Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

"Whatever it may be of the supposition I have related, the initiation is now but a vain ceremony. Those who have been initiated are not more virtuous than the others; every day they violate their pledge of abstaining from fowl, from fish, from pomegranates, from beans, and several other kinds of fruits, and of vegetables. Several have contracted this sacred engagement through unworthy means; for, not long ago, we have seen the government permitting the sale of the privilege of participating to the mysteries; and, for a long while, women of ill fame have been admitted to initiation."

As it would require volumes to describe the ceremonies of all these Pagan mysteries, we shall only examine their general character; show forth their end; group together their common features, and glance at the means used by political and religious leaders, to give a full scope to this powerful governmental engine.

The mysteries of Eleusis, and in general of all mysteries, aimed at the amelioration of mankind, at the reformation of morals, and at taking hold of the souls of men with more power than through the means of the laws. If the means used was not lawful, we must however confess that the aim was laudable, not in the minds of kings, emperors, hierophants and other priests, but in itself. Cicero, the illustrious Roman orator, said, that the institution of mysteries was one of the most useful to humanity; at least the mysteries of Eleusis, whose effects, he added, have been to civilize nations; to soften the barbarous and ferocious habits and morals of the first societies of men; and to make known the most important principles of morals, which initiate man to a sort of life that is worthy of his nature.

The same was said of Orpheus, who introduced in Greece the mysteries of Bacchus. Poets wrote of him, that he had tamed tigers and lions; and that he attracted even trees and rocks with the melodious strains of his lyre. Mysteries aimed at the establishment of the reign of justice and of religion, in the system of the rulers, who, from policy, maintained the one by the other. This double end is contained in this verse of Virgil:—"Learn from me to respect justice and the gods;" this was the great lesson given by the Hierophant when the postulants were initiated.

Those initiated learned in those profound sanctuaries, under the dark and deep veil of fables, their duties towards their fellow men; pretended duties which they were taught to the gods, and, more unfortunately yet, pretended duties towards their political and religious leaders, or rather tyrants.

Rulers used all imaginable means to give a supernatural character to their laws, and to make the people believe that they had this character. The imposing picture of the universe, and the poetry of mythological conceptions, gave to the legislators the subject of the varied and wonderful scenes which were represented in the temples of Egypt, of Asia, and of Greece. All that can produce illusion, all the resources of witchcraft and of theatrical exhibitions, which were but the secret knowledge of the effects of nature, and the art of imitating them; the brilliant pomp of festivities; the variety and riches of decorations and costumes; the majesty of the ceremonial; the captivating power of music; the choirs; the chants; the dances; the electrifying sounds of cymbals, calculated to produce enthusiasm and delirium, and more favorable to religious exaltation than the calm of reason, all was brought to action to attract the people to the celebration of the mysteries; and to create in their souls a want, a desire for them.

Under the charms of pleasure, of rejoicings and of celebrations, legislators and other rulers oftentimes concealed a salutary aim; and they treated the people like a child, which can never be more efficaciously instructed, than when he thinks that his preceptor intends only to amuse him. They resorted to great institutions to shape society; to form habits; and to direct public opinion and morals.

How magnificent was the procession of those initiated advancing to the temple of Eleusis! The banners, the sacred chants, the music, the costumes, and the dances, had a rapturous effect on the masses. They thronged an immense temple; we say immense, for if we judge the number of those initiated by the number of those who assembled in the plains of Thriase, when Xerxes went to Attic, they were more than thirty thousand. The costly and glowing ornaments which decked the vast hall, the symbolic statues, which were master-pieces of sculpture, and the mysterious pictures which were symmetrically arranged in the rotunda of the sanctuary, filled the soul with amazement, and with a religious respect.

All that was seen in the temple, the decorations, costumes, ceremonies, splendor; and all that was heard, the sacred chants, the melody of instruments, the mythological teaching, the elevating poetry and the eloquence of orators, struck the spectators with wonder, produced and left in their souls the most profound impressions. Not only the universe was presented to their gaze under the emblem of an egg divided into twelve parts, representing the months of the year, but also the division of the universe into cause active and cause passive, and its division into the Principle of light, or good god, and the Principle of darkness, or bad god.