The Mystery is in Silence Beheld

A Discourse on the Way of the Mysteries and the Disciplina Arcani
And a Praxis-System of Meditation and Prayer for Creating the Inner Chamber of Initiation
Focused on the Spiritual Aesthetic and Current of Dionysian Mystery-Lore


By Kouros
Copyright © 2006



And the viper said

"the fountains of myself are a vision
I will not behold"

-A. R. Ammons, Diversifications




"The worshippers of Dionysos acknowledged his presence in the raw flesh of wild beasts as well as the goblet of wine, in the phallus concealed in the liknon (a winnowing basket that may be used as a cradle for a baby) , and also (among the Orphics) in the immortal human soul. Thus, one who was confronted with the presence of Dionysos and possessed by him might feel his power variously: in ecstasy, in inebriation, in sexuality, in spiritual bliss. Such a person became one with Dionysos, and in fact might be called Bacche (feminine) or Bacchos (masculine) after the God himself."

-Marvin W. Meyer, The Ancient Mysteries




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INTRODUCTION

Ancient Greece has bequeathed a powerful treasury of sacred images and myths to the entire world. Even though the Greeks were Indo-Europeans dwelling originally in one corner of southern Europe, their myths and the symbols found in their myths have made it to every corner of the globe. Seeing as modern Western culture was born from the cradle of Classical civilization, and further seeing how Western culture has, in its own way, become a global culture, there are few people alive who haven't been touched or influenced by the Ancient Greeks.

I decided to put together an article here describing a theory of Mystery-understanding and a practical set of exercises for the spiritually and mystically inclined modern Pagan or the modern student of mysticism, and I decided to use a Greek cultural lens to express my ideas. The reasons are many, but those so inclined to use the information given here within another cultural context are more than free to do so, and it should be obvious, from the language here, just how to go about doing that. As it is, for now, take a minute to give tribute to Shelley's words when he said "We are all Greeks", and read on.





PART ONE: THEORY and INTEGRAL CONCEPTS TO THE MYSTERY-UNDERSTANDING

Language stands in the way of so much of our understanding, when it comes to relating to the Divine, or that which is the source of all things and the faithful sustainer of all things. The Sovereign power that "rules over" all creation is often referred to in just those terms- kingly or queenly terms, with "rulership" implying that human beings and all so-called "created" things are in a relationship like servants or vassals before a monarch.

A person who is ready to penetrate into the mystical truth of our condition must understand the reasons for why such language has been used in the past, and be prepared to go beyond it. The Divine reality that men and women have called "Zeus" or even "Sovereignty" in the past is not sitting in a celestial throne room, sending down harsh looks upon us, or kindly looks when we conform to some divine "law". The reality is far more subtle and penetrating.

Before I begin, do not think that I am suggesting that there are no divine "laws" that govern human behavior, for I do believe there are. I simply do not believe that we can understand those "laws" without understanding the truth of our relationship to that which is our Living and Divine Source.

As the ancient schools of the Mysteries all reveal, the last false division in our minds that fades in the great light of initiation is the division between "creator" and the "created" or the Source and what comes of the source. But ironically, this does not destroy the creator, nor over-inflate the created, for our ideas of "God" or "Creator" or "Source" and "what comes of the source" are just that- ideas, words, attachments we have. The Divine as it is in and of itself is one thing; the Divine as it is understood by human minds is another matter.

What the mystical path "destroys" is the false notions we have of the divine, and it destroys our addiction to the notions that we have created. This is a purification process, which we undergo in the purifying fire of the Mystery night, at the hands of the Koies priest.

If we have not yet understood the distinction between "God" or the Divine as a Mystery, and God as a word, a concept, a creature of the human mind, then we would certainly disastrously over-inflate our egos when we hear of the teaching that tells us "God" and "Man" are truly and intimately related and united, even "one" thing.

If the power of our awakening to reality is not strong enough to destroy the "God" that "we" feel that "we" identify with, our self-identification with this "God" is still a failure, and not a mystical success. True self-identification with "God" occurs beyond the categories of "self" and "God", such that you can't rightly call it "self-identification"; "self-identification" becomes a clumsy wording, and nothing more- a clumsy way of trying to use words to encapsulate a very profound experience.

This experience is expressed in its silence, for words fail it; it is impious to even attempt to speak of it. This is why the Mystery is unutterable, and why the initiates were sworn never to try to use their tongues or their hands to communicate it; they would all fail, regardless of the purity of their intentions. All they can do is help another to achieve the same experience, that they may know and be silent, as well.

The "human person" that is real, beyond our concepts and notions, and the "Divine person" or "God" that is real beyond our concepts and notions, these things do not ever change. We are immortal beings, not coming nor going, not living nor dying. The Gods are likewise. Only a great confusion on the part of man and woman changes via initiation and mystical insight, and finally comes to clarity, and in this, the divine rejoices.

That "rejoicing" does not take place in a heavenly world far from us; that joy permeates us AND the divine simultaneously, or should I say, it is one great joy, undivided. The Gods of the Heavens rejoice in it, the Gods of the Infernal world rejoice in it. All who live in this world, seen or unseen, feel the joy of it, and know their own salvation in this joy. This is the key to what we must discuss now.


The real path mystical (Via or Disciplina Arcani) begins when a person opens their mind and heart, and indeed, their whole being, to the idea that the Great Mystery or Divine Source is not merely distant from us, but far closer to us than we can even realize, closer than intimate. A person must embrace the notion that the Divine is co-existent and co-creative with the world and human life, or any life. There is no world or living beings without the Divine, and there is no "Divine" without the world and living beings.

This idea of the "reliance" of God or the Divine on creation has been framed most successfully by far-seeing mystics from many eras, and while it seems a heretical idea, or a lessening of the Divine's independent and sovereign power, it is really just the opposite. It is an expression of the full picture of reality, and it infinitely expands the notion of "God" and "Creation". It marries them together in love, and in deepest actuality. It allows the world and each of us to become intimate and powerful, tangible expressions of the Divine's ever-flowing, donating power, its creative power, and its sustaining power. It allows us to experience the divine in any experience we have, without stopping the Divine from being what it is. This transforming, mysterious power is what speaks to the Gods and to Man of the Truth of things.

The Truth of the path is simple: The Divine Source is not distant, but here and now, and operating in every so-called "mundane" event or natural process. It is operating in human beings, in the processes of our lives and our loves. We can say with confidence that our lives and loves are expressions of the divine activity or energy, and evils and wrongs are done in the world only in proportion to how unaware people are of this fact.


The Great Divine Mystery, true Sovereignty, the Ultimate Mystery beyond thought, word, and feeling, is something that I believe is within me, and indeed, this is the central article of "faith". I believe that it is "closer" than my thinking, my emotions, my consciousness, or my choosing. It is (as another has said) "closer to us than we are to ourselves."

The root and goal of all contemplative exercise is inner silence. "The Mystery is in silence beheld..." We often consider "prayer" to be spoken words, but that is not all "prayer" means in the most mystical sense. Contemplation of the ultimate requires an odd sort of "inner silence prayer", a communication of silence, in silence, so that an inner space of quiet is created in which mystical understandings, direct apprehensions of the Divine, can arise. The Divine is the ground in which our being has its roots, and it is the uncreated, unfailing source from which our life- and all life- emerges ceaselessly at every moment.

The "inner space of emptiness and silence" that we create within through contemplation is not something new, but a re-awakening in us of something timeless and eternal; that "space" is, in fact, the very truth about us- we are all, at our deepest core, what the sages have called "nothingness"- uncreated, open space, silent and still yet radiant with potentiality. This is not some belief that negates the human person; it is an expression of deepest truth about us, and it points to a perpetual existence beyond conventions, attachments, and limitations.

When we empty ourselves properly, and release ourselves from our addiction to the notions, ideas, objects, and creatures that we dress our true nature and the nature of the Divine in, the Divine is allowed, in a manner of speaking, to "fill us", to manifest a Sophianic presence in us.

This is the "birth of the Divine Child" or the Kouros, the Child of the Mystery Night in us; an event which does not merely take place within us, but within the Divine as well; This is the many-named and secret Son of Zeus who is born, great Dionysos, the Immortal-Maker.

Much in the same manner that Joy is not merely in the human or in God, but both, everywhere, so is this mystical birth. The ancients referred to this birth in their own sacred stories as the "Son of Zeus", the child Dionysos; but this birth is not another Mystery-Child, somehow unique to "us"; it is the same Dionysos known to the ancients, and the birth of this presence heralds the entry of Divine Wisdom. This wisdom, this presence, this joy is the same across time and space, or in man or in the Gods, or in the Great Source of All. The peace and joy of it is all pervasive, filling every possible place or condition, covering any distance in space or time, bringing us into a timeless "present", or should I say, a timeless "presence", which is the inner sanctuary of Initiation, and the true House or Temple of the Divine.


As I said before, The Divine is the ground in which our being has its roots, and it is the source from which our life- and all life- emerges ceaselessly at every moment. We must always remember that the Divine does not "send forth" life and then stand back, at a distance, watching it; It participates in that life completely, suffering what we suffer and rejoicing in what we rejoice in.

The dismembering of Dionysos is an expression of the fact that as the forces of life and death seemingly dismember us, as we must experience them, He also experiences them. He is the active presence of divinity in us all, and in the world, the refulgent light of God or Zeus in the world, the "personal" aspect of divinity that walks with us. The intoxicated reveler in his train represents the mortal mystic who has come into personal contact with Dionysos in the core of his Mystery, which is the Great Mystery that binds man and God alike. When a God draws close enough to the mortal world to take on a mortal birth, as Dionysos was born from a mortal maiden, something of the ultimate Mystery comes close to us as well. A portal is opened up, making humans able to access the great Mystery that the Gods themselves all know.

Nature's creative powers are not merely machinery operating automatically, as the creator of Nature watches from a heavenly throne; Nature's creative powers are the Divine in operation and expression. In all that, the Divine suffers alongside us; it never ceases to be apart from us, and yet, it also never ceases to be what it is. It remains, in its own manner, "unstained" and unchanged by what occurs in the world, in reality, in much the same manner a clear glass sphere may take on the color red if you place it on a red cloth, and yet, in itself, remain clear.

What we are, as humans, is very much like that- our own true persons, our intrinsic, pure selves, experience the world in that way. Our inner selves and the inner self of "God" and the inner selves of the Gods are not different in their natures, after all. They are not different in how joy or sorrow penetrate them, and they share these things equally. The Gods, however, share those things with Sophia, with Wisdom, from a higher perspective which makes them immune to fear and suffering and ignorance, and most human beings do not… at least not until Necessity and Fortune carries them to the Initiation of the Mystery Night and the Inner Chamber.





PART TWO- PRAXIS: THREE PRELIMINARY SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS OF MEDITATION AND THE PRAYER OF THE INITIATE, FOR THE CREATION OF THE INNER CHAMBER OF SILENCE

1. Symbol-Meditation

Before you can engage the technique of creating the Inner Sanctuary of Initiation inside yourself, you will need to use meditative techniques to reach the inner initiator within yourself, and gain the password or symbol you will need to complete the work.

Sit in a dark, quiet room with your back straight and comfortable, or lie down flat, and breathe normally and easily. Let yourself feel centered on your breath and just relax. Don't try to think about anything; if thoughts arise, don't try to stop them; just follow them till they end naturally, and return to being centered and quiet, and put your attention back to what you are doing.

Stray thoughts will likely happen, but you must accept the fact that they cannot stop you from achieving what you are trying to achieve. Just follow thoughts that arise, and when you realize that you are following a stray thought, let it end, and return to quiet center. Even if you must do this a hundred times in one sitting, just do it, and relax. Thoughts happen; they will eventually, of their own accord, lessen, weaken, and become no nuisance to you. Do not become upset at the condition of your wandering mind; simply integrate it and always come back to center. Do not undertake this technique tired, for you will fall asleep. You should be well rested.

After you have relaxed for a few minutes, and had time to arrange your thoughts and your ability to deal with thoughts, when you feel very clear and centered, turn your thoughts to Hekate, the Goddess who stands at the portal or on the unseen border between humans and Gods, and ask her to carry your words and prayers to the Gods. Then take a small bowl of water and a small bowl containing either burning incense or an ember or a candle, and, starting with the bowl of fire, hold your hand over it and pray to the Goddess of the Fire (Hestia) to bless you, your body and soul, and your rite. Then, hold your hand over the bowl of water, and pray for purity, asking the Lord of Light and Healing to bless the water and make it able to purify you, and touch your fingers to its surface, and then sprinkle a bit over your head.

Say a prayer to the Lord of Light and Occult Initiations, the God Apollon, asking him to carry you as far as you need to go, to find what you seek. Pray to Divine Wisdom, Metis-Athena, and the Queen of the Underworld, to bring you to where you need to be, mentally and spiritually, to find Truth and Freedom.

Let your mouth and breath make the hissing sound that is sacred to Apollon and his son Asclepios, letting this hissing fill your consciousness, and focusing on it to the exclusion of all else. Hiss several times, letting your breath escape slowly but firmly from between your lips and teeth, and keep praying for the guidance of the God of Healing and your own spiritual protector, your Daimon. Finally, relax again for a minute and really let yourself "go open" inside, open to the divine presence.

Then, let yourself feel what it would feel like rising up and flying through the sky, with your eyes shut. You don't have to see it happening in your mind's eye; just feel it. Feel yourself hurtling through the sky to a far distant land, and landing on your feet. You should "know" and feel that you have gone thousands of miles away.

Let your mind's eye open and see one of the following imaginal landscapes, symbolic landscapes designed to bring you to deep mental contact with the source of Wisdom:


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1. A white marble plaza, with a artful and simple, human-sized statue of Hekate standing in the center of it, on a round white pedestal. The statue is of a triple-Hekate, three young girls standing back to back, looking in three directions, with the one on the side of the statue facing you holding two torches. Behind this statue is a great temple, with many smooth white steps leading up to it. Walk around the statue and towards the steps, and up to the front door under the overhanging marble ceiling, held up by massive columns. The door is thick wood and painted red.

Place your hand on the door and watch it swing away, revealing a short stone hallway ending at a large, flowing, opaque veil. Before the veil, and between two burning braziers, is a young priestess who walks forward and either tells you a word, or shows you a word written on a scroll. She may also show you a symbol of some kind, instead of a word. She never moves the veil back, nor will she allow you to go look behind it. She only reveals a word or a symbol to you, which you will need.



2. A large, dark cave entrance on a mountainous island, or deep in a rocky canyon. There are two stone dogs carved on either side of the ominous cave-mouth. You walk inside and find, in the darkness, that the ground slopes down. You go further down, hearing the rumble of the earth far below you, like gasses or lava is trapped below you. It is warm in the cave, and you can't see well as you slip and step downward, feeling the sinking sensation as you go deeper into the earth.

The sloping ground finally levels out and you find yourself in gloom, with orange flames dimly lighting up the cavern. In the distance, on the far side of the heated cavern, is a young girl with two torches, watching you. Before you, standing before a fire, is a young priestess who walks forward and shows you a scroll with a word on it, tells you a word, or shows you a symbol of some kind, which you will need.



3. A dark, green forested clearing, with paths leading out of it in many directions; you have landed in a labyrinthine forest. The sound of an animal or a person crunching in the leaves beyond the trees gets louder, and you turn to see a Satyr dart into the clearing with you. It immediately takes off running down one of the paths, and you start running after it. (As an alternative to the satyr, you may see and then run after a young girl running with a hound at her side, or a deer). Keeping your eyes on the back of the one you pursue, follow it through forested twists and turns, dips in the ground, and rises, until it runs into another, larger clearing, with two sacred fires burning, and a large wooden idol of Pan or some other rustic, horned deity standing in the back of the clearing. A turf-altar, fresh with the blood of sacrifices, is near the fire, and the skulls of many deer and other horned beasts are on poles around the clearing.

A young priestess approaches you, in rustic dress, and shows you a scroll with a word on it, tells you a word, or shows you a symbol of some kind, which you will need.



4. A great stone portal leads into a Labyrinth, and at the door, there is a spool of thread which has the thread-end tied to a stake on the ground outside the door. You pick it up and walk into the Labyrinth, and as you go in, you feel the spool unravel. Knowing that you can find your way out, you walk further in and come to a left turn. Turning left, you start going around a great curving passage inside the torchlit labyrinth. Eventually, the curved hallway turns right and then suddenly left again and begins to curve. The further you go into the Labyrinth, the more ominous or frightening it feels, yet you are getting closer to the center. When you finally arrive there, you discover a double set of large bronze doors, embossed with a powerful bull's head.

Opening the doors, you go into the perfectly round heart of the labyrinth, where a young girl, radiant with beauty, stands waiting on a stone pedestal before a flickering fire in a bronze bowl. She walks down to you and shows you a scroll with a word on it, tells you a word, or shows you a symbol of some kind, which you will need. Follow the thread out of the labryinth and open your eyes.


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After you have used one of these methods, or one near to it, and when you have the word or symbol you were intended to receive, you are ready to proceed. The key to the first part of this praxis, the symbol-meditation, is relaxation and cultivating an inner sense of not "trying" to see anything or hear anything in particular. If you are the type of person who can "hear" well in inner-vision, the young priestess should tell you the word you need. If you "see" better, she will show you a word or a symbol that you will need.

Do this exercise as many times as you need to, until you are satisfied that you have had a genuine experience, but do not OVER-do it. Trying too hard will prevent you from succeeding, just as not trying hard enough will. The most important thing to keep in mind is to be sincere in your seeking an in the prayers that you make before the meditation, and the Gods will help you to see what you must see.



II. The Prayer of the Initiate, or the Prayer of the Initiation-Chamber

Mystical Prayer helps us to move from traditional kinds of prayer, which are mostly verbal or "thoughts" we send to the Gods and to the blessed dead, into a silent, receptive sort of prayer in which we come to "rest" in the immensity of the wholeness of divinity which is the ground of our being. This sort of "prayer" requires the creation of a "silent space" inside us, but it also gives us a chance to develop a very personal relationship with the divine, and to fulfill our Sophianic destiny, and therefore mankind's Sophianic destiny.

By this point, you will already have the word or the symbol which is to be your "key". It will be used by you now, and every time you do the Prayer of the Initiate, or the Prayer of the Initiation Chamber. The Prayer of the Initiate is a means of quieting the mind while staying very alert.

Your key is more than a word or a symbol; it is an expression, in word or symbol form, or your desire and intention to give yourself to the Divine presence within, to open yourself to the Dionysian "spark of divinity" that is a great Divine Activity within you. Unlike the dark, dull, unconscious Titanic elements of your nature, the Divine Presence is living, all-seeing, and full of immortal awareness.

It has been said that "prayer does not make the heart pure; what is in our heart makes prayer pure." This is an important consideration, as the word or symbol you will be using as your Key is not sacred except that you make it so with your intentions and your divine work.


The Prayer of the Initiate begins when you pray to your protecting and guiding Spirit for aid, make a prayer, a libation, or a sacrifice to the Gods that are closest to your heart and/or to your ancestors, and then you sit or lie down in a comfortable place. You close your eyes, and in the great silence, stillness, and darkness behind your eyelids, you mentally "say" your Key-word once, with firmness and gentleness, or if it is a symbol, you easily and steadily visualize it for a few moments.

You introduce your key into the quiet "inner chamber" void-like mind that you relax into, and know that as you "give" the key to the silence and stillness you have within, you are making yourself completely open to the Divine Mystery, with no reservations of any kind.

You are not to fall asleep during this Prayer, but if you do, upon awakening immediately "re-introduce" your Key and continue on.

If thoughts arise, merely follow them; do not struggle to silence them, just follow them to their natural end, the return to your key-word or symbol and rest on it, until it fades into stillness and silence again. Any time you find yourself mind wandering, you simply come gently back to your Key.

You can remain with your Key as long as you want, focusing totally on it as long or as much as you like, before it naturally lapses into nothingness, and you find yourself adrift again. If the sense of being adrift makes you feel confused or uncomfortable, come back to your Key.


The entire prayer is a creation of a silent space within, using the Key as an "anchor" to help control and focus your mind. The more you do the Prayer of the Initiate, the better the "inner sanctuary" you create will become, until you begin to enter into the conscious experience of the presence Divine, and then the pure experience. But even then, you must not imagine that you have "achieved" the end of the Mysteries; the ongoing engagement with silence and stillness is the Mystery itself; it has no final end.

Each session of the Prayer of the Initiate should begin at 10 minutes, and eventually get to 20 minutes. It may become as long as an hour, if you master it, but most will not pray in this manner longer than 20 or 30 minutes. This should be done at least once a day, but not more than three times a day.

No matter what physical sensations you feel during the prayer, you must easily move back to your Key. The feelings of pain or discomfort are in fact purifications, purgings from the mind and body of harmful powers and blockages. A feeling of heaviness or extreme lightness is a sign of a deep condition of trance, but do not be taken in by it- if you realize you are having it, simply go back to your Key and focus on it, and then the silence that follows the Key.

Many people wonder if the Prayer itself is intended to produce supernatural effects or great visions, and while it can, this is not its purpose. The purpose, aside from cultivating the great inner sanctuary-silence that allows us to go among the Gods and come to realization of our own Divinity, is to bring the Divine presence into your everyday life. The real benefits of this Prayer will be felt in your everyday life in surprising ways.

As a final note, you must realize that EVERY sensation, thought, and feeling you have during the Prayer of the Initiate is not in and of itself anything to settle yourself on. When you become mindful of having a sensation, a thought, or a feeling, whether good or bad, you must come back to your Key and remain receptive and open, and in stillness and silence. The assaults of blameless Aphrodite or Desire will come, desires that will try to draw you away from the inner silence, or other feelings of distraction, and you must NOT struggle against them- merely be aware of them and come back to your Key.

Do NOT go into the Prayer with the intention to "make the mind blank" or to focus on the Key-word or symbol. Do not go into the prayer with intentions at all; even remove the intention to "become one with the Divine" from your mindstream. Go into the prayer seeking nothing special. Just go to the Key and let yourself sit in simplicity. If you find, through mental investigation, that you feel a drive to "find the Mystery" or "achieve union with the Divine", take note that you feel that way, and go back to your Key, treating that desire like any other object of mind or desire.

You will begin, over time, to deepen your relationship with the Mystery of Self, beyond egocentric categories. You will, in daily life, feel closer to the Gods, and to the Divine Source of Men and Gods. You will come to rest in the source of Men and Gods. This is a powerful technique of transformation. A greater destiny for humankind will be revealed to you, over time, and your doubts about life and death will fade.







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