Mysteries

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of Luc Boltanski’s account of the multifaceted relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries in modern societies. It is striking that, although this important aspect of Boltanski’s oeuvre has been commented on by several scholars, his principal contributions to this area of investigation have been largely overlooked and received hardly any serious attention by researchers in the humanities and social sciences. This paper is an attempt to fill this noticeable gap in the literature. Thus, rather than covering the entire breadth and depth of Boltanski’s writings, the paper will focus on the valuable insights his work offers into the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. To this end, the analysis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of Boltanski’s central theoretical contributions to our understanding of mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. The second part offers some critical reflections on important issues arising from Boltanski’s examination of the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries – especially with regard to its limitations and shortcomings.

A number of texts from the Qumran scrolls demonstrate the community's interest in heavenly ascent and in communion with angels. This article lays out a pattern observable in some of the poetic/liturgical texts (for example, the Hodayot and other noncanonical psalms) in which the leader of the community is taken up into the divine council of God to be taught the heavenly mysteries, is appointed a teacher of those mysteries, and is then commissioned to share the teachings with his followers. Upon learning the mysteries, the followers are enabled to likewise ascend to heaven to praise God with the angels. In some texts, the human worshippers appear to undergo a transfiguration so that they become like the heavenly beings. This article further illustrates how these elements can be found together in a liturgical text known as the  Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice ; their collective presence suggests that all were part of a ritual sequence. Finally, the article argues that these same el...

Un barco de pasajeros que desaparece engullido por una densa niebla que nunca existió, y que reaparece a las pocas horas completamente calcinado.
La extraña muerte de un ejecutivo del banco más antiguo del mundo, que solo los magistrados e investigadores de la policía insisten en considerar un suicidio.
Toneladas de residuos radiactivos enterrados en simples zanjas, junto a la central nuclear que los produjo. Cargueros hundidos en el Mediterráneo, frente a las costas italianas, con las bodegas llenas de uranio, plutonio y toda clase de residuos tóxicos letales.
La historia de tres hombres que lo arriesgaron todo para combatir a Cosa Nostra, la mafia siciliana, la organización criminal más poderosa del mundo.
Una batalla aérea sobre el mar Tirreno dentro de una guerra no declarada, que terminó con la vida de decenas de inocentes...
ITALIA SINIESTRA analiza con todo lujo de detalles cinco de los misterios más inquietantes de la historia reciente de Italia. Este libro es para aquellos que desean saber la verdad, por dura y terrible que resulte. Sus cinco capítulos son capaces de provocar pesadillas, porque son casos reales.

A word-by-word explanation of the translation of the so-called creation hymn of Rigveda. The translation is very different from traditional ones.

As I demonstrate, the hymn has been completely misunderstood by previous translators.

The hymn has nothing to do with the origin or creation of the Universe. It is in fact, simply a prayer to God.

Terre fertile en paralittératures, familière des littératures de l’imaginaire, la Belgique semble paradoxalement peu représentée dans la veine utopique. Si en France le récit d’anticipation moderne se constitue en prolongement, souvent négatif, de l’utopie narrative d’Ancien Régime, la situation est plus difficile à déterminer pour la Belgique, où cette écriture n’a pas acquis de véritable visibilité auctoriale ou éditoriale et paraît loin de constituer un genre autonome. On reconnaît plus volontiers à la littérature belge d’expression française ses particularités, tôt développées, dans les domaines du fantastique et de la science-fiction. Il s’agit assurément d’esthétiques voisines, mais il ne faudrait pas les confondre. Roger Bozzetto a insisté pour considérer le fantastique et la fiction spéculative comme « deux genres spécifiques avec des origines, des généalogies et des visées différentes » , tandis que Darko Suvin a proposé des critères distinguant l’utopie de la science-fiction . Sous la désignation de « littérature utopique »  peuvent se regrouper des œuvres qui ont en commun les caractéristiques de la fiction prospective ou conjecturale associées à un traitement rationnel, généralement centré sur des préoccupations sociétales. Une telle définition repose à la fois sur des traits narratifs (cadre spatio-temporel d’anticipation), figuratifs (représentations de la collectivité humaine) et logiques (lien de vraisemblance entre monde fictif représenté et référence au réel). Ce numéro de la revue Textyles proposera un premier état des lieux de cette production hybride, disparate et peu considérée. Il associera, pour ce faire, des études de cas à une réflexion d’ensemble.

This discussion considers the Arthurian elements presented in De Excidio, Historia Brittonum and the Annales  Cambriae and analyses to what extent these may be indicative of the religious and political motives of their authors, rather than simplistically accepted as early primary sources recording reliable ‘evidence’ for an historical Arthur. The discussion is conducted using a framework for examining the texts, their wider historical and literary contexts, the authors’ motivations and the texts’ usefulness as historical ‘evidence’. It concisely distills all the relevant arguments and compares and contrasts various viewpoints. Finally it carefully unpicks the primary sources and demonstrates a number of problems concerning dating, later interpolations, inconsistencies, lack of clarity due to brevity (e.g. Arthur or Ambrosius?) and sensibly concludes that neither Historia Brittonum nor the Annales Cambriae can be viewed as reliable historical evidence, and that that the case for an historical Arthur is ‘unproven’.

Ephesians 3 provides an overarching concluding theological perspective for the first two chapters in Ephesians on God’s mystery and purposes. Through it, one can understand that God relates to mankind covenantally comprising of both OT and NT in integration. It
enlarges one’s understanding of spiritual realities in the heavenlies and the significance of what Christ Jesus done on the cross. Finally, Paul’s prayer for empowerment for the church unveils practical steps to develop one’s spiritual strength and intimacy with God. In God’s economy, enlightenment and empowerment in the Holy Spirit are tightly intertwined and directs theology to life experience with God.

The goddess Ilmr, attested only in Icelandic sources, has been almost completely neglected by scholarship. This article offers a comprehensive review of the evidence and discusses the possible interpretations. It proposes that ecological conditions in Iceland could be a factor in why this name seems to become increasingly obscure following the settlement period.

The sacrifice of the sacred bull/calf deep in the underground cave, underlines the dualistic nature of the Mitraic Cult. The sacred bull was in its true nature a fetishist manifestation - phallus, of a multitude-form creator solar deity, a symbol of the sky and heavens, which through this ritual sacrifice ejaculates its seeds (blood) of life. While the underground cave , where Mitra was born from a stone, symbolized the interior (uterus) of the mother earth, which is about to be fertilized by the blood/seed of the celestial bull deep inside her.  The death was the symbolic rebirth in the same time, as the sexual culmination is often compared with the “small death.”
This symbolic sexual “penetration” of the celestial bull/phallus deep into the underground womb of the mother earth, can be deduced also from the unmistakably Phallus-like shape of the Mitraeums, the cave-like shrines of Mitra, where at the end of each the altar represented the ‘glans’ of these penis-shaped structures, and where the “celestial sperm” was spilled in the form of the bull’s blood. Moreover, in the famous Ostia’ Mitraeum in Italy, where was performed the symbolic “ejaculation” of the sacrificial seed  (i.e. bull’s blood and most probably the real ejaculation of the adepts and Paters, which was mixed with the “celestial seed” of the slain bull), there’s a very intuitive and proper inscription in Latin: “FELICISSIMUS EXVOTO” - ‘a maximum felicity from a vow’, with an urn-vessel (a mosaic image on the floor) for the ejection of the spilled blood/semen.
Mitraism was actually the most Chauvinistic and primitive predecessor of the 10th century dualistic movements, Bogomilism/Catharism and later Protestantism...

I am still on the first stretch of this nomadic exploration, but I think I can begin to answer the question that is guiding this exploration—'how can the Natural-Indigenous Worldview support our understandings of the potential for an anarchist society (i.e. for social order without hierarchical domination)?' The key of Natural-Indigenous Worldview that opens the lock of an anarchist society, of a society without hierarchical domination, comes in the Natural-Indigenous Worldview's spiritual ecology. When we develop the four R's (responsibility, reciprocity, respect, relationships [Young 2015]) through relating to the world in a manner that is facilitated by the spiritual ecology that rises from the Natural-Indigenous Worldview and thus ascribes spirit to all things without regard for the Colonial Modernist Worldview's distinction between 'animate' and 'inanimate', we come to see the world as a single, living, conscious being. The illusion of a discrete distinction between self and other breaks down and we come to see the self (and other selves) as strands in the unified, conscious web of creation. We come to care for all of creation as we would care for our children, for our partners, for our parents and for our self. Transcending the illusion of discrete individuality we develop a lovingly reciprocal, responsible, respectful and relational orientation to the world that begets virtuous thought, feeling, behavior and being without recourse to hierarchical authority (to punishment and fear of punishment). Engaging with the world through the spiritual ecology that rises from the Natural-Indigenous Worldview allows the sprouts of human nature to grow to fruition without recourse to hierarchical domination (i.e. without recourse to attempts to 'help sprouts grow' by pulling on them and the death of the sprouts of human nature portended by such hierarchical folly [Meng Zi 2016, 2A2]).

This paper aims to critically analyse the testimonies concerning Athenian impiety trials of the classical period. First, it reaffirms the arguments that some of them must have been an invention of Hellenistic and later authors. Second, it presents a likely political background behind the historical cases. Third, it discusses a number of legal issues, along with new arguments concerning the procedures employed. Finally, it examines some less well-known material from the fourth century BCE. Overall, it seeks to provide a possibly coherent and comprehensive framework of Athenian impiety trials based on their shared characteristics.

The article continues the publication, for the first time, of a book left in manuscript by the Romanian orientalist Constantin Daniel. The last chapters of the book, included in the article, expose an exaggeratedly spiritual perspective of the Thracian world. This allegedly high spirituality rests on the ascetic cult of a Solar deity, known as Zalmoxis (whose name is interpreted as „the shinning man”, „the man of light”) and being identical with the Greek god Apollo. Constantin Daniel argues for the Uranian features of Zalmoxis, rejecting a traditional interpretation which ascribes him a chtonic character.
The cult of Zalmoxis prompted a moral and even ascetical life among its adepts and it created a community bound by relations of empathy and even brotherhood. The acceptance of Zalmoxis in the Thracian world led to the rejection of Dionysos and of his hedonistic cult, which was standing in opposition with the elevated spirituality of the worshippers of Zalmoxis.

Keywords : Zalmoxis, solar, cult of mysteries, Pitagora, ascetism, sensorial deprivation, immortality

This is a more elaboret and developped version of the first paper published in Polish : M.T. Olszewski, Uwagi na temat mosaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr), Menander XLII, 9-10, 1987, pp. 421-438 (translated to English : The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), see on academia.edu

The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; ; 3. Apollo and Marsyas; 4. The Dionysian thiasos; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
see also a new article: M.T.Olszewski, The iconographic programme of the Cyprus mosaic from the House of Aion reinterpreted as an anti-Christian polemic, in: Et in Arcadia Ego. Studia memoriae professoris Thomae Mikocki dicata, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2013, pp. 207-239, Pls 74-86.

Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule (29th May, 2012) - Solve et coagula: An orphic mystery play. The Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, The Institute of Ecotechnics, October Gallery, Bloomsbury, London. (Host and compère)

The Ancient Greek bard Orpheus can never return to the Underworld after seeking his lost love there. Immortalised yet unable to appreciate His eternal body, he was torn limb from limb by the Maenads… A head, adrift on the elements, found by the Knights Templar and become their oracle, desires to make a new body... The ecology of individual and collective is explored in this ritual theatre. Live song and dance is accompanied by a stop-animation film of the coagulation of a life-size statue (created by Orryelle in 2011) which is a coagulation of 31 smaller wax figures which interlock to form a larger composite figure. After the performance Orryelle will talk about the interior meanings and processes involved, with a Q&A session. Further info at http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/morph.htm

Generated by Don Hoffmann The reader should be able to understand most of the repeated VMS words if she/he uses the information shown. The information given also works for most of the single occurrence VMS words. Additional codes, mostly Group I codes, may be required for some. My proposed solution is of the form of cryptoanalytic concept enumerated by Mary E. D'Imperio in The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma on page 29 as: E. The Nature of the Substitution. E.7 Whole words or concepts are represented by single Voynich symbols or by mixed-length Voynich strings (as in shorthand.) My proposed solution's deconstruction ideas are a derivative of Professor Jorge Stolfi's prefix/midfix/suffix or crust/mantle/core ideas, although two of the-fixes have been further broken down into smaller component parts. These-fixes and sub-parts correspond with the six groups of codes shown and enumerated in the paper. My lists of Voynich Manuscript words found two or more times in the text or labels were gleaned from lists generated by Professor Stolfi. .

First published on the basis of Mr. Nikos Bayraktaris' personal notes:
Θεματολογία Ψυχικών Επιστημών κατά τον κ. Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη
(Subject matter on Spiritual Sciences as per Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis)
https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2017/08/26/%CE%B8%CE%B5%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B3%CE%AF%CE%B1-%CF%88%CF%85%CF%87%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8E%CE%BD-%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BC%CF%8E%CE%BD-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%AC-%CF%84/
Republished here: Divina Studia – Ψυχικές Επιστήμες
https://profmegalommatistextsingreek.wordpress.com/divina-studia-%CF%88%CF%85%CF%87%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AD%CF%82-%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%B5%CF%82/

The last day of the year 406, Sueves, Vandals and Alans crossed the Rhin. On this paper I reassess the traditional historiographical view on this issue and I offer an alternative view of the sources that described this penetration, placing particular emphasis on the analysis of the contemporary rupture of the maritime frontier on North Western Roman.

By focusing on Eliade’s early life and writings (1921–1936), and specifically on his work on Yoga, I address in this paper a question that is frequently asked about the problematic relation between personal belief and scholarship in fields such as the history of religions. Eliade’s interest in Yoga showcases his own personal spiritual quest, of course. But it is also informed by his earlier readings of, and reflections on, two polar aspects of the religious experience: the magical and the mystical. For Eliade, these two categories provide not only a key to unlocking the conceptual and pragmatic dimensions of Yoga, but also the impetus for charting a systematic theory of religion. The last major expression of these early ideas can be seen in Yoga: Essai sur les origines de la mystique indienne (1936). Eliade’s thoughts on Yoga and religion then took different paths, reaching their full expression in works published in Paris after 1945. In his later books on Yoga – Techniques du Yoga (1948), Le Yoga: Immortalité et liberté (1954) – the twofold schema of the magical and the mystical no longer plays a key hermeneutical role. Nonetheless, understanding this early phase of his work is crucial if we are to provide a comprehensive account of the development of his thought on Yoga. This early phase in his scholarly career and experiential transformation, marked by his trip to India, is also very important in terms of understanding the further developments of his ideas on history of religions, as well as to evince the ground on which Eliade built his own – never confessed – private religious belief.

Mithras, Mithraism & Mithraic Mysteries: All Ancient Greek and Latin Texts Relating to Mithras and the Mithraists
ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΑΝΕΝΕΡΓΟ ΜΠΛΟΓΚ “ΟΙ ΡΩΜΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ”
Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 7η Μαΐου 2019.
Αναδημοσίευση από το https://www.tertullian.org/ όλων των αρχαιοελληνικών και λατινικών κειμενικών αναφορών στον Μίθρα. Οι αρχαίες ιρανικές ιστορικές πηγές των αχαιμενιδικών, αρσακιδικών και σασανιδικών και οι αναφορές των Αρχαίων Ελλήνων και Ρωμαίων στον Μίθρα μας βοηθούν τόσο στην ανασύσταση της τρομερής θρησκευτικής διαπάλης των αχαιμενιδικών χρόνων (550-330) ανάμεσα στον Ζωροαστρισμό και τον Μιθραϊσμό, όσο και στην κατανόηση της μεγάλης άγνοιας των Αρχαίων Ελλήνων και Ρωμαίων σχετικά με τις θρησκείες του Ιράν. Με άλλα λόγια, οι Αρχαίοι Έλληνες και Ρωμαίοι δεν στάθηκαν ικανοί να διακρίνουν την τρομερή αντιπαλότητα των Ζωροαστριστών και Μιθραϊστών Ιρανών με τους οποίους συνδιαλέγοντο. Έτσι, η τεράστια σύγχυση σχετικά με το αχαιμενιδικό Ιράν διατηρήθηκε επί μακρόν και επέδρασε αρνητικά στις ρωμαιοϊρανικές σχέσεις κατά τα αρσακιδικά και τα σασανιδικά χρόνια. Αυτή η σύγχυση βρήκε την συνέχειά της στα χριστιανοϊσλαμικά χρόνια, όταν οι Ρωμιοί ιστορικοί δεν μπορούσαν να εννοήσουν τις θρησκευτικές, ψυχικές-πνευματικές, μυστικιστικές και θεολογικές έριδες οι οποίες εκδηλώθηκαν εντός του ισλαμικού χαλιφάτου.
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First republished on 24th November 2021 here:
https://medium.com/@megalommatis/μίθρας-μιθραϊσμός-μιθραϊκά-μυστήρια-όλα-τα-αρχαία-ελληνικά-και-λατινικά-κείμενα-που-αναφέρονται-daced093cb3

Moving from Barnesmoore's (2016) theorization of humans as beings with the potential for conscious (epistemological) evolution, this article argues that a revolution in the ideas by which ('world view' in which) we conceive of potential practice must necessarily precede a revolution of academic and social practice (that theory necessarily precedes practice). Revolution must be rooted in revolutionary ideas and cannot be facilitated by practices that rise from (are rationalized within) the hegemonic essence (ideas, axioms and logics) of the regime against which revolution is being waged.

This article is a spin-off from my forthcoming high school reference book, Daily Life in Arthurian Britain (Greenwood Press/ABC-Clio Publishers). Find the article on the Ultimate History Project website:

http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/usurpers-and-tyrants.html

Check it out now if you are interested because it will soon go behind a subscription pay wall.

Daily Life in Arthurian Britain is scheduled for release on 4/30/2014.
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