Podcasts about eleusinian

Subjected to more criticism than any other book now incorporated in the New Testament, the Apocalypse -- popularly accredited to St. John the Divine -- is by far the most important but least understood of the Gnostic Christian writings. Though Justin Martyr declared the Book of Revelation to have been written by "John, one of Christ's apostles," its authorship was disputed as early as the second century after Christ. In the third century these contentions became acute and even Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius attacked the Johannine theory, declaring that both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel according to St. John were written by one Cerinthus, who borrowed the name of the great apostle the better to foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome questioned the authorship of the Apocalypse and during the Reformation his objections were revived by Luther and Erasmus. The once generally accepted notion that the Book of Revelation was the actual record of a "mystical experience" occurring to St. John while that seer was an exile in the Isle of Parmos is now regarded with disfavor by more critical scholars. Other explanations have therefore been advanced to account for the symbolism permeating the volume and the original motive for its writing. The more reasonable of these theories may be summed up as follows: First, upon the weight of evidence furnished by its own contents the Book of Revelation may well be pronounced a pagan writing -- one of the sacred books of the Eleusinian or Phrygian Mysteries. As a corollary, the real author of a work setting forth the profundities of Egyptian and Greek mysticism must have been an initiate himself and consequently obligated to write only in the symbolic language of the Mysteries. Second, it is possible that the Book of Revelation was written to reconcile the seeming discrepancies between the early Christian and pagan religious philosophies. When the zealots of the primitive Christian Church sought to Christianize pagandom, the pagan initiates retorted with a powerful effort to paganize Christianity. The Christians failed but the pagans succeeded. With the decline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants transferred their base of operations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting the symbols of the new cult to conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless possession of the wise. 

What secrets did the ancient cult of Demeter hold that still captivate us today? Although the use of psychedelics is a forbidden topic in our society, ancient cultures have used them for centuries. Join me as I dive deep into the secrets of Demeter's ancient cult in ancient Greece and try to uncover the Eleusinian […]

In this episode, Joe interviews Charles Stang: Professor of Early Christian Thought and the Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. The Center was created to gain a better understanding of world religions by bringing scholars from their respective countries to study and live alongside Divinity School students. As students and Stang started to become interested in psychedelics, a zoom series, "Psychedelics and the Future of Religion," began, and the school just hosted their second conference, "Psychedelic Intersections: Cross Cultural Manifestations of the Sacred." Next year's Psychedelics and Spirituality conference will take place February 15, 2025.  He discusses:  Harvard's psychedelic history, and why it's important to not erase the past out of the interest of presumed legitimacy How people are consistently having extraordinary experiences with psychedelics, but not always with religion: Are people becoming less (or more) religious? The Immortality Key, the Eleusinian mysteries, and psychedelic enthusiasts' need to connect Christianity with psychedelics Psychedelics and other mystery religions, like Hermeticism and Mithraism Why religion is important to so many people, and how it helps us understand the "more-than-human"  and much more. For links, head to the show notes page.

Watch this episode uncensored & ad-free on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dannyjones @GnosticInformant is a YouTube channel by Neal Sendlak, focusing on History, Mythology, and Comparative Religion. SPONSORS https://www.bubsnaturals.com/djp - Use code DJP for 20% off. https://buy.ver.so/danny - Use code DANNY to save 15% on your first order. https://whiterabbitenergy.com/?ref=DJP - Use code DJP for 20% off. EPISODE LINKS Neal's YouTube Channel: @GnosticInformant https://x.com/Gnosticinforman https://www.facebook.com/GnosticInformant FOLLOW DANNY JONES https://www.instagram.com/dannyjones https://twitter.com/jonesdanny OUTLINE 00:00 - Biggest misconception about the Bible 10:22 - Dr. Ammon Hillman & Jesus in the park 20:18 - Hebrew vs. Greek as religious languages 23:21 - How old is the Old Testament? 33:26 - Yahweh is Satan 42:25 - Who was Jesus? 53:21 - Was Jesus smart? 01:05:26 - The Dark Ages 01:10:36 - Eleusinian rituals 01:22:05 - The men crucified with Jesus 01:24:28 - Exorcisms 01:31:20 - Burning purple 01:36:19 - Ancient Christian cults 01:41:26 - Jesus is the serpent 01:49:26 - Easter & self-castration 01:58:37 - John Allegro's sacred mushroom 02:02:02 - Most rebellious christians 02:05:54 - Oldest Gospels say God was SATAN 02:18:55 - Valentinians & gematrias 02:27:26 - Jesus Christ's birthday 02:35:52 - Nephilim vs. Anunnaki 02:54:11 - DMT

https://theapsocietyorg.wordpress.com/news-and-events/suntree-retreat-2024/   Episode from 2022 Suntree: https://thewonderpodcast.podbean.com/e/live-from-suntree-retreat/   ----more----     Mark: Welcome back to The Wonder, Science Based Paganism. I'm your host, Mark, Yucca: And I'm Yucca. Mark: and today we have a really exciting group of people to talk about a really exciting upcoming event, which is the Sun Tree Retreat, which is the second of these retreats that we've held in person for atheopagans from all over the world who can come. Held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and it's going to be over Labor Day weekend this summer. So, I'd like to introduce our two panelists here, who were at the last one Rana and Michael. Michael: Hello. Yucca: Rana, we Mark: I can't hear you at all. Rana: Oh, thank you for having us. Yucca: Welcome. And I think both of you've been on the podcast before, right? So, welcome back. Michael: Oh, thanks. Can Yucca: Yeah. Michael: put that Yucca: So let's, let's start with the, some of the details because that's coming up really soon, right? That's Mark: It is, Yucca: two months, which is not very long. Mark: nope, not very long, especially if you have to get plane tickets and that kind of thing, so, Really encourage folks that want to go to get registered and get organized around it, because it's going to be a really good time. So, details. The event is August 30th, which is a Friday starting in the afternoon through noon ish or one o'clock or so 2nd. Registration includes nine meals. As a part of your, your registration fee you also need to register for lodging, which is very affordable and you can find all the information about it by going to the Athe O Pagan Society website, which is the ap society.org, THE ap society.org, Yucca: And the lodging has several diff oh, Michael: notes as well for this Yucca: absolutely, yeah, we'll put that in the show notes so that people can just go ahead and click on it. I was gonna say the lodging has several different options including tent camping, and yurt and Mark: guest house, you're. Yucca: I think it's dry camping, but you could, if you have an RV and you're in the area, you can do an RV too, is that correct? Mark: Yes, there are no hookups, but but there is parking for RVs. We had a couple of people, at least one couple came last time, actually in a school bus, Yucca: was really cool. Mark: was converted. It was really cool. Yucca: Yeah, Mark: So, Michael and Rana we wanted to talk some about why this event was so cool last time and what we're looking forward to going into this next one at the end of this summer. So why don't we start with kind of golden moments. Michael, you want to go ahead? Michael: I wanted to just say beforehand, you mentioned the meals, and one of the high points of it was the options available. Like, every dietary requirement was accommodated, I think. Mark: Yeah, Michael: The catering team there are fantastic, and I think people shouldn't feel concerned about food at all because the options were great the food was really high quality I think everybody felt really good about the food, so that was an important, that was a real high point so just wanted to make sure we got that mentioned. And, Mark: Yeah, great. Thank you. And, and eating together was really a high point for me. Just sitting down for meals, you know, they had these round tables that I think seated eight or ten or something like that, and different combinations of people would sit together for different meals. And so we got to know one another better in those mealtimes. So that was a high point for me. Somebody want to go with another cool thing that they remember from Suntree in 2022? Yucca: well, I remember Robin led these I'm not sure what you would really call it,  Rana: yeah, the meal acknowledgement. We have talked about them in the group, but it was really different being able to experience it together. And it was things like bringing to mind the history of our food or thinking about the systems that brought it to us today or the hands that it passed through. And we've had some discussion in Mihal's full moon. We were doing like a full moon lunch thing for a little while as well where we kind of continued that conversation and, and thinking about that, which is something that I find really enriching and really enjoy. Also want to strongly second the dietary accommodations that they had. I really, really appreciate it because I have a little bit of an odd diet and I felt. Really good and definitely did not lack for good options for food. Mark: Mihal, you want to go? Michael: yeah, what I found really interesting about the, The whole experience was how quickly we created a community in space particularly when we did our Fire Circle get togethers. And the kind of spontaneous sharing that occurred at those events was really amazing. People really just suddenly kind of created this family. in situ and it was it was great to be part of that. Just sometimes if you go to other kind of retreats it can take a while to kind of break down those those barriers we put up. Just as just as being human but it seemed within a just a few hours we'd kind of already started to create a special Sun Tree community and I thought that was fantastic. Mark: Yeah, I really agree with that. I mean, I've been to a whole lot of various kinds of pagan gatherings and retreats of various sorts. And it seemed as though we just kind of got at this visceral level that we were among, you know, people that were of like mind and similar values. And so that we were safe. Right? We were all, we were all going to play nice with one another, and so we could talk about really deep stuff in our, in our lives, and in our, our experience. And I found that really moving throughout the whole long weekend. It was, it was, it came up over and over again. Yucca: I was also really struck just by the immediate level of respect and consent that was just part of the, Everybody had going in. So I had my five year old with me and in a lot of situations in our culture, people you know, will go up and touch five year old's heads and give them hugs and, you know, all of those sorts of things. And I remember it just being great because people automatically were so great with her about asking for her permission. Like, do you want a hug? And would you like to shake hands? And that was just the culture of it. And it was just so refreshing and wonderful to just be in that space, just from the get go. Like Mark: and I mean, we had, we had laid out guidelines around consent and around conduct because, you know, we wanted to be very clear about, you know, what the expectations are, but it seemed like people read them and were like, yeah, that's civilized behavior. That's how I'm going to be. And the subject Honestly, never came up. There was never a situation where somebody felt like they had been inappropriately touched or or somehow invaded in that kind of way. And I thought that was, that was really pretty amazing. Michael: I just wanted to talk about the actual place as well. The Retreat Center is Really, really phenomenal. There's this beautiful forest. You're kind of just on the edge of Colorado Springs, so it's not too far from any stores or anything that you might need. But once you get in there, you suddenly feel like The outside world has disappeared just in this beautiful forest really a fantastic place just to go for walks just to go into the forest by yourself if you want to go for I think one of the big highlights was that we had a lunar eclipse while we were, while we were there, and being able to all, for the whole, all of us to go out there onto this big lawn and just stare up at the, at the moon together, and people howling at the moon, it was It was just a really fantastic experience as well especially just having that, we, we had the the Ponderosa Lodge, which is this big log cabin lodge that we can use for a lot of our activities, for rituals, and for our workshops. And that's a real, that's, that's a really nice space as well, there are different rooms, so you can kind of break off and do different things with people, or you can kind of come to the main room and have a bigger discussion. We had dance parties there, we had the Carnival of Change, which was a chance to kind of take on a different persona, like dress up. be a different version of yourself for the evening. So I think the whole, the whole retreat center just kind of facilitates that. There's a, there's a labyrinth there as well, which we didn't really incorporate too much into any rituals the last time around, but I think we're going to try and bring that in more this time around. Mark: Yeah, it's a beautiful spot. Rano? Rana: Yeah, the, the shared experience of the lunar eclipse was pretty special and it, it just so perfectly aligned with what we were doing. It was the same night as the Carnival of Change and it just felt like great, like the weather cooperated and we got to see this cool celestial event. It wasn't even at a super late time, like it was, it felt like a Yucca: like eight or nine. Yeah, Rana: Yeah, yeah, it felt like started our evening, kind of, or, you know, it didn't, it wasn't, you know, too far on late night or anything. The Carnival of Change itself was really fun, just to be able to play dress up together and listen to some music and, and just have fun. And I also like, like Michael said being able to split off into other little rooms and areas. It And I think for me, something that I really appreciated was the ability to have these just kind of unplanned moments where so much of our online interactions are very scheduled and it, you just show up at a certain time and there's a group of people and that's kind of mostly how it's gone. But, like, I just remember some folks were up later one night just all chatting and hanging out. And I love that feeling of if you're up late and feeling a little bit chatty or sociable, you can just kind of see who's up and just take a seat and hang out for a bit. And that's something that otherwise has felt like not really something we have access to. So it was particularly nice just to be able to connect in a more organic way, depending on how you're feeling. Mark: hmm. Yeah. Nihal? Michael: Yeah I think we, there was a lot of, there's been some learnings from that event as well, and I think there, we were really concerned about accessibility this time around, because there was a lot of movement between different areas. And so this time around we are definitely going to be making it more accessible as well. There's going to be designated drivers, so we want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and everybody's able to take part in all the different events that we're having. So, I, I know that there's going to be a lot of more accessibility this time around, especially just in terms of shuttling people around the property. Yucca: Because there were a few hills and we were moving from the bottom of the hill back up to the dining room and then back down. Michael: Yes, yes, yeah, but I think we, Mark: and we were at 7, 000 feet. Michael: that was another, yeah  Mark: yeah one of the things that we learned from the Sun Tree Retreat in 2022 is that we had programmed a lot of the time, but some of the most memorable and wonderful moments were the unscripted times. The, the, The break periods when we could just gather together and socialize, or plan what we wanted to do for a rite of passage during the rite of passage period that we had later on, which was one of the most moving things to me. That was really an experience. So this time we've programmed in more free time. There's still plenty of workshops and, and rituals and experiences to have, but we've made it a little bit looser so that people have opportunities just to hang out and experience the place and one another. Michael: yeah, yeah, I just wanted to I might talk about the rites of passage a bit more because that was quite a unique experience. I guess we didn't really know how that was going to go because it's kind of like, it's a make your own ritual event, basically. You, you just DIY it with some help from some friends. So I think people were, they had various things that they wanted to celebrate or commemorate and or mark the end of a period in their life, or the start of a period in their life. And we all came together and celebrated those those events together. And I think what was really amazing was just the creativity that people brought to their rituals. Really very moving and even though they were very personal, I felt that We all kind of, as a community, came together and it became something for all of us. Mark: Yeah. I felt so included in all of those rituals. I felt like my being there mattered. And even if just as a witness and that. You know, that there was room for everyone to have the kind of experience that they wanted to have. And it, and we, we ended the rites of passage with a wedding, which was sweet. It's kind of, you know, the classic act four of the movie, right? And that was really lovely. So, I was, I was super happy with that, and we're doing that rites of passage process again this summer. Michael: Maybe we could talk about some of the workshops that took, that people liked. Mark: Oh, yeah. Michael: I really, I think one of the highlights was the Cosmala workshop, bead workshop, which is basically making a bead necklace that, with each bead representing an important part of, in the life of the universe, or in your own personal life, or just various different events that you want to commemorate. That's, that's kind of right, isn't it? Or was there any Mark: John Cleland Host, who is our friend and a real innovator in the whole realm of naturalistic paganism, one of the earliest people to write about it in its new resurgence. He has this amazing more than a hundred bead string. Of, that all, it starts with the Big Bang and it works all the way until, at least until the Sun Tree Retreat, because he had special beads made for the Sun Tree Retreat that he distributed to people so they could put them on their own cosmola. That was very, very cool. And some of them are signed by people like Starhawk and Jane Goodall and just really a fascinating, wonderful ritual tool and evocative piece of art. Yucca: so there were a lot of different styles of workshops too. There was a, like a history one and there was a John did another one which was like the Wheel of the Year, which he had some really cool handouts for too for that. Mark: We live the year for families, which I thought was really wonderful. You know, a lot of people in our community have families that they're working to build traditions with together, and so, and John has really, you know, pioneered some of that, you know, working with his, with his wife and his sons. And just had a lot of great ideas about different things he could do at different times of the year and was, you know, freely sharing all that stuff. It was great. Rana: There was also a group guided meditation that we did outside overlooking Pikes Peak on their big, expansive, beautiful lawn with all the ponderosa pines, which I'd never, I don't think I'd ever seen them before. I'd never been to Colorado before. And that was really lovely just to kind of take a moment to be there and be present. And there was also a body painting. Which, I appreciated the, like, especially interactive stuff because it's something we're normally restricted about online. And I really loved Mihal's presentation about virtual meals because I think food is just such an integral way to connect with other people and you can infuse it with all this symbolism. And it gave me a lot of ideas. I need to revisit my notes on that and thinking forward to the next one a little bit too, just that ability to share food and those meal acknowledgements really adds to that feeling of making meaning with other people and making community. Michael: Yeah, we had a food altar as well, which was kind of cool. An abundance of food. People brought stuff to share. And I thought that was fantastic as well. Just, uh, one, one person brought some really good kimbap, which I love. So that, if you don't know what that is, it's Korean sushi, basically. And it was just really good. Mark: Yeah, there, there was there was just a vibe of generosity and mutual support. Mutual affirmation. You know, I came away from it feeling like, you know, I've got these amazing, super cool people in my world, and they feel the same about me, and that's just good for my life, generally. Even if I'm not going to see them for a couple of years, except online, just knowing that we shared this experience together just helps me to feel affirmed in who I am and what I do. And I, I, I think I think that was the general vibe that people got out of the event. Yucca: That certainly was, I felt that strongly as well. I was, you know, riding that for several weeks after coming home. Michael: Definitely an afterglow of, kind of like, hard to come down from the high of the event as well. It took a while because it was so special. Mark: yeah, absolutely. So we want to talk a little bit about some of the offerings we're going to have this time. Some of them are repeats from last time, but some of them are new. Let me see if I can pick one. Oh, go ahead. Michael: I was just going to say, maybe everybody's had a chance to look at the program and if you, if there's any particular highlights you want to, that you'd like to talk about that maybe you're looking forward to. Mark: There's so many things. Um,  Michael: Well, should we talk, let's talk about the theme first. Mark: sure, of course. That's a great Michael: we didn't, we didn't have a theme last time, but we do have a theme this, this time. Mark: Which is Solarpunk, a chosen family reunion. The idea being that Solarpunk being a very kind of optimistic movement for the betterment of the world, the betterment of our relationship with nature rather than kind of the doom and gloom that we, that we see everywhere around us now, Solarpunk is a, It's a genre of of writing and of art that is optimistic and looks to the future as, yes, filled with challenges, but also filled with opportunities for us to grow and change and do better. And the chosen family reunion part is I mean, I certainly felt and I think that a lot of us felt at the last Sun Tree Retreat that these, these people were my chosen family. It was, it felt like, oh, wow, all my cousins and uncles and, and nephews and nieces have all shown up and now we're having this great sort of family hoopla together. It was, it was great that way. Yucca: And one of the workshops is going to be on solar punk and atheopaganism more specifically, right? That's Mark: yeah. Michael: Yeah, Hanna is going to be leading that one. Mark: Mm hmm. I'm looking forward to that one as well. And of course we'll have some some elements that will be around, you know, learning how to organize rituals or to you know, to design them. Or you know, kind of learning the observational skills about getting more in touch with the processes of nature around you. Mm hmm. That was something about the, the lunar eclipse last time that it really dovetailed with something that, that Yucca and I talk about on here all the time, which is just about, you know, paying attention, about being present and experiencing the moment and observing what's happening in nature, and That was such a dramatic event. It really, really riveted our attention for about an hour or so. Michael: We're bringing back the Cosmala again, because that was so popular, and I think, I'm sure that new people are going to want to try their hand at making Cosmolas. Mark: I've never made one. I, I'm, it's an oversight. I have to do it now. Going to do a reader's theater. I'm organizing that of a reworking of the myth of Hades and Persephone and Demeter in Greek mythology. Because, even though that's a very popular myth in pagan, kind of modern pagan circles and a lot of different groups have done reenactments of the Eleusinian mysteries that enact that story, it's a pretty terrible story, really. I mean, Hades, Hades captures the innocent daughter Kore, drags her away and makes her his wife. That's terrible. Not so cool in modern, Yucca: way of putting it, Mark: yes, that is a very polite way of putting it, yeah. So, so I rewrote it. I rewrote it to have a different kind of ending and a different set of teachings than the original story did. And we're going to do a reader's theater where people who come to the workshop can pick up a script and take a part and we'll all read it together. And and it'll be fun and hopefully people will enjoy it. So that's another thing we're going to do. Michael: Yeah, we've occasionally done death cafes online which are kind of opportunities to talk about death and, you know, I think our movement's kind of a death positive movement, and we want to kind of honor that, and so something I'm going to be leading is an Irish wake kind of experience, and, you know, at an Irish wake, it's not just mourning the dead, it's kind of celebrating life. And kind of celebrating chaos and causing mayhem. So we're gonna have we're gonna have a bit of an Irish wake experience and I'm, people are gonna be invited to bury the things they want to bury, or remember the things they want to remember. And then we will also cause some mischief as well. Mark: Sounds great. I'm up for all of that. Yucca: And on Saturday, at lunchtime, we're planning to do the same thing that we did last time. to do a live podcast episode, and that may be an opportunity for folks who can't attend in person to zoom in and connect. Yes, Mark: Yes, cross, cross your fingers for the internet connection at the Retreat Center. Yucca: that's why we say May, we're going to try really hard, technology willing, right, Rana? Rana: So, the last time we had Sun Tree, we hadn't yet started our adult salon. Which we recently rebranded as Adult Forum, and I'm really excited to be able to have that in person for the very first time. I've really valued it as a space to connect and share resources and share a little bit about our experiences and our lives. And for folks that might not be as familiar with what it is, it is a peer support space to discuss adult topics openly, and it is, we consider it kind of semi structured. We usually start with a topic just as a starting point of conversation, and then we let things naturally flow depending on what the participants want to talk about, what's on their minds, can go through multiple topics in one session. It is a confidential and non judgmental setting where we're really there to learn from each other's experiences, share our knowledge, especially if you have a range of ages. There's folks that have just lived different lives or experiences that may have things to share feel less alone. In a lot of things that we encounter in life I know. There's a real epidemic of loneliness, especially in America, and it's something I always have felt really deeply about, but don't really know what to do about it, so I appreciate being able to be a part of this space and have this space together in order to continue that kind of connection and We're going to have a way for people to anonymously submit topics or questions while we're at the event so that the people that are there attending are really crafting what it is that we want to talk about and the topics have really ranged in the past and included things like money, relationship styles, aging, death, altered states, sexuality, and more and Yeah, I've just been really looking forward to it. It is an 18 plus event, and I just, I can't wait to have that in, in person. I think it'll be a great version of it, just because we've always had it remote. Mark: Yeah. Michael? Michael: I know there's one of the FAQs we get around this is that you know, is it going to be recorded? Am I going to be able to participate online? And unfortunately, no, it's just for some of the reasons we discussed. First of all, technology, it's not always reliable, so we can't really do live stuff. I think it's possible that some of the workshops will be recorded. That depends on the presenter. And, but we don't want to, we want to also, honor people's confidentiality as well. So it's possible that we can record some of them, but maybe some of them won't be recorded. But that's why we also offer our totally online conference every other year as well. So if you can't make it in person to SunTree, we will be doing our web weaving online conference next year. So that is just a way of bridging that gap where if you can't make it in person, there is still an online space for you to take part in. Mark: Right. Right. And I, and I should point out the adult forum will not be recorded. It's, it's a totally confidential, just live action space for people to, to have discussions about sensitive stuff. So you needn't worry that you're going to find yourself on the internet talking about personal things. Yucca: Right, and for any of the presenters who do choose to have their, their presentation recorded, it would just be of them, not of the audience. So there'll be the private, privacy for the folks in the audience. Mark: Yeah, because, I mean, there are, in our community, there are people who are You know, in various stages of outness in relation to their non theist atheopaganism, right? Some are out as atheists, but not necessarily the pagan part. Some are completely solitary in, in their You know, practice of their path, and we want to be respectful of all of that. So, it's really important to us that people be able to participate without endangering something that, that is important to them. Mijo? Michael: Something that's New this time around, as well, is that we will be kind of having formal vendors. I will be sharing a sign up sheet for people in the coming days, where you, if you want to, if you've got anything you want to sell, or products or services we will have a space for you to do that. So, if you're, it could be anything, you could be selling, selling your own craft, or, I guess, doing Readings or things like this. We'll just sign up and we'll we'll reach out to you if we need, if we have any further questions about the kind of stuff you're going to be sharing with us. Mark: We should say, though, that, that the vending is going to be during a particular window of time at the event, because what we don't want is for a vendor to be there stuck behind a counter, and for the entire event and unable to participate in the various activities, right? Because they're part of the community and we want them in with us doing all the stuff. So we're going to have a marketplace slot in the program, and that's when you can do your vending and, you know, promote your services and all that kind of stuff. So what else should we say about this? I mean, we know because we've been there, it's really cool. Hope that our listeners Yucca: to just put that out there for that part of the world. It's a nice warm time of year. Last time Michael: Will the swimming pool, Yucca: May, which was a little bit iffy, we got really lucky. last Mark: we did. Yucca: I think it started snowing right after we left, Mark: Yeah, something like three days afterwards it started snowing at the retreat center, but that's not going to happen this time, because we're on Labor Day weekend and it should be pretty temperate and nice. Michael: I think there's a swimming pool there as well. Mark: Oh, that's right, it was closed when we were there before, but there is a swimming pool there. Yes, Michael: We should double check if we have access to that, but I think we will, but we should probably double check that. Mark: yes, that's true. Ha ha ha! Michael: I guess you should definitely get booked in quickly if you are intending to come. Because we're, it's coming up fast. I can't believe it's only two months away, so you really need to start thinking about getting your, making your way there and booking your tickets. Mark: Yeah, yeah it's very affordable especially when you consider that it includes nine meals and the lodging for the, the Yurt guest houses is only 75 for the entire event. So it's you know, we, we, we set price points low because we wanted people to be able to access it and we know that there are travel expenses associated. We if you, if you want to come, but there are, you know, financial issues, we have limited scholarship support, so please contact us. You can use the the Wonder Podcast queues at gmail. com, podcast email address to contact us, and we'll get back to you about that. But we'd really encourage our listeners, you know, if you like what you've been hearing on this podcast for the last five years now come and, come and meet us. Come and, and, you know, meet the community and, and check us out. Michael: It was just, I don't know if I expressed how Amazing it was, but it was just such a unique, a singular event and kind of a highlight of my life, I'd really say. It was just spectacular, and I don't know if I, I don't know if I captured that before, but I just thought it was just an amazing thing to be part of. And I think it's going to be just as amazing this time around. Mark: Me too. Yeah. I, I, I can't wait to see you all. And and other folks that, you know, I met two years ago. I'm just, I'm so looking forward to it rana, I Rana: so for me, it, it really felt like coming full circle, like I'd connected with you all, and we spent so much time together during the pandemic. so much. My personal life was also going through some transition and Suntree was actually pretty emotional for me. It was good But I don't know it's a little hard to explain But it just felt like I did a lot of emotional processing while I was there But I very much felt like I was in community I was able to finally meet these people that I had connected with and So now it just feels like I have something to look forward to You going forward knowing that we're gonna do this with some regularity. And for myself as well, it also gave me some more confidence traveling alone because I'm used to traveling with a partner if I go somewhere, especially airplane travel. And so it helped me feel a little bit more adventurous and confident feeling like I went to a state I've never been to before and met up with some people and everything went great. Like, no, no complaints. Mark: really felt that same sense of just really being able to be myself. And I was surprised by that because as one of the organizers last time, I thought I was kind of going to have to be on and sort of be a host. You know, for the whole weekend. And that really wasn't the case at all. I, I, I just felt like, you know, I was, I was welcomed there, warts and all, and there were plenty of other people to help. And it was great. It was just really a good, good time. Well, listen, thank you. Oh, Michael: Hopefully we can do the, the firewalking this time, because last time we couldn't do it because there was a burn ban, but there is potential for doing a firework walk. So people are into that, that might be available. So we'll see what happens. Yucca: Keep our fingers crossed. Mark: that would be exciting. I've never done that, and I'd like to try it. I don't know why I'd like to try it. I, but I would. Michael: That's the ultimate ritual, I guess. And for anybody who's kind of, their ears are pricking up when they hear that the person leading that has got decades of experience. Mark: Yeah. And, you know, very, very careful rules around, you know, everybody having to be absolutely sober, you know, being, you know, a lot of focus, doing this in a really sacred kind of container, so that's that's That's all to the good. Let me see. So, we're gonna put the link to the the event in the show notes. You can go, you can read the program, you can read about the event, you can see a picture of the Ponderosa Lodge and Atheopagan Society website, there's also a gallery of photos that were taken at the last Suntree retreat. So you can take a look at that.  Michael: Could you add in the show notes as well? Could you add the episode we actually recorded? Yucca: Oh yeah, let's link to that because we, yeah, that would be nice to go back and listen to actually. And what was it like in the moment? So that'll be in the show notes too. Mark: yeah, yeah, I just, I just remember we're sitting there and we're talking and people would cruise up to the table glowing and sit down in front of the microphone for a little while and talk about the experience they were having and then toddle off and somebody else would come by. It was just, it was lovely. So listen, folks Sun Tree Retreat, you don't want to miss it. Please come join us, visit with us. We, we would so love to see you. And we will be back next week with another episode of The Wonders of Science Based Paganism. Thank you, Rana and Michael. Thank you for being here. Michael: Thank you.   

the final result of Socrates' “educational” project is not passivity, but anarchic and destructive violence: there is a debate about the beating of parents followed by a mob uprising and arson against Socrates' own school. One is reminded possibly, and in this case half-anachronistically, of Alcibiades, also Socrates' student, and his involvement in the destruction of the herms and the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries, events that the people of Athens took to be precursors to a plot for the violent suppression of democracy. Not that philosophy teaches ineffectual passive nihilism and anomie then, but that it is supremely dangerous because it makes young men lawless and violent, and possibly antidemocratic and tyrannical: this seems to have been the concern about philosophy. 

Seriah is joined by Chris Ernst, Saxon, and Wren. Topics include fate, predestination, a strange incident with a lost dog, free will, the meaning of life, art and creation, cultural biases, Advaita Vedanta, the analogy of a train, destiny and magick, time as a river, Thelema, three levels of guardian angels, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Orphic mythos, challenges in life, the Eleusinian mysteries, Greco-Roman Hades, altruism and responsibility, maturity, Meher Baba, “Stalking the Wild Pendulum” by Itzhak Bentov, creation and oneness, NDEs. Seth material and multiple selves, individuality, Orphism and Buddhism, the cross-pollination of ancient ideas, reincarnating along with other souls, children's memories of past lives, cosmic wave bubbles, unusually familiar strangers, a bizarre experience in Thailand, a bonded group of friends, simulation theory, the concept of physical reality as an illusion, an analogy to computer code, the limits of magick, the paranormal as a tool for understanding reality, a bizarre experience of a “glitching” animal, the problems of perception, Platonic ideal forms, spirituality and ascetism, Gnosticism, religion and the denial of pleasure, greed and materialism, the nature of suffering, the lives of people in previous eras, Rick Rubin, creativity and the phenomenon, Bibliomancy, System of a Down, talented musical acts getting over-played, “The Last Movie” podcast, cyclical lifetimes, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman, Seriah's late brother's last conversation, a three day window of separation between the body and soul, the phenomenon and spirituality, Jacque Vallee, John Keel, Saxon's experiences with the death of his father, materialism and the fear of death, Wren's encounter with a deceased friend, dreams as a gateway to the underworld, the subconscious and the imaginal, Seriah's dreams of his late mother, Jeff Ritzmann, Greco-Roman necromancy, Seth on death and the body and consciousness, what happens immediately after death, the Elysian Fields and the waters of Lethe, the diversity of life paths, the importance of respecting other opinions, our polarized society, the value of mystery, and much more! The conversation gets truly deep this time!This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4656375/advertisement

Seriah is joined by Chris Ernst, Saxon, and Wren. Topics include fate, predestination, a strange incident with a lost dog, free will, the meaning of life, art and creation, cultural biases, Advaita Vedanta, the analogy of a train, destiny and magick, time as a river, Thelema, three levels of guardian angels, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Orphic mythos, challenges in life, the Eleusinian mysteries, Greco-Roman Hades, altruism and responsibility, maturity, Meher Baba, “Stalking the Wild Pendulum” by Itzhak Bentov, creation and oneness, NDEs. Seth material and multiple selves, individuality, Orphism and Buddhism, the cross-pollination of ancient ideas, reincarnating along with other souls, children's memories of past lives, cosmic wave bubbles, unusually familiar strangers, a bizarre experience in Thailand, a bonded group of friends, simulation theory, the concept of physical reality as an illusion, an analogy to computer code, the limits of magick, the paranormal as a tool for understanding reality, a bizarre experience of a “glitching” animal, the problems of perception, Platonic ideal forms, spirituality and ascetism, Gnosticism, religion and the denial of pleasure, greed and materialism, the nature of suffering, the lives of people in previous eras, Rick Rubin, creativity and the phenomenon, Bibliomancy, System of a Down, talented musical acts getting over-played, “The Last Movie” podcast, cyclical lifetimes, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman, Seriah's late brother's last conversation, a three day window of separation between the body and soul, the phenomenon and spirituality, Jacque Vallee, John Keel, Saxon's experiences with the death of his father, materialism and the fear of death, Wren's encounter with a deceased friend, dreams as a gateway to the underworld, the subconscious and the imaginal, Seriah's dreams of his late mother, Jeff Ritzmann, Greco-Roman necromancy, Seth on death and the body and consciousness, what happens immediately after death, the Elysian Fields and the waters of Lethe, the diversity of life paths, the importance of respecting other opinions, our polarized society, the value of mystery, and much more! The conversation gets truly deep this time! - Recap by Vincent Treewell of The Weird Part Podcast Outro Music is Dead Harrison with Dance of the Dead Download

The latest episode is another lovely discussion with author, poet, and scholar Peter Mark Adams.  His latest work, "Hagia Sophia / Sanctum of Kronos: Spiritual Dissent in an Age of Tyranny," is a fascinating exploration of the pagan Mystery cults and their diverse survivals in later philosophical traditions, as well as a discussion of the ways in which the construction of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) encapsulates the metaphysics of spiritual union taught within the Eleusinian tradition – all in the face of intense persecution and oppression. Diving into the nature of sacred art, symbolism, and religious 'survivals,' I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope you do as well!-- Peter's website: www.petermarkadams.com | Author Peter Mark Adams' Official Site -- Peter's profile on Scarlet Imprint - Peter Mark Adams | Scarlet Imprint -- Link to buy Hagia Sophia / Sanctum of Kronos: Spiritual Dissent in an Age of Tyranny | Scarlet Imprint -- Coffee and Divination's Website: http://www.coffeeanddivination.com-- Theme music: Come with Me by JoAnna Farrer. Also featuring Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas and Yann Falquet.

The Covid pandemic is changing our world and changing our lives in ways that we hope will be positive, important, and enduring. The truth is that we will probably derive more pandemic insight from scrutinizing the past than from speculating about the future because no one pandemic is entirely separate from any other. Barbara E. Hort, Ph.D. is a Jungian counselor. She provides consultation and training in the theatrical practice of psychodramaturgy in which she provides material on the psychological dynamics of a play that can be used by performing artists to enhance their storytelling. She is the author of Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves and Others (Shambhala 1996) and Hollow Crown of Fire: A Discovery of Meaning in the Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Predecessors (White Horse Wordsmithing 2022)Interview Date: 10/18/2022 Tags: Barbara E. Hort, pandemics, Black Death, Justinian, 1918 pandemic, 1918 flu, Shakespeare's Richard the II, Persephone, abduction, Eleusinian mysteries, Dante's Divine Comedy, Boccaccio's Decameron, John Ronewyk, World War I, Alfred Crosby, AIDS pandemic, bubonic plague, Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, vaccines, Health & Healing, History, Mythology, Personal Transformation

This week C.J. talks about one of the mystery religions of the Mediterranean, the Eleusinian rites. This religion was centered around a nine-day festival that celebrated Persephone rising from the underworld.

A healthy level of speculation is required this time as we dive into the fascinating Eleusinian mysteries and its transformative rituals of consciousness-alteration.Sources/Suggested reading.Bowden, Hugh (2010). "Mystery cults in the Ancient World". Thames and Hudson Ltd.Burkert, William (1982). "Greek Religion". Harvard University Press.Burkert, William (1988). "Ancient Mystery Cults". Harvard University Press.Evans, Nancy A. “Sanctuaries, Sacrifices, and the Eleusinian Mysteries.” Numen, Vol. 49, No. 3 (2002): 227-254. Mylonas, George E. “Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries.” The Classical Journal, Vol. 43, No. 3 (1947): 130-146. Ustinova, Yulia (2017). "Divine Mania: Alterations of Consciousness in Ancient Greece". Routledge.#Eleusinianmysteries #Greece #Mythology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the ghost and ghouls of our podcast! On today's episode we're talking about one of our favorite and most beloved topics D E A T H!!! We're answering one of the most popular questions we get asked - Do you need to experience death as a death witch or death worker? We then dive into the mystery religion in the Greco-Roman period of Persephone and Demeter the Eleusinian Mysteries! Many people in the Greco-Roman period dedicated themselves to the goddesses and made pilgrimages to leave offerings. We go step by step (with what we have archaeology wise) on how people were initiated into this mystery religion. We then update at the end of the episode on one of our Boo and What Do! stories from the first one we ever did and how we were able to help someone with a rowdy house spirit. Join our Patreon for Styx + Bones here! Don't forget to like, subscribe and rate our podcast! Shop the Metaphysical Shop: https://www.crystalmoonclarity.com/evoking-the-shop Styx and Bones Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/styxandbonespodcast/ Evoking the Shop Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evokingtheshop/ Chelsea's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelschelslynnn/ Music by LiteSaturation --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/evoking-cmc/support

There is an old idiom that says when the pendulum goes one way, it's bound to swing back the other. Our guest, my old acquaintance and esteemed academic, Dr. Mariavittoria Mangini, has found that phrase applies to many aspects of her life. While we may be in precarious and difficult times, Mariavittoria has managed to stay positive, knowing that things can always change for the better. We sit down to have a full and wide-ranging conversation on politics, the state of the nation, privilege, and, of course, the profoundly lasting impression psychedelics have made on her life."I feel like I've had a lot more adventures and a lot more color and texture in my life because of those experiences."Mariavittoria Mangini, Ph.D., FNP has written extensively on the impact of psychedelic experiences in shaping the lives of her contemporaries and has worked closely with many of the most distinguished investigators in this field. She is one of the founders of the Women's Visionary Council, a nonprofit organization that supports investigations into non-ordinary forms of consciousness and organizes gatherings of researchers, healers, artists, and activists whose work explores these states. She is Professor Emerita in the School of Science, Allied Health, and Nursing at Holy Names University and a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. For the last 50 years, she has been a part of the Hog Farm, a well-known communal family based in Berkeley and Laytonville, California.Show notes:Psychedelic elder and visionary- Mariavittoria Mangini- featured in the forthcoming book Psychedelic Wisdom (0:42)Mariavittoria's first experiences at the age of 16 (2:17)Realizations about death and the change in life course (3:18)The effects on her life happiness (4:33) The Haight Ashbury free clinic – a barefoot patient and later a Chairman of the Board (6:38)Will the American experiment in democracy last? (10:00)The problem with unremitting negativity in the media (10:22)The dangers of political polarization (12:48)Is religion the source of moralizing divisions? (14:44)Has America ever been a theocracy? (17:01)The dawn of open discussion of psychedelics and radical social changes of the past 30 years (21:21) The role of community radio in a democracy (25:27)Why communities need elders (31:24)What's going on with elders who lack wisdom? (34:32)The lingering effects of racism and white supremacy (37:00)The appropriate age to introduce children to psychedelics in a post-legalization world (45:30)The legacy of Betty Eisner and the idea of "Matrix" (46:29)The idealized view of universal access to psychedelics (48:47)How "matrix" effects one's protocol for administering psychedelics (50:27)What were the Eleusinian mysteries? (53:23)Links and references:Psychedelic WisdomBetty Eisner- "Set, Setting, and Matrix"Stephen JenkinsonAnn ShulginThe Way of the Psychonaut- Mariavittoria's interviewMariavittoria's previous episode on MBHP: Thank you for reading Mind Body Health & Politics. This post is public so feel free to share it.Want the full transcript and episode videos? Join our Tribe!Have a Healing Story to Share?We'd love to hear from you on political and health issues, and are currently soliciting stories from individuals, couples, and families who would like to share their healing stories with psychedelics.Mind Body Health & Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Mind Body Health & Politics at www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/subscribe

This week, we begin a short series on the ancient mystery cults of the Mediterranean. In this episode, we go over what an ancient mystery is, who it was practiced by, where the cults could be found, and what sorts of practices and rites were in these cults. Then, we go over in particular a few of the Greek mysteries, including the Eleusinian and Dionysian cults. You can become inducted into the Cult of Evan and Cam on Twitter: @leftunreadpod (Twitter and Instagram) @poorfidalgo @gluten_yung You can reach out to us at leftunreadpod@gmail.com. Suggestions and hate mail welcome. Theme music by Interesting Times Gang. Check them out at: itgang.bandcamp.com

This week the boys use all 6% of Nick's Greek heritage to unveil some of the most significant Greek esoteric philosophies including Orphism, Eleusinian mysteries and Pythagoreanism.

Please welcome my guest of today's episode, energy work specialist, solitary practitioner of Eastern and Western traditions, martial artist and author Peter Mark Adams. Just a few weeks ago Peter published a book with Inner Traditions and the title is ‘The Power of the Healing Field: Energy Medicine, Psi Abilities, and Ancestral Healing'. In this interview, Peter will tell our audience a bit about his personal path, starting out in in his earliest childhood in being hypersensitive to presences, continuing with a trip to Egypt aged 8-9 visiting the Great Pyramid which experience culminated in the feeling of finally coming home.In his early teens Peter started to read material on magic, visiting libraries with first editions of Blavatsky's works, taking in everything he could. However, it wasn't until much later that the framework for all this knowledge was finally provided by his interest in and practice of martial arts through which he gained a profound proficiency in energy work. Peter continued to broaden his education in the Western and Eastern Esoteric Traditions with QBL, ritual magic, freemasonry, Buddhism, Tantra just to name a few different topics. The specific path of energy work that Peter is dedicated to and which is also the main focus of his most recent book is Reiki. Now this could definitely be a red flag to some of us because we in the ‘Western World' do have certain ideas and concepts of Reiki which is of course fuelled by the sheer mass of people labelling themselves ‘Reiki Masters/Practitioners'. However, as you'll easily recognise during our conversation, Peter is able to correct this rather superficial impression as he goes into great detail of what Reiki means to him and how he came to study and practice this system. He will explain the importance of lineage in the tradition of Mikao Usui, give profound insights into the inner mechanisms of Reiki and point out the differences between initiates and practitioners and what it takes to go from here to there. Peter Mark Adam's three books published so far Of course, the main focus of our conversation will be Peter's new book which can boldly be called a bridge between Eastern and Western Esoteric Traditions. We'll talk about his initial experiences with the healing methods presented in it, healing fields, ethics and he'll also point out what real red flags are when seeking help from a self-proclaimed healing expert. The creation of fields, not only specifically healing fields, will be another very interesting topic where Peter explains how most of us seem to suffer from a weird kind of hangover from mind and body dualism and how practitioners can generate a field in order to access a larger reservoir of consciousness to work with which is not that far away from ceremonial magical concepts as one might think. In the end, Peter will tell us about his next projects, one book on the Eleusinian mysteries which is to be published this year, and another where he attempts no less task than to recover the rites of Mithras – looking forward reading both of them.   Author's webpage for Peter Mark Adams Music played in this episode I could not resist the pleasure to bring someone back on the Thoth Hermes Podcast, who the regulars have already enjoyed several times here: WENDY RULE In the first two seasons you were able to hear two of her powerful songs as into and outro of the show. And in our very first episode she appeared for that reason also in a short interview, after my talk with Alan Robinson. Wendy has released (on her bandcamp account) recordings of Jazz versions of q...

Georgepmonty@gmail.comSpeaker 0 (0s): Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the TrueLife podcast. So happy you're here today. I've missed everybody. I've been down and out with COVID for those of you who've had it. I'm sure you're aware. It's definitely no picnic for me roughly about two weeks. It's still hurting a little bit, but trying to get out there and bring some entertainment to anybody had a couple of interesting days while out on COVID you guys ever noticed that when you get sick, sometimes you have some pretty brilliant insights. It seems to me that whenever you're faced with a health issue, you really begin to understand what it is that's important in life. You really get to make sense of the little things that you thought were important were really not that important when you're laying in bed and you feel like garbage. All of a sudden the person that was pissing you off kind of minor. I want to talk to you guys today. I'm really excited. I got my first new book, the debut it's coming out and I'm working on an idea for titles. Originally. I had the Terror before the sacred, and then it kind of morphed into the structure of experience. Those were the two going titles that I had had set up for him recently sent off the hard copy to my editors. I've heard back from one editor with really inspiring and really good notes. The guy was great. His name is Hugh Barker. If anyone gets a chance and you need an editor, I would highly recommend Hugh Barker. I went to Z, which is a site for authors that you can go and kind of piece out your, your work, whether you want it formatted or edited or pretty much the whole gambit you can find on that site. It's pretty good. I highly recommend it. Most of you are probably thinking, wow, George. So what's the book about buddy? Well, it's a great question. And thank you for asking it is a topic that is true and dear to my heart, especially in chaotic times, I think we're moving towards a new way in which the world sees itself. I think we're moving on to a new type of myth. I think back about some of the ancient Greek heroes, the Homeric verses Ulysses and the Lotus eaters, Achilles all these great mythological adventures that in ancient times, for ways for people to relate to the world, and then you can move into like king Arthur and the quest for the holy grail. You could even get into JRR Tolkien and just so many different myths that people throughout the world have sat around a campfire or sat around and told stories about the way in which life is in for so long. We have been operating under these myths that it seems as if we're just repeating or better yet. We're rhyming. The history that came before us, I think once in a thousand years, I'll say humanity comes upon a new way of living. Humanity finds a new myth to be born. And while it's not incredibly brand new, it has elements of the new brought together with some of the classic motifs that got the human spirit to evolve as far as it has. And let me try to paint you a picture of the foundational myth that I see emerging and let me know what you guys think. I see an evolution of religion. I see a unified understanding that we are one organism similar to the guy, a concept in that the earth is a mother and those in which grace, the earth are his children, but not exactly more of like, we're all part of this one giant organism. The earth grows people like an apple tree grows apples. You didn't come into this world. You came out of it. And when you look across the street, when you look at your neighbor, when you look at the car next to you, when you watch TV, but more importantly, when you see people in person, what you're seeing, wait, let me change that. What you recognize, that's a much better word. What you recognize in other people is that, which you recognize in yourself. Let me give you an example of what I mean do used to be this guy at my work. And I never got along with him. I didn't really understand why, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. You guys know anybody like that, maybe you got somebody at your work or somebody in your family or somebody at your kid's school, or maybe it's somebody at your school, but there's just something about this person. And they really bother you. And I couldn't put my finger on it. And for months, you know, I'm like, I just don't like this guy. I don't get it. He was a nice guy, but there was just something about him. I didn't like. And one day, one weekend I sat back and ate like seven grams of mushrooms and just trying to figure it, which is a pretty good dose to think about actually maybe a little high. But, and so I had written down everything that I wanted to think about. And as I was coming down from my trip, like, it just kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. You know what? I don't like that guy because he's weak. He's a coward, never stands up for himself. I hate that about that guy. And then, you know, it was like that same ton of bricks just hit me again. And it says, I'm a coward. I'm weak. I don't stand up for myself. And it made me think, you know, I don't know if, I don't know. I think somehow eating mushrooms is a way for you to communicate with the planet. And so I'll talk more about that in a minute, but it showed me that what you see in other people is what you see in yourself in what, if you see other people and you don't like something in them. If you can identify what it is you don't like about these other people, then chances are, you can identify what it is about yourself that you don't like. You see, it's real hard to look at yourself and say, I don't like this about me. I don't like that about me. It's really difficult to look in a mirror and say, you know what, George? I think you're a big baby sometimes. Or you know what, George, you don't ever stand up for yourself. It's hard to do that because it's difficult to see what's inside of you. And that's why we have relationships. And that's why when you see other people, they're showing you, they are a mirror to you. They are showing you what's inside. You does that make sense? Because you can't recognize something. You don't understand, but you can recognize what you do. You ever, you ever like seen somebody playing a game or maybe you play a sport. And they know you're watching someone play a sport and you see them say, say, they're a wrestler. I was arrested. So I'm watching this guy wrestle. And I see him set up with like a, like a left tap, left tap. And then you shoot like an ankle pick. I'm like, oh, I do that same set up. Sometimes I can recognize that move because I do that move. And then sometimes you watch people's stuff and you don't know what the hell they did because you don't recognize that move. It's the same thing with style as it is with attitude as it is with personality. And if you can learn that when something about somebody else bothers you, that's because something about them is showing you what you need to work on. And that it's true in the opposite sense. It's true in the sense that if you see something good or that you admire about people, that's something that you have inside you. And that that's the world telling you to work on that as well. Like, yeah, you can be that too. Do you admire that? That's inside you I've seen it. And so it's such a gift to be around people. It's such a gift to be upset, to be happy, but to be in relationship with people is where the true gift is. And not only just to be in relationship with them, but to understand why you feel the way you do about these people. Because it says a lot about who you are, it'll help you solve so many problems. And in a nutshell, that's, that's how I began thinking about the book that I'm beginning to write. Well, actually the book that I've wrote and is currently being edited. So you're probably thinking to yourself, wow. The CIT, the Terror before the sacred Terror, before the sacred eating mushrooms and learning about yourself by other people. All right, I'm listening, George, how do you get, how do you get Terror in there though? So how do you get to the terror, George? What is this Terror before the sacred that you speak of? Well, let me start off with a few sentences. Like this, something sacred has revealed itself. To me, something sacred shows itself, the sacred dance of wretched, hands, the Terror before the sacred, it's an offering of sacrifice at the threshold. Have you felt that before, have you ever been in a situation where you are incredibly terribly frightened of something so beautiful? There's no words for it. That's the Terror before the sacred. And it's been described before, it's been described in some ways by Thomas Aquinas, the nuke Stans, the abiding. Now it's this moment that feels like an eternity. I know it sounds contradictive, but for those of you who have felt it has been in the presence of it, it's a place that all of us strive to get back to it's this moment where you are one with God, whatever your definition of God is. And that is the Terror before the sacred. And it's that moment that I think can heal people. It's that terror. It's the feeling of Terror before the sacred, that puts everything into perspective. It's the feeling of Terror before the sacred that we've forgotten about. You see, we're not these mechanistic, cogs that live to be productive, to make money for corporations, that's soulless. And for years, way too many years, the last hundred years, last 200 years, we have been being pushed down this road of digital feudalism. I would say ever since Marshall McLuhan, we have been just harnessed and towed behind a jet plane into this world of mechanistic, fascism, where the theory of interchangeable parts has been applied to every man, woman, and child, and even much more today. If you look at the plans of the big tech technology corporations that want nothing more than to narrow you down into a bit, here's the piece of information. You're just a bit that we want to send over the internet. These guys are doomed to fail. And in many ways, I think that they're the sickest people among us. I would classify politicians, bankers, insurance reps, people who have been infected by the love of money. These are the people that are the sickest among us. These are the people that in a weird way, I think COVID is trying to get rid of if I can double back for a moment here on the topic of COVID, isn't it interesting the way in which the world finds a way to balance itself out? I think it's beautiful. A lot of times we ask ourselves, why, why is this happening to me? Or why does this always happen to me? But that's the wrong question, right? If you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer for all those of you who've ever asked yourself. That question. Let me tell you the answer to it. When you think little things are happening to you that are bad, when you say, oh man, it's so unfair. That always happens to me or gosh, this bullshit. I can't believe that happened. And again, you see, you just see in the very leading edge of change. And if something bad probably happens to you, it's just the world trying to find harmony. And a lot of times it seems that you get the short end of the stick. But again, you're just seeing the leading edge because you can't be in someone else's shoes. You can't thoroughly understand what's happening in other people's lives. And a lot of times a little sharp move to you, maybe a little prick, a little stab, a little move to the short side for you usually means that things are just shifting on a grander scale. So while you might feel a little bit of uncomfortableness in the beginning, what's probably happening is that you're being set up to change so that you can win later on. It's a great way to look at it. And it's something that's served me. Well, I think that's what's happening with COVID. Let me go ahead and try and square this here. It's been so top heavy, you know, for the last hundred years, CEO pay to employ pay has gone up like 500 fold people at the very top have done everything they can to, to ring out profits and productivity from the people on the bottom, whether it's an employee or whether it's a third world country, regardless of where these people are squeezing their profits from is irrelevant to them. All they see is a boardroom in numbers. They've completely stripped the humanity out of everything that they possibly can. And in doing so they've stripped the humanity out of themselves. Favor, wondered why? Like, look at Jeff Bezos. Like, why do you think he got divorced? Why do you think bill gates got divorced? Like, look at these people. These people are so disgusting. They have everything. They're like, they're like a pig in shit. Does that make sense? And they just love it. They're like, yeah, I love being a pig in shit. I'm a pig. And I love shit. They're so it's so sad to me. It's so sad to me that these guys are in their sixties, but they act like they're 16. Can you imagine that? Like, don't get me wrong. It's nice to be young. It's nice to have energy. But imagine waiting until you're in your sixties or your late fifties to act like you're 16, it's sad. Right? It's like, it makes me sad, but that's what, that's what the world is doing. The world is evening out. And what COVID is doing is at least from the point of view that I see is look, how many people are calling in sick leave or not showing up? Are people not showing up because they're sick or people not showing up because they're sick of working or people not showing up because they're sick of getting fucked over or people not showing up because they're sick of making a hundred times less than the guy at the top. That's shooting out pictures of him on his boat all day. I think it's the, I think it's option beat. I think that the people on the bottom are beginning to see how much power they have. And I think there's a higher force at play. I think about it like this, a lot of people are familiar with the eye of Providence or the all-seeing eye on in the United States. It's that I, the top the pyramid, right? And there's all kinds of mystery schools that talk about the pyramid and people want to be at the pinnacle. People want to be at the top of the pyramid, but how can there be a pinnacle? How could there be a top of the pyramid if there's no base to the pyramid, if you just kicked out one giant block of the bottom of the pyramid, that whole thing becomes really, really unstable. And what happens when you kick out another block? Well, I'll tell you what if you're the guy at the very top, when that pyramid comes fallen over that guy on the top is going to get flung the furthest, because when there's no base, when there's no foundation, there can be no pinnacle. In fact, the base is much more important than the pinnacle and everybody, the pinnacle thinks that they're important. They think they're the ones that made it, but they're just the last piece of stone to go on the top. That's all they are the people on the bottom, the man and woman that get up and go to work every day. Those are the heroes. And I think the world is balancing out. I think that if you live anywhere right now, you can see the turmoil. You can see the chaos, you can see the people on the bottom have had enough, and there's not much that people on the top can do all these ideas about them being powerful and intelligent and smart and capable. You know, the louder they run their mouth, the louder and more obvious. It becomes to everybody else that not only can they not do the things they said, but they never deserve to be in that position. Unless of course the idea of being in that position is to be punished. Right? I think about that. I know some people that have scratched their way to lower, lower level management. I know some people that have scratch their way to top level executives and they spend more time with people they don't want to be with than the people they actually do want to be with. I ask you, is that any kind of world you would want to live in? Would you want to be that person? I feel bad for him. And the reason I bring this up, I know I'm kind of going off today, right? I'm all over the board. George are all over the board, man. Bring it around pal. All right. All right, hold on. Here we go. So I think we're seeing all this as a giant explosion, as a giant course, correction and out of this giant explosion course, correction is this new idea, this new philosophy in this new, almost religious revival type, right? In fact, in my book, I call it the archaic revival. And it's this idea that we're all part of this giant organism. And you might be thinking, well, you know what, George, for part of the organism, I'm to be part of the brain. I don't want to be the big toe. You know what George, I want to be the mouth. I don't want to be the fingernail. Some of you are probably thinking, you know what? I want to be George. Yeah. I know what you want to be, but listen to it like this. All right. So let me tell you a quick story here. One day the hands started talking to the feet. The feet started talking to the mouth and they all gathered around the hand say, man, we do all the picking. We grab everything. We got to reach out for stuff. We do all the work over here. And then the feet said, yeah, you know what? We do all the walking. We've got to put the shoes on. You got to walk every day, get a bunch of calluses. And the mouth says, yeah, you know what? I do all the chewing. I gotta do all the talking. What's this lazy stomach do. Peter sits around and he gets everything. The hands grabs. And he gets everything from where the feet walk. And he gets everything that the mouth choose. And so the hands, the feet and the mouth decide to go on strike. So you know what we're not doing anymore. We're not going to do it. The foot, the stomach gets all the food. He does nothing. So we quit. And a little bit of time goes by a couple of days, go by. And all of a sudden, the feet, the mouth and the hands are God smacked because they're so weak. The feet can't walk. The hands can't grab in the mouth can talk. And then it hits them. The stomach. That's the one who feeds them. You see, they're all doing work to just transfer an energy around the hands. Grab. They use energy to grab things, put it in the mouth, the mouth choose. It uses energy. And that sustenance, that food goes into the stomach. And then the energy is released back to the hands, to the feet, to the mouth like that is us. We are a closed system and the feet are no less important than the mouth. The mouth no less important in the hands, eyes, the ears, we're all in this thing together. And that has to be reflected in the world in which we live. And that's where this idea comes in this new understanding of a single organism. It doesn't need to be a utopia. It doesn't need doesn't mean we can't judge other people on some levels. We should all be playing at the highest level possible for us to play at. We should be helping the people that need help learning how to play those positions. Because contrary to popular belief, you can't live forever and you shouldn't want to. That's why you have kids. But then again, look at all these people that have decided, you know what? I want to have kids. They got caught up in this idea of a mechanistic world instead of an organic world, right? Is it a mechanism or is it an organism? Well, the majority of all our friends in big tech will tell you that it is a mechanism, but that's not true. It is true that in order for them to make it a mechanism or see it as a mechanism, they got to take away humanity. They have to take away our ability to see each others as human beings. And that's why they want you in the metaverse. That's why they want you on your phone. That's why they want you on your YouTube channel. That's why they want you in the world of the mechanistic. That's why they're trying to take people out of nature, because there's a bond you have with nature. You can talk to the trees, you can talk to the insects. You can learn a lot by sitting in your garden and watching the way the wind blows through the trees. You can learn a lot by the way, the flowers bloom in the spring. Like why is it that that plant has to grow to three feet? And it always seems like the flowers turn out towards the sun. That's amazing. Right? Well, that's telling you how life grows. That's telling you how you grow the same example we used about seeing things and other people that you can learn from. You can see those same things in the plants around you. You can see those same things in the animals around you. And if you know what to listen for, if you know what to look for, you can talk to them. There's a great story about a, I think it was by Jeremy Narby and he was a, a, a botanist, but I forgot the name of that. What is that called of the people that go down and, and they searched the world for medicinal plants. It's a certain type of botanist. I think I'll remember in a minute. And so he'd went down, maybe he's an, he's an anthropologist with, with it a second major in botany, something like that, something like that. Let's just go with that for now. And he was down in south America and he was meeting with all these different tribes. And he had gone into the Amazon and up into Chile and he'd studied so much amazing things. And he was with a team of anthropologists and they decided to go way into the Amazon and this particular leg of the trip. And they, they went way deep in there. And they contracted this tribe that no one had made contact with for like 15 or 20 years or something. And they befriended the group of anthropologists. You know, they'd be friended this tribe. And this began speaking to the medicine man there. And he sat down with the five anthropologist and was speaking to them and it was getting late in the, the medicine man began telling the anthropologists, like, you know, we have a very different way of finding the medicinal plants and the conversation turned to well, how is it that you find these medicinal plants? Like, how do you know this particular plant cures, the venom of a certain type of snake and the guy laughed and he said, oh, well, cause the plants talk to us. The plants tell us what's what? And at that point in time, four of the anthropologists got up and turned in for the night. They found that that part of the conversation was going to lead nowhere and they decided to turn it very politely. They get up and they walk out and the other guys he's flabbergasted. And he's like, that is amazing. Can you show me how to do that? And the guy starts laughing and he's like, I'll tell you, but why did your four colleagues get up and walk away? When I say, I talked to the plants and he says, you know what? I can't answer for them. But they, they tend to be really these four guys I'm with, they seem to see things so literal and they seem to see things in a way that would be silly to them. But more than that, I think that they're afraid to tell the other people around them, that they talked to plants. The medicine man started laughing and he's like, well, how come you didn't get up? And the guy says, I talked to plants all the time. And in the medicine, man started laughing and he's like, you get it. You haven't lost your soul yet. You still understand. And he says, because of that, let me show you how I talk to plants. And so they get up and they walk out into the canopy a little bit and they come up on this little clearing and the moon's out so they can see everything. And he S he says, he talks about the snake. We'd had like a, he says, let me show you how I know this plant cures. The venom of, I think it was called like the white diamond snake or something. I could be butchering that. But for this particular example, would you say it was the white diamond snake? He says the white diamond snake has two white diamonds, right? On the opp on the opposing sides of his head, right back by the little holes where you would grab it, you know, about two inches behind the eyeball on each side, there's a little white diamond. And that's what the snake looks like. And the anthropologists like, okay. So how can you tell which plant cures, venom of that snake? And they walk up to this little plant that's on the base of a tree and the little ovate leaves are sticking out. And he goes, look at this plant right here. And sure enough, they look at the plant and that the leaf it's like, I think ovate is the right word. It's kind of like an oval. And it looks just like a snake's head. And on the back part of the leaves are two little white diamonds, just the spitting image of what the white diamond snake's head looks like. And he's like, look, there's the plant telling you, I am the white diamond headed snake head. I can cure you from its bite, my bite cures, the bite of the snake. And so, you know, such an elegant story. And it was so beautiful to me and the, the medicine man finishes up with like, that's how the plants talk to us. They're our friends. They're here to help us. And you know, if you thought about the initial statement of, oh yeah, the plants, talk to me, you could see why those guys got up and walked away because, you know, they don't want to be laughed at, they think it's stupid, but the truth is they're stupid. And you have to be willing to be laughed at. You have to be willing to take chances. Sometimes you get shown the light in the strangest of places. If you look at it, right? The idea I have about us being one organism, we forgotten how to talk to the plants. We forgotten how to see ourselves in nature. And the further we go down this road of technically, the further we get away from what it is we're supposed to be is far away. As mechanistic is from an as far away as an organism is from a mechanism. I think that they are in fact, somewhat connected. Have you ever heard people say on the poles, apart from that person or were the poles apart? Think about that? You know, it's, it's like the idea of a magnet. Like if you have a long, long magnet, you have a north pole and a south pole, but if you cut that magnet in the middle, you get a new south pole, the new north pole, you can't get away from opposites. You can't get away from the relationship. We must have a relationship between mechanism and organism, but it must be clear that we, as the organism use the mechanism, not the other way around the people that believe in this mechanistic idea are poles apart from those of us who believe that we're an organism and that's, what's balancing out, we've gone way too far in the mechanistic part. And we're rebalancing to the organism part poles apart. We're finding a middle ground. Now, let me share with you to another story that I think is pretty beautiful. And it's about time, the same way the anthropologists got to see the world in a different way. By talking to plants. I hope that this story will show you a different way to experience time. Do you know what sacred time is? Have you ever felt, I want you to think back to the beginning of this podcast, and we were talking about the Terror before the sacred, what does a festival, not that you need to be religious, however, people that are religious tend to experience this particular. Hm. Hm. How do I put this? There's a way to experience time that everybody can do, but almost nobody does. And that is to experience time, the way that people that came before you experienced time. I know what you're thinking. I do. What are you talking about, George? I can't experience the exact same time as someone who lived a thousand years ago, I say, bullshit. I say you can. And that is what in fact, a Rite of passage is that is what a festival is. That is you getting to experience the exact moment that someone a thousand years ago got to experience in my book, I go into the Eleusinian mysteries because familiar with those, the Eleusinian mysteries were I'll just give you a quick little once-over. It was this unbelievable pilgrimage that was taken by kids and adults and young adults and older adults and slaves and emperors. The either Sydney and mysteries, they were not allowed. They weren't, they not deny anybody. Everybody could go and experience them. And the word on the street is it was a couple of days. And the beginning was, I think it was, you were shown the death of perception and then the reuniting with Demeter. So it was a symbolic death, but that was the one thoroughly understands or truly knows what, in fact, the secrets were at the Eleusinian mysteries, but it's a pretty good bet to know that it helped people deal with death. In fact, when you read the accounts of those who had gone and been initiated until he loses, then you understand that they came back with this feeling of not being afraid to die. They came back with this feeling of this is just the beginning and it was this thing that United them. It was this thing that brought every one together and people, the truth is either Sydney and mysteries had gone on for like 2000 years. And you could, in some books, if you look it up, if you're so inclined, you should probably read my book, the Terror before the sacred, but you can read plenty of other books about them. And you can read the accounts of people who went through the ceremony and they're all the same. You see, that's the purpose of the ceremony. That's the purpose of the festival is it never changes. And when you go into that festival, when you go into that ceremony, then you are entering that particular chamber, the exact same way that someone who came before you entered it, you are experiencing it the very first time, the same way, the person before you experienced it for the very first time, it's brand new. Although it's old, you can't grasp it, but you can never get rid of it. Does that make sense? And there's all kinds of ceremonies like that. People go around. I live in Hawaii and they have a bond dance festival. And it's a celebration where everyone gets together and dances. But that ceremony is a ceremony that's been taking place for. I don't even know how long. And you can see it. You can see couples that you can see a relationship start there. That becomes a marriage. And there's people that go there that are, oh yeah. I met my wife here and you can see young, a young, a young gentlemen, dancing with a girl, go look at them, look at them. I bet you, they get married. You see that is a different form of time. That is sacred time. That has time in which you get to experience it. It's almost like time traveling versus the time when you wake up, you get in your car and you go to work. There's nothing sacred about that time. That's time that has been stolen from you and people are selling back to you. That's profane time. And that's what the mechanistic world does is it makes things profane. Only an organism, only something bigger than yourself can participate in something that's sacred, where there's, there can be no sacred where there is no sacrifice and too many people today sacrifice for the company. They sacrifice for the corporation. They sacrifice so that the people on the very top can have a giant boat and go to St. Bart's bang, huggers. The same, the same guy that's out there, banging hookers. We think his daughter thinks of them. Do you think Jeff Bezos kids think about it? It's like I even have kids. They probably hate them on my, I live on in Hawaii and in, I live on a wahoo and there's an island outside of here called Lanai. And it was recently bought by Larry Ellison. And you hear some interesting stories just to give you an idea. This guy bought the four seasons and made it his house. Just think about how crazy that is. I'd actually gone. I've gone. They're not seen at stayed at that place before it's gargantuan. It looks like a, a shopping mall, but nicer. He was like, how does make this my house? The guy has a boat. That's like the same size as an aircraft carrier. He parks it over here in a wall. Sometimes. You know what else he does? He's got a numbering system for people that can talk to him. If you're a five, you're not allowed to look at them. If you're a four, you can look at them, but you can't talk to them. If you're a three, you can look at him and greet him. If you're a two, you can talk to him on a level that is superficial. And if you're a one you can call, you know, his son is a four. Think about that, what's it? What is it? What's it feel like to have all the money in the world to own an island and own an aircraft carrier, and then to tell your son, he can't even look at you. What? A giant piece of shit, right? That, that is so sad to me. Would you, would you rather be that, is that what you want? You have all the money in the world have nothing. How many people do want that though? In fact, why don't we celebrate people like that all over TV? What do you see? Real Housewives, big yachts, nice cars. People all jacked up. Like what, what kind of world do you think we're going to get? When we put that all over TV? What kind of world are we going to get? When we emphasize, Hey, here's what's why is there nothing beautiful on TV, right? Why is all the music just like, look, there's still great music out there. Don't get me wrong. But the commercialization, the commodification, it has stripped the beauty. It has stripped the very fiber out of the nutritious world in which we should be eating from what's wrong with putting someone beautiful on TV. That is wholesome. What's wrong with putting someone on TV who stands up for what's, right? What's wrong with putting someone on TV who is an incredibly hardworking person that maybe doesn't have everything, you know, what's wrong with that? Who are these people that want to put on TV? Just as garbage? It makes me think. It makes me think who are the gatekeepers? Who are they? I may have told you this story, but let me run this through, through this one again, I know a couple of guys who are brilliant writers. They're beautiful. They're not only beautiful. Writers are beautiful humans. And they had written this story. That was so beautiful. And it was like a Christmas story. You guys ever seen that? It's just like this. It follows the hero's journey. You know, you come up on adversity, you hear the call. You decide it's too much for you. You can't do it. But then you meet a hero. Then you meet a mentor and that mentor shows you the way to do it. He can't walk through the door, but he can show it to you. And he does. And then you walk through it and you're forever changed. That's the hero's journey. And these guys wrote this story. That was beautiful. But when they submitted it, they sold the script. They submitted it to this old goat. And this old goat said, you know what? This is ridiculous. This guy should get divorced. His kid should die. Like imagine taking something beautiful and saying, you know what we have to do to the scene. We have to make it garbage. We have to make this ugly and disgusting. Mike, that's being done on purpose. Like, think about that. This old goat, this old ridiculous goat. And I don't mean greatest of all times. I mean like, you know, one of the money changers, you know what I mean? One of these guys, I think want nothing more than to just put hate and anger and just disgusting thing out in the world that they love that they love it because they're the money changers and the money changers love everything. That's disgusting because they're disgusting. I could keep going, but I think I'm going to cut this one short. All right, ladies and gentlemen. So that was a journey. We started off talking about my book. We ended up on some money changers, but I think we solve some of the world's problems right here. And I'm going to be back tomorrow with a little bit more about, I'm going to give you guys the beginning of my book. I'm going to go ahead and see if you guys can give me some feedback and let me know what you think. And as always guys, if you want to reach out to me, you want to be on the podcast or you just want to send some messages my way or some criticisms. I love criticism. You know, I always want to get better. So reach out to me@georgepmontyatgmail.com. That's George Monty at gmail.com. Send me a line and let me know if you want to hook up, get on the show, or if you have anything you want to talk about, let me know. All right, hold on. 

For Educational Purposes Only. The Author, Creators and Producers own their content and book

Tara Sutphen CHt & Jason D McKean CHt will talk about intellective qualities. The Greek philosophers acknowledged several kinds of ψυχὴ, the nutritive, the sensitive, and the intellective.But that the impassivity of the sensitive and intellective power is not similar, is evident in the sensoria and in sense.The three heads signify the intellective, dianoetic, and doxatic powers.THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIESCome Join Us on FB LIVE "Contact Talk Radio" Page 9am PDT/Noon EDT ctrnetwork.com

In this episode, I speak with Thomas Hatsis, psychedelic historian and author of several books on the use of entheogens throughout history (The Witches' Ointment, Psychedelic Mystery Traditions, and LSD The Wonder Child: The Golden Age of Psychedelic Research). Tom and I discuss the the importance of maintaining historical methodologies and integrity when writing psychedelic history. We talk about the use of entheogens in the ancient world and medieval period, especially their possible use in the Eleusinian and Dionisian mysteries, and in the much maligned witches' ointment. We also discuss where the psychedelic movement is heading and whether the psychedelic community can avoid the mistakes of the past. Tom's website: https://psychedelichistorian.com/ Psanctum Psychedelia https://psanctum.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/psychedelichistorian/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychedelichistorian/ The Witches' Ointment Inner Traditions: https://www.innertraditions.com/books/the-witches-ointment Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/the-witches-ointment-the-secret-history-of-psychedelic-magic/9781620554739 Psychedelic Mystery Traditions Inner Traditions: https://www.innertraditions.com/books/psychedelic-mystery-traditions Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/psychedelic-mystery-traditions-spirit-plants-magical-practices-and-ecstatic-states/9781620558003 LSD The Wonder Child Inner Traditions: https://www.innertraditions.com/books/lsd-the-wonder-child Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/lsd-the-wonder-child-the-golden-age-of-psychedelic-research-in-the-1950s/9781644112564 Support Rebel Spirit Radio https://paypal.me/rebelspiritradio Connect with Rebel Spirit on Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebelspiritradio Twitter: @RebelSpiritRad Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebelspiritradio/ https://www.rebelspiritradio.com

Freemasonry is one of the most commonly misunderstood institutions in Western culture. This is partially by design: its ritual is closely wrapped in a long-held tradition of secrecy. WB Milosz Jeziorski traces the origins of ritual, the ancient traditions that influenced it; and the connections to Freemasonry.SHOW LINKS:Listen to the Creative Codex Podcast... https://plinkhq.com/i/1430850607"What is Freemasonry?" presentation at Livingston Library... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYysFdeUoiQ

We talk about Doja Cat and The Weeknd's occult-riddled video "You Right!" They show us the Eleusinian mysteries of the ancient mystery schools that the Illuminati have been putting into entertainment and we'll talk about it! We briefly cover some talk on Britney and my new alien book in the housekeeping! Check out all the images discussed on the show at Instagram.com/IsaacWeishaupt Links:Shows mentioned:Raised by Wolves series (for Mithraic Mysteries) Part One: https://illuminatiwatcher.com/raised-by-wolves-analysis-pt-1-romes-origins-ridley-scott-atheists-vs-pagan-mithras-cult-episodes-1-4/The Weeknd Super Bowl: https://illuminatiwatcher.com/the-weeknd-super-bowl-illuminati-symbolism-ritual-of-hollywood-hell/Go ad-free with bonus content in the VIP Section: https://illuminatiwatcher.com/members-section/Peep all the images discussed on the show at Instagram.com/IsaacWeishaupt ALIENS, UFOS AND THE OCCULT BOOK SERIES NOW UP ON AMAZON (Audible version is now up for UYI1 and mid-July for UYI2!): https://amzn.to/3j3UtZz Get bonus content AND go commercial free + other perks with 3 options:1. VIP: Due to the threat of censorship, I set up a Patreon-type system through MY OWN website! It's the VIP section of illuminatiwatcher.com! It's even setup the same: FREE ebooks, Kubrick's Code video, Tier 2+ shoutouts, Tier 3 Livestreams! Sign up at: https://illuminatiwatcher.com/members-section/2. Patreon: Get free ebooks, bonus content, no commercials at Patreon.com/IlluminatiWatcher! 3. ROKFIN: Check out my new PRIVATE show! I'm now on the Rokfin network! Check out all the premium bonus content of Conspiracy Theories & Unpopular Culture podcast AND an exclusive new podcast “INSIDE THE MIND OF A CONSPIRACY THEORIST” (*one subscription gets you all my bonus content as well as all other creators like Tin Foil Hat's Sam Tripoli, Mike Cernovich, Whitney Webb and more!): https://www.rokfin.com/creator/isaac [**Rokfin also gets the uncensored version and commercial free version of my third podcast- “BREAKING SOCIAL NORMS” with Mrs. Weishaupt (we talk about trending topics, marriage and self-help with a dash of conspiracy!)]More from Isaac- special offers:1. Check out another free podcast I make with my wife called the BREAKING SOCIAL NORMS podcast! You can get it free wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-social-norms/id1557527024?uo=4). You can get the Uncensored and commercial-free option available at https://www.rokfin.com/creator/isaac2. Signed paperbacks, coffee mugs, shirts, FREE copy of The V@cc1ne Controversy & other merch: Gumroad.com/IsaacW3. Get 4 books for $5: https://illuminatiwatcher.com/how-to-get-free-books/4. ALIENS, UFOS & THE OCCULT IS NOW UP ON AMAZON AND AUDIBLE (*author narrated): https://amzn.to/3j3UtZz5. Enjoy some audiobooks and support the show! Go to Audible.com/Illuminati or text “Illuminati” to 500-500 to start your free 30 day FREE trial6. If you want to hear more from me AND also want to support the show, search for "Isaac Weishaupt" on Audible and pick up my narrated audiobooks! My most popular book- THE DARK PATH! https://www.audible.com/pd/B0759MN23F/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-095441&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_095441_rh_us AND the popular alien books USE YOUR ILLUSION are also on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B08NRXFNDM/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-223105&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_223105_rh_us7. My show's sponsors- get discounts while you support the show and do a little self improvement! Get 10% off your first month of starting your happier life at BetterHelp.com/IlluminatiWatcher AND get free 30 day trial to great audiobooks at Audible.com/Illuminati (or text “illuminati” to 500-500)*Want to advertise/sponsor our show?
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OUTER DIMENSION PREMIERE 192 Track Title: @atismusic - Eleusinian Mystery Album Title: Lilith's Voyage Label: @stellarephere Catalogue Number: STR03 Format: Digital Release Date: April 12th, 2021 Music by Matijs Guypen Artwork by Niels Orens Mastered by Maxime Mouttet Follow Atis here: www.soundcloud.com/atismusic www.facebook.com/atismusic www.instagram.com/___atis Follow Stellar Transitions here: www.soundcloud.com/stellarephere www.facebook.com/stellartransitions www.instagram.com/stellartransitions OUTER DIMENSION www.soundcloud.com/outerdimension www.instagram.com/outerdimension www.facebook.com/OUTERDIMENSION www.formaviva.com/outer-dimension Premiere Requests, Infos & Promos outerdimension.au@gmail.com

When the new episode train starts runnin', you know you best get out of the way. And so we barrel down the tracks to episode 2, which is still technically part of the introduction to this monster of a topic, if you can believe it. Here, we cover a bit more of the Eleusinian mysteries, some additional weirdness involving Pythagoras, the ideas behind hermeticism, and of course the mysteries of Solomon's Temple. We learn some more about how ancient secret societies may have influenced, and been influenced by, Christianity, and how this intermingling of ideas would impact future secret societies. Plus, we've got some dumbfucks saying dumbfuck things about all of the above. Enjoy, and we'll see you in another couple of weeks. Oh--and please do check out our sister show, Bros and Brews, whose promo is at the end of this episode.Great Courses: The Real History of Secret Societies, By Richard D. SpenceHistorical Introduction to the New Testament and Lost Christianities by Bart D. EhrmanAll music copyright 2021 The Paranoid Strain Orchestra Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Eleusinian Mysteries (Ancient Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were mystery religious rites celebrated annually at the shrine of Demeter in the ancient Greek city of Eleusis. The mysteries depicted the myth of Persephone's abduction from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a three-stage cycle; the descent (loss), the search and the ascent, with the main theme being Persephone's ascent (άνοδος) and reunion with her mother. The Eleusinian mysteries, like Orphism and the Dionysian mysteries, have their remote roots in protohistory, from Cretan, Asian, Thracian traditions, enriched and integrated into a new religious horizon.Enjoy what you hear? Consider signing up via email to be notified about new uploads.And if you feel like offering me a cup of coffee each month, consider subscribing to Mixcloud Select.Tracklist:Gigi Masin - StillVenetian ambient. Taken from 2014 compilation album "Talk to the Sea".Memotone - EusapiaLoving the balance between electronic and acoustic sounds.Depeche Mode - Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Soft Mix)One of the two remixes published in 1997. The Hard mix is a testament to Underworld's raving skills.Oneohtrix Point Never - Trance 1Taken from Brooklyn based producer's "The Station" EP published in 2018.Afterlife - Take Me Inside feat. Danni Minogue (Christophe Goze Mix)Kylie and Danni are a bit like Beyonce and Solange: the less popular one is the one who ends up doing the most interesting things.Roseaux - Mè Ni Wè (feat. Blick Bassy)This 2019 song by French trio benefits from the sumptuous vocals by Cameroonian-born Blick Bassy. Mellow.MARTIN $KY, Oatmello - Different PagesMy favorite style of lofi hiphop.Weldon Irvine - Ghetto LamentA moving song by unsung hero Weldon Irvine, recorded live in 1977. Among the first recorded appeareances of Marcus Miller (who was 18 at the time).Joe Henderson - Black NarcissusWe don't need to explain the importance of this tune in modern jazz, do we?Pharoah Sanders - Astral TravellingBack when Lonnie Liston Smith was still working on his trademark Fender Rhodes sound.Dedekind Cut - VirtuesAiry.Arvo Pärt - Für Alina (Arr. Pat Metheny For 42 String Guitar)Taken from Pat Metheny's latest album "Road to the Sun" published in 2021.Bill Evans - Solo (in Memory of His Father)I've been wanting to include this 12-min improvisation included in "Live at Town Hall" (1966) in a mix for a while. Now's the time.Apple Podcast

This mind meld is sponsored by the mushroom alchemists at Four Sigmatic! Get up to 39% off their cognitive-boosting potions here. Brian Muraresku is the bestselling author of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. It's a vast, highly entertaining investigation of the use of visionary substances in the ancient world and, more deeply, what spirituality really was to our ancestors.  In this mind meld, we riff on-- Ancient initiatory traditions like the Eleusinian and Dionysian mysteries. The lost art of greek contemplative practices Why modern religions have largely become inert How to connect back to the numinous directly Was the original eucharist psychedelic? Why the secret of it all is to “die before you die.” Support Third Eye Drops: For a full write-up and more pop over to THIRDEYEDROPS.com  Give us a psychic smooch by leaving us a 5 star review on iTunes! For rewards and podcast extras, become a patron!

In which I celebrate a mysterious ancient Greek rite of passage, sing badly, and rant about how essential derivative art is.2020 Attic Calendar: http://www.epistemeacademy.org/calendars/yearly_calendar.html?year1=2020&vADBC=AD&CCode=Attic&day=284More information on the Eleusinian Mysteries: http://www.epistemeacademy.org/calendars/documents/Eleusinian.pdfMartha Wainwright singing her mother's song 'Proserpina':https://youtu.be/0CfwGwhcycIA symphony/video performance of Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd in 'The Rabbit of Seville' at the Hollywood Bowl:https://youtu.be/qdSm12O11Gg'Write Like a Motherfucker' advice column by Dear Sugar a.k.a. Cheryl Strayed:https://therumpus.net/2010/08/dear-sugar-the-rumpus-advice-column-48-write-like-a-motherfucker/Strayed's book 'Wild' is also a movie with Reese Witherspoon; here's all the places you can stream/rent/buy it:https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=wild

Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, Hymn to Minerva

Virgil’s description of the fortunate abodes

There were secret Greek ceremonies held underground quite a few thousand years ago. The Eleusinian mysteries were a time to be alive. High anddd underground! Just imagine it! ♫ Credit: Abandoned Cemetery by TeknoAXE's Royalty Free Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMDk3q27NgQ https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Hyqsw7GWssXIOVgy36ohS

Topics include:Stopover in Halala, Cappadocia. Pacification and inspection tour of the Middle East. Hermogenes, a fifteen-year-old sophist. Jewish rabbi Judah the Prince, editor of the Mishnah.Winter of 175-6 in Alexandria (jewel of Roman Empire). Back north, Tarsus and through the Cilician Gates, long stopover at Smyrna. Aelius Aristides dream interpretation. Athens sponsor, and early in life teacher, Herodes Atticus. Commodus and Marcus initiated in the infamous, Eleusinian mysteries.Ionian Sea crossing to Italy. Ordered Aurelian Column. Commodus toga virilis and proclaimed the leader of the knights. At 16, becomes co-emperor. Concerns about Commodus.Galen’s treatment for fever. Operational and war management duties. Sent Valerius Maximianus and task force called Vexillationes, to deal with the upsurge in northern frontier.178 return to Norther frontier and made Commodus join, despite a complete lack of interest in fighting a war. Iazyges granted new benefits and rights. Blistering attacks on the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Hermunduri. Scorched-earth policy. Despite carnage, army in high spirits in its winter quarters at Trencin. The prevalent feeling, the final mopping-up campaign would be completed the following spring in 180.Chapter highlights of Harmony’s Secret (Interactive)Marcus lesson plan on Tranquility encourages Harmony to see things from a perspective not seen before. Nothing is pleasurable all the time but pursuit.Harmony breaks the spell of the powerful illusion of self and has a lot of fun doing it.  She constructs her journal with wit and charm from the voice of her daily changing ego. And in the format of a Stoic, with AM/PM entries. In addition to the final lesson review, Marcus also provides one page summaries of his twelve, famous Meditations

In Episode 11 of the Secret Teachings Study we look at the Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies of the Eleusinian, Orphic and Dionysiac Mystery schools. This is part 3 of a chapter study from Manly Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages. You can jump into any of the Secret Teachings episodes you like (not necessarily in order), as they are all pretty self-contained. This episode we delve into the Greek Mystery Schools even deeper and look at Eleusis, the myth of Orpheus and Euridyce, and look at Dionysus and Bacchus. The secret symbolic meanings of Demeter and Ceres and Persephone are explored along with the other Mystery Schools. Join us for a great episode! Hosted by Jason Napolitano, author of If You Can Worry, You Can Meditate (available on Amazon and at CosmicEye.org) and Co-Hosted by Chris Sheridan author of Spirit in the Sky (available now on ChrisSheridan.com.) The Cosmic Eye show is a weekly metaphysical podcast where each week we talk about important spiritual books and ideas to help listeners positively transform their lives. We investigate spiritual, esoteric, and occult wisdom on a wide variety of figures such as Manly Hall, C.G. Jung, Israel Regardie, Crowley, Jordan Peterson, Alan Watts, Marie Louise Von Franz, Pythagoras, Paul Foster Case, Vivekananda, Yogananda, and others. As well as subjects such as Meditation, Yoga, Psychology, Mythology, Magick, New Thought, Men's Studies, Poetry, Art, Initiation, Ritual, Shamanism, and Folk traditions. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cosmiceye/support

How can one summarize a myth as profound as the one I offer you this week? The Homeric Hymn to Demeter gave rise to the Eleusinian mysteries, a potent, secret ritual that was performed for millennia, to liberate men and women from their fear of death. This story of mother and daughter continues to speak to us today about love, grief, and perpetual renewal. Blessed be the great mother Demeter, giver of all good gifts, and Persephone, the Great Destroyer. May we all move deeper into the sustaining mystery with each turn of the seasons.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/mythmatterspodcast)

On Thursday March 27th, 2014 Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will talk with Jo Carson, leader of Feraferia, about Eleusis and the Mysteries of Death and Rebirth. What happens to the soul after death? What can be expected in the afterlife? Jo has written a new book, Celebrate Wildness—Magic, Mirth and Love on the Feraferia Path which includes a discussion of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Mysteries of Demeter and her daughter Persephone were held at Eleusis, in Greece, for almost 2,000 years. These Mysteries had the goal of providing a first hand experience of certainty in the continuity of life after death. The Mysteries were established around 1450 BCE, and ended only when the Roman Christian emperor Theodosius I forcibly closed them in 392 CE. They were centered around the myth of Demeter, the earth mother Goddess, and her daughter Persephone. In this story, Persephone was abducted by Pluto and taken to the Underworld, and eventually was able to return. This myth provided a key to giving real revelations to the population of that world. Thousands of people journeyed to Eleusis each Fall to experience the Eleusinian Mysteries, which means hundreds of thousands were initiated. However, so tight was the secrecy, or so inexpressible was the experience, that no one has ever revealed its profound secrets. We will explore what is known, what is conjectured, and how Feraferia honors the Eleusinian experience. So tune in and peek behind the veil of death.  

Two fixed sign senators were making headlines this week during the Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation hearings. Learn why Senators Booker and Harris went after Kavanaugh particularly hard. Also, let's take a deeper dive into Virgo and the Eleusinian mysteries and say happy birthday to our favorite celebrities including Taraji Henson, Michelle Williams, Tom Hardy and others. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/starpower/support

Clark Aitkins of St. Sarah's Parish looks at the commonalities in symbolism between the initiatory rites of Eleusis, the symbolism found in Gnosticism, and the miracle of the Holy Fire in the Holy Sepulchre of Christianity. 

CROWD-SPONSOR THIRD EYE DROPS, GET REWARDS and PAY-OFF KARMIC DEBT on PATREON Jerry B. Brown, Ph.D., is an anthropologist, author and activist. From 1972-2014, he served as Founding Professor of Anthropology at Florida International University in Miami, where he designed and taught a course on “Hallucinogens and Culture.” The course examines the use of psychoactive plants by tribal and classical cultures, including Ancient India and Greece, and by and discusses the discoveries of the modern mind-explorers, the “psychonauts of the twentieth century.” His latest book, The Psychedelic Gospels is available now at psychedelicgospels.com For a full write-up and a visual guide to this episode THIRDEYEDROPS.com

Hey guys, welcome to episode 293! We're finally nearly the Tercentenary! Tonight we welcome author Martin Adil-Smith to the show. The discussion included: Politics, independent writing, the Eleusinian Mysteries, Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, and much more. Enjoy! Links: Find Martin: … Continue reading → The post Episode 293 – Independent writers, Joss Whedon, and the Eleusinian mysteries w/ Martin Adil-Smith appeared first on The Alexxcast.

A love story of life and death, journey with Campbell into the beautiful tale of the mother goddess Demeter, her daughter goddess Persephone, and Hades - the bad boy god of the Greek Underworld. Listen to their tale and learn the mysteries that lie within... Walk the path of the ancient Mystery Religion of Eleusis to discover how the ancient goddess Persephone held the secrets of life, death, and the rebirth of the human soul in her hands... until her worship was outlawed.  Shownotes & Recommended Resources: Eleusis: Archetype of Mother and Daughter by Carl Kerenyi, Plato and the Mysteries of Eleusis by Edouard Schure, The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts by Marvin Meyer, The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman.    Friend us on Facebook.com/cwhatliesbeyond or Tweet us @cwhatliesbeyond and join us at www.cwhatliesbeyond.com What Lies Beyond © Anu Esoteric Media The voice of What Lies Beyond is C.C. Campbell, author of The Stolen Light of Women.

Join us this week for a look into a unique household item as well as a peek into the world of the ancient Eleusinian mystery schools. App extras are the magazine we read from and a Masonic wallpaper for your mobile device. Thanks for listening and have a wild and amazing week!   Links: The Scottish Rite NMJ Scottish Rite Day Support the show! Buy a Pin Alpha Brain  

David Mathisen, author of  “The Undying Stars – The Truth that Unites the Worlds Ancient Wisdom and the Conspiracy to Keep it From You”. Get deep into the myth of the stars, the moon and the planets in relation to ancient wisdom. They chat about the big picture of the past and how all these myths intertwine and how are there so many similarities. Is all of this history really just metaphors and allegory? Hamlet’s Mill comes up again.  http://mathisencorollary.blogspot.ca/2011/06/vindication-for-thor-heyerdahl.html  https://twitter.com/davidwmathisen  http://www.davidmathisen.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSWJ9P9Tv8b  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61EEm1fH3lU&feature=youtu.be  links for Odds and Ends discussed in this episode: http://princessbrideforever.com/  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1439.Hamlet_s_Mill  planet of the apes   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/  http://www.crystalinks.com/eleusinian.html  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid  ghost dance and wounded knee http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm  Randall Carlson http://sacredgeometryinternational.com/  http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-of-the-Three-Kings/dp/B0002I9S6W  In this Intro:  Darren and Graham…. Big thanks to Jim!! Be like Jim and spread the work and word of Grimerica. Helps us out big time and gives Grimerica more clout to wrangle interesting guests. Listener emails are shared and some feedback, lots of interest in Scott Russell’s last episode.  Grimerica’s Honey DoBeDoBeDo List: !! Help the show, contribute via the 50/50 MoneyBomb. Every month we gift half our proceeds back to one of you. Value for Value. Thanks for listening!! $25 or more gets you a T=shirt. While limited supplies last $5 gets you a Grimerica email address: http://www.grimerica.ca/moneybomb/   Listen live and join the chat: www.Mixlr.com/grimerica . check out the updated schedule @: http://www.grimerica.ca/backstage/  Send us a postcard: http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/  Sign up for our newsletter  http://www.grimerica.ca/news Leave a comment, ideas and guest/topic suggestions under any episode or blog http://www.grimerica.ca/  Leave a voicemail http://www.grimerica.ca/  SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trips. graham@grimerica.com Tweet Darren https://twitter.com/Grimerica  Leave a review on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-grimerica-show/id653314424?mt=2#  Thanks to Wayne Darnell for help with the website. http://www.darnelldigitalink.com/  Check out the Paradigm Symposium 2015. We will be there again!! Year 4 http://paradigmsymposium.com/  http://www.live365.com/stations/roccijstucci    MUSIC Grimerica Theme - Lock & Key X Files Dub - Dibway Beatfresh Die Die Little Star - Ren Jaws   Thru The Ozone Earth - The Orb

The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident (1077.1) 98:0.1 THE Melchizedek teachings entered Europe along many routes, but chiefly they came by way of Egypt and were embodied in Occidental philosophy after being thoroughly Hellenized and later Christianized. The ideals of the Western world were basically Socratic, and its later religious philosophy became that of Jesus as it was modified and compromised through contact with evolving Occidental philosophy and religion, all of which culminated in the Christian church. (1077.2) 98:0.2 For a long time in Europe the Salem missionaries carried on their activities, becoming gradually absorbed into many of the cults and ritual groups which periodically arose. Among those who maintained the Salem teachings in the purest form must be mentioned the Cynics. These preachers of faith and trust in God were still functioning in Roman Europe in the first century after Christ, being later incorporated into the newly forming Christian religion. (1077.3) 98:0.3 Much of the Salem doctrine was spread in Europe by the Jewish mercenary soldiers who fought in so many of the Occidental military struggles. In ancient times the Jews were famed as much for military valor as for theologic peculiarities. (1077.4) 98:0.4 The basic doctrines of Greek philosophy, Jewish theology, and Christian ethics were fundamentally repercussions of the earlier Melchizedek teachings. 1. The Salem Religion Among the Greeks (1077.5) 98:1.1 The Salem missionaries might have built up a great religious structure among the Greeks had it not been for their strict interpretation of their oath of ordination, a pledge imposed by Machiventa which forbade the organization of exclusive congregations for worship, and which exacted the promise of each teacher never to function as a priest, never to receive fees for religious service, only food, clothing, and shelter. When the Melchizedek teachers penetrated to pre-Hellenic Greece, they found a people who still fostered the traditions of Adamson and the days of the Andites, but these teachings had become greatly adulterated with the notions and beliefs of the hordes of inferior slaves that had been brought to the Greek shores in increasing numbers. This adulteration produced a reversion to a crude animism with bloody rites, the lower classes even making ceremonial out of the execution of condemned criminals. (1077.6) 98:1.2 The early influence of the Salem teachers was nearly destroyed by the so-called Aryan invasion from southern Europe and the East. These Hellenic invaders brought along with them anthropomorphic God concepts similar to those which their Aryan fellows had carried to India. This importation inaugurated the evolution of the Greek family of gods and goddesses. This new religion was partly based on the cults of the incoming Hellenic barbarians, but it also shared in the myths of the older inhabitants of Greece. (1078.1) 98:1.3 The Hellenic Greeks found the Mediterranean world largely dominated by the mother cult, and they imposed upon these peoples their man-god, Dyaus-Zeus, who had already become, like Yahweh among the henotheistic Semites, head of the whole Greek pantheon of subordinate gods. And the Greeks would have eventually achieved a true monotheism in the concept of Zeus except for their retention of the overcontrol of Fate. A God of final value must, himself, be the arbiter of fate and the creator of destiny. (1078.2) 98:1.4 As a consequence of these factors in religious evolution, there presently developed the popular belief in the happy-go-lucky gods of Mount Olympus, gods more human than divine, and gods which the intelligent Greeks never did regard very seriously. They neither greatly loved nor greatly feared these divinities of their own creation. They had a patriotic and racial feeling for Zeus and his family of half men and half gods, but they hardly reverenced or worshiped them. (1078.3) 98:1.5 The Hellenes became so impregnated with the antipriestcraft doctrines of the earlier Salem teachers that no priesthood of any importance ever arose in Greece. Even the making of images to the gods became more of a work in art than a matter of worship. (1078.4) 98:1.6 The Olympian gods illustrate man’s typical anthropomorphism. But the Greek mythology was more aesthetic than ethic. The Greek religion was helpful in that it portrayed a universe governed by a deity group. But Greek morals, ethics, and philosophy presently advanced far beyond the god concept, and this imbalance between intellectual and spiritual growth was as hazardous to Greece as it had proved to be in India. 2. Greek Philosophic Thought (1078.5) 98:2.1 A lightly regarded and superficial religion cannot endure, especially when it has no priesthood to foster its forms and to fill the hearts of the devotees with fear and awe. The Olympian religion did not promise salvation, nor did it quench the spiritual thirst of its believers; therefore was it doomed to perish. Within a millennium of its inception it had nearly vanished, and the Greeks were without a national religion, the gods of Olympus having lost their hold upon the better minds. (1078.6) 98:2.2 This was the situation when, during the sixth century before Christ, the Orient and the Levant experienced a revival of spiritual consciousness and a new awakening to the recognition of monotheism. But the West did not share in this new development; neither Europe nor northern Africa extensively participated in this religious renaissance. The Greeks, however, did engage in a magnificent intellectual advancement. They had begun to master fear and no longer sought religion as an antidote therefor, but they did not perceive that true religion is the cure for soul hunger, spiritual disquiet, and moral despair. They sought for the solace of the soul in deep thinking — philosophy and metaphysics. They turned from the contemplation of self-preservation — salvation — to self-realization and self-understanding. (1078.7) 98:2.3 By rigorous thought the Greeks attempted to attain that consciousness of security which would serve as a substitute for the belief in survival, but they utterly failed. Only the more intelligent among the higher classes of the Hellenic peoples could grasp this new teaching; the rank and file of the progeny of the slaves of former generations had no capacity for the reception of this new substitute for religion. (1079.1) 98:2.4 The philosophers disdained all forms of worship, notwithstanding that they practically all held loosely to the background of a belief in the Salem doctrine of “the Intelligence of the universe,” “the idea of God,” and “the Great Source.” In so far as the Greek philosophers gave recognition to the divine and the superfinite, they were frankly monotheistic; they gave scant recognition to the whole galaxy of Olympian gods and goddesses. (1079.2) 98:2.5 The Greek poets of the fifth and sixth centuries, notably Pindar, attempted the reformation of Greek religion. They elevated its ideals, but they were more artists than religionists. They failed to develop a technique for fostering and conserving supreme values. (1079.3) 98:2.6 Xenophanes taught one God, but his deity concept was too pantheistic to be a personal Father to mortal man. Anaxagoras was a mechanist except that he did recognize a First Cause, an Initial Mind. Socrates and his successors, Plato and Aristotle, taught that virtue is knowledge; goodness, health of the soul; that it is better to suffer injustice than to be guilty of it, that it is wrong to return evil for evil, and that the gods are wise and good. Their cardinal virtues were: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. (1079.4) 98:2.7 The evolution of religious philosophy among the Hellenic and Hebrew peoples affords a contrastive illustration of the function of the church as an institution in the shaping of cultural progress. In Palestine, human thought was so priest-controlled and scripture-directed that philosophy and aesthetics were entirely submerged in religion and morality. In Greece, the almost complete absence of priests and “sacred scriptures” left the human mind free and unfettered, resulting in a startling development in depth of thought. But religion as a personal experience failed to keep pace with the intellectual probings into the nature and reality of the cosmos. (1079.5) 98:2.8 In Greece, believing was subordinated to thinking; in Palestine, thinking was held subject to believing. Much of the strength of Christianity is due to its having borrowed heavily from both Hebrew morality and Greek thought. (1079.6) 98:2.9 In Palestine, religious dogma became so crystallized as to jeopardize further growth; in Greece, human thought became so abstract that the concept of God resolved itself into a misty vapor of pantheistic speculation not at all unlike the impersonal Infinity of the Brahman philosophers. (1079.7) 98:2.10 But the average men of these times could not grasp, nor were they much interested in, the Greek philosophy of self-realization and an abstract Deity; they rather craved promises of salvation, coupled with a personal God who could hear their prayers. They exiled the philosophers, persecuted the remnants of the Salem cult, both doctrines having become much blended, and made ready for that terrible orgiastic plunge into the follies of the mystery cults which were then overspreading the Mediterranean lands. The Eleusinian mysteries grew up within the Olympian pantheon, a Greek version of the worship of fertility; Dionysus nature worship flourished; the best of the cults was the Orphic brotherhood, whose moral preachments and promises of salvation made a great appeal to many. (1080.1) 98:2.11 All Greece became involved in these new methods of attaining salvation, these emotional and fiery ceremonials. No nation ever attained such heights of artistic philosophy in so short a time; none ever created such an advanced system of ethics practically without Deity and entirely devoid of the promise of human salvation; no nation ever plunged so quickly, deeply, and violently into such depths of intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual poverty as these same Greek peoples when they flung themselves into the mad whirl of the mystery cults. (1080.2) 98:2.12 Religions have long endured without philosophical support, but few philosophies, as such, have long persisted without some identification with religion. Philosophy is to religion as conception is to action. But the ideal human estate is that in which philosophy, religion, and science are welded into a meaningful unity by the conjoined action of wisdom, faith, and experience. 3. The Melchizedek Teachings in Rome (1080.3) 98:3.1 Having grown out of the earlier religious forms of worship of the family gods into the tribal reverence for Mars, the god of war, it was natural that the later religion of the Latins was more of a political observance than were the intellectual systems of the Greeks and Brahmans or the more spiritual religions of several other peoples. (1080.4) 98:3.2 In the great monotheistic renaissance of Melchizedek’s gospel during the sixth century before Christ, too few of the Salem missionaries penetrated Italy, and those who did were unable to overcome the influence of the rapidly spreading Etruscan priesthood with its new galaxy of gods and temples, all of which became organized into the Roman state religion. This religion of the Latin tribes was not trivial and venal like that of the Greeks, neither was it austere and tyrannical like that of the Hebrews; it consisted for the most part in the observance of mere forms, vows, and taboos. (1080.5) 98:3.3 Roman religion was greatly influenced by extensive cultural importations from Greece. Eventually most of the Olympian gods were transplanted and incorporated into the Latin pantheon. The Greeks long worshiped the fire of the family hearth — Hestia was the virgin goddess of the hearth; Vesta was the Roman goddess of the home. Zeus became Jupiter; Aphrodite, Venus; and so on down through the many Olympian deities. (1080.6) 98:3.4 The religious initiation of Roman youths was the occasion of their solemn consecration to the service of the state. Oaths and admissions to citizenship were in reality religious ceremonies. The Latin peoples maintained temples, altars, and shrines and, in a crisis, would consult the oracles. They preserved the bones of heroes and later on those of the Christian saints. (1080.7) 98:3.5 This formal and unemotional form of pseudoreligious patriotism was doomed to collapse, even as the highly intellectual and artistic worship of the Greeks had gone down before the fervid and deeply emotional worship of the mystery cults. The greatest of these devastating cults was the mystery religion of the Mother of God sect, which had its headquarters, in those days, on the exact site of the present church of St. Peter’s in Rome. (1080.8) 98:3.6 The emerging Roman state conquered politically but was in turn conquered by the cults, rituals, mysteries, and god concepts of Egypt, Greece, and the Levant. These imported cults continued to flourish throughout the Roman state up to the time of Augustus, who, purely for political and civic reasons, made a heroic and somewhat successful effort to destroy the mysteries and revive the older political religion. (1081.1) 98:3.7 One of the priests of the state religion told Augustus of the earlier attempts of the Salem teachers to spread the doctrine of one God, a final Deity presiding over all supernatural beings; and this idea took such a firm hold on the emperor that he built many temples, stocked them well with beautiful images, reorganized the state priesthood, re-established the state religion, appointed himself acting high priest of all, and as emperor did not hesitate to proclaim himself the supreme god. (1081.2) 98:3.8 This new religion of Augustus worship flourished and was observed throughout the empire during his lifetime except in Palestine, the home of the Jews. And this era of the human gods continued until the official Roman cult had a roster of more than twoscore self-elevated human deities, all claiming miraculous births and other superhuman attributes. (1081.3) 98:3.9 The last stand of the dwindling band of Salem believers was made by an earnest group of preachers, the Cynics, who exhorted the Romans to abandon their wild and senseless religious rituals and return to a form of worship embodying Melchizedek’s gospel as it had been modified and contaminated through contact with the philosophy of the Greeks. But the people at large rejected the Cynics; they preferred to plunge into the rituals of the mysteries, which not only offered hopes of personal salvation but also gratified the desire for diversion, excitement, and entertainment. 4. The Mystery Cults (1081.4) 98:4.1 The majority of people in the Greco-Roman world, having lost their primitive family and state religions and being unable or unwilling to grasp the meaning of Greek philosophy, turned their attention to the spectacular and emotional mystery cults from Egypt and the Levant. The common people craved promises of salvation — religious consolation for today and assurances of hope for immortality after death.* (1081.5) 98:4.2 The three mystery cults which became most popular were: (1081.6) 98:4.3 1. The Phrygian cult of Cybele and her son Attis. (1081.7) 98:4.4 2. The Egyptian cult of Osiris and his mother Isis. (1081.8) 98:4.5 3. The Iranian cult of the worship of Mithras as the savior and redeemer of sinful mankind. (1081.9) 98:4.6 The Phrygian and Egyptian mysteries taught that the divine son (respectively Attis and Osiris) had experienced death and had been resurrected by divine power, and further that all who were properly initiated into the mystery, and who reverently celebrated the anniversary of the god’s death and resurrection, would thereby become partakers of his divine nature and his immortality. (1081.10) 98:4.7 The Phrygian ceremonies were imposing but degrading; their bloody festivals indicate how degraded and primitive these Levantine mysteries became. The most holy day was Black Friday, the “day of blood,” commemorating the self-inflicted death of Attis. After three days of the celebration of the sacrifice and death of Attis the festival was turned to joy in honor of his resurrection. (1082.1) 98:4.8 The rituals of the worship of Isis and Osiris were more refined and impressive than were those of the Phrygian cult. This Egyptian ritual was built around the legend of the Nile god of old, a god who died and was resurrected, which concept was derived from the observation of the annually recurring stoppage of vegetation growth followed by the springtime restoration of all living plants. The frenzy of the observance of these mystery cults and the orgies of their ceremonials, which were supposed to lead up to the “enthusiasm” of the realization of divinity, were sometimes most revolting. 5. The Cult of Mithras (1082.2) 98:5.1 The Phrygian and Egyptian mysteries eventually gave way before the greatest of all the mystery cults, the worship of Mithras. The Mithraic cult made its appeal to a wide range of human nature and gradually supplanted both of its predecessors. Mithraism spread over the Roman Empire through the propagandizing of Roman legions recruited in the Levant, where this religion was the vogue, for they carried this belief wherever they went. And this new religious ritual was a great improvement over the earlier mystery cults. (1082.3) 98:5.2 The cult of Mithras arose in Iran and long persisted in its homeland despite the militant opposition of the followers of Zoroaster. But by the time Mithraism reached Rome, it had become greatly improved by the absorption of many of Zoroaster’s teachings. It was chiefly through the Mithraic cult that Zoroaster’s religion exerted an influence upon later appearing Christianity. (1082.4) 98:5.3 The Mithraic cult portrayed a militant god taking origin in a great rock, engaging in valiant exploits, and causing water to gush forth from a rock struck with his arrows. There was a flood from which one man escaped in a specially built boat and a last supper which Mithras celebrated with the sun-god before he ascended into the heavens. This sun-god, or Sol Invictus, was a degeneration of the Ahura-Mazda deity concept of Zoroastrianism. Mithras was conceived as the surviving champion of the sun-god in his struggle with the god of darkness. And in recognition of his slaying the mythical sacred bull, Mithras was made immortal, being exalted to the station of intercessor for the human race among the gods on high. (1082.5) 98:5.4 The adherents of this cult worshiped in caves and other secret places, chanting hymns, mumbling magic, eating the flesh of the sacrificial animals, and drinking the blood. Three times a day they worshiped, with special weekly ceremonials on the day of the sun-god and with the most elaborate observance of all on the annual festival of Mithras, December twenty-fifth. It was believed that the partaking of the sacrament ensured eternal life, the immediate passing, after death, to the bosom of Mithras, there to tarry in bliss until the judgment day. On the judgment day the Mithraic keys of heaven would unlock the gates of Paradise for the reception of the faithful; whereupon all the unbaptized of the living and the dead would be annihilated upon the return of Mithras to earth. It was taught that, when a man died, he went before Mithras for judgment, and that at the end of the world Mithras would summon all the dead from their graves to face the last judgment. The wicked would be destroyed by fire, and the righteous would reign with Mithras forever. (1082.6) 98:5.5 At first it was a religion only for men, and there were seven different orders into which believers could be successively initiated. Later on, the wives and daughters of believers were admitted to the temples of the Great Mother, which adjoined the Mithraic temples. The women’s cult was a mixture of Mithraic ritual and the ceremonies of the Phrygian cult of Cybele, the mother of Attis. 6. Mithraism and Christianity (1083.1) 98:6.1 Prior to the coming of the mystery cults and Christianity, personal religion hardly developed as an independent institution in the civilized lands of North Africa and Europe; it was more of a family, city-state, political, and imperial affair. The Hellenic Greeks never evolved a centralized worship system; the ritual was local; they had no priesthood and no “sacred book.” Much as the Romans, their religious institutions lacked a powerful driving agency for the preservation of higher moral and spiritual values. While it is true that the institutionalization of religion has usually detracted from its spiritual quality, it is also a fact that no religion has thus far succeeded in surviving without the aid of institutional organization of some degree, greater or lesser. (1083.2) 98:6.2 Occidental religion thus languished until the days of the Skeptics, Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics, but most important of all, until the times of the great contest between Mithraism and Paul’s new religion of Christianity. (1083.3) 98:6.3 During the third century after Christ, Mithraic and Christian churches were very similar both in appearance and in the character of their ritual. A majority of such places of worship were underground, and both contained altars whose backgrounds variously depicted the sufferings of the savior who had brought salvation to a sin-cursed human race. (1083.4) 98:6.4 Always had it been the practice of Mithraic worshipers, on entering the temple, to dip their fingers in holy water. And since in some districts there were those who at one time belonged to both religions, they introduced this custom into the majority of the Christian churches in the vicinity of Rome. Both religions employed baptism and partook of the sacrament of bread and wine. The one great difference between Mithraism and Christianity, aside from the characters of Mithras and Jesus, was that the one encouraged militarism while the other was ultrapacific. Mithraism’s tolerance for other religions (except later Christianity) led to its final undoing. But the deciding factor in the struggle between the two was the admission of women into the full fellowship of the Christian faith. (1083.5) 98:6.5 In the end the nominal Christian faith dominated the Occident. Greek philosophy supplied the concepts of ethical value; Mithraism, the ritual of worship observance; and Christianity, as such, the technique for the conservation of moral and social values. 7. The Christian Religion (1083.6) 98:7.1 A Creator Son did not incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and bestow himself upon the humanity of Urantia to reconcile an angry God but rather to win all mankind to the recognition of the Father’s love and to the realization of their sonship with God. After all, even the great advocate of the atonement doctrine realized something of this truth, for he declared that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” (1084.1) 98:7.2 It is not the province of this paper to deal with the origin and dissemination of the Christian religion. Suffice it to say that it is built around the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the humanly incarnate Michael Son of Nebadon, known to Urantia as the Christ, the anointed one. Christianity was spread throughout the Levant and Occident by the followers of this Galilean, and their missionary zeal equaled that of their illustrious predecessors, the Sethites and Salemites, as well as that of their earnest Asiatic contemporaries, the Buddhist teachers. (1084.2) 98:7.3 The Christian religion, as a Urantian system of belief, arose through the compounding of the following teachings, influences, beliefs, cults, and personal individual attitudes: (1084.3) 98:7.4 1. The Melchizedek teachings, which are a basic factor in all the religions of Occident and Orient that have arisen in the last four thousand years. (1084.4) 98:7.5 2. The Hebraic system of morality, ethics, theology, and belief in both Providence and the supreme Yahweh. (1084.5) 98:7.6 3. The Zoroastrian conception of the struggle between cosmic good and evil, which had already left its imprint on both Judaism and Mithraism. Through prolonged contact attendant upon the struggles between Mithraism and Christianity, the doctrines of the Iranian prophet became a potent factor in determining the theologic and philosophic cast and structure of the dogmas, tenets, and cosmology of the Hellenized and Latinized versions of the teachings of Jesus. (1084.6) 98:7.7 4. The mystery cults, especially Mithraism but also the worship of the Great Mother in the Phrygian cult. Even the legends of the birth of Jesus on Urantia became tainted with the Roman version of the miraculous birth of the Iranian savior-hero, Mithras, whose advent on earth was supposed to have been witnessed by only a handful of gift-bearing shepherds who had been informed of this impending event by angels. (1084.7) 98:7.8 5. The historic fact of the human life of Joshua ben Joseph, the reality of Jesus of Nazareth as the glorified Christ, the Son of God. (1084.8) 98:7.9 6. The personal viewpoint of Paul of Tarsus. And it should be recorded that Mithraism was the dominant religion of Tarsus during his adolescence. Paul little dreamed that his well-intentioned letters to his converts would someday be regarded by still later Christians as the “word of God.” Such well-meaning teachers must not be held accountable for the use made of their writings by later-day successors. (1084.9) 98:7.10 7. The philosophic thought of the Hellenistic peoples, from Alexandria and Antioch through Greece to Syracuse and Rome. The philosophy of the Greeks was more in harmony with Paul’s version of Christianity than with any other current religious system and became an important factor in the success of Christianity in the Occident. Greek philosophy, coupled with Paul’s theology, still forms the basis of European ethics. (1084.10) 98:7.11 As the original teachings of Jesus penetrated the Occident, they became Occidentalized, and as they became Occidentalized, they began to lose their potentially universal appeal to all races and kinds of men. Christianity, today, has become a religion well adapted to the social, economic, and political mores of the white races. It has long since ceased to be the religion of Jesus, although it still valiantly portrays a beautiful religion about Jesus to such individuals as sincerely seek to follow in the way of its teaching. It has glorified Jesus as the Christ, the Messianic anointed one from God, but has largely forgotten the Master’s personal gospel: the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of all men. (1085.1) 98:7.12 And this is the long story of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek on Urantia. It is nearly four thousand years since this emergency Son of Nebadon bestowed himself on Urantia, and in that time the teachings of the “priest of El Elyon, the Most High God,” have penetrated to all races and peoples. And Machiventa was successful in achieving the purpose of his unusual bestowal; when Michael made ready to appear on Urantia, the God concept was existent in the hearts of men and women, the same God concept that still flames anew in the living spiritual experience of the manifold children of the Universal Father as they live their intriguing temporal lives on the whirling planets of space. (1085.2) 98:7.13 [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]

On Thursday March 27th, 2014 Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will talk with Jo Carson, leader of Feraferia, about Eleusis and the Mysteries of Death and Rebirth. What happens to the soul after death? What can be expected in the afterlife? Jo has written a new book, Celebrate Wildness—Magic, Mirth and Love on the Feraferia Path which includes a discussion of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Mysteries of Demeter and her daughter Persephone were held at Eleusis, in Greece, for almost 2,000 years. These Mysteries had the goal of providing a first hand experience of certainty in the continuity of life after death. The Mysteries were established around 1450 BCE, and ended only when the Roman Christian emperor Theodosius I forcibly closed them in 392 CE. They were centered around the myth of Demeter, the earth mother Goddess, and her daughter Persephone. In this story, Persephone was abducted by Pluto and taken to the Underworld, and eventually was able to return. This myth provided a key to giving real revelations to the population of that world. Thousands of people journeyed to Eleusis each Fall to experience the Eleusinian Mysteries, which means hundreds of thousands were initiated. However, so tight was the secrecy, or so inexpressible was the experience, that no one has ever revealed its profound secrets. We will explore what is known, what is conjectured, and how Feraferia honors the Eleusinian experience. So tune in and peek behind the veil of death.

In this second episode of the "Matters of Perspective" series, Charles Randall Paul reads his May 2009 Sunstone article, "The Sacred Secret Open to All: Ye Are Gods," a wonderful exploration about the concerns many people have with the secrecy related to Mormon temples and how Latter-day Saints might do a better job communicating about what goes on there. Drawing on historical sources, Paul demonstrates a reversal in public perspectives about secret/sacred rites that has taken place in the past two centuries--a shift from seeing those who participate in rites such as the Eleusinian mysteries or Freemasonry as highly trustworthy (until this shift one could hardly hold high political office were one not initiated into the rites) to highly suspect. Why has this taken place? And in the case of Mormon temple rituals, can this distrust be reversed with different messaging that better shares what goes on in the LDS temple, especially through contextualizing them as fitting the genre of "ascent literature," myths and rites that tell the secret sacred story of humankind? Are there ways to better communicate why Latter-day Saints consider temple work as wonderful and affirming for "all" people? Can Mormons re-structure aspects of its temples as sacred centers to make them more welcoming to everyone? Several aspects of this article were discussed in Mormon Matters episodes 75-76, "Communicating about the Temple." We encourage you to listen/re-listen to that exceptional episode.

The myth of the abduction of Persephone hides the powerful knowledge of the Eleusinian mysteries. Includes discussion of our three brains, the consciousness, the ego (klipha), the Divine Mother, Hades, and more. Orphic Hymn 29 to Persephone (Greek hymn 3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.): "Hymn to Persephone. Daughter of Zeus, Persephone divine, come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline: only-befotten, Plouton's [Haides'] honoured wife, O venerable Goddess, source of life: ‘tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell, fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. Zeus' holy offspring, of a beauteous mien, Praxidike (avenging Goddess), subterranean queen. The Eumenides' [Erinyes'] source, fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds. Mother of Eubouleos [Dionysos-Zagreos], sonorous, divine, and many-formed, the parent of the vine. Associate of the Horai (Seasons), essence bright, all-ruling virgin, bearing heavenly light. With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind, horned, and alone desired by those of mortal kind. O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight, sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight: whose holy form in budding fruits we view, earth's vigorous offspring of a various hue: espoused in autumn, life and death alone to wretched mortals from thy power is known: for thine the task , according to thy will, life to produce, and all that lives to kill. Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase of various fruits from earth, with lovely peace: send health with gentle hand, and crown my life with blest abundance, free from noisy strife; last in extreme old age the prey of death, dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, to thy fair palace and the blissful plains where happy spirits dwell, and Plouton [Haides] reigns." Plato, Meno 81a (4th B.C.): "Sokrates : There were certain priests and priestesses who have studied so as to be able to give a reasoned account of their ministry [i.e. the priests of the Mysteries]; and Pindar also and many another poet of heavenly gifts. As to their words, they are these : mark now, if you judge them to be true. They say that the soul of man is immortal, and at one time comes to an end, which is called dying, and at another is born again, but never perishes. Consequently one ought to live all one's life in the utmost holiness. `For from whomsoever Persephone shall accept requital for ancient wrong, the souls of these she restores in the ninth year to the upper sun again; from them arise glorious kings and men of splendid might and surpassing wisdom, and for all remaining time are they called holy heroes amongst mankind.'" This is a lecture from the free online course Greek Mysteries. Course Description: Symbolized in the mythologies of the Gods and heroes, monsters and wars, are profound truths about our souls and the path to reach a divine state. These lectures were originally gven live and unscripted on Gnostic Radio.