AHC: Make "mystery cults" last longer

Alkahest

Banned
Hey everyone!

Every once in a while you see threads where people ask if the Mithraic/Orphic/Eleusian/Isiac/Whateveric Mysteries could become a major religion. Now, the suggested methods of having Mithra or Dionysus or Orpheus or Cybele replace Jesus often, to me, seem to go against the whole concept of a "mystery cult". Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and other successful religions that have swept the world turned toward a mass audience, while the mysteries were reserved (in many cases, I'm fully aware that just calling something a "mystery cult" is often an over-simplification) for a relatively small number of initiates.

How can we make true "mysteries" last longer? How can Orpheus not replace Jesus, but remain a perfectly valid alternative on the spiritual marketplace? How can we break the monotheistic monopoly?
 
As soon as Christianity gains the ascendancy, there really is no more room vor valid alternatives. THis will be seen to. However, you will note that Christianity does preserve certain aspects of a mystery cult (rites of intiation, teachings to the initiates, rituals that exclude non-initiates, exclsuive claims to salvation). You could make a good case that the model was too successful rather than that it failed.
 
I think to preserve the mystery cults you need to preserve polytheism in the Roman world. Have Christianity be replaced by a more platonic or buddhist influenced religion which can incorporate the various pagan believes.
I think there was a need for a new religion so just saying "no Jesus = Roman-Hellenic Religion continues unchanged forever" is too easy and unrealistic.
The Sol Invinctus cult might become dominant over the other gods and a new religous philosophy could give the imperial Sol Cult a better theological framework with new scriptures. The Sol Cult would be able to tolerate or even integrate the mystery cults.
 
Having the Eleusian Mysteries become more mainstream would help. I mean they offered eternal life before Christianity did and to anyone regardless of being a slave or a woman and that was a part of their widespread appeal as far as Mysteries go.
 

Alkahest

Banned
I think I've seen some people (such as Julius Evola, if I don't misremember) argue that Christianity is a kind of debased mystery cult, in that it kept the whole "you are special and the most important deity in the universe loves you and you'll lie forever"-aspects while getting rid of the esotericism and exclusivity of more traditional mysteries. (Evola would probably add that this has something to do with Lemurian subhumans or something, but that's neither here not there.) Mystery cults were clearly very attractive, but it seems that exclusive-esoteric mysteries had less memetic staying power than more popular versions. (The early struggle between Gnostic Christianity and proto-Orthodox Christianity is a good example.)

Still, monopolies are boring. Is the whole "ALL OTHER ALTERNATIVES ARE MADE OF FIRE"-attitude inevitable? I mean, "mainstream" religion had persecuted mysteries before, but Christianity took it to a whole new level. What if Christianity becomes more fractured early on, competing with other Jesus-based religious movements as much as it competes with "paganism"? Would that enable a more diverse spiritual market?
 
The Gnostics were mystery cult Christians, with hidden rites and levels of accessibility.

Which is ultimately what killed them. The mystery cults' elitism was their biggest strength and biggest flaw, because while it provided an attractor for converts, it was only for a certain type of person, and didn't translate at all into a mass religion that could exert itself on society like Christianity.
 

katchen

Banned
As long as there is freedom of religion, there will always be a market for mystery cults. Freemasonry has at different times and places filled this niche. So have Yoruba based cults such as Candomble and Umbanda in Brazil and Santeria in Cuba and the US, and if not the Fon based Vodun as a whole in Haiti, secret societies such as Bizango and Macandal in Haiti, as Wade Davis pointed out in his works "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "Passage to Darkness". And in the United States, the Second Century Gnostici by way of Alesiter Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis) based Church of Scientology and it's offshoots, the Process Church of Final Judgement and the Free Zone.
All of these groups have in common, different levels of revelation depending on the degree that the initiate has achieved, and at least attempts on the surface to conceal inner workings from outsiders. (though in most cases, those inner workings have long since been exposed). Which is what makes these groups mystery cults.
 
As soon as Christianity gains the ascendancy, there really is no more room vor valid alternatives. THis will be seen to. However, you will note that Christianity does preserve certain aspects of a mystery cult (rites of intiation, teachings to the initiates, rituals that exclude non-initiates, exclsuive claims to salvation). You could make a good case that the model was too successful rather than that it failed.

I beg to differ.
Mystery cults were very interested in keeping everyone but the right people out of their circles. You couldn't walk in off the street and take part in one of their meetings. They did their best to work entirely in secrecy, not out of fear of persecution, but to keep their gnosis from the uninitiated.

Compare this to Christianity, where there were no hidden rites that only a select few could know about. Where you COULD walk in off the street, and attend the service (though not receive Communion)....where the rite of initiation wasn't hidden or obscure, but well-known and spoken of openly.

Your criteria makes all religions the same, and that's a bit inaccurate to say the least :)
 

katchen

Banned
I beg to differ.
Mystery cults were very interested in keeping everyone but the right people out of their circles. You couldn't walk in off the street and take part in one of their meetings. They did their best to work entirely in secrecy, not out of fear of persecution, but to keep their gnosis from the uninitiated.

Compare this to Christianity, where there were no hidden rites that only a select few could know about. Where you COULD walk in off the street, and attend the service (though not receive Communion)....where the rite of initiation wasn't hidden or obscure, but well-known and spoken of openly.

Your criteria makes all religions the same, and that's a bit inaccurate to say the least :)
In Christianity, this element of exclusivity gets subsumed into monastic orders. And as for what is hidden, why the written word itself becomes a mystery exclusively for priests and monks during the Age of Faith. And for most of that time, it is not necessarily paid for with the coin of celibacy either.
Islam of course develops it's own mystery cults and sects, from the Karijites to the Sevener and later Twelver Shiites to the Nizari (Assassins) to the Sufis and Dervish orders such as the Bekhashi. The Druse still have mysteries that they do not share with outsiders, as do the Alawites of Syria and Turkey.
And in Judaism, there is the Kabbalah, which comes out of the Merkava mysticism of Late Antiquity.
 

Alkahest

Banned
All of these groups have in common, different levels of revelation depending on the degree that the initiate has achieved, and at least attempts on the surface to conceal inner workings from outsiders. (though in most cases, those inner workings have long since been exposed). Which is what makes these groups mystery cults.
Agreed. "Pagan" mystery cults, though, pretty much died out after Christianity became dominant, and were eventually replaced with more monotheistic ones. But is there a way for mysteries centered around Isis, Orpheus, Cybele and the gang to stick around longer?
 
Well I guess you could have a Roman state that continues to "encourage" people to be Christian, while not going full Theodosius and banning other religious practices.
 
Top