Mysteria

The Mysteries of the Ancient Grecian religions; the cryptic teachings and occult interpretations of the popular religious beliefs communicated to disciples by the priests in the...

In order to exercise undisputed mastery over the country the conquerors divided among themselves all the land and all the authority. They formed two hereditary classes or estate...

Hence there is no doubt that the secret doctrine of the Egyptian priests was at once philosophic and religious; that is, that it tested the traditional belief, analyzed it, and...

There exist also among savages other species of secret societies. In the Society Islands the chiefs, called Areoi or Erih, form an association, the origin of which they trace to...

The fact that Jaos was the harvest-god tended strongly to identify him with Bacchus, personification of the sun which ripens the grape; and, besides, Bacchus was allied to Demet...

The worst disorders of Bacchus worship, as practiced in Greece, would seem to have been equaled, or even surpassed, in the Roman Commonwealth. The historian Livy (xxxix., 8–20)...

Pythagoras brought music into closest relation with mathematics. As in numbers he recognized the most perfect “harmony,” so he must needs regard harmony of sounds as a necessary...

But not only occurrences which call to mind the Christian Son of God, but even his very name appears in Grecian antiquity; and indeed the name antedates the occurrences. Homer (...

The miracles of Jesus, namely, acts and occurrences that contradict the laws of nature, are not actual events; for as they are recorded in the New Testament they show a needless...

And such a son of God and wonderworker they found. The heathen prophet Apollonius of Tyana was a contemporary of Jesus, and was deeply venerated. And, as it chanced, a certain l...

They took the title of Brothers Hospitalers of Saint John of Jerusalem; their habit consisted of a black mantle with a white cross. A few years later (1119) the Knights Hugo of...

All the Templars arrested in Paris, numbering 546, were on the 28th of May, 1310, mustered in the garden of the Bishop’s palace, and there the accusation was read to them. Six o...

The day of the trial having arrived, if the accuser was not on hand the accused was discharged. But if the accused failed to appear, the accusation was repeated and testimony ta...

Of the French corporations of craftsmen, those of the building trades, especially the stonemasons, probably arose about the same time as the German masons’ lodges: at least ther...

The recognition signs, the ceremonial, and the symbols are the only secrets in Freemasonry. Mysteries, that is to say, knowledge of things that are hidden from all other persons...

But as degrees were multiplied the Hiram myth no longer sufficed, and for the higher steps it was necessary to have recourse to other myths. Meanwhile it was seen that the story...

Simultaneously with the order of the Rosicrucians arose two variant forms of the same, the society of the Asiatic Brethren, and that of the African Buildingmasters (Asiatische B...

Another imitation of the Order of Illuminati, the League of the Evergetes (Bund der Evergeten, or benefactors, or welldoers) which sprang up at the close of the 18th century, ha...

Secret Societies, miscellaneous: The Woodsplitters, 192; Order of Hope, 193; of Saint Jonathan (or Joachim), 194; the Pilgrims’ Chain, ib.; Order of Argonauts, ib.; of the Musta...