World View of Mithraism
5. Initiation and Rituals of Mithraism: From Representing to Being
The symbols and symbolic complexes that were embodied in the structure of the Mithraeum were human inventions viewed as an image of the universe. Nevertheless, this symbolic system could construct and express the world view of Mithraism and integrate it with a particular ethos in rituals that couldn’t be separated from the Mithras cult. In the ritual framework, the symbols were transformed from representations of the universe to the real universe defining the position of and appropriate human behavior in the cosmos. For the achievement of this transformation, specific cognitive and emotional states were demanded. Through this process, the initiate’s mind became receptive to the impressions and emotions that the ritual representation of the reality was arousing.
This sense of the ‘actual real’ was enforced by particular moods and motivations which were integrated with metaphysical conceptions that formulated the initiate’s mental consciousness (ib., 112). The Mithraic mysteries revealed to the person the real image of the universe and a new way of existence within the cosmic order. In this perspective, the moods and motivations that were aroused in the rituals affected the broader perception of the world and had practical and ethical consequences beyond the mystery context (ib., 120‐121). Thus, the Mithraic symbolic system through its rituals constituted a ‘model of’ the world and a ‘model’ for living in it (ib., 93‐94).
Although there are not enough literary records for a definitive study of the Mithraic mysteries, there are some references about the rituals mainly in Christian sources. Specifically, a passage from Porphyry – a Neo‐Platonist of the third century CE, who derived his information from Eubulus – De antro nympharum 6, reports the Mithraic cave as an image of the universe where the initiate was introduced “to the mysteries, revealing to him the path by which souls descend and go back again” (Beck 2006, 16). This descending and ascending journey of souls, which lay at the heart of the Mithraic mysteries, was not simply a metaphor for a spiritual journey. It was the route of souls through the actual heavens that took place in the Mithraeum. Although there are some hints in the sources about the existence of a relevant ritual, the symbolic structure and the perception of the Mithraic cave as a model of the universe potentially could be considered as sufficient for the experience of the soul’s route. The initiates perceived the Mithraeum as an authentic microcosm. There their souls, which had gone down from the sphere of the fixed stars into mortal genesis on earth, could ascend again to heaven and receive salvation from mortality.
The gate from which the soul descended into mortality was on the northern/summer solstice, and the southern/winter solstice was the gate from which it ascended back to immortality. The initiates on the bench to the right of Mithras, which represented and so was the solar equator from the spring equinox to the autumn equinox, knew subliminally that they were ‘higher’ and more
‘northerly’ than the initiates on the opposite bench, to the left of Mithras, which was the solar equator from the autumn equinox to the spring equinox (ib., 108, 111). Their position depended on the seven‐gated ladder that led to apogenesis and salvation. In this perspective, the mystery of the
“downward path of souls and their route back out again” 1(ib., 16, 102) could be accomplished cognitively, and the perception of the cave as the universe was a precondition for the performance of the rituals.
Apart from the mystery of the soul journey, there are references in literary sources about other initiation rituals that were relevant to the grade hierarchy. These reports mention several graduated tests, gradually more difficult, that generated particular moods to the initiates and formed the ethos and the values that inspired the members of each grade2 (Clauss 2000, 102‐105).
There were seven initiatory grades that probably had some relation with the planets corresponding to the planetary gods (ib., 131‐133). The three first grades, whose names were Raven, Nymphus or Embryo, and Soldier, could be preparative without complete participation in the ritual meal. The following three grades were named Lion, Perses, and Runner of the Sun (Heliodromus) and led to the higher grade of the Father. Their members partook in the cult meal that possibly corresponded to the banquet between Mithras and Sol in the second – after tauroctony – most prevalent scene in the Mithraea (Martin 1987, 117). This ritual meal reinforced affiliations between the initiates as members of the same group and their union with the god (Clauss 2000, 108‐113).
According to Celsus,3 this vertical gradation of initiation corresponded to “an ascent through the seven planetary spheres as a ladder with seven rungs” (Martin 1987, 117‐118) that linked the earth with the heavens in the microcosm of the Mithraeum. Although it is still speculative, the sources mention that the initiatory grade rituals presumed particular tests, ordeals and sometimes sufferance in order to achieve purification.
Participation in these rituals generated specific moods and motivations in the initiates who perceived the symbolic representation of the cosmos and their symbolic integration with the cosmic order as the only actual and meaningful image of reality. These images and assumptions about the universe’s actuality became in the ritual context emotionally persuasive and formed the only appropriate way of living in the world. In this way, the ethos of the initiates –tone, character, and the ethical and aesthetic qualities of their life – was reformed in accordance with this “actual state of affairs” (Geertz 1990, 127) and was perceived as its authentic expression.
Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras revealed to the initiates the systematic cosmic order and defined the only compulsive way of living in consensus with this order. The initiates met a transformation of their existence that was not limited to the ritual context. It also affected their wider perception of reality, of their position in it and the only meaningful and practical way of living and acting in the world.
1 trans. Arethusa edn. Source Porphyry, De antro nympharum 6, 8‐9
2 Clauss mentions the sourses : Suda, Gregory of Nazianzen, Tertullian, Nonnus, Cosmas of Jerusalem.
3 ‘a second century opponent of Christianity cited by the third‐century Christian father Origen (C. Celsum
VI,22)’
6. Conclusions
In the Mithraic mysteries, the symbolic complexes and their activation in the rituals constructed an integrated world view. Specific moods and motivations, which were aroused in ritual contexts, generated in the initiates appropriate mental and emotional states in order to perceive these images and assumptions about the world as the absolute true reality with logico‐structural integration. In this framework, the ethos of the cult members was represented as the only ideal and right way of living according to the cosmic order, as it was revealed to them in the mysteries.
The contents of the world view universals, as Kearney defined them, were formed in this specific religious and cultural environment and were manifested in the particular ethical and social behavior of the initiates. Nevertheless, the perception of reality and of self as something distinctive from its surroundings and the conceptions about the causal, spatial and temporal relations that determine these notions are based on particular cognitive and neural processes that underlie the human brain. The way in which people perceive their environment and modulate their behavior according to their mental spatial images depends on a process of psychological transformation that determines the acquisition, recall and decoding of spatial knowledge. A world view is formed by mental representations that people have about the main categories of the world that correspond to the structures of human cognition. Symbolic thought has also cognitive and neural bases that have evolved during the biological evolution of the human species. The rituals that are invented with particular symbolic complexes and imbue the perceptions of the world with emotional meanings are related to specific cognitive mechanisms that give them an increased sense of actuality. In this perspective, a cognitive approach may transfer the inquiry for an understanding of the world view and mysteries of Mithras from the socio‐cultural level to the phylogenetic and ontogenetic level. A cognitive approach to the Mithraic mysteries may contribute to an understanding of the cognitive capacities and processes by which the initiates perceived the world view universals and accepted them as the actual reality in the symbolic and ritual contexts of their mysteries.
7. Literature
Beck, Roger
2006 The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire. Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Clauss, Manfred
2000 The Roman Cult of Mithras, trans. R. Gordon, New York, Routledge
Geertz, Clifford
1990 The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, New York, Basic Books.
Kearney, Michael
1984 World View, Novato, Chandler & Sharp, Publ.
Martin, Luther H.
1987 Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press