Second & Revised Edition copyright © 1999 by Theosophical University Press (print andPDF eBook versions also available). Originally published in 1940 by Theosophical University Press. Electronic version ISBN 978-1-55700-114-6 . All rights reserved. This edition may be downloaded free of charge for personal use. Except for brief excerpts, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial or other use in any form without the prior permission of Theosophical University Press. For ease of searching, words are not accented in this version.
1. Founding of the Brotherhood
2. The First Mystery Schools
3. The Raison d'etre of the Mysteries
4. The Pattern of Esotericism
5. Dual Character of the Mysteries
6. Degrees of Initiation
7. The Lesser Mysteries
8. The Greater Mysteries
9. Routes of Initiation
10. The Closing of the Mystery Schools
11. Line of Occult Succession
12. The Mystery Schools of Today
Grand Relief of Eleusis: Demeter, Triptolemos, and Persephone, 5th century BCE
Seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong search, by questions, and by humility; the wise who see the truth will communicate it unto thee, and knowing which thou shalt never again fall into error. . . . There is no purifier in this world to be compared to spiritual knowledge; and he who is perfected in devotion findeth spiritual knowledge springing up spontaneously in himself in the progress of time. — Bhagavad-Gita 4:34-5, 38 (Judge Recension)
A Mystery school is a university of the soul, a school for the study of the mysteries of the inner nature of man and of surrounding nature. By understanding these mysteries, the student perceives his intimate relationship with divinity, and strives through self-discipline and devotion to become at one with his inner god.
This book attempts to present certain fundamental lines of teaching which it is hoped will give a more or less clear picture of what a Mystery school really is. Full and specific knowledge of the Mystery schools — where they have been, where now they function, what are their chief characteristics — has not been given out. Modern historians of the Greek mystery centers, for example, marvel at how well the rule of secrecy imposed upon the candidates was kept. This does not pertain to the public aspect, such as the fourteen-mile procession along the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis in which men, women, and children participated. But "the rites of the Greater Mysteries . . . the true secrets of the teletai [initiation proper] and the epopteia [the culminating vision] have never been divulged.''
The student can find, however, a generous amount of information scattered here and there in the literatures of the past and can build up for himself a coherent picture of the pageantry of the Mystery schools, a picture which will turn into the reality of experience only as he becomes inwardly prepared through lifetimes of dedication and the study and practice of the ancient wisdom.
That which can be discovered by the sincere student may be likened to our knowledge of the atom. Who, for example, has ever seen the real atom? What microscope has penetrated the secret of its existence? Yet today we know more about the atom with its electrons than has been revealed for centuries. Although invisible to both eye and lens, scientists have detected the flash of its track, its "way of light"; through diligent and painstaking labor they have studied this way of light until, through inference and evidence, the structure of the atom and its components, its almost spiritual origin, has been revealed.
Thus with the Mysteries: as we look at the pages of history, and further into the mist of unrecorded time, we do not see the schools themselves, but through study and devotion we may glimpse the flash of their track, their way of light. From inference and spiritual testimony we can trace the pageantry of the light- bearers as they have passed from age to age, inaugurating the grand religions and philosophies of the human race. Some of these lights shine with immense glory, others with less strength, while still others are but fitful gleams of half-understood truth.
The physicist cannot point to the physical atom, yet he knows it exists as the basis, the foundation, of all matter; the student of theosophy cannot show you a Mystery school, yet he knows it exists as the heart or atomic center of the spiritual and intellectual life of the planet. Who then would dare assert the non- existence of the Mysteries, of this potent atom of esotericism, when luminous traces of spiritual power are seen scattered all over the world? If our physical bodies are rooted in invisible fiery lives, why should not our human spiritual, intellectual, and moral bodies likewise have their origin in the spiritual and intellectual fire-mist of the planet?
An uninterrupted history of the occult network of the human race is not available to us today, for such records are the guerdon of the pledged disciple, but with the powerful lens of the ancient wisdom we can study the way of light flashed forth by each lightbearer over the centuries; can recapture the atmosphere of the ancient temples; can discern the purpose of the schools, their methods of teaching; and, last but not least, can learn of the strong discipline imposed upon the candidates seeking initiation into the knowledge of their secret origin and their still more secret destiny.
The author's debt to theosophy as presented by H. P. Blavatsky cannot be measured. One can only hope that the present study will encourage those new to her writings to drink deep of the springs at their source. — G.F.K.
Pasadena, California
October 2, 1999
Apuleius, The Isis-Book (Metamorphoses Book XI), ed. and trans. J. Gwyn Griffiths, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1975.
———, Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, quoted in Lewis Spence, The Mysteries of Egypt. See also Transformation of Lucius Otherwise Known as The Golden Ass, trans. Robert Graves, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1951.
Barker, A. Trevor, comp., The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, 2nd edition, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1926; facsimile edition, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1992.
Blavatsky, H. P., Collected Writings, compiled by Boris de Zirkoff, 15 vols., Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Madras [Chennai], London, 1958-1991.
———, Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology, 2 vols., J. W. Bouton, New York; Bernard Quaritch, London, 1877; reprint, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1999.
———, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, 2 vols., The Theosophical Publishing Co., Ltd., London, New York, Madras, 1888; facsimile edition, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1999.
———, The Theosophical Glossary, The Theosophical Publishing Society, London, 1892; facsimile edition, Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, 1990.
———, The Voice of the Silence, The Theosophical Publishing Co., Ltd, London, New York, Madras 1889; verbatim reprint, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1994.
Durant, Will, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 1, Our Oriental Heritage, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1935.
Eliade, Mircea, A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 1, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, trans. Willard R. Trask, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978.
Ginsburg, Christian D., D.D., The Kabbalah: Its Doctrines, Development and Literature, George Routledge & Sons, London, 1925; reprinted with The Essenes: Their History and Doctrines, Macmillan Company, New York, 1956.
Judge, William Q., The Bhagavad-Gita combined with Essays on the Gita (Recension), Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1969.
Kanta, Katherine G., Eleusis: Myth, Mysteries, History, Museum, trans. W. W. Phelps, The National Museum, Athens, 1979.
Kerenyi, Carl, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, trans. Ralph Manheim, Bollingen Series LXV \; 4, Pantheon Books, New York, 1967.
Meyer, Marvin W., ed., The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook, Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1987.
Mylonas, George E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1961.
The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Bollingen Series XXX 2, Pantheon Books, New York, 1955.
Oliver, George, D.D., The History of Initiation, Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., New York, 1923.
Pert Em Hru (Egyptian Book of the Dead), various editions.
Purucker, G. de, The Esoteric Tradition, 3rd & rev. ed., Theosophical University Press, Point Loma, 1940; Pasadena, 2013.
———, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, 2nd and revised edition, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 1979.
———, Studies in Occult Philosophy, Theosophical University Press, Covina, 1945; reprint, Pasadena, 1973.
Spence, Lewis, The Mysteries of Egypt, or The Secret Rites and Traditions of the Nile, Rider & Co., London, [1933].
Surya-Siddhanta: A Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy, trans. Rev. Ebenezer Burgess (and W. D. Whitney), American Oriental Society, New Haven, 1860; reprint, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, 1978.
Theon of Smyrna, Mathematics Useful for Understanding Plato, trans. Robert and Deborah Lawlor, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, 1979.
The Vishnu Purana, trans. H. H. Wilson, edited by FitzEdward Hall, 5 vols. plus index, Trubner & Co., London, 1864-77.
Theosophical University Press, publishing and distributing theosophical literature since 1886: PO Box C, Pasadena, CA 91109-7107 USA; email: tupress@theosociety.org; voice: (626) 798-3378. Free printed catalog available on request; also online at TUP Catalog.