumed with essences, intoxicated with wine and all the free pleasures which follow,\ncome to buzz, goading him, elevating him and finally arming him with the fire of personal ambition.\nThen this tyrant of the soul, raging in madness, acts. If in himself he discovers thoughts and honest\nsentiments which can still evoke shame, he pursues and kills them. As a result he purges the soul of\nall temperance, filling it with the fury he has created.\"\n\nThe sky over Athens therefore was rather dark during Plato's youth. When he was twenty-five he\ntook part in the capture of Athens by the Spartans, following the disastrous naval battle of Aigos\nPotamos. Then he saw the entrance of Lysander into his native city, which meant the end of\nAthenian independence. He saw the great walls, constructed by Themistocles, demolished to the\nsound of festive music and the triumphant enemy literally dance upon the ruins of the country. Then\ncame the Thirty Tyrants and their proscriptions.\n\nThese spectacles saddened Plato's youthful soul, but they could not trouble it, for that soul was as\ngentle, as limpid, as open as the canopy of heaven above the Acropolis. Plato was a tall young man\nwith broad shoulders; he was serious, meditative, almost always silent. However, when he opened\nhis mouth an exquisite sensitivity, a charming gentleness streamed with his words. In him was\nnothing striking or excessive. His many capabilities were disguised, blended into the higher harmony\nof his being. A winged grace, a natural modesty hid the serious side of his mind; an almost feminine\ntenderness veiled the firmness of his character. In him, virtue was clothed with a smile and pleasure\nwith an innocent purity. However, the dominant, extraordinary, unique characteristic of this soul was\nthat in being born, it seemed to have made a mysterious pact with Eternity. Indeed, only the eternal\nseemed to live in the depths of his great eyes; other things pass away quickly like vain appearances\nin a deep mirror. Behind the visible, changing, imperfect forms of the world and its beings, the\ninvisible, perfect, eternally radiant forms of these same beings, seen by the mind, and which are their\neverlasting achetypes, appeared to him. This is why the young Plato, without having formulated his\ndoctrine, not even knowing that one day he would be a philosopher, was already aware of the divine\nreality of the Ideal and of its omnipresence. This is why upon seeing the processions of women, the\nfuneral chariots, the armies, the festivals and mourning, his gaze seemed to see something else, and\nto say, \"Why are they weeping? Why are they shouting with joy? They think they exist, yet they do\nnot exist. Why can I not attach myself to what is born and to what dies? Why can I love only the\nInvisible which never is born, never dies, but remains forever?\"\n\nLove and harmony are the core of Plato's soul, but what harmony and what love? -- The love of that\neverlasting Beauty and Harmony which embrace the universe. The greater and deeper the soul, the\nlonger the time required for it to know itself.\n\nPlato's first enthusiasm was expressed in the arts. He was of fair and noble birth; his father claimed\ndescent from King Codrus, his mother from Solon. His youth was that of a rich Athenian surrounded\nby the luxuries and seductions of an era of decadence. He enjoyed these without excess but without\nprudishness, living the life of his peers, enjoying a fine inheritance, surrounded and entertained by\nhis many friends. So well has he described the passion of love in all its phases in his Phedre that it is\nimpossible that he did not experience its transports and cruel disillusions. A single line, as passionate\nas a line from Sappho, as bright as a starry night on the sea of the Cyclades, has come down to us:\n\"Would I were the heaven, thus to be all eyes, so that I might look at you!\"\n\nIn his search for supreme Beauty through all the modes and forms of beauty, he studied painting,\nmusic and poetry. The latter clearly seemed to meet all his needs. It ended by determining his\ndesires. Plato had a marvelous facility for all styles of poetry. With equal intensity he enjoyed\namorous and dithyrambic poetry, the epic, the tragedy and even comedy with its finest Attic wit.\nWhat then did he lack in order to become another Sophocles, thus to rescue the theatre of Athens\nfrom its near decadence? This ambition tempted him; his friends were engaged in it. At twenty-seven\nhe had composed several tragedies and was about to present one in a contest.\n\nIt was at this time that Plato met Socrates, who used to converse with young men in the gardens of\nthe Academy. He spoke about the Just and the Unjust, about the Beautiful, the Good and the True.\nThe poet listened to the philosopher, returning the next day and the following days. At the end of a\nfew weeks, a complete revolution had taken place within him. The happy young man, the poet filled\nwith illusions, no longer recognized himself. The course of his thoughts, the goal of his life had\nchanged. Another Plato had been born in him at the word of the one who called himself \"an\naccoucheur of souls.\" What had taken place? By what sorcery had this reasoner with the face of a\nsatyr torn the handsome, genial Plato from luxury, pleasure and poetry in order to convert him to the\ngreat renunciation that is wisdom?\n\nA very simple man, but a great oddity was this good Socrates. Son of a sculptor, he had carved the\nthree Graces during his adolescence. Then he threw down the chisel, saying that he would rather\ncarve his own soul than blocks of marble. From that moment he dedicated his life to the search for\nwisdom. He was seen in the gymnasia, on the public square, at the theater, chatting with young men,\nartists, philosophers and asking each of them to prove what he had affirmed.\n\nFor several years the Sophists had fought among themselves in the city of Athens like a cloud of\ngrasshoppers. The Sophist is the counterfeit and living negation of the philosopher, as the\ndemagogue is the counterfeit of the statesman, the hypocrite the counterfeit of the priest, the black\nmagician the infernal counterfeit of the true initiate. The Greek type of Sophist is more subtle, more\nreasoning, more corrosive than the others, but the type itself is to be found in all decadent\ncivilizations. The Sophists increased as fatally as the worms in a decomposing corpse. Whether they\nare called atheists, nihilists or pessimists, the Sophists of all centuries resemble one another. They\nforever deny God and the soul, that is, the supreme Truth and Life. Those of Socrates' time, like\nGorgias, Prodicus and Protagoras, said that there is no difference between truth and falsehood. They\nwere confident that they could prove any idea whatsoever, and also its opposite, stating that there is\nno justice other than force, no truth except the individual's opinion. With this, satisfied with\nthemselves, setting high fees for their lessons, they incited young men to debauchery, intrigue and\n\ntyranny.\n\nSocrates approached the Sophists with his insinuating gentleness, his subtle good nature, like an\nignorant man who wishes to be taught. His eye shone with fire and benevolence: Then, from,\nquestion to question, he forced them to say the opposite of what they had first claimed and to confess\ncandidly that they did not even know what they were talking about. Socrates then showed that the\nSophists, who pretended to possess universal knowledge, knew neither the cause nor the principle of\nanything. Having thus reduced them to silence, he did not glory in his victory, but, smiling, thanked\nhis adversaries for having taught him by their answers, adding that to know that one knows nothing\nis the beginning of real wisdom.\n\nWhat did Socrates himself believe and teach? He did not deny the gods; he rendered them the same\nworship as did his fellow citizens, but he said that their nature was impenetrable and confessed that\nhe understood nothing of the physics or metaphysics which were taught in the Schools. The\nimportant thing, he said, is to believe in the Just and True and apply it in one's life. His discussions\ncarried great weight for he himself furnished the example, since he was an irreproachable citizen, an\nintrepid soldier, honest judge, faithful and impartial friend, the absolute master of all his passions.\n\nThus the tactics of moral education change according to time and place. In the circle of his initiate\ndisciples, Pythagoras derived morality from the heights of cosmogony. In Athens, on the public\nsquare, among men like Cleon and the Gorgias, Socrates spoke of the innate sense of the Just and\nTrue in order to rebuild the world and the weakened social state. And both Pythagoras and Socrates,\nthe one in the descending order of principles, the other in the ascending order, affirmed the same\ntruth. Pythagoras represents the principles and method of the highest initiation; Socrates announces\nthe age of open science. In order not to forsake his role as a public exponent, Socrates refused to\nhave himself initiated into the Mysteries of Eleusis; on the other hand, he understood and believed in\nthe total and supreme Truth which the great Mysteries taught. When he spoke of them, the\nexpression of the good, spirited Socrates changed like an inspired faun, possessed by a god. His eyes\nlighted up, color passed over his face and from his lips fell one of those simple, luminous statements\nwhich reveal the very foundations of things.\n\nWhy was Plato so irresistibly charmed and captivated by this man? In seeing him, Plato understood\nthe superiority of the Good over the Beautiful. For the Beautiful accomplishes the True only in the\nmirage of art, while the Good is brought about in the depths of souls. Rare and powerful is this\ncharm, for the senses have no share in it. The sight of a truly just man made the shimmering\nsplendors of visible art fade in Plato's soul, finally to disappear in presence of a diviner dream.\n\nThis man showed him the inferiority of that beauty and glory he had believed in until then, when\ncompared with the beauty and glory of the active soul, which forever attracts other souls to the same\nTruth. On the other hand, the pomp of art merely succeeds in reflecting for an instant a deceptive\ntruth, under a disguise. This shining, eternal Beauty, \"the splendor of the True,\" killed the changing,\ndeceptive beauty in Plato's soul. Thus, abandoning and forgetting all he had loved previously, Plato\ngave himself to Socrates in the flower of his youth, with all the poetry of his soul. This great victory\nof Truth over Beauty had incalculable consequences for the history of the human spirit.\n\nMeanwhile, Plato's friends were waiting for him to make his debut in poetry on the tragic stage. He\ninvited them to his house for a great celebration, and all were astonished that he wanted to give this\nfestival at that time, for it was customary to give it only after having won the prize, and when the\nwinning tragedy had been played. But none refused an invitation to the home of a son of a rich\nnobleman, where the Muses and Graces met in the company of Eros. For a long time his house had\nbeen a rendezvous for the elegant youth of Athens.\n\nPlato spent a fortune on the banquet. The table was set in the garden. Young men with torches\nlighted the way for the guests. The three most beautiful hetaerae of Athens attended. The banquet\ncontinued all night. Hymns to Love and Bacchus were sung. The flute players danced their most\nvoluptuous dances. At last, Plato himself was asked to recite one of his dithyrambics. Smiling, he\narose and said, \"This banquet is the last I shall give. Beginning today I renounce the pleasures of life\nin order to dedicate myself to wisdom, and to follow the teachings of Socrates. Know then: I even\nrenounce poetry, for I have recognized its inability to express the Truth I seek. No longer will I write\nverses, and in your presence I am about to burn all those I have composed.\"\n\nA loud cry of amazement and protest arose from the table, around which the guests, wearing crowns\nof roses, were lying upon sumptuous couches. These faces, red with wine, gaiety and light table talk,\nexpressed surprise and indignation. Among the gentlemen and Sophists were laughs of incredulity\nand scorn. They considered Plato's project folly and sacrilege; they challenged him to take back what\nhe had said. But Plato confirmed his decision with a calmness and assurance which would tolerate\nno turning back. He concluded by saying, \"I thank all those who have wished to take part in this\nfarewell celebration, but I shall keep near me only those who wish to share my new life. From now\non Socrates' friends will be my only friends.\"\n\nHis words passed like a cold breath over a field of flowers. To happy faces they suddenly brought\nthe sad, troubled look of people in a funeral procession. The courtesans arose and had themselves\ncarried away on their litters, casting hateful glances at the master of the house. The Sophists\ndisappeared with ironic and sportive words: \"Farewell, Plato! Be happy! You will come back to us.\nFarewell! Farewell!\" Two serious young men remained with him. He took these faithful friends by\nthe hand, and leaving the half-empty jugs of wine, the roses, the lyres and flutes overturned, the full\ncups, Plato led them into the inner court of the house. There they saw piled up on a small altar a\npyramid of papyrus scrolls. These were Plato's poetic works. Taking a torch, the smiling poet set fire\nto the pile, saying, \"Vulcan, come here! Plato needs you!\"\n\nWhen the flames finally had flickered out, the friends with tears in their eyes silently said farewell to\ntheir future teacher. But Plato, remaining alone, did not weep. A peace, a wonderful serenity filled\nhis whole being. He thought of Socrates whom he was going to see. The light of dawn touched the\nterraces of the houses, the columns and pediments of the temples; soon the first ray of the sun made\nMinerva's helmet glisten on the top of the Acropolis. ...\n\n36. The Initiation of Plato and the Birth of Platonic Philosophy\n\nThree years after Plato had become Socrates' pupil, the latter was condemned to death by the\nAreopagus, and died, surrounded by his disciples, after drinking the hemlock.\n\nFew historical events have been as frequently described as this. However, few happenings have\noccurred whose causes and significance are so little understood. Today it is believed that the\nAreopagus was right to condemn Socrates as an enemy of the state religion because in denying the\ngods, he was attacking the foundation of the Athenian republic. We shall show that this assertion\ncontains two major errors. Let us first recall what Victor Cousin wrote at the beginning of The\nApology of Socrates in his beautiful translation of Plato's works: \"Anytus, it must be said, was a\ncommendable citizen; the Areopagus, an equitable and temperate tribunal; and, if anything is to be\nwondered at, it is that Socrates was not accused long before, and that he was not condemned by a\nlarger majority.\" The philosopher, a Minister of Public Education, did not see that if he was right\nthey should have condemned both philosophy and religion in order to glorify only the politics of\nlying, violence and absolutism. For if philosophy inevitably destroys the foundations of the social\nstate, it is merely a pompous folly, and if religion can exist only by suppressing the search for truth,\nit is but a sinister tyranny. Let us try to be fairer to Greek religion and to Greek philosophy.\n\nThere is a vital and significant fact which has escaped the attention of most modern historians and\nphilosophers. Persecutions in Greece, which were very rarely aimed toward philosophers, never\noriginated in the temples, but always arose among those engaged in politics. Greek civilization did\nnot know that struggle between priests and philosophers which has played such a great role in our\ncivilization since the destruction of Christian esoterism in the second century of our era. Without\ninterference Thales could teach that the world comes from water, Heraclitus, that it comes from fire;\nAnaxagoras could say that the sun is a mass of incandescent fire; Democritus could claim that all\ncomes from atoms. No temple was disturbed, for in their sanctuaries all this was known, and more\nbesides. It was also realized that the so-called philosophers who denied the gods could not eradicate\nthem from the national consciousness, and that true philosophers believed in them in the manner of\ninitiates, seeing in them the symbols of the great ranks of the spiritual Hierarchies, of the Divine that\npenetrates nature, of the Invisible that governs the visible. Esoteric doctrine therefore served as the\nlink between true philosophy and true religion. This is the deep, primordial and final fact which\nexplains their hidden significance in Hellenic civilization.\n\nWho, therefore, accused Socrates? The priests of Eleusis, who had cursed the authors of the\nPeloponnesian War, shaking the dust from their robes toward the Occident, uttered no word against\nhim. As for the temple of Delphi, it gave him the most beautiful tribute that can be paid to any man.\nPythia, asked what Apollo thought of Socrates, answered, \"There is no man more free, more just,\nmore intelligent.\" The two indictments leveled against Socrates: of corrupting youth and of not\nbelieving in the gods, were therefore, only pretexts. With regard to the second accusation, Socrates\nvictoriously answered his judges, \"I believe in my personal spirit. Therefore I have all the more\nreason to believe in the gods, who are the spirits of the universe!\" Then why this implacable hatred\nagainst the sage? He had fought injustice, unmasked hypocrisy, shown the falseness of so many vain\npretentions. Men pardon all the vices and all the atheisms, but they do not pardon those who expose\nthem. This is why the real atheists who were sitting in the Areopagus caused the death of the just and\ninnocent, by accusing him of the crime they themselves had committed. In his admirable defense,\nrecorded by Plato, Socrates himself explains this with perfect simplicity, \"These are my fruitless\nsearches for wise men among the Athenians who have aroused so much dangerous hostility against\nme. Hence all the calumnies spread on my account. Intriguers, active and numerous, speaking about\nme according to a concerted plan and with a very appealing eloquence, for a long time have filled\nyour ears with the most perfidious rumors, ceaselessly pursuing their system of calumny. Today they\nhave won from me Melitus, Anytus and Lycon. Melitus represents the poets; Anytus, the politicians\nand artists; Lycon, the orators.\" A tragic poet without talent, a wicked, fanatical man of wealth, a\nbrazen-faced demagogue succeeded in having the best of men condemned to death. But that death\nmade him immortal. Proudly he could say to his judges, \"I believe more firmly in the gods than do\nany of my accusers. It is time for us to leave each other, I to die, and you to live. Which of us has the\nbetter part? No one knows but God.\"\n\nFar from attacking true religion and its national symbols, Socrates had done everything possible to\nstrengthen them. He would have been the greatest support of his country, if his country had known\nhow to understand him. Like Jesus, he died forgiving his executioners, and became the model of\nmartyred sages for all mankind. For Socrates represents the definitive appearing of individual\ninitiation and open science.\n\nThe serene picture of Socrates dying for truth, spending his last hour discussing the immortality of\nthe soul with his pupils, imprinted this most beautiful of spectacles and holiest of Mysteries upon\nPlato's heart. This was his first, his great initiation. Later he was to study physics, metaphysics and\nmany other sciences, but always he remained Socrates' pupil. He willed us his living image by\nputting into the mouth of his teacher the treasures of his own thought. This flower of modesty makes\nhim the ideal of the disciple, his fire of ecstasy makes him the poet of philosophers. Regardless of\nthe fact that we know he did not establish his school until he was fifty, and that he lived to be eighty,\nwe can imagine him only as young. For eternal youth is the inheritance of souls who unite divine\nhonesty with depth of thought.\n\nPlato had received from Socrates the great impetus, the active male principle of his life, his faith in\njustice and truth. He owed the science and substance of his ideas to his initiation into the Mysteries.\nHis genius consists in the new form -- at once poetic and dialectic -- which he knew how to give\nthem. He did not take this initiation from Eleusis only. He sought it in all the accessible sources of\nthe ancient world. After Socrates' death, Plato began to travel. He studied with several philosophers\nof Asia Minor. From there he went to Egypt to establish a relationship with its priests, going through\nthe initiation of Isis. Unlike Pythagoras, he did not reach the higher stage where one becomes an\nadept, where one acquires the effective, direct view of divine Truth and supernatural powers. He\nstopped at the third stage, which confers perfect intellectual clarity and dominion of intelligence over\nsoul and body. Then he went to southern Italy to talk with the Pythagoreans, knowing full well that\nPythagoras had been the greatest of Greek sages. He purchased one of the master's manuscripts at a\nhigh price. Thus having dipped into the esoteric tradition of Pythagoras at its very source, he\nborrowed the main ideas and framework of his system from that philosopher.\n\nReturning to Athens, Plato established his school which has become famous under the name of the\nAcademy. In order to continue Socrates' work, it was necessary to propagate truth. But Plato could\nnot teach the things publicly which the Pythagoreans covered with a threefold veil. The vows,\nprudence and his goal itself prevented him from doing so. It is really esoteric doctrine which we find\nin his Dialogues, but disguised, altered, charged with a rational dialectic like something foreign,\nconcealed in legend, myth, parable. The esoteric teaching is no longer presented in Plato with the\nimpressive totality Pythagoras gave it, and which we have tried to reconstruct, an edifice established\non a firm foundation -- all parts of which are strongly cemented, but in analytic fragments. Plato, like\nSocrates, bases himself on the ground of the young men of Athens, on the worldly attitude of the\nrhetoricians and Sophists. He fights them with their own weapons. But his genius is always present;\nat every point he breaks the network of their dialectic to rise like an eagle in a bold flight into the\nsublime truths which are his home, his native atmosphere. These dialogues have an incisive, singular\ncharm; in addition to the ecstasy of Delphi and Eleusis, here one enjoys marvelous clarity, Attic wit,\nthe malice of the good-natured Socrates, the fine, winged irony of the sage.\n\nNothing is easier than to discover the different points of esoteric doctrine in Plato and at the same\ntime to observe where he found them. The doctrine of the archetypes of things, expounded in Phedre\nis a corollary of Pythagoras' doctrine of Sacred Numbers. The Timeus gives a very confusing\nexplanation of esoteric cosmogony. As for the doctrine of the soul, its migrations and its evolutions,\nthis is to be found in all the works of Plato, but nowhere is it more clearly expressed than in the\nBanquet, in Phaedo, and in The Legend of Er, placed at the end of that dialogue. We see Psyche\nbeneath a veil, but how beautiful and appealing she is in her exquisite form and divine grace!\nWe have seen that the key to the cosmos, the secret of its constitution, is found in the principle of the\nthree worlds reflected by the microcosm and macrocosm in the human and divine ternary.\nPythagoras masterfully formulated and summed up this doctrine in the symbol of the sacred Tetrad.\nThis doctrine of the eternally living Word constituted the great arcanum, the source of magic, the\nshining temple of the initiate, his invincible citadel far above the ocean of things. Plato neither could\nnor wished to reveal this mystery in his public teaching. In the first place the oath of the Mysteries\nkept him silent. In addition, all would not have understood; the common man would have unworthily\nprofaned this theogonic mystery, which embraces the generation of the worlds. In order to fight the\ncorruption of custom and the unleashing of political passions, something different was necessary.\nThe door to the Beyond was about to close, and with it the great initiation, the door to which opens\nfully only to the great prophets, to the very rare, true initiates.\n\nPlato replaced the doctrine of the three worlds with three concepts which, in the absence of\norganized initiation, remained for two thousand years as three roads leading to the supreme goal.\nThese three concepts refer equally to the human world and the divine world; they have the advantage\nof uniting them, although in a somewhat abstract manner. Here Plato's creative genius is seen. He\nthrew great light upon the world by placing the ideas of the True, the Beautiful and the Good on the\nsame level. Clarifying them one by one, he proved that they are three rays from the same Source\nwhich, when united constitute this Source Itself, that is, God.\n\nIn seeking the Good, that is, the just, the soul becomes purified; it prepares itself to know truth. This\nis the first, indispensable condition of the soul's development. By following and enlarging the idea of\nthe Beautiful, it attains the intellectual Beautiful, that intelligible light, that mother of things, that\nanimator of forms, that substance and instrument of God. By plunging itself into the World-Soul, the\nhuman soul feels an expansiveness. By pursuing the idea of the True, it attains pure Essence, the\nprinciples contained in pure Spirit. It recognizes its immortality by the identity of its principle with\nthe divine Principle. Thus perfection is attained; this is the Epiphany of the soul.\n\nBy opening these broad paths to the human spirit, Plato defined and created, outside the narrow\n\nsystems of particular religions the category of the Ideal, which was to replace organic initiation for\ncenturies down to our own day. He marked out the three paths which lead to God like the sacred way\n\nfrom Athens to Eleusis by way of the Gate of Ceramicus. Having entered the temple with Hermes,\nOrpheus and Pythagoras, we are well able to judge the solidity and rightness of the broad roads built\nby Plato, the divine engineer. Knowledge of initiation gives the justification and reason for the being\nof Idealism.\n\nIdealism is a bold affirmation of the divine truths by the soul, which in its solitude questions itself\nand judges celestial realities by its own intimate faculties and its inner voices. Initiation is the\npenetration of these same truths by the experience of the soul, by direct vision of the spirit, by inner\nawakening. At the highest stage it is the communication of the soul with the divine world.\n\nThe Ideal is an ethic, a poetry, a philosophy; Jnitiation is an action, a vision and a sublime presence\nof truth. The Ideal is the dream and the longing for the divine homeland; Initiation, the temple of the\nelect, is the clear remembering and even the possessing of it.\n\nIn creating the category of the Ideal, the initiate Plato created a refuge and opened the way of\nsalvation to millions of souls who cannot attain direct initiation in this life, but painfully strive for\ntruth. Thus Plato made philosophy the foyer to a future sanctuary by inviting into it all men of good\nwill. The idealism of his many pagan or Christian sons appears like the preliminary as it were, to the\ngreat initiation.\n\nThis explains the immense popularity and radiant power of Platonic ideas. This power lies in their\nesoteric basis. This is why the Academy of Athens, founded by Plato, lasted for centuries and\nextended into the great Alexandrian School. This is why the first Church Fathers paid homage to\nPlato; this is why St. Augustine took two-thirds of his theology from him.\n\nTwo thousand years had passed since Socrates' disciple had breathed his last sigh in the shadow of\nthe Acropolis. Christianity, the barbaric invasions, the Middle Ages, had passed over the world. But\nantiquity was born again out of its own ashes. In Florence the Medici wished to establish an\nAcademy, and invited a Greek scientist, exiled from Constantinople, to organize it. What name did\nMarsilio Ficino give it? He called it The Platonic Academy. Today, after so many philosophical\nsystems, built one upon another, have crumbled into dust, today, when science has searched for the\nultimate transformations of matter, finding itself before the unexplained and invisible, still today,\nPlato comes to us. Forever simple and modest, but shining with eternal youth, he holds out the\nsacred branch of the Mysteries to us, the branch of myrtle and cypress, with the narcissus, the flower\nof the soul, promising a divine renaissance in a new Eleusis.\n\n37. The Mysteries of Eleusis\n\nThe Mysteries of Eleusis were the object of special veneration in Greek and Latin antiquity. The\nvery authors who ridiculed the mythological fables did not dare touch the cult of the \"great\ngoddesses.\" Their reign, quieter than that of the Olympians, proved itself more certain and more\neffective. At a very early time, a Greek colony coming from Egypt had brought into the quiet Bay of\nEleusis the cult of the great Isis under the name of Demeter, the universal Mother. Since then,\nEleusis had continued to be a center of initiation.\n\nDemeter and her daughter Persephone presided over the minor and major Mysteries, hence the\nprestige they attained.\n\nIn Ceres the people worshipped the Earth Mother and goddess of agriculture; the initiates saw in her\n\nthe celestial Light-Mother of souls and divine Intelligence, Mother of the cosmogonic gods. Her cult\nwas officiated over by priests belonging to the most ancient sacerdotal family of Attica. They called\n\nthemselves the sons of the moon, that is, those born to be mediators between earth and heaven,\ncoming out of the sphere where the bridge is thrown between the two regions through which souls\ndescend and ascend. From the beginning their function had been \"to extol in this abyss of miseries,\nthe pleasures of the heavenly dwelling and to teach the means of finding the path again.\" Hence their\nname, Eumolpides, or \"singers of gracious melodies,\" gentle regenerators of men. The priests of\nEleusis always taught the great esoteric doctrine which came to them from Egypt, but in the course\nof ages they clothed it in all the charm of a plastic, captivating mythology. By means of a subtle and\nprofound art, these charmers knew how to use earthly passions to express celestial ideas. They put to\ngood use the appeal of the senses, the pomp of ceremonies, the seductions of art, in order to lead the\nsoul into a better life, and the intelligence to the understanding of divine truths. Nowhere did the\nMysteries appear in such human, living, colorful form.\n\nThe myth of Ceres and her daughter, Proserpine, form the heart of the cult of Eleusis. Like a shining\nprocession, all Eleusian initiation revolves and develops around this luminous center. And, in its\nesoteric sense, this myth is the symbolic representation of the story of the soul, of its descent into\nmatter, of its sufferings in the darkness of forgetfulness, then of its reascent, its return to divine life.\nIn other words, it is the drama of the Fall and Redemption in its Hellenic form.\n\nFor the cultivated and initiated Athenian of Plato's time the Mysteries of Eleusis offered the\nexplanatory complement, the radiant counterpart to the performance of tragedies in Athens. There in\nthe Theatre of Bacchus, before the public audience, the terrible incantations of Melpomene evoked\nearthly man, blinded by his passions, pursued by the Nemesis of his crimes, crushed by an\nimplacable and often incomprehensible Destiny. There also were heard the Promethean struggles,\nthe curses of the Erynnies, the despairing cries of Oedipus and the Furies of Orestes. There gloomy\nTerror and lamentable Pity reigned.\n\nAt Eleusis, on the other hand, in the sanctuary of Ceres, everything was bright. The vision widened\nfor those initiates who had become seers. For each soul the story of Psyche-Persephone was a\nsurprising revelation. Life was explained as an expiation or a test. Above and beyond his earthly\npresent, man discovered the starry regions of a divine past and future. After the agonies of death\ncame the hopes, the liberations, the Elysian joys. Through the portals of the open temple came the\nsongs of the happy, the all-encompassing light of a glorious Beyond.\n\nThus the Mysteries, in comparison with Tragedy, were the divine drama of the soul, completing and\nexplaining the earthly drama of man.\n\nThe Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the month of February at Agrae, a town near Eleusis. The\naspirants who had taken a preliminary examination and provided proof of their birth, education and\nrespectability, were received at the entrance of the enclosure by the priest of Eleusis called the\nhieroceryx, or sacred herald, resembling Hermes, and like him wearing the petasus and carrying the\ncaduceus. He was the guide, the mediator, the interpreter of the Mysteries. He led the aspirants to a\nsmall temple with Ionic columns, dedicated to Kore, the great Virgin, Persephone. The gracious\nsanctuary of the goddess was hidden at the end of a quiet valley in the midst of a sacred grove,\nsurrounded by yews and white poplars. Then the priestesses of Proserpine, the hierophants, left the\ntemple, wearing immaculate peplos, with bare arms, and crowned with narcissus wreaths. They\nformed a line at the top of the steps, and began a solemn chant in the Dorian mode. Accompanying\ntheir words with broad gestures, they intoned,\n\n\"O, neophytes of the Mysteries, here you stand at the threshold of Proserpine! What you are about to\nsee will surprise you. You will learn that your present life is but a tapestry of false, confused dreams.\nThe sleep which throws around you a mantle of darkness, bears your dreams and your days on its\nstream like floating debris, which disappears from sight. But there beyond, a world of eternal Light\n\nspreads itself! May Proserpine be kind to you, and teach you to cross the river of darkness, to\npenetrate the celestial Demeter!\"\n\nThen the prophantid or prophetess who led the chorus, descended three steps and spoke this curse in\na solemn voice, with a look of dread: \"But woe to those who may have come here to desecrate the\nMysteries! -- For the goddess will pursue these perverse hearts through their entire lifetime, and in\nthe kingdom of the Shades she will not release her prey!\"\n\nThen several days were spent in ablutions, fasts, prayers and instruction.\n\nOn the evening of the last day, the neophytes met in the most secret part of the sacred grove to attend\nthe Rape of Persephone. The scene was played in the open air by the priestesses of the temple. This\ncustom was derived from very early times, and the basis of this performance, the dominant idea\nalways remained the same, although the form varied greatly in the course of the ages. From Plato's\ntime, thanks to the then recent development of tragedy, the former hieratic severity gave place to a\nmore humane and refined taste and to a more passionate rendition. Directed by the hierophant, the\nanonymous poets of Eleusis had made of this scene a little drama which was approximately as\nfollows:\n\n(The neophytes arrive by twos, entering a clearing. At the side one sees rocks and a grotto\nsurrounded by a wood of myrtle and a few poplar trees. In the foreground is a meadow, where\nNymphs are lying beside a stream. At the back of the grotto one perceives Persephone seated. Naked\nto the waist like a Psyche, her light, graceful breasts chastely emerge from delicate gauze which falls\nabout her like a vapor of blue. She seems to be happy, unaware of her beauty, and is embroidering a\nlong veil of multicolored threads. Demeter, her mother, is standing near her, wearing the kalathos,\nher scepter in her hand.)\n\nHERMES (The herald of the Mysteries, to the spectators): Demeter gives us two excellent things:\nfruit, so that we do not live like beasts, and initiation, which gives a gentler hope to those who take\npart in it, both for the end of this life and for all eternity. Listen carefully to the words you are about\nto hear, to the things you are about to see!\n\nDEMETER (In a serious voice): Beloved daughter of the gods, remain in this grotto until my return,\nand embroider my veil. Heaven is your homeland; the universe is yours. You see the gods; they\ncome at your call. But do not listen to the voice of the wily Eros, with his soft glances, his\ntreacherous counsels. Do not leave the grotto, and never pick the seductive flowers of earth; their\ndeadly perfume will cause you to lose the light of heaven, and even the memory of it! Weave my\nveil and live happily with the nymphs, your companions, until my return. Then, on my chariot of fire\ndrawn by serpents, I will bear you once again into the splendors of ether, beyond the Milky Way!\n\nPERSEPHONE: Yes, august and fearful mother. By this light which surrounds you and which is\ndear to me, I promise. May the gods punish me if I do not keep my word! (Exit, Demeter)\n\nTHE CHORUS OF NYMPHS: O Persephone! O Virgin, O chaste Bride of Heaven, who embroiders\nthe face of the gods in your veil, may you never know the vain illusions, the innumerable\nmisfortunes of earth! Eternal Truth smiles upon you! Your heavenly husband, Dionysus, is waiting\nfor you in the Empyrean. Sometimes he appears to you in the form of the distant sun; his rays kiss\nyou, he breathes your breath, you drink his light . . . You possess each other . . . O Virgin, who then\nis happier than you?\n\nPERSEPHONE: On this veil of blue with endless folds, I embroider the numberless faces of beings\n\nand forms with my ivory needle. I have completed the history of the gods; I have embroidered\nfrightful Chaos with his hundred heads and thousand arms. From him mortals are supposed to come.\n\nWho then causes them to be born? The Father of the gods told me that it is Eros. But I have never\nseen him; I do not know his face. Who then will paint his countenance for me?\n\nTHE NYMPHS: Do not think of that! Why this vain question?\n\nPERSEPHONE (Arising and throwing aside her veil): Eros, the oldest and the youngest of the gods,\ninexhaustible source of joys and tears! Thus they spoke of you to me. Terrible god, quite unknown,\nalone of all the Immortals invisible, the only desirable one, mysterious Eros! What ecstasy, what\ntrembling overcomes me at your name!\n\nTHE CHORUS: Do not seek to know morel Dangerous questions have destroyed men and even\ngods!\n\nPERSEPHONE (Gazing into the Abyss, her eyes filled with fear): Is it a memory? Is it a dreadful\nforeboding? Chaos ... Man ... The Abyss of generations, the cry of births, the furious tumult of hate\nand war ... the gulf of Death! I hear, I see all this, and this Abyss draws me, overwhelms me! I must\ndescend! Eros with his burning torch makes me descend! I am about to die! Away from me, terrible\ndream! (She covers her face with her hands, and sobs.)\n\nTHE CHORUS: O divine Virgin, it is as yet but a dream. Nevertheless it will take form, it will\nbecome fateful reality and your heaven will disappear like an empty dream if you yield to your\nguilty desire! Obey this warning! Take up your needle; weave your veil! Forget the cunning,\nimpudent, criminal Eros!\n\nPERSEPHONE (Takes her hands from her face, which has changed expression; she smiles through\nher tears): Fool that you are! Insensate that I was! I remember now; I heard it said in the Olympian\nMysteries: Eros is the handsomest of gods; on winged chariot he presides at the evolutions of the\nImmortals, at the blending of archetypal essences. He it is who leads bold men, the heroes, from the\ndepths of Chaos to the heights of ether. He knows all. Like the Fire-principle, he transcends all\nworlds; he holds the keys of earth and heaven! I wish to see him!\n\nTHE CHORUS: Rash one, Stop!\n\nEROS (Emerging from the grove in the form of a winged youth): You called me, Persephone? Here I\nam!\n\nPERSEPHONE (Sitting down): They called you cunning, but your face is innocence itself! They said\nyou were all-powerful, and you seem a frail child. They say you are a traitor, but the more I look at\nyour eyes, the more my heart opens, the more I put confidence in you, lovely playful youth! -- They\nsaid you were wise and clever. Can you help me to embroider this veil?\n\nEROS: Willingly! Here I am near you, at your feet! What a marvelous veil! It seems dipped in the\nblue of your eyes. What admirable forms your hand has embroidered -- less beautiful, however, than\n\nthe divine embroiderer, who has never seen herself in a mirror! (He smiles mischievously.)\n\nPERSEPHONE: See myself! Would that be possible? (She blushes) But do you recognize these\nfaces?\n\nEROS: Yes, I know them! -- The story of the gods. But why do you stop with Chaos? It is there that\nthe fight begins! Will you not weave the War of the Titans, the birth of men and their loves?\n\nPERSEPHONE: My knowledge stops here, my memory fails. Will you not help me embroider the\nrest?\n\nEROS (Throwing her an ardent glance): Yes, Persephone, but on one condition. First you must\ncome and pick a flower with me on the meadow; the most beautiful flower of all!\n\nPERSEPHONE (Seriously): My august, wise mother forbade me. \"Do not listen to the voice of\nEros,\" she told me, \"Do not pick the flowers of the meadow. Otherwise you will be the most\nmiserable of Immortals!\"\n\nEROS: I understand. Your mother does not want you to know the secrets of earth and hell. If you\nsmelled the flowers of the meadow, the secrets would be revealed to you!\n\nPERSEPHONE: Do you know them?\n\nEROS: All of them. And, you see, I am only the younger and more agile for it! O daughter of the\ngods, the Abyss has terrors and tremors that heaven does not know! He does not understand heaven\nwho has not traversed earth and hell!\n\nPERSEPHONE: Can you make me understand them?\nEROS: Yes, Look! (He touches the earth with the point of his bow; a large narcissus springs up.)\n\nPERSEPHONE: O, what a lovely flower! It makes my heart tremble; a divine recollection surges up\nin me! Sometimes, sleeping on my beloved star which an everlasting sunset gilds, upon awakening,\non the deep red of the horizon I have seen a star of silver floating in the pearly depth of the pale\ngreen sky. It seemed to me that it was the torch of the immortal bridegroom, the promise of the gods,\nof divine Dionysus. But the star kept descending . . . and the torch died out in the distance ... This\nmarvelous flower resembles that star.\n\nEROS: I who transform and unite everything, I who make the small in the image of the great, from\nthe depth of the mirror of heaven, I who mix heaven and hell on earth, who create all forms in the\ndeep ocean, have brought your star to life again from the Abyss, in the form of a flower so that you\ncan touch it, pick it, smell it!\n\nTHE CHORUS: Take care that this magic is not a trap!\nPERSEPHONE: What do you call this flower?\n\nEROS: Men call it Narcissus; I call it Desire. See how it looks at you, how it turns to you! Its white\npetals tremble as if they were alive. From its golden heart comes a perfume, filling all the air with\npleasure. As soon as you bring this magic flower close to your eyes, in a great and marvelous tableau\nyou will see the monsters of the Abyss, the earth-depths and the heart of men. Nothing will be\nhidden from you.\n\nPERSEPHONE: O wonderful flower! My heart is beating with your intoxicating perfume! My\nfingers burn from touching you! I want to breathe your aroma, to press you to my lips, to place you\nupon my heart, even if I must die for it!\n\n(The earth opens beside her. Out of a gaping, dark crevice one sees Pluto on a chariot drawn by two\nblack horses, slowly arising. He seizes Persephone at the moment she picks the flower, pulling her\nviolently to him. She struggles vainly in his arms, screaming loudly. Immediately the chariot sinks\nand disappears. Its rumbling dies in the distance, like subterranean thunder. Moaning, the Nymphs\ndart about the grove. Eros flees with a burst of laughter.)\n\nTHE VOICE OF PERSEPHONE (underground): My Mother! Help! Mother!\n\nHERMES: O Neophytes of the Mysteries, whose life is still clouded by the fumes of evil life, this is\nyour story. Remember and meditate upon this saying of Empedocles: \"Generation is a terrible\ndestruction, which causes the living to pass among the dead. Once you lived the true life, and then,\ndrawn by magic, you fell into the earthly Abyss, subjugated by the body. Your present is but a fatal\ndream; only the past and future really exist. Learn to remember; learn to foresee.\"\n\nDuring this scene, night has fallen. Mournful torches are lighted between the black cypresses beside\nthe little temple, and the spectators move away in silence, followed by the pleading chants of the\npriestesses, calling: \"Persephone! Persephone!\" -- The Lesser Mysteries have ended. The neophytes\nhave become mystics, the veiled ones. They will return to their customary occupations, but the great\nveil of the Mysteries has been spread over their eyes. Between them and the external world, a cloud\nhas been introduced. At the same time, an inner eye has opened within them, by which they dimly\nsee another world, filled with attractive forms which move in depths of alternating light and\ndarkness.\n\nThe Great Mysteries which followed the Lesser Mysteries, and which were also called the Sacred\nOrgies, were celebrated at Eleusis only every five years, in the month of September.\n\nThese festivals, all of them symbolic, lasted nine days. On the eighth, the insignia of initiation were\ndistributed to the mystics: the thyrsis and a basket called a cistus, surrounded with branches of ivy.\nThe latter contained mysterious objects. To understand the latter would give one the secret of life.\nBut the basket was carefully sealed. One was not permitted to open it until the end of the initiation\nand then only in the presence of the hierophant.\n\nThen they were filled with exultant joy; torches were waved, and were passed from one to another;\nshouts of joy were heard. On that day a procession bore from Athens to Eleusis the statue of\nDionysus, which was called Iacchos, crowned with myrtle. His coming to Eleusis announced the\ngreat rebirth, for he represented the divine spirit permeating everything, the regenerator of souls, the\nmediator between earth and heaven.\n\nThen they entered the temple by the mystic door in order to spend the sacred night, the night of\ninitiation there.\n\nThey entered first beneath a vast portico in the outer enclosure. There the herald with terrible threats\nand the cry Eskato Bebeloi, Go Back, Profane Ones, dispersed the intruders who sometimes\nsucceeded in slipping into the enclosure unobserved. He made the latter swear, under penalty of\ndeath to reveal nothing of what they were about to see, adding, \"Here you stand at the subterranean\nthreshold of Persephone. In order to understand the future life and your present condition, it is\nnecessary that you traverse the kingdom of death; this is the test of the initiates. You must know how\nto brave the darkness in order to enjoy the light!\" Then they dressed themselves in the faun's skin,\nthe picture of the laceration and tearing of the soul, as it plunged into corporeal life. After this they\nextinguished the torches and lamps and entered the subterranean labyrinth.\n\nAt first the mystics groped in the darkness. Soon they heard noises, groans and dreadful voices.\nLightning flashes, accompanied by thunder, split the darkness. By this light frightful visions could\nbe seen: sometimes a monster, a chimera or a dragon; sometimes a man, torn by the claws of a\nsphinx; sometimes a human larva. These appearances were so sudden that there was no time to\ndistinguish the means which produced them, while the total obscurity which followed, redoubled the\nhorror. Plutarch compares the terror caused by these visions, to the state of a man on his death bed.\n\nThe strangest scene, bordering upon real magic, took place in a crypt where a Phrygian priest,\n\ndressed in a flowing Asiatic robe with red and black vertical stripes, was standing before a copper\nbrazier, which dimly lighted the room by its fitful light. With a gesture which tolerated no denial, he\n\nforced the arrivals to sit down at the entrance, throwing into the fire large handfuls of narcotic\nperfumes. Immediately the room was filled with thick, swirling smoke, and soon one could see a\nconfused array of changing animal and human forms. At times long serpents stretched themselves\nout, only to become sirens, finally to roll themselves up endlessly; at other times busts of\nvoluptuously poised Nymphs with outstretched arms changed into bats. Charming heads of youths\nwere transformed into muzzles of dogs. And all these monsters, beautiful and ugly in turn, fluid,\nairy, deceiving, unreal, vanishing as quickly as they appeared, turned, glistened, intoxicated,\nsurrounded the fascinated visitors as though to block their way. At times the priest of Cybele raised\nhis short staff amidst the vapors, and the outpouring of his will seemed to impress a whirling\nmovement and a disturbing vitality upon the multiformed circles. \"Come,\" said the Phrygian. The\nneophytes arose and entered the circle. Then the majority of them felt gently touched by something,\nothers were grasped quickly by invisible hands and thrown to the ground. Some withdrew in fright\nand returned the way they had come. The more courageous passed only after several attempts, but a\ntruly firm determination made a quick end to the sorcery.\"\n\nThen they reach a large circular room, poorly lighted by a few torches. In the center is a single\ncolumn, a bronze tree, whose metallic foliage spreads over the whole ceiling.\" In this foliage are\nseen chimera, gorgons, harpies, owls, sphinxes and vampires -- images of all earthly evils, of all the\ndemons which fasten upon man. These monsters, reproduced in shining metals, are entwined in the\nbranches, apparently awaiting their prey. Beneath the tree on a magnificent throne sits Pluto-\nAidoneus, wearing a cloak of velvet. He is seated on a fawn-skin, his hand holds the trident, his\ncountenance reveals anxiety. Beside the King of the Underworld, who never smiles, is his wife, the\ntall, slender Persephone. The neophytes recognize in her the features of the hierophant who has\nalready played the role of the goddess in the Lesser Mysteries. She is still beautiful, more beautiful,\nperhaps, in her sorrow, but how changed she is in her robe of mourning, strewn with silver tears,\nwearing her crown of gold! She is no longer the Virgin of the Grotto; now she knows the life of the\ndepths, and she suffers. She reigns over the lower powers, she is sovereign among the dead, but is an\nalien to her own kingdom. A wan smile lights her face, darkened by the shadow of hell. In that smile\nis the knowledge of Good and Evil, the inexpressible charm of experienced, silent pain! Suffering\nteaches pity. With a look of compassion she welcomes the neophytes, who kneel and place crowns\nof narcissus at her feet. Then in her eyes shines a dying flame, a lost hope, a distant remembrance of\nheaven!\n\nSuddenly at the end of an ascending gallery, torches shine and, like a trumpet blast, a voice\nexclaims, \"Enter, neophytes! Iacchos has returned! Demeter awaits her daughter! Evohe!\" The\nsonorous echoes from underground repeat this cry. Persephone rises from her throne as though\nsuddenly awakened from a long sleep, filled with an electrifying thought: \"Light! Mother! Iacchos!\"\nShe tries to move forward, but Aidonee holds her back by the hem of her robe. She falls back upon\nher throne as if dead. Then the torches are suddenly extinguished, and a voice shouts, \"To die is to\nbe born again!\" But the neophytes hasten through the gallery of heroes and demigods toward the\nopening of the tunnel where Hermes and the torchbearer await them. Their fawn's skin is taken off,\nthey are sprinkled with lustral water, are clothed in fresh linen and are led into the splendidly lighted\ntemple where the hierophant -- the High Priest of Eleusis, the majestic elder, clothed in velvet,\nreceives them.\n\nThis is how Porphyrus described the highest initiation of Eleusis:\n\n\"Crowned with myrtle, along with the other initiates we enter the entrance hall of the temple, still\nblind, but the hierophant who is within will soon open our eyes. But first, for nothing is to be done in\nhaste, let us wash in the holy water. We are led before the hierophant. From a book of stone, he reads\nto us things which we must not divulge, under penalty of death. Let us say only that they are in\nharmony with the place and circumstance. You would laugh, perhaps, if you heard them outside the\ntemple, but here you have no desire to laugh as you listen to the words of the elder (for he is always\n\nold) and as you look at the exposed symbols.\" And you are far from laughing when, by her special\nlanguage and signs, by vivid sparkling of light and clouds piled upon clouds, Demeter confirms\neverything that we have seen and heard from her holy priest. Then, finally, the light of a serene\nwonder fills the temple; we see the pure Elysian fields; we hear the chorus of the blessed ones. Now\nit is not merely through an external appearance or through a philosophical interpretation, but in fact\nand in reality that the hierophant becomes the creator and the revelator of all things; the sun is but\nhis torchbearer, the moon, his helper at the altar, and Hermes, his mystical messenger. But the last\nword has been uttered: Knox Om Pax.°?\n\nThe ritual has been consummated, and we are seers forever.\"\n\nWhat then did the great hierophant say? What were the sacred words, what was that supreme\nrevelation?\n\nThe initiates learned that the divine Persephone whom they had seen in the midst of the terrors and\ntortures of hell, was the human soul, bound to matter in this life or subjected, in the next, to illusions\nand ever greater torments if it lived a slave to its passions. The soul's earthly life is an expiation or a\ntest of preceding existences. But the soul can be purified by discipline; it can remember and have\nforebodings through the combined effort of intuition, reason and will, and can share beforehand in\nthe great truths of which it must take full and complete possession in the vast Beyond. Then only\nwill Persephone again become the pure, luminous, ineffable Virgin, the dispenser of love and joy. As\nfor her mother Ceres, in the Mysteries she was the symbol of the divine Intelligence and the spiritual\nprinciple of man, to which the soul must reunite itself if it is to attain its perfection.\n\nIf one is to believe Plato, Iamblicus, Proclus and all the Alexandrian philosophers, within the temple\nthe elite of the initiates experienced visions of an ecstatic and marvelous nature.\n\nI have quoted the testimony of Porphyrus. Here is that of Proclus: \"In all the initiations and\nMysteries, the gods (here this word means all orders of spirits) manifest themselves in many forms,\nassuming a great variety of guises; sometimes they appear in a formless light, again in quite different\nform.\" This is the passage from Apuleus: \"I approached the confines of death, and having reached\nthe threshold of Proserpine, I returned, having been carried across all the elements (the elemental\nspirits of earth, water, air and fire). In the depths of midnight I saw the sun shining with a glorious\nlight, and at the same time I saw the lower gods and the higher gods. Drawing near to these\ndivinities, I paid them the tribute of devout adoration.\"\n\nHowever vague these testimonies may be, they seem to refer to esoteric phenomena. According to\nthe doctrine of the Mysteries, the ecstatic visions of the temple were produced in the purest of\nelements, in spiritual light akin to celestial Isis. The oracles of Zoroaster call it nature speaking\nthrough herself,' that is, an element by means of which the Magus gives a visible, instantaneous\nexpression to thought, and which serves as both body and clothing for souls, which in reality are the\nmost beautiful thoughts of God. This is why the hierophant, if he was able to produce this\nphenomenon of bringing the initiates into contact with the souls of heroes and gods (Angels and\nArchangels), was likened at that moment to the Creator, to the Demiurge, the torch bearer, or to the\nSun, that is, to supersensible Light, and Hermes, to the divine Word, which is his interpreter.\nWhatever value these visions may have had, antiquity is unanimous in describing the happy\nexaltation which the highest revelations of Eleusis produced. A new happiness, a superhuman peace\ndescended into the heart of the initiates. Life seemed conquered, the soul delivered, the fearful cycle\nof existences fulfilled. With clear joy and an ineffable certainty everyone again found themselves in\nthe pure ether of the universal Soul.\n\nWe have just relived the drama of Eleusis in its intimate, hidden meaning. I have indicated the main\nthread which guides one through this labyrinth; I have shown the great unity dominating its richness\n\nand complexity. With a wise and sovereign harmony, the various ceremonies were linked to the\ndivine drama which formed the ideal center, the luminous focal point of these religious festivals.\nThus the initiates gradually were identified with the action. At first only simple spectators, later they\nbecame actors, and finally they recognized that the drama of Persephone really took place within\nthemselves. And what surprise, what joy they experienced in this discovery! If they suffered, if they\nfought with her in this present life, like her they had the hope of again finding divine felicity, the\nlight of the great Intelligence. The words of the hierophant, the scenes and revelations of the temple,\ngave them a foretaste of what was to come.\n\nIt seems unnecessary to say that each one understood these things according to his degree of\neducation and his intellectual capacity. For as Plato says (and this is true for all time) many people\ncarry the thyrsus and rod, but are little inspired. After the age of Alexander, the Eleusians were\naffected in a certain measure by pagan decadence, but their exalted foundation remained, saving\nthem from the decay which struck other temples. Through the depth of their sacred doctrine, as well\nas through the splendor of their presentation, the Mysteries stood their ground for three centuries in\nthe face of a rising Christianity. Then they joined the elite company, who, without denying that Jesus\nwas a revelation of an heroic and divine nature, did not wish to forget, as the Church of that time\nalready was forgetting, the old science and the sacred doctrine. An edict of Theodosius was required,\nforbidding the ceremonies of the temple of Eleusis, in order to put an end to this august cult, in\nwhich the magic of Greek art had delighted in incorporating the highest doctrines of Orpheus, of\nPythagoras and of Plato.\n\nToday the refuge of ancient Demeter has disappeared without a trace beside the silent Bay of\nEleusis, and only the butterfly, Psyche's insect, crossing the blue gulf on spring days, remembers that\nhere the great exile, the human soul, once evoked the gods, and that here it recognized its eternal\nhome.\n\nNotes for this chapter:\n\n66. Contemporary science would see in these facts only simple hallucinations or suggestions. The science of\nancient esoterism attributed both a subjective and objective value to this kind of phenomenon, which was\nfrequently produced in the Mysteries. It believed in the existence of elemental spirits without an\nindividualized soul and without reason. Half-conscious, they fill the earthly atmosphere and are in some way\nthe souls of the elements. Magic, which is will put into action in the manipulation of secret powers, makes\nthese beings visible at times. Heraclitus speaks of them when he says, \"Nature, in all places is full of\ndaemons.\" Plato calls them daemons of the elements, Paracelsus names them elementals. According to\nParacelsus they are attracted by the magnetic atmosphere of man, are electrified and are capable of assuming\nall imaginable human forms. The more man is given over to his passions, the more he becomes their prey\nwithout being aware of it. The magus alone subdues them and uses them. But they constitute a sphere of\ndeceiving illusions and follies which it is necessary to master and pass upon one's entrance into the spiritual\nworld. Bulwer Lytton calls them \"the guardian of the threshold\" in his unusual novel, Zanoni.\n\n67. This is the tree of dreams mentioned by Virgil in the descent of Aeneus into hell, in the sixth book of the\nAeneid, which reproduces the main scenes of the Mysteries of Eleusis with poetic amplifications.\n\n68. The gold objects contained in the cist were the pine cone (symbol of fertility and generation), the spiral\nserpent (universal evolution of the soul; fall into matter and redemption by the spirit); the egg (recalling the\nsphere of divine perfection, the goal of man.)\n\n69. These mysterious words have no meaning in Greek. This proves that they are very ancient, and come from\nthe Orient. Wilford gives them a Sanscrit origin. Knox would come from Kansha, meaning object of the\ngreatest desire; Om from Urn, the soul of Brahma, and Pax from Pasha, tour, exchange, cycle. The supreme\nblessing of the hierophant of Eleusis means therefore: \"May your desires be fulfilled; return to the universal\nSoul!\"",
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