First Lecture

But just as there are natural laws that apply to time, there are also eternal laws, which, however, do not in any way impair human freedom; and among these eternal laws are also those that relate to the interaction of the gods with humans. These primeval laws were especially taken into account at the time when the gods themselves associated with men in the sacred mysteries of primitive times, and when all human teaching took place between the divine teachers and the men themselves. When what took place in the cultus was such that the transcendental powers of the gods were also present among the celebrants, then in those old mysteries was accomplished that which has always given meaning to the Act of Consecration of Man: the Transubstantiation. But what was Transubstantiation in the old mysteries?