The Ancient Mystery Traditions with P. Sufenas Virius Lupus

source: New Thinking Allowed    2016年9月8日
P. Sufenas Virius Lupus (his spiritual name) is a practicing polytheist and scholar. He is author of A Serpent Path Primer, Ephesia Grammata: Ancient History and Modern Practice, The Phillupic Hymns, The Syncretisms of Antinous, and other devotional books. Under his legal name of Phillip Bernhardt-House, he is author of Werewolves, Magical Hounds, and Dog-Headed Men in Celtic Literature. He is on the social science faculty at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Here he notes that the Orphic and Eleusinian mystery traditions of ancient Greece were influenced by earlier Egyptian initiation rituals. The mythologies of these cults all refer to a journey into the underworld. In ancient Greece, virtually all persons of status in society were initiated into these cults. The rituals are not fully known, as they were protected by solemn oaths of secrecy. However, it seems clear from accounts that are available that the initiates found them to be a source of inspiration. Often initiates reported that they no longer feared death. He suggests that the rituals may have been a rehearsal, of sorts, for actual death. While some ancient traditions involved spiritualistic communication with the deceased, the mystery traditions seemed, instead, to entail communication with higher consciousness or deities.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.
(Recorded on July 2, 2016)