THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

faith. Awful oaths of secrecy were exacted, and Plutarch describes a
man kneeling, his hands bound, a cord round his body, and a knife at
his throat--death being the penalty of violating the obligation. Even
then, Pythagoras had to wait almost twenty years to learn the hidden
wisdom of Egypt, so cautious were they of candidates, especially of
foreigners. But he made noble use of it when, later, he founded a
secret order of his own at Crotona, in Greece, in which, among other
things, he taught geometry, using numbers as symbols of spiritual
truth.[43]
From Egypt the Mysteries passed with little change to Asia Minor,
Greece, and Rome, the names of local gods being substituted for those
of Osiris and Isis. The Grecian or Eleusinian Mysteries, established
1800 B.C., represented Demeter and Persephone, and depicted the death
of Dionysius with stately ritual which led the neophyte from death
into life and immortality. They taught the unity of God, the immutable
necessity of morality, and a life after death, investing initiates
with signs and passwords by which they could know each other in the
dark as well as in the light. The Mithraic or Persian Mysteries
celebrated the eclipse of the Sun-god, using the signs of the zodiac,
the processions of the seasons, the death of nature, and the birth of
spring. The Adoniac or Syrian cults were similar, Adonis being killed,
but revived to point to life through death. In the Cabirie Mysteries
on the island of Samothrace, Atys the Sun was killed by his brothers
the Seasons, and at the vernal equinox was restored to life. So, also,
the Druids, as far north as England, taught of one God the tragedy of
winter and summer, and conducted the initiate through the valley of
death to life everlasting.[44]
Shortly before the Christian era, when faith was failing and the world
seemed reeling to its ruin, there was a great revival of the
Mystery-religions. Imperial edict was powerless to stay it, much less
stop it. From Egypt, from the far East, they came rushing in like a
tide, Isis "of the myriad names" vieing with Mithra, the patron saint
of the soldier, for the homage of the multitude. If we ask the secret
reason for this influx of mysticism, no single answer can be given to
the question. What influence the reigning mystery-cults had upon the
new, uprising Christianity is also hard to know, and the issue is
still in debate. That they did influence the early Church is evident
from the writings of the Fathers, and some go so far as to say that
the Mysteries died at last only to live again in the ritual of the
Church. St. Paul in his missionary journeys came in contact with the
Mysteries, and even makes use of some of their technical terms in his
epistles;[45] but he condemned them on the ground that what they
sought to teach in drama can be known only by spiritual experience--a
sound insight, though surely drama may assist to that experience, else
public worship might also come under ban.
III
Toward the end of their power, the Mysteries fell into the mire and
became corrupt, as all things human are apt to do: even the Church
itself being no exception. But that at their highest and best they
were not only lofty and noble, but elevating and refining, there can
be no doubt, and that they served a high purpose is equally clear. No
one, who has read in the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius the initiation of