Event Description

The Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries

AMORC Members-only event online

Contact: ontario@amorc.rosicrucian.org

The Greater Mysteries at Eleusis, the Eleusinian Mysteries called ta Mysteria, lasted almost two thousand years, from approximately 1450 BCE to 392 CE around the time of the Autumnal Equinox. In these rites of initiation, initiates participated in a reenactment of the mythos or sacred story of Demeter and Persephone, their unwilling separation and joyful reunion. Demeter’s rites enshrined the natural laws of the birth, growth, death, and regeneration of humans, the crops, and all nature, and were therefore considered essential to the survival of humanity. In contrast to the cathartic experience of watching a tragic drama … an initiate of the Mysteries would undergo physical, emotional, and spiritual cleansing in preparation for the main part of the ritual – a spiritual identification with the Mother and Daughter in their separation and suffering and then joyful reunion, a transformation from death to rebirth. In the middle of the month prior to the beginning of the Greater Mysteries (approximately mid-August), special messengers or heralds … were sent from Athens and Eleusis across Greece to invite Demeter’s worshippers to attend the festival of the Eleusinian Mysteries.