A lot of people see statues of Zeus now a days and think that Ancient people thought Zeus threw lightning bolts at them, but before people knew about Gravity and the Atmosphere, they thought the Planets controlled the weather and it was specifically thought that Jupiter (Zeus) controlled the Lightning. Many Temples were forms of schools, or places that kept traditions and codes, similar to Freemason lodges today. For example the Cult of Mithras was the Government of Rome, Temples to Imhotep and Asclepius were the first Hospitals. Other examples are Orphism, the Mysteries of Isis, Dionysian Mysteries, Eleusinian Mysteries, etc.
The last known Record of a Pagan communicating directly with their God, person-to-person, comes from a book called Sacred Tales written by Aelius Aristides. Aelius Aristides took a Pilgrimage the precursor of the modern Hospital where Western Medicine evolved, called an Asclepeion which is a Temple to the God Asclepius which is still represented in Medicine today by the Staff with the Snake.
In these Temples people allowed non-Venomous snakes to crawl on them, while dogs licked their wounds, and they were prompted to sleep and dream to communicate with the Gods to ask them what to do, or would be given Opium and then have a surgery preformed while they were asleep. In Ancient Egypt they did not really have any words to describe "Dream Activities" and instead most dreams are something you "see" not something you experience. The Egyptian word rsw.t means to "awaken" while sleeping. m??.nm rsw.t means "to see in a dream". These Healing Pilgrimages were popular at the time, and just before Jesus came around it was common for people to travel extremely long distances to find healing springs or temples, etc, where they could be healed, and Christianity has retained much of this cultural tradition.
An example of a Mystery School that most people have heard of are Qabbalah, or Freemasonry, etc. These are known as "Western Esoteric Mystery Schools". More examples of Mystery Schools are "The Society of the Horseman's word" which started in Scotland and is the group that first spread Clydesdale horses. In a time when most people could not read, they learned using symbols and metaphors, and passed down knowledge through Mnemonic symbols, ritual, and literature. Another example of why people would have hidden knowledge this way is when the Roman Emperor Constantine saw the Cross in a dream and converted the Roman Empire to Christianity, not everyone converted that day. They may have converted officially, but they continued to practice their old Mnemonic traditions and incorporated it into the new traditions. Such as Stone Mason mystery schools being involved in the building of the various Cathedrals in Europe.
The most common Mystery School in the world today is a Fire Temple. A Zoroastrian Fire Temple is dedicated to Mithra, while a Hindu Fire Temple is dedicated to Agni. Some Hindu Fire Temples are dedicated to Kali and they are used for Cremation Ceremonies and Rituals.
Mithra (in Zoroastrianism) was considered the 3rd path (as opposed to the Good and Evil paths, Judaism later adopted the good and evil story and angels from the Zoroastrians) or the Grey path and the path of Illumination. They are usually Mystery schools.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a UK organization that inspired the creators of American traditions such as Wicca or Thelma. The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, were all Freemasons and Rosicrucians.
The Golden Dawn, by Israel Regardie is still used by people all over the world to learn about Mystery Traditions.
http://www.golden-dawn-canada.com/pdf/Israel%20Regardie%20-%20The%20Complete%20Golden%20Dawn%20(Black%20Brick).pdf
The Church of Light was a church that was established for the Aquarian age, meaning it is a New Age Church. It was established in 1932 and was meant to spread The Religion of the Stars.\
Here are their lessonbooks: https://www.light.org/brotherhood-of-light-lessons.cfm
The AMORC is what a lot of people might call the Illuminati. They believe that Jesus dying on the cross is a Metaphor and they use the Symbol of a Rose on a Cross. I am not going to say too much about them or else I will sound like a conspiracy theorist. But they are on Facebook and stuff. They even do free online classes and stuff. http://www.amorc.org/
Here is them on Youtube
Here is their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Rosicrucian.Order.AMORC
And their Twitter https://twitter.com/amorc
DUP is a Sufi sect (Mystic Islam) that uses Sacred Passages from all world religions in order to sing and dance for God. They promote peace between religions and Gnostic type teachings that see Sacred Texts as more of a Metaphysical work.
They also do what is called "Sufi Whirling" which is a dance that is based on the movement of the planets in our solar system.
The practice first started in California but now has practitioners in 28 countries.
Nicholas Roerich is famous within Mystery School circles, he was a Russian Mystic and Theosophist who promoted the protection of Art, Architecture and Historical Artifacts in times of war, some people claim that he discovered the Holy Grail. Nicholas Roerich and his wife (maybe other people also) wrote these and they outline what is now called "Agni Yoga" which is the Religion that was left to the world by Nicholas Roerich.
Agni is the Hindu Fire God.
http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_lomg1.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_lomg2.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_community.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_ay.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_infinity1.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_infinity2.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_hierarchy.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_heart.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_fw1.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_fw2.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_fw3.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_aum.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_broth.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_supm1.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_supm2.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_supm3.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_supm4.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_lohr1.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_lohr2.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_crossroads.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_FoB.pdf http://www.agniyoga.org/ay_pdf/ay_glossary.pdf
Here are some more examples of mystery schools
Based around Stonemasonry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry
Based around Wine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysian_Mysteries
Based around Christianity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_Christianity
Based around Promises, Contracts, Marriage, Christmas & Bulls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries
Based around Knighthood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
The Ogdoad (The Planets and Cycles)
Many people do not realize this, but your Calendar is a God, or a Series of Gods; which have been given different names in different Religions. This is known as the Ogdoad.
A "Month" is actually just 1 Moon Cycle, so a "Moonth". The word "Saturday" is actually "Saturn-Day", "Sunday" is "Sun-Day", "Monday" is "Moon-Day", "Thursday" is "Thors-Day" (also, Jupiter), "Friday" is "Fria-Day". The 7 Days of the Week are based on the visible Planets, this is the foundation of the Ogdoad. These days and Planets were then associated with Gemstones and Minerals and Metals, as well as Plants and Animals. This is called Mnemonics.
Saturn = Saturday = Lead =
Sun = Sunday = Gold =
Moon = Monday = Silver =
Mars = Tuesday = Iron =
Mercury = Wednesday = Mercury =
Jupiter = Thursday = Tin =
Venus = Friday = Copper =
The Ancient Egyptians had a 365 Day Calendar, they just did not have Leap Year. The way they measured the Year was by creating a Mud Wall to act as a False Horizon. And every day as the Sun came up, they would mark the spot where it came up; and at the end of the Year it would be back in the same spot, and there were 365 Marks. They knew the Planetary Cycles of other planets, they called Planets "Heavenly Bodies", because they were like Moving Stars. This is also where the Constellations come from. Aquarius and Taurus and Pisces and Libra and Leo and Scorpio, etc. Aren't random, those are the Stars the Sun passes through throughout the Year as you watch the Sky from Earth, and those give us the names of our months. A lot of people see statues of Zeus now a days and think that Ancient people thought Zeus threw lightning bolts at them, but before people knew about Gravity and the Atmosphere, they thought the Planets controlled the weather and it was specifically thought that Jupiter (Zeus) controlled the Lightning. Many plants used to be thought to have a cycle based on the Planets and not the sun, and in the modern "Old Farmer's Almanac" every year they publish the planetary crop planting cycle. And the history of Machines and Gears actually comes from the measuring of the sky on boats, and people making mechanical navigation devices. So Machines come from this also.
All of this may seem like some Ancient Religion, but it is not. It has been preserved within Hinduism. India is the only Country in which the Population has never been replaced by Invaders, and they have used the same Temples and had the same Gods for at least 4,500 years. The Sun is called "Surya", the Moon and Liquid are called "Soma", Fire is called "Agni". And these Gods all have many names, and take many forms; the metaphor used is the Facets of a Diamond, and this is where Diamond Crafting comes from and why Hindu Gods have so many faces. 90% of the World's Diamonds are crafted in one place in India.
And it gets deeper than this. Egyptians were using Geometry to do Calculus, Math and Language used to be the same thing until Roman Numerals were invented. The Hebrew and Greek Alphabet are also their Numeric System. Language is something that was created, and specific Languages were created by the Phoenicians for specific purposes; and they also created the Royal Purple, Blue and Crimson that has become popular in Middle Eastern and European Culture.
Venus = ♀
Mars = ♂
Sun = Gold
Moon = Silver
Mercury = Mercury
Venus = Copper
Mars = Iron
Jupiter = Tin
Saturn = Lead
Aries, the Ram = April = Amethyst =
Taurus, the Bull = May = Agate =
Gemini, the Twins = June = Beryl =
Cancer, the Crab = July = Emerald =
Leo, the Lion = August = Ruby =
Virgo, the Virgin = September = Jasper =
Libra, the Balance = October = Diamond =
Scorpio, the Scorpion = November = Topaz =
Sagittarius, the Archer = December = Carbuncle =
Capricorn, the Goat = January = Onyx Chalcedony =
Aquarius, the Waterbearer = February = Sapphire =
Pisces, the Fishes = March = Chrysolite =
When people think of a "Soul", they usually think of some Magic force inside of you that God takes to heaven. So any time you hear the word "Soul", you think it must be similar to what Christians imagine. But Christianity was kind of made up "on the fly" and isn't even as intricate as Judaism, the Ancient Egyptians had a much more intricate and realistic version of the Soul.
The Eye of Horus/The Eye of Wadjet was important to the dead. The symbol was meant to protect, as well as to Symbolize the 6 Senses, being Taste, Touch, Sight, Hearing, Smell and Thought.
The first example of the Soul is the Shadow which they called Sheut. They would make Statues and Silhouettes to preserve the Shadow after death. It was believed that your Shadow was your connection to the Afterlife.
Your name, known as a "Ren" in Ancient Egypt, was another aspect of Soul. It was believed that as long as a name was spoken, the person's Soul was still alive in some way. And the more a person's name was written the better, because then it had more chances of surviving and being read and spoken.
The Ka is the vital essence of a person. This would be the life Spark in someone that would determine if they were alive or dead. In modern times we would point to "Brain Dead" as the point of the Ka being gone.
The Egyptians did not value the brain like we do, they believed that the Heart was the seat of the body, since it flows to all parts. the Heart was known as "Ib", most of our ideas about Hearts being important for things comes from Egypt. Later, European people would think the Liver was the most important, which is why it is called the "Live-er". In German it is something like "Lifer".
"Ba" is similar to the idea of a person's personality and what makes them unique. Anything could have a "Ba", such as an Instrument. If you have a relationship with a Car, Gun, or a Golf Club, or Whatever, then it probably has a "Ba" and you have maybe even given it a Ren. People who smoke Marijuana give their Pipes/Bongs Ren and people try to choose them for their Ba, they just don't use those terms. The Ba was not considered different from the person, and this is the part of a person that you can see in your dreams. Even after a person is dead, and no longer part of this world, their personality or uniqueness can still persist in the family and friends of the person. The Ba is almost impossible to compare to the Christian idea of soul, the ideas are SO different that when Christianity came to Egypt, they had to use the word Psyche to get them to understand the Christian soul. The Ba is a much more physical real thing, and you can still see the other person's Ba in your dreams after they die.
The word "Ba" for Soul was the same as the word "Ba" for Ram, so it was common to depict dead people and Gods with Horns to show their Soul aspect. This ideology is also the reason most Ancient religions allowed people to Sacrifice Rams for their sins.
Akh is your living intellect, or maybe what we would now call your "Mind" or maybe what the Greeks would call "Ego". If you have ever taken Mushrooms and looked in the Mirror and realized that whatever "You" are is not a body (this is known as Ego Loss), then you have experienced your Akh. It was believed that after death, the Ba and the Ka would come together and reform the Akh. And there was a perceived risk that the Akh could die again.
Akhenaten was a very hated Pharaoh because he believed he was Gods representative on Earth and changed the Egyptian religion, his son is King Tut, restored the Gods. The priests set his ghost to wander the Desert, and people still claim to meet him out there.
Various Tribes around the world are the best examples of Rites of Passage, as well as examples of Social Phenomenon such as the Kula Ring.
Rites of Passage in a Society shape the people in that Society. What makes you a man? What makes you a woman? Where does your belief that you have value come from? What is your purpose? What roles are acceptable or taboo for you to take as an adult? These all come from Rites of Passage. There have been Rites of Passage in every culture ever. A good example is a Bar Mitzvah in the Jewish Culture or a Quinceanera in the Mexican Culture, these are Rites of Passage. Other examples are turning 15 and getting a driver's permit, turning 16 and getting a Driver's License, turning 18 and buying Cigarettes or 21 and buying Alcohol.
An example of this in action, at its most simple level, is in the recruitment of children into the FARC forces. In Columbia in their Revolution they would go out and look for teenagers, teach them about the Revolution being launched from the Jungle, offer them a Gun and a Bandana, and they would join. The Gun and the Bandana are the Rites of Passage, as they may have previously seen people walking around with Guns and Bandanas and maybe looked up to them. So when they received their Gun and Bandana it is when they became an adult. This can also been seen in the Cartels in Mexico. The Cartels in Mexico see themselves as the Warrior Class of their Aztec ancestors, but in the modern World. So someone could even have their whole family killed by the Cartel only to join because the Cartel becomes like their family. These are all examples of Rites of Passage and how they operate on the human Psyche. Rites of Passage are an important part of any society, because they are an important part of every person's life. In Ancient Greece and Egypt many of the different Fraternities and Sororities that worshipped various Gods included various Rites of Passage. Many of them had been passed down for thousands of years and had very specific purposes, as each God was like a different Art or a different Science or a different phenomenon of Nature, and the Rites of Passage were tightly knit to fit within the culture of that God. Freemason's still do this today, and are all about equality (no one can tell anyone else's class when they wear the suit), and voting for titles rather than being born with them, etc. Going to jail can even be a Rite of Passage and often is. In the 60s people had sit ins in their schools, demonstrations in the streets, and protests and riots that were announced Nationally, as well as concerts like Woodstock.
Abraxas (Language, Math and Time)
Roman Numerals were one of the first times Language and Math became 2 different things.
Ancient Egyptians were doing insanely complicated Math problems using Geometry, with no Algebra or Calculus. Algebra is actually a Arabic word, Al Gebra. Calculus was invented by Newton who accidentally discovered Gravity while attempting to calculate when the world would end using numerical values from the Bible.
When the sites of Ancient Egypt were discovered by Napoleon they had been abandoned, robbed, and basically forgotten. The person who really unlocked the secrets of Ancient Egypt and laid the foundation for modern Archaeology is Flinders Petrie. What he did in Ancient Egypt was find board games that had not been played in thousands of years and worked to figure out how the game was played, he analyzed small globs of metal and glass that were found all over Egypt and concluded that they were used on scales as standard weights to go by. So much of this comes from Ancient Egypt (which goes all the way back to 3000 BC+ when King Scorpion United the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, and Imhotep invented Stairs, Columns, Surgery, and Medicine around 2,500 BC), but the Mathematics were best preserved in Greek and Roman Culture.
The Primary God of "Math" in Ancient Egypt was Ma'at, who is the Goddess of Truth, Balance, Justice, Law and Order, similar to Lady Justice. You can still find remnants of the Kemetic Religion in Math today. For example, the "Equal Sign" (=) if explained to an Ancient Egyptian person, would be "Ma'at" to them. Ma'at was the Balance in the universe, and they drew her as a Scale or as a lady with wings on her arms.
They also had the Goddess Sheshat, who was the Goddess of Record Keeping and Measurement. Ropes were important to her followers, and they were the ones who would measure the ground before the buildings would start building. Egyptians also invented the first Cranes used for Building.
One tool in Ancient Egypt was the Nileometer, which was like an underground tower that would fill up with Water, and they would use it to measure how much water was in the Nile, then they could make the right irrigation paths and store enough water in artificial lakes to water the crops all year.
Abraxas. For this name the Greek table is used. Abraxas in Greek is Ἀβραξας. Α = 1, β = 2, ρ = 100, α = 1, ξ =60, α = 1, ς = 200, the sum being 365, the number of days in the year. This number furnishes the key to the mystery of Abraxas, who is symbolic of the 365 Æons, or Spirits of the Days, gathered together in one composite personality. Abraxas is symbolic of five creatures, and as the circle of the year actually consists of 360 degrees, each of the emanating deities is one-fifth of this power, or 72, one of the most sacred numbers in the Old Testament of the Jewish people and in their Qabbalistic system.
This combination of Alphanumerical values created a lot of abstract thought, which eventually became Math. For example, Algebra is Al-Jebr, and it is a Mathematical System that was invented in Islamic Mosques. But far before Algebra was invented, Algebra was being done using Geometry, for example the Pythagorean theorem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra#Early_history_of_algebra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Mathematical_Papyrus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimpton_322
And even before the Pythagorean theorem came Isopseophy and Gematria. Isopsephy is in the first image above where the Greek Letters have Numerical Values. But then they would take the numerical values of each letter to create a numerical value for each word. This helped them create the Mathematical systems we use today.
Then there was the Jewish form of Isopsephy which is called Gematria. They took a step further than Isopsephy, what Gematria does is take the value of each letter to create a word value the same as Isopsephy, but then if 2 words have the same value then they are considered the same. The Hebrew word for "alive" has a value of 18 if I remember correctly, so 18 is considered a lucky number and any other word with a value of 18 was considered lucky as well. This was also correlated with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life to create a bunch of Numerical systems.
Then there is Zairja. This was invented after Algebra by the Mulsims. It is the same as Isopsephy and Gematria except that it goes even another step further and instead of just adding up Numerical values of words and matching them up, you then do Algebra with your sentences and Paragraphs to see if the Paragraph contains the answer to the question. This was/is used as kind of a Random idea generator.
Pythagorean Math
The first step in obtaining the numerical value of a word is to resolve it back into its original tongue. Only words of Greek or Hebrew derivation can be successfully analyzed by this method, and all words must be spelled in their most ancient and complete forms. Old Testament words and names, therefore, must be translated back into the early Hebrew characters and New Testament words into the Greek. Two examples will help to clarify this principle.
The Demiurgus of the Jews is called in English Jehovah, but when seeking the numerical value of the name Jehovah it is necessary to resolve the name into its Hebrew letters. It becomes יהוה, and is read from right to left. The Hebrew letters are: ה, He; ו, Vau; ה, He; י, Yod; and when reversed into the English order from left to right read: Yod-He-Vau-He. By consulting the foregoing table of letter values, it is found that the four characters of this sacred name have the following numerical significance: Yod equals 10. He equals 5, Vau equals 6, and the second He equals 5. Therefore, 10+5+6+5=26, a synonym of Jehovah. If the English letters were used, the answer obviously would not be correct.
All higher numbers can be reduced to one of the original ten numerals, and the 10 itself to 1. Therefore, all groups of numbers resulting from the translation of names of deities into their numerical equivalents have a basis in one of the first ten numbers. By this system, in which the digits are added together, 666 becomes 6+6+6 or 18, and this, in turn, becomes 1+8 or 9. According to Revelation, 144,000 are to be saved. This number becomes 1+4+4+0+0+0, which equals 9, thus proving that both the Beast of Babylon and the number of the saved refer to man himself, whose symbol is the number 9. This system can be used successfully with both Greek and Hebrew letter values.
The original Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy contains nothing to justify the practice now in vogue of changing the given name or surname in the hope of improving the temperament or financial condition by altering the name vibrations.
There is also a system of calculation in vogue for the English language, but its accuracy is a matter of legitimate dispute. It is comparatively modern and has no relationship either to the Hebrew Qabbalistic system or to the Greek procedure. The claim made by some that it is Pythagorean is not supported by any tangible evidence, and there are many reasons why such a contention is untenable. The fact that Pythagoras used 10 as the basis of calculation, while this system uses 9--an imperfect number--is in itself almost conclusive. Furthermore, the arrangement of the Greek and Hebrew letters does not agree closely enough with the English to permit the application of the number sequences of one language to the number sequences of the others. Further experimentation with
Column
1 Names of the Hebrew letters.
2 Samaritan Letters.
3 Hebrew and Chaldean letters.
4 Numerical equivalents of the letters.
5 Capital and small Greek letters.
6 The letters marked with asterisks are those brought to Greece from Phœnicia by Cadmus.
7 Name of the Greek letters.
8 Nearest English equivalents to the Hebrew, Greek, and Samaritan Letters.
NOTE. When used at the end of a word, the Hebrew Tau has the numerical value 440, Caph 500, Mem 600, Nun 700, Pe 800, Tzadi 900. A dotted Alpha and a dashed Aleph have the value of 1,000.
1 A J S 2 B K T 3 C L U 4 D M V 5 E N W 6 F O X 7 G P Y 8 H Q Z 9 I R
The letters under each of the numbers have the value of the figure at: the top of the column. Thus, in the word man, M = 4, A = 1, N = 5: a total of 10. The values of the numbers are practically the same as those given by the Pythagorean system.
The Pythagoreans declared arithmetic to be the mother of the mathematical sciences. This is proved by the fact that geometry, music, and astronomy are dependent upon it but it is not dependent upon them. Thus, geometry may be removed but arithmetic will remain; but if arithmetic be removed, geometry is eliminated. In the same manner music depends upon arithmetic, but the elimination of music affects arithmetic only by limiting one of its expressions. The Pythagoreans also demonstrated arithmetic to be prior to astronomy, for the latter is dependent upon both geometry and music. The size, form, and motion of the celestial bodies is determined by the use of geometry; their harmony and rhythm by the use of music. If astronomy be removed, neither geometry nor music is injured; but if geometry and music be eliminated, astronomy is destroyed. The priority of both geometry and music to astronomy is therefore established. Arithmetic, however, is prior to all; it is primary and fundamental.