DeConick A.D

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GNOSTIC ALTERED STATES
this audience-involved religious theater today may be passion play pageants
that include actors from the congregation and audience participation
as the crowds who wept (and jeered) at Jesus’ suffering.
By participating in the dramas of the ancient mysteries, initiates put
themselves under the jurisdiction of that god, whom they met face-toface
in the performances. They believed that their theatrical participation
in the dramas counted them among the original participants of the myth,
whether it was the story of Demeter and Persephone, Dionysus and Orpheus,
Isis and Osiris, or Cybele and Attis. They hoped that their submission
to the god in this context would guarantee them succor in this life
and, especially, in the afterlife.
With the emergence of Gnostic spirituality came a reorientation of religious
ritual drama to the human spirit and its God nature. The central
focus of Gnostic initiations became the purging, recovery, and integration
of the fallen spirit. Because of this shift in focus, the initiations were innovative
in their therapeutic orientation, an orientation unknown in the
initiation ceremonies of the other ancient mystery religions. This reorientation
of mystery initiation likely emerged from a religious buffer that
blended what Gnostics knew about Greek shamanism and temple healing
practices with what they knew about mystery religion rites.
The highly structured initiations of Gnostics took place within private
religious communities rather than in visible public spaces. Many of these
events may have taken place in private homes similar to the Christian house
in Dura-Europos, with its specially built initiation baptistery, or the villa in
Pompeii, with its painted dining hall depicting the mysteries of Dionysus
(figure 6.4). But there also is evidence that initiation of some Gnostics
took place in theaters where dramatic performances set to music occurred
(Hippolytus, Refutation 5.9.7). We also have references to some Gnostic
groups using special costumes in their mysteries, possibly even masks; to
the use of special furniture, such as bridal couches; and to torches carried
to light the way (see Origen, Contra Celsum 6.39; Pistis Sophia 1.11).
Some Valentinian Gnostics put on the helmet of Hades to become invisible
to the underworld judges (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.13.6).
It has been suggested that Origen’s reference to the Ophians becoming
lions, bulls, serpents, eagles, bears, and dogs ( Contra Celsum 6.33) suggests
that they were using masks in their ceremonies. Some have read Porphyry’s
description of the Mithraic initiates ( On Abstinence 4.16) similarly