Mysteria; history of the secret doctrines and mystic rites of ancient religions and medieval and modern secret orders

262 Pages·1895·8.62 MB·English

by  Otto Henne am Rhyn

MYSTERIA
^-~
By DR. OTTO KHYN
\
MYSTE
HISTORY OF THE
SECRET DOCTRINES MYSTIC
and
RITES ANCIENT
of
RELIGIONS
AND
Medieval and Modern
Secret Orders
B,
DR. OTTO HENNE AM RHYN
StateArchivistofSt. Gall
SWITZERLAND
STOCKHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
COPYRIGHT, 1895,
FITZGERALD
By J.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
The Mysteries of the Ancient Grecian religions; the
cryptic teachings and occult interpretations of the popu-
lar religious beliefs communicated to disciples by the
priests in the temples of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and
India: the interesting, half fabulous, half historical epi-
sode of Pythagoras and the Pythagorean League in
Magna Graecia; the mystic, ascetic, and semi-monastic
communities of the Therapeutae and the Essenes in Pal-
estine a century before the birth of Jesus Christ; the
later developments of Mysticism in the time of the
Roman Empire, as seen in the history of Apollonius of
Tyana and in Isis worship, Mithras worship, worship of
the Great Mother, etc.; the secret creed and rites of the
Knights Templar and the usages of the lodges .of the
Stonemasons in the Middle Age; the constitution and
procedure of the Femgerichte of Westphalia in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries; the origin and history and
the aims of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Illuminism,
and a swarm of honest and fraudulent secret organiza-
tions in modern' times: all these topics have before been
made subject-matter of numerous learned tractates or of
popular compends; but hitherto these doctrines, rites,
associations, have not beea studied in their unity, in
iv TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
their mutual relation. One service which the author of
this work renders to the student of this particular phase
of human psychology the longing for mystery and
secret associations is that he develops this relationship,
thus enabling the reader to get a clear understanding of
the whole subject.
But the author does very much more than to co-
ordinate the facts of mystic associations. He is both a
scholar and an artist. Having amassed whatever in-
formation regarding the Mysteries and allied phe-
nomena is accessible in universal literature, he handles
his materials with the skill of a consummate master of
style and of the art of popular exposition. The result
is a history of the ancient Mysteries and of their counter-
parts and imitations in later times, as authentic as the
most painstaking research could make it, yet possessing
all the charm and grace of a literary masterpiece.
JOSEPH FITZGERALD.
CONTENTS.
PART FIRST. MYSTERIES OF THE EAST AND
OF BARBAROUS NATIONS.
PAGE
1. Introduction I
2. The Gods 5
3- Egypt 9
4. The Higher Development of Egyptian Re-
ligion 12
A
5. Reformation in the Land of Nile 16
6. The Egyptian Realm of the Dead 18
7. The Secret Teaching of the Priests of Nile-
land 20
8. Babylon and Ninive 26
9. Zoroaster and the Persians 32
10. B'rahmans andl :Buddhists 33
11. Secret Leagues of Barbarous Peoples 36
PART SECOND. THE GRECIAN MYSTERIES
AND THE ROMAN BACCHANALIA.
.
1. Hellas 38
2. Hellenic Divine Worship 41
3. The Hellenic Mysteries 45
4. Th'e Eleusinian Mysteries 49
5. The Mysteries of Samothrace 57
6. The Mysteries of Crete - 59
7. The Dionysia 60
8. The Roman Bacchanalia 62
9. Debased Mysteries from the East 65
v
t
vi CONTENTS
PART THIRD. THE PYTHAGOREAN LEAGUE
AND OTHER SECRET ASSOCIATIONS.
PAGH
1. Pythagoras 72
2. The Pythagoreans. . . * 79
The
3. Orphici 84
4. Mysterious Personages of Ancient Times. ... 86
PART FOURTH. SON OF MAN. SON OF GOD.
1. Hellenism and Judaism 91
2. The Essenes 94
3. Christianism 96
4. Jesus 102
5. The Early Christians 107
6. The New Testament no
7. The Elements of the Church 114
PART FIFTH. A PSEUDO-MESSIAH. A LYING
PROPHET.
1. Apollonius of Tyana 117
2. Alexander, the False Prophet 124
PART SIXTH. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
1. The Middle Age 129
2. The Templars 132
3. The Secrets of the Templars 136
4. The Downfall of the Knights Templar 140
PART SEVENTH. THE FEMGERICHTE.
1. Courts of Justice in the Middle Age 147
2. The Secret Tribunal 152
The End of the Feme 160
3.
CONTENTS
vii
PART EIGHTH. STONEMASONS' LODGES OF
THE MIDDLE AGE.
PAGE
1. Medieval Architecture 162
2. The Stonemasons' Lodges of Germany 164
3. French Craftsmen 169
4. The English Stonemasons 172
ASTROLOGERS AND ALCHEMISTS
174
PART NINTH. RISE AND CONSTITUTION OF
FREEMASONRY.
1. Rise of Freemasonry 178
2. Constitution of the Order 184
3. The Lodge 188
i^ART TENTH. SECRET SOCIETIES OF THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
1. Miscellaneous Secret Societies 193
2. Obscurantist Influences 196
3. The ''High Degrees" Swindle 199
4. Apostles of Nonsense 203
The Swedish Rite. 210
5.
6. The New Rosicrusians 211
PART ELEVENTH. THE ILLUMINATI.
1. The Illuminati 216
2. Imitations of Illuminism 226
PART TWELFTH. SECRET SOCIETIES OF
VARIOUS KINDS.
1. Societies of Wits 230'
2. Imitations of Ancient Mystic Leagues 232
3. Imitations of Freemasonry 234