Article: Eleusinian Mysteries and Regression Therapy: Relating the possible benefits of ancient initiation experiences to modern regression practices – Athanasios Komianos (Is.28)

by Athanasios Komianos, B.A., CHT, CRT

Two and a half thousand years ago I would have been put to death by any Greek city state for publishing this paper. Releasing, publishing, or revealing the truths of the mysteries to the uninitiated, faced the ultimate of penalties, namely that of death. Disclosing of the content of the Eleusinian mysteries was a disgraceful act and was unaccepted even in the democratic state of Athens. This is an attempt to break this old tradition and the code of conduct the initiates held and reveal what was taking place in one of the most important yearly initiation practices witnessed in human history. I do so to assert that today’s regression therapists did not ‘discover the wheel’ but that through their therapeutic approach, arrive through a different route, to a somewhat similar result of awakening their clients to spiritual realms.

I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven, but of Heaven is my birth:
this you know yourselves. I am parched with thirst and perishing:
give me quickly chill water flowing from the pool of Memory.
Inscriptions on golden lamellae or Totenpass placed on the mouths of the dead.[1]

  

Incorporating ancient wisdom into our practice

Even though we deal with a lot of presenting problems by our clients none of our colleagues will dispute the fact that many times we run into former lives, or the death scene, or even the bardo state (commonly thought in Tibetan tradition as stages between death and rebirth). Moreover, none can dispute that when such experiences occur, both the therapist and the client, encounter profound insights. Letting the academic interest aside, the reader may wonder why we should know all the things about to be revealed and where they could be useful to us as practitioners. The truth is that spontaneously remembering a past life is an exception not the rule, because we all “drank from the river of forgetfulness”. It is important to know that to achieve an ideal and really deep incubation session it would be ideal if the client first fasted, exercised, abstained from toxic behaviors, followed a concise ritual, and performed libations. What was called incubation in antiquity we call a hypnosis or a regression session today. In fact, with very difficult cases—clients who do not enter into trance and do not open into the modern accepted procedures we have been trained with—the author executes the following protocol:

  • They are asked to follow a strict diet as was done in antiquity. If they go through this probation successfully, the therapist moves to the next phase.
  • They are lead on a long walk in pure forests exposing them in possible dangers such as snakes (if it is summer time).
  • Finally, they are required to descent into the dark basement of an old and deserted building (a building that beforehand is known as safe).

After all this preparatory phase these clients break and their resistance collapses. Their deepest fears arise and Pandora’s box opens. This would not take place within a setting of a modern office. To come into terms with our shadow side and the dark places of our soul, we have to be willing to try everything. Not all of us can do this. Some trainers encourage clients to do fire walking and the author met a person healed from cancer because of this. That does not mean this therapist would do it. It is not his “cup of tea.” The initiation practices of the Eleusinian mysteries as well as the incubation practices of dream healing in the Asklepeia, appeal to him instead. The fact that with success the author managed to replicate the healing effects of these ancient practices by following the original ‘protocol’ should be considered evidence, as far as science is concerned. If the therapist is at a loss with a client, if the therapist thinks that the client’s unconscious can be unlocked, and foremost if it appeals to the therapist, then think of trying this approach as well…with all precautions and safeguards taken into account. Both therapist and client may find it fascinating.

Regressing into Antiquity

Before proceeding it would be helpful to the reader to revisit the author’s previous article in the Journal on Enkoimisis in order to avoid unnecessary repetitions and to enter once more into the zeitgeist of the particular era.

Starting off we should ask ourselves what is the most important lesson left to us from Hellenic antiquity? It seems that ancient Greeks were tuned in with their environment and nature. Through introspection, incubation and other mystic practices some, not all, came to the following conclusions:

  • The fact that we are all immortal.
  • Death is nothing more than a transition.
  • The psyche is that part of the soul that survives physical death.
  • The psyche can connect with the divine through dreaming, incubation and through initiation into the Mysteries.
  • The psyche reincarnates in repetitive cycles.

What were the major ways of having a transpersonal experience in ancient Greece? Figure one shows that the major ways to have a direct experience with the deities was to visit the most famous oracles of antiquity. Delphi, Dodoni, or Didyma were the most famous of all, whereas only states or kings could ask for the advice from the pythonesses. Lay persons could only go there for consultations, or dream healing, which took place at the outskirts of the oracles.

The next way to do so was to indulge in the incubation experience, which could take place in the Asklepeia, Necromancies, and Oneiromancies. It was a complicated process, which required a set of prerequisites before it took place.

 We have already studied what took place in the Asklepeia of antiquity in the author’s former article. The main concern in this article is the initiation practices in the Hellenic Mysteries, which were several. The Cretan, the Dionysian, and the Orphic-Bacchic practices were mostly known through the Kabeirian and the Eleusinian mysteries. The present article will focus on the best known of all the mysteries, those of Eleusis, a city located fairly close to Athens.

As previously mentioned, disclosure of the happenings were punished by the death penalty. Aeschylus (the father of tragedy) at first and Plato much later, were accused of revealing parts of the mysteries. They both avoided prosecution at the last moment. What we know of the mysteries come primarily from a far later period, from early Christian scholars whose intention was to scorn those practices; some come from Roman scholars or even initiates who shared their experiences. Modern scholars know that there are three different and distinct portrayals of the underworld: the Homeric view of the underworld, the Bacchic-Orphic Hades and the Platonic afterlife. As centuries passed, so shifted the consensus about the beyond. Even though many features remain common, there are notable differences from tradition to tradition and from locale to locale.

Thus the text that follows is a mosaic of all that is left from those times. The synthesis will focus on letting our readers visit the shrines of the time with their imagination and attempt to relate to the experiences of the mystai (initiates). It will not adhere to strict, historical, archaeological and scientific punctuality because interpretations differ. However, all the sources quoted are the original prototypes. Moreover, the interpretation of the things done is open to the point of view of the observer. Most of the sources are in the Greek language, but you will be provided with the English sources in the reference section. Keep in mind that what was done during the Mysteries was an initiation to the cycle of life, death and rebirth. It was a “tutorial” to the underworld, a strong and vivid trip through the shadows of Hades. The mastering and taming of terrorizing images and feelings of guilt and terror that would enable the initiate visitor to find his or her way to the light; to defeat the terrorizing figures and scroll up to the light. To this effect all the technology and know-how available at the time was utilized by the priesthood in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of the afterlife and to impress upon initiates the universal truths. This dramatization had to place an imprint upon the psyche of the initiate, to defeat the fear of death by delineating the charts of the afterlife.

Becoming a Mystic in Ancient Greece

The Eleusinian mysteries were actually based on the enactment of the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld, Hades, and they can be seen as a cycle with four phases:

  • The “descent”, in which Persephone was gathering flowers with friends, when she was seized by Hades, the god of death and the underworld.
  • The “search”, in which Demeter searched high and low for her daughter.
  • The “mourning”, in which Demeter mourns for her daughter causing a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved.
  • The “ascent”, through which Persephone and the reunion with her mother and the earth returns to its former verdure and prosperity—the first spring.

In the final verses of Homeric hymn to Demeter we read.

…Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom…. Right blessed is he among men on earth whom they freely love… (Evelyn-White, n.d./1914, line 483)

Μύησις = Initiation. Μύησις comes from the verb μύω which means I close my eyes. Thus during initiation the mystics shut their eyes and by excluding input from the outside they came into direct communion with the divine. This communion can only be experienced by ecstasy and transpersonal insight. The main goal of these states is to recollect the forgotten knowledge in the psyche. The word mystery means an initiation act that is done secretly in an enclosed space. So a question comes to mind: What do initiation and incubation states have in common? They both require a trance state that is the prerequisite for understanding transpersonal reality. Trance states or altered states of consciousness were achieved through a combination of fasting, dancing, feasting, drama play and participation in the initiating mysteries. Initiates and incubators had to face their deeper fears and come in contact with the shadow part of their soul.[2]

Prerequisites of initiation

Persons who wanted to experience initiation had to be dedicated and devoted to that end. They were willing to fast from toxic foods and drinks for a long span before they visited the shrine. They had to abstain from indecent behavior. Before the initiation a cleansing process took place. This process was called katharmos. It was not only a physical cleansing but a symbolic one as well. Piglets were sacrificed on the altar dedicated to the goddesses. Finally, they would dispose of their clothing and wear a deer’s placenta, which, also symbolizes cleansing and walking through the Tholos, which was a round underground structure resembling a labyrinth. What is the purpose of this Labyrinth? The round structure symbolizes the cycle of birth and rebirth. So it is an initiation labyrinth. The upper floor symbolizes the heavens while the underground floor the world of matter.[3]

What is symbolized through this course? Walking in the darkness symbolizes the adventure of the psyche into the world of matter in its effort to find truth. Darkness symbolizes the blindness with which we are doomed; the forgetfulness and the ignorance in the world of matter. The small lamp at the centre of the tholos symbolizes the divine illumination or the discovery of truth. The ascent of the initiate from the underground to the upper ground floor symbolizes rebirth of the soul into the world of heavens.

Who participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries?

  • Any, man, woman, child or even slave as long as they spoke the Greek language fluently and were of Greek origin.
  • Anyone who had their “hands clean”, in other words had not committed a murder.
  • Magicians and tricksters were forbidden to participate.

What were the levels of initiation?

  • Mystai: (Initiates) – the people who participated in the Lesser Mysteries which took place in Athens, in late winter. After concluding the initiation they were called mystai.
  • Epoptai: (Contemplates) – those who concluded the initiation process with success in the Greater Mysteries or Decent Orgies, which took place in Eleusis.
  • Priests and Priestesses – those who contributed to the success of the Mysteries assigned with various degrees and tasks.
  • Hierophants – the priests who directed and orchestrated the ceremony. They all originated from one family tree.

Eleusinian Mysteries were of two kinds.

The Lesser (seven days)

The dramatic shows occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body. They consisted of plays and re-enactments of the myth of Persephone’s abduction and ritual cleansings and sacrifices took place as well. They then performed ritual cleansing at the river Ilissos.

The Greater (nine days)

They obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of spiritual vision.

 Initiation to the Lesser Mysteries

The mystai, or initiates, were under the direction of a sponsor, who was the μυσταγωγός (mystagogos) and who introduced the initiates to the mysteries or performed some of the preliminary rites. The price the initiate had to pay to the mystagogos was equivalent or even higher than a month’s salary. Initiation was individual, as group initiation was forbidden by law.[4]

One had to attend these mysteries only once while he or she could participate in the Greater Ones as many times as they wished as long as they had been initiated.

 

Initiation to the Greater Mysteries

First day – They started on the 15th day of Boedromion (our mid-September to mid-October). Messengers went out to all cities to proclaim a truce.

A procession of priests with sacred objects would then walk from Eleusis to Athens to bring them to the temple of Eleusinion where people from all over Greece were gathered. Then the Archon Basileus would proclaim which persons would participate in the initiation.

The people who were rejected would never be able to participate in the future.

Second day – Άλαδε Μύσται: To the sea Initiates. This was the call of the Hierophant to the pilgrims to head to the sea. All the initiates would then walk to the sea along with a piglet and wash themselves and the piglet in a symbolic gesture. As the piglet is cleansed by the sea water, so shall the humans cleanse themselves from the psychic pollution of their deeds.

Third day – This day was a day of mourning of the Dead. The piglets would be sacrificed symbolically to show that if we are to have any contact with the Divine we first have to abandon our body. This day was also a day of confessions and the beginning of a self-healing process.

Fourth day – During this day the pilgrims devoted the first fruits of their crops to god Iacchos. Iacchos symbolizes the spiritual dimension of the triangle. Demeter is the Mother who tried to get Persephone to her real husband Iacchos in heavens, while her daughter was “chained” in the depths of Hades by Pluto. The incarnated daughter is trapped in the world of matter.

Fifth day – The long march through the Sacred Way (Ιερά Οδός), was a day when the procession for the return of the holy objects back to Eleusis took place. When the sun set, thousands of people formed a procession and headed toward Eleusis, a distance of 22 kilometers from Athens. Eleusis means the “place of happy arrival” and is related to Elysion, the realm of the blessed as described by Plato. The processors would all light their torches symbolizing Demeter’s desperate search for her daughter. During this procession all kinds of therapeutic miracles took place. At dawn of the next day they wore yellow ribbons at their right hand and left foot.

Sixth & seventh days – On these days people meditated and prayed with a strong focus on their inner selves. The initiates prepared themselves for what was to come. During dusk they had a bath with hot water and wore clean white clothes. They ate grapes, bread and drank lots of water. Then they went into the Adyton and slept as the incubators of the healing temples of god of medicine Asklepeios.

Eight day – The Legomena (Things Said)

The Hierophant demanded complete and absolute secrecy from the initiates. The mysteries should never be disclosed to any profane person. His voice acquired a unique theatrical volume because of a special device called echeion that echoed. So in an eloquent, impressing and imposing way he read specific statements out of the stone book. The initiates heard and revealed truths, such as the following, which were also echoed by the echeion (gong-like structure made of copper):

All variety that surrounds you has a unique, common source.
The source of things is the primary cause of everything.
It is the primordial source, the essence.
Death brings eternal life.
Death is a benefactor.
Death is rebirth.
(Margioris, 1999, p. 49)

The kykeonIn the Homeric Hymn it is shown how Demeter refused wine but broke her fast by drinking the kykeon made of barley meal, water, and tender mint; thus she observed the sacrament. So, too, the initiates, after a fast of perhaps several days, drank the same potent sacrament as the final preparation for the mystic initiation. Professor Kerenyi (1991, p.179) on the significance of the kykeon cites the opinion of a pharmacologist: “It is well known that visionary states can be induced by hunger alone…. The content of the visions, as experiments on visionary states induced by chemicals, that is, drugs, have shown, is largely or perhaps entirely determined by expectations, spiritual preparation, initial psychic situation, and by the surroundings.” Kerenyi went as far to suggest that the barley used in the kykeon which also contained the ergot alkaloids from where LSD is produced, was the prime psychoactive agent that led initiates to transpersonal experiences. However, any attempt to reproduce such states has failed so far. 

Entering the Telesterion Three statues stood at the entrance of the Telesterion (the main temple at Eleusis): Demeter, Persephone and Iacchos. Under Demeter’s statue initiates read: “I am the light and the source of the souls.” Under Persephone’s they read: “I am death and hold the truth of life” and under Iacchos they read: “I am life death and rebirth, I am the crown of wings.” 

The Dromena (things done)The Hierophant states in awe:

For all of you that will now find yourselves in the kingdom of Hades, in order to understand what will happen next and to realize your current condition, you have to go through Death. This is your ordeal. You have to learn to beat Darkness for you to feel the light in joy.
(Margioris, 1999, p. 47)

Then they entered deep into the dark subterranean labyrinth. They heard terrifying voices, cries and terrible noises. They were dragged and pushed and pulled. Here are some of the original quotes of either initiates themselves or Christian witnesses who revealed what we now know of what happened during initiation.

As Synesius (373 – 414 AD) reveals to us: 

But their procedure is like Bacchic frenzy – like the leap of a man mad, or possessed – the attainment of a goal without running the race, a passing beyond reason without the previous exercise of reasoning. For the sacred matter (contemplation) is not like attention belonging to knowledge, or an outlet of mind, nor is it like one thing in one place and another in another. On the contrary – to compare small and greater – it is like Aristotle’s view that men being initiated have not a lesson to learn, but an experience to undergo and a condition into which they must be brought, while they are becoming fit (for revelation). (Rüpke, 2013, p. 231)

Themisithius (317-390 AD) writes: 

Entering now into the secret dome, he is filled with horror and astonishment. He is seized with loneliness and total perplexity; he is unable to move a step forward, and at a loss to find the entrance to the way that leads to where he aspires to, till the prophet or conductor lays open the anteroom of the Temple. (Beck, n.d/2015)

Aristides (117-189 AD) writes:

Within this hall, the mystics were made to experience the most bloodcurdling sensations of horror and the most enthusiastic ecstasy of joy. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Proclus (412-485 AD) says: 

In the most sacred Mysteries before the scene of the mystic visions, there is terror infused over the minds of the initiated. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Stovaios (5th Century AD) witnessed:

Thus death and initiation closely correspond; even the words (teleutan and teleisthai) correspond, and so do the things. At first there are wanderings, and toilsome running about in circles and journeys through the dark over uncertain roads and culs de sac; then, just before the end, there are all kinds of terrors, with shivering, trembling, sweating, and utter amazement. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Some of the initiates came face to face with mythical figures under torture. Under the almost total darkness they would feel or discern Ixion, Laocoon, Sisyphus and Prometheus, for example. The priest would then order them to proceed while he ignited the incense. Grotesque figures sprang up in the darkness spreading fear among the initiates.

The Mystics clearly understood that what they witnessed are the psyche’s torments when it is trapped in the body’s garment in their current life. Or it could as well be their afterlife condition in case they lived as slaves of their own passions. The subterranean life is a life of purification and cleansing of former incarnational burdens. Those who underwent this probation could then move to the next plane. They could finally witness the pure essence of life.

Thirsty, the dead run towards the river of forgetfullness (lethe):

Never drink from this river of Lethe (Forgetfulness) but instead drink from the fountain of Mnemosene (Rememberance).
(Margioris,1999,  p. 39)

The Pure Light… 

As Stovaios describes:

..After this, a strange and wonderful light meets the wanderer; he is admitted into clean and verdant meadows, where he discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the majesty of holy sounds and sacred visions. Here the now fully initiated is free, and walks at liberty like a crowned and dedicated victim, joining in the revelry; he is the companion of pure and holy men, and looks down upon the uninitiated and unpurified crowd here below in the mud and fog, trampling itself down and crowded together, though of death remaining still sunk in its evils, unable to believe in the blessings that lie beyond. That the wedding and close union of the soul with the body is a thing really contrary to nature may clearly be seen from all this. (Grant, 1953, p. 148)

The Harvester reapedPersephone is offering the bundle of wheat to Demeter. What does this mean? When an ear of wheat is reaped by the Goddess of Death that meant that creation is the gift of gods to humans…while life is the gift of humans to gods. The further quotes will show more details of what was taking place then.

Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Laws II, xiv, 36 :

 For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as the rites are called “initiations,” so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Pindar (522-443 B.C.):

We learn to see at heavens, we learn to remember on earth. Blessed those will be who will undergo the initiating mysteries. They will be the ones to know the essence and the scope of life. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Seneca (4 BC-65 AD): 

There are holy things that are not communicated all at once: Eleusis always keeps something back to show those who come again. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Empedocles (495- 435 B.C.):

Birth is a great destruction since it brings the living amongst the mortals. It was another time that you really lived, but when you were attracted by some urge you were thrown into the abyss of earth, within the body’s constrains. The now is a dream. Only the past and the future really exist. Learn how to remember, learn how to foresee. (Beck, n.d./2015)

Socrates (469-399 B.C.):

The founders of the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning, and were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure long ago that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and purification will dwell with the gods. For ‘many,’ as they say in the mysteries, ‘are the thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,’—meaning, as I interpret the words, ‘the true philosophers’. (Beck, n.d./2015)

The Platonic Afterlife

Plato’s writings deal a lot with the matter of death. According to him the definition of philosophy is the human mind’s attempt to solve the issue of death and what happens after it. He writes a lot on these issues on his works Phaedo, Phaidros, Gorgias and the Republic. Nevertheless, I am sure that most of us do not know the answer to this question: What is the first NDE recorded in history? It is the myth of Er as presented in the tenth chapter of the Republic.

The Myth of Er.

Plato, in the last chapter of his Republic, shares the story of Ήρ (Er) disclosed by his mentor Socrates. Er was an Armenian soldier who died on the battlefield. When his corpse was placed on the pyre for burning he came back to life with a full memory of what he saw in the beyond. After his soul had departed, it travelled with many other souls and came to a divine place where there were two openings in the earth; opposite were two other openings in the upper region of the sky. In the space between these four openings were judges who passed sentence. They ordered the just to go to the right through one of the openings upward into heavens for reward, but they sent the unjust to the left through one of the downward openings to Tartarus for punishment.

Er also saw from the remaining two openings some souls coming up out of the earth, covered with dust and dirt, and others descending from the sky, pure and shining. When they were all reunited on the plain, they recounted their experiences.

They then all journey to the Spindle of Necessity where the three Fates are found. Lots are drawn and each person is allowed to pick the kind of life they will have in the future.

The philosopher, best trained to know what is the happy life, will be able to pick the happiest life, since it is not immediately apparent to all how to choose.

After this each soul was assigned a guardian spirit (daimon) to help them through their life. They passed under the throne of Lady Necessity, then travelled to the Plane of Oblivion, where the River of Forgetfulness (river Lethe) flowed. Each soul was required to drink some of the water. As they drank, each soul forgot everything. Then they were tossed to life through earthquakes or thunderstorms.[5]

 Conclusion

I hope by now that it will be evident to the reader that all these ancient mass practices educated people about the dark waters of the afterlife. Hans TenDam shared with the author some of his clients that in reliving an ancient life suffer from the ill effects and hangovers[6] from such initiation practices, most of which take place in ancient Egypt. So we all stand a possibility of experiencing such cases. I am sure that there must also have been traumatic cases in the Greek world. Regardless, if our clients do regress in a former life, if they go through the death scene once more, and furthermore if they relive the life between lives stage, then it seems to me that the fear of death dissipates. Hundreds of my clients have told me this repeatedly. Regression therapy today is offering what the hierophants of those antique days were offering to their initiates. Also, as it has been historically recorded, much spontaneous healing took place during this process. Regression therapists also witness daily healings in our offices. Please forgive me for this, but to my mind it would not be a gross overstatement if I asserted that we are doing something that has the same result upon the psyche as the Eleusinian mysteries had to the souls of the initiates in antiquity.

 

References

Beck, S. (n.d.). The Divine Mother and the Veil of Death: The Mysteries of Eleusis. (Trans.) Note: Beck published his translations of the works between 2002 – 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.san.beck.org/Eleusis-4.html

Evelyn-White, H. G. (1914). Hymn to Demeter, (Trans.). Santa Cruz, CA: Evinity Publishing, Inc. (Original work published c. 800 BCE – c. 701 BCE) Retrieved from, http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/demeter.htm

Grant, F. C. (1953) Hellenestic religions; the age of syncretism. New York. Retrieved from, http://earthrites.org/2006/01/dromena-3/

Kakogiannou, F. (2014). Eleusinian Mysteries: The road to initiation. Athens, Greece: Ostria Publications.

Kallergi, D. (2001). The ancient Hellenic mysteries: The spiritual heritage of ancient Hellas. Athens: Ideotheatron.

Kerenyi, C. (1991). Eleusis: Archetypal image of mother and daughter. New York: Bollingen Foundation.

Kingsley, P. (1999). In the dark places of wisdom. Inverness CA: The Golden Sufi Center.

Kourtides, K. (2002). Ancient Greek Mysteries: Orphic, Kabeirian, Dionysian, Eleusinian. Athens, Greece: Ideotheatron.

Margioris, N. (1999). The Eleusinian Mysteries. Athens Greece: Omakoeion.

Mylonas, G. E (1961). Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Rüpke, J.(2013). The individual in the religions of the ancient Mediterranean. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.

Ogden, D. (2001). Greek and Roman necromancy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Ogden, D. (2009). Magic, witchcraft and ghosts in the Greek and Roman worlds: A sourcebook. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.

Stampolidis, N. & Economou, S. (2014). Beyond; death and afterlife in Ancient Greece. Athens Greece: Museum of Cycladic Art.

Struck, P. T. (2000-2009). “Eleusinian Mysteries.” Retrieved from, http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/hymns/index.php?page=eleusis

TenDam, H. (2014). Deep healing and transformation: A manual of transpersonal regression therapy. Utrecht, Netherlands: Tasso Publishing.

Wasson, R. G., Ruck, C., & Hofmann, A. (1978). The road to Eleusis: Unveiling the secret of the Mysteries. San Diego CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.


Online Links

The full myth of Persephone’s abduction:

http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-of-hades-and-persephone/

The full myth of Er: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/platoworks/a/062910-The-Myth-Of-Er-From-The-Republic-Of-Plato.htm

A complete online source for the mysteries: http://www.san.beck.org/Eleusis-Intro.html


[1] Totenpass (plural Totenpässe) is a German term sometimes used for inscribed tablets or metal leaves found in burials primarily of those presumed to be initiates into Orphic, Dionysiac, and some ancient Egyptian and Semitic religions. The term may be understood in English as a “passport for the dead.”

[2] An online link to the whole myth is provided at the end of the article.

[3] More on the Tholos in the author’s former article of the Journal.

[4] No wonder the author despises group sessions today.

[5] An online link to the whole Myth of Er is provided at the end of the article.

[6] “Hangovers are residues of long periods of unhappiness. These are heavy, but indistinct charges; moods rather than emotions.” (TenDam, 2014, p. 181)

Useful information for this article