The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

96 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
Here the priests, crowned with serpents the symbols
of initiation performed their dreadful and unhallowed
rites. llLtiS. Their -L 11 Oil incantations lll^dlJ I/CIHUIIO VyViJlllAltxli^v;a commenced with VVJ.U1J. the consecra-
5
tion of an egg, to commemorate tl
equally the creation of
all things, which were traditionally belli believed to have
sprung from an egg 6 formed by the deity ; and the renovation
of mankind by the great father.
The first actual ceremony among the Greeks was to
purify the aspirant with water, and to crown him with
myrtle, 7 because ^he myrtle tree was sacred to Proserpine;
8 after which he was free from arrest during the
celebrations. 9 He was then introduced into a small cave
or vestibule to be invested with the sacred habiliments; 10
6
Plat. Sympos., 1.
ii., q. 3.
"
Hyginus has preserved a curious
tradition respecting the Assyrian Venus, in which the arkite dove, and
the mundane egg, make a very conspicuous appearance. An egg of
wonderful magnitude was reported
to have fallen from heaven into the
river Euphrates, and to have been rolled by fishes to the bank. Upon
it sat doves and out of it was at ; length produced that Venus, who
was afterwards styled the Syrian goddess." (Fab. Mys. Cab., vol. i.,
p. 81, with authorities.) Nigidius and other authors have recorded
the same thing.
P Vid. Grot. De Verit., s.
i., 16,
in nota k.
7 Schol. Aristoph. Ranis.
8 The machinery of these mysteries is thus described by Psellus in
a Greek MS. quoted by Taylor in his dissertation on the Eleusinian
and Bacchic "
mysteries. (Pamphleteer, vol.
viii.) The Eleusinian
mysteries consisted in representing the fabulous narration of Jupiter
mingling with Ceres and her daughter Proserpine. But as venereal
connections take place along with the initiations, a marine Venus is
represented as arising from certain fictitious genital parts afterwards
;
the celebrated marriage of Proserpine with Pluto takes place, and
'
those who are initiated sing, I have eat out of the drum, I have drank
out of the cymbal, I have borne the mystic cup, I have entered into the
bed.' "
(This is evidently the Pastes of the mysteries,
in which the
aspirant for the higher degrees was immured during the period of his
"
probation.) But the pregnant throes likewise of Ceres are repre-
sented." (Here Ceres is the ark ; and her pregnant throes refer to
the dismemberment of that sacred vessel, and the egress of the hero
"
gods.) Hence the supplications of Ceres are exhibited her ; drinking
of bile, and the pains of the heart After all
this, the honours of
the cista, and the cakes with many bosses like those
Bacchus succeed ;
of a shield ; likewise the mysteries of
Sabazius, divinations of the
a certain sound of 'the Thesprotian kettle, the
priestesses of Bacchus ;
Dodoncean brass ; another Corybas, and another Prosperine, who are
resemblances of Demons," &c., &c.
9 " No one shall be arrested or apprehended during the celebration
of the mysteries." (Demosth. in Mediam.)
10
Chrys., Orat. 12.