Taliesin's Map

The Mitraic Path of Immortality and the Mithraic Mysteries  Part 2 of 2 < Part 1   Mitra, King Arthur and Theseus    As an expansion of this idea we must offer two further targets for comparison. First, having looked at the Mithraic Mysteries and at the mysteries of the Holy Grail, we must further investigate the resonances of this broad pattern to the other legends related to the Holy Grail, specifically those involving King Arthur and Merlin. If we take once more the pattern we have here compared to the Mithraic Mysteries, that of the ideal Sovereign of Justice, who is particularly known for being cuckolded, but also specifically for marshaling and uniting his armies and pursuing his enemies, winning peace and victory for his kingdom by making the climactic kill in battle, and at some point dying or symbolically dying, often near water, under mystical circumstances, only to rise again (or in Lugh's case, being drowned in a lake with only the vague possibility of...

The Mitraic Path of Immortality and the Mithraic Mysteries Part 1 of 2 Part 2 > Basing his interpretations on Franz Cumont's work The Mysteries of Mithra as well as the ancient text known as the “Mithraic Liturgy,” the comments of various ancients such as Nonnus the Grammarian, and the well-known Mithraic reliefs, Julius Evola lays out a speculative reconstruction of the inner meaning of the Mithraic initiation in his essay “The Path of Enlightenment in the Mithraic Mysteries.” According to Evola, the initiate, reenacting the actions of the god Mithras, goes through several stages with a series of attendant trials. He begins as Mithras born in the rock by the side of a river, the rock and waters symbolism indicating the material element into which the divine spark has descended. From this rock, which is both a prison and necessary foundation, Mithras must break free, and then must traverse the waters, which symbolize the cravings of the material body. He then is chafed by stron...