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a sceptre in his hand that was double-pointed at one end? Next to him sat Persephone?
Covered in a black veil, her face reflected great sorrow.
The Hierokeryx now explained to the Mystics that they should recognize in
Persephone's destiny, the drama of their own Souls? Just as Persephone suffers under
the rulership of Pluto and is longing for her mother and her eternal Light-Homeland,
that is also how their soul is suffering under the might of darkness and sensuality, and
is longing unceasingly for the heavenly Light? The grimaces that stare at them out of
the "Tree of Dreams" are phantoms of the past; transitory pleasures and suffering,
which prevent Human Beings during their earthly life, which is only a dream, from
the real life? The Herold kept silent? Persephone however, was giving her suffering
and longing, a heart-wrenching expression? The Mystic had to make a Flower-
Offering of Narcissus-Wreaths.
All of a sudden a big double gate opened, and a radiant light penetrated into Pluto's
gloomy Hall? A shout rings out: "Come you Mystics, come here; Iacchos-Dionysos is
here! Demeter expected Persephone! Evohe!"
Persephone jumped up, as if she were awakened from of a deep sleep. "Light," she
cried out, "my Mother! Dionysos!? She wants to rush off towards the Light, but Pluto
grasps her and forces her back into her seat? There she collapses and dies.
With one stroke, all light becomes extinct, and in the deepest of darkness a voice
speaks: "Dying is to be reborn again!"
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Alchemy Unveiled Page 92
What is spoken of here is the mystical death? Since Persephone (the Soul) dies to the
Underworld, she becomes free of the might of Pluto (the Earth) and returns to the true
existence in the divine Light.
Now the Mystics were led to the surface again by the Mystagogues? The terror of the
Underworld and the Tartarus is now behind them? On the surface, they are being
received again by Daduchos and Hierokeryx? They have to take off their deer hides
and bathe in blessed water? They received white raiments and are led into a gigantic
Temple, which sparkles in the brilliance of a thousand torches? Now they are being
led to the Hierophant, who is dressed in purple? He reads to the Mystics, from old
stone plates, regarding the hermetic secrets of the process of rebirth; revealing these
secrets carries the death penalty.
The sealed baskets were now brought in and given to the Mystics, and then the
Hierophant opened them? After the Mystics removed the objects (One Egg, One
Pinenut, and a Spiral Snake made out of copper) from the basket, the Hierophant
explained their symbolic meaning? The egg, with its seven components, is like the
seven colours of Persephone's veil, a symbol of the seven spiritual-psychic potencies
of the nature of a Human Being, which was already known to the old Egyptians.
The Pinenut is a symbol of the divine Light-Seed, which is concealed in it. During the
sacred procession, they already carried the Thyrsus-Staff with the pine cone? They
should remember that the Titan-Son, Prometheus, who formed the first Human Being
out of moist clay and brought him to life through the divine fire, which he brought
from Heaven, hidden in a Narthex-Staff? This divine spark is not brought to life in
everybody? That is why Plato said:
"There are however, many Thyrsus-Carrier, but there are only a few
enthusiasts" ("polloi men narthekophoroi, pauroi de te bakchoi" - that
means, many are called, but only a few are chosen).
The spiral Snake is composed of the metal of the foam-born Aphrodite; she stepped in
Cyprus on land? Aphrodite is the Love, which entwines Persephone (the Soul) like a
snake? However, this snake must wind itself upward, instead of winding itself
downward, to become the snake of wisdom, as the two snakes on Hermes Staff wind
themselves upwards, up to the golden-winged sun? (The Uraeus - the snake on the
forehead of the Egyptians, as a symbol of divine wisdom).
As soon as the Hierophant has finished, the door in the Temple to the inner sanctum
opened, and radiated in the brightest of lights? Heavenly sounds enchanted the minds
of the mystics? Wonderful scents seasoned the air? In the distance, they could see
lovely groves filled with eternal spring and meadows of the Elysium covered with
flowers, where the departed were peacefully resting or strolling.
Now they were also viewing the fourth and last act of the sacred drama? They viewed
how Persephone (the human Soul) was liberated through her mystical death from the
power of Pluto (the earthly corporeality) and then led by Hermes (the higher Genius)
and returns her to her paradisiacal homeland, where she is brought back to her mother,
Alchemy Unveiled Page 93
Demeter (the World-Soul), and by Dionysos (the Divine-Light), to her father Zeus
(God-Father).
Following that, a hymn was sung to honour Zeus, Demeter, Dionysos and
Persephone? Then the Hierophant bestowed upon the mystics the highest of blessings,
with the following words:
"May your wishes be fulfilled, return back o human Soul to the Soul of the World!"
The holy initiation was now concluded, and the mystics had become seers, epopts,
true initiates? A happiness never before known to them, and an inexpressible peace
filled their hearts? They had overcome the fear of death, the dark puzzle of life was
.
solved, the "Great Light" of Eleusis had arisen in them.
The Effect of the Grace of the Mysteries is praised by a homeric hymn to Demeter,
with the words:
"Blessed of the mortal earthly dwellers are only those, who have seen this; those
however, who died without this initiation and if they were strangers to this holiness,
they do not have part of this share, instead they are dead in the moist mess of the
Kingdom of the Night."
Greece's greatest lyric poet, Pindar, glorifies the Eleusinian Mysteries in the same
manner:
"Blessed, who has seen them and then descends below the Earth! Only he knows life's
goal, he knows also the God bestowed beginning."
The Tragedian Sophocles said the following about the Eleusinian Mysteries:
"O blessed, thrice blessed are those mortals, who have at one time seen
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