MARCH 1, 2014     

Something I'd like to tell you about - I'm involved with a group who are building an intentional community in Guelph - a place where we can live in an environment of shared values. If you are interested in such a thing and you'd like to know more about it, please feel free to contact me. 

If you'd like to access past newsletters containing articles on the Big Shift, as well as articles on the Physics of Mysticism, Magic, the Power of Mantra and other topics, please visit the 'newsletter' page of my website: 

 whyislife.com

PART 7 - THE ANCIENT MYSTERY SCHOOLS

 by Dennis Gaumond 

The oldest cultures from which most of civilization has descended, were the Sumerian and the Egyptian, dating back almost 6000 years, according to conventional academia. Alternative information suggests that these cultures go even further back. One of the earliest mystical institutions that we know about are the Egyptian Mystery Schools. There is very little written in ancient texts, but many psychics mystics and channels, including Edgar Cayce, had much to say about the Egyptian Mystery Schools. Based largely on the teachings of the god Tahuti or Thoth (Hermes to the Greeks), they were set up in two levels; the greater and the lesser mysteries. The lesser mysteries were the teachings and rituals that applied to the population at large. Egypt, like most early civilizations, was a theocracy, where almost every aspect of life, every human endeavor, had a mystical or religious motive. This was especially true of the earliest Egyptians.

The greater mysteries, requiring much more commitment, involved initiation into a long process of learning. Whether this was reserved for the elite or offered to anyone who chose it, is not known. According to some sources, this process involved two phases, each of which took twelve years. The school of the Right Eye of Horus focused on left-brain 'mind' issues, involving the learning of cosmology, sacred geometry and other information. The school of the Left Eye of Horus dealt with right-brain, 'emotional' issues, involving the development of intuition and other psychic abilities, as well as the overcoming of fears. Twelve different chambers in various temples were designed to bring in certain energies that corresponded to twelve different basic fears, one for each of the twelve chakras. The King's Chamber, for example, was the last step in a process by which the initiate achieved unity consciousness, overcame fear, discovered his/her true identity, gained complete control of self and achieved Christ-consciousness or enlightenment. The initiate was sealed in the granite box within the King's Chamber for three days, where s/he was subject to conditions of elevated frequencies and greatly diminished magnetic strength. If the initiate could control all thoughts and emotions and maintain a state of grace with no fear or doubts, s/he would experience life in the next dimension. The Queen's Chamber was then used as a place to stabilize.

One of the rituals of the Mystery School was a drama during which the participants wore masks called 'persona', from whence derives the word 'personality'. The idea was to discover the essence of the soul beneath the mask. They placed great emphasis on the idea of a higher self and the many references to 'descending to the underworld' were meant to represent a part of the higher self that incarnated into the physical plane. In the words of Heraclitus, "Men are immortal gods - gods mortal men." Emphasis was also placed on the idea of liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death, which Pythagoras calls the Grievous Wheel. The Twelve Trials of the Hero was a method to break this cycle; to guide one towards enlightenment, usually by overcoming fears and obstacles. The most famous example of this is the Twelve Trials of Heracles(Hercules), which not only tested his physical strength, but also involved the discovery of his feminine side and the mastery of time.

Initiates who entered the greater mysteries did so only if they felt a deep calling. This greater knowledge was kept secret and was not written down; to speak of it to the uninitiated was considered a crime. The learning of mathematics and geometry was also a sacred endeavor and Pythagoras referred to numbers as 'immortal gods'. They viewed science and mysticism as equals, as ways to discover the secrets of reality. Hundreds of volumes of scientific information were written, much of it gathered in a mystical way. Although many of these texts were later destroyed by the Christian Church, we know that they had a wealth of knowledge of geometry, physics, astronomy, etc. They were well aware, for example, that the Earth was a round planet that circled the sun.

In subsequent newsletters we'll take a look at the Western mystical traditions (Judeo-Christian and Muslim) that grew out of the ancient Hebrew cultures.