FREEMASONRY AND THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES
H.L. HAYWOOD, Editor THE BUILDER The Builder Magazine, May 1923 - Volume IX -
Definition of the Roman god
- A Persian, Zoroastrian and Vedic deity, he was the most widely venerated god
in the Roman Empire at the time of Christ. The Christian Church borrowed
numerous of his mysteries, such as birth on Dec. 25, ascension into heaven at
Spring equinox, Last Supper of bread and wine with 12 disciples, celibate
priesthood, etc. Mithras was venerated by the legions, who saw in him a cult
of power and hierarchy. His rites featured this image, possibly a depiction of
the precession of the equinoxes and equatorial zodiac, which equates Mithras
with the constellation and hero Perseus. He is shown superseding (slaying) the
constellation Taurus, thus achieving the regenerative powers of spring.
THEORY that modern Freemasonry is in some sense a direct descendant from the
ancient Mysteries has held a peculiar attraction for Masonic writers this long
time, and the end is not yet, for the world is rife with men who argue about
the matter up and down endless pages of print. It is a most difficult subject
to write about, so that the more one learns about it the less he is inclined
to ventilate any opinions of his own. The subject covers so much ground and in
such tangled jungles that almost any grand generalization is pretty sure to be
either wrong or useless. Even Gould, who is usually one of the soundest and
carefullest of generalizers, gets pretty badly mixed up on the subject.
For present purposes it has seemed to me wise to attention to one only of the
Mysteries, letting it stand as a type of the rest, and I have chosen for that
purpose MITHRAISM, one of the greatest and one of most interesting, as well as
one possessing as many parallelisms with Freemasonry as any of the others.
I - HOW MITHRA
CAME TO BE A FIRST-CLASS GOD
Way back in the beginning of things, so we may learn from the Avesta, Mithra
was the young god of the sky lights that appeared just before sunrise and
lingered after the sun had set. To him was attributed patronship of the
virtues of truth, life-giving, and youthful strength and joy. Such qualities
attracted many worshippers in whose eyes Mithra grew from more to more until
finally he became a great god in his own right and almost equal to the sun god
himself. "Youth will be served," even a youthful god; and Zoroastrianism,
which began by giving Mithra a very subordinate place, came at last to exalt
him to the right hand of the awful Ormuzd, who had rolled up within himself
all the attributes of all gods whatsoever.
When the Persians conquered the Babylonians, who worshipped the stars in a
most thoroughgoing manner, Mithra got himself placed at the very center of
star worshipping cults, and won such strength for himself that when the
Persian Empire went to pieces and everything fell into the melting pot with
it, Mithra was able to hold his own identity, and emerged from the struggle at
the head of a religion of his own. He was a young god full of vigour and
overflowing with spirits, capable of teaching his followers the arts of
victory, and such things appealed mightily to the bellicose Iranian tribesmen
who never ceased to worship him in one form or another until they became so
soundly converted to Mohammedanism centuries afterwards. Even then they did
not abandon him altogether but after the inevitable manner of converts rebuilt
him into Allah and into Mohammed, so that even today one will find pieces of
Mithra scattered about here and there in what the Mohammedans call their
After the collapse of the Persian Empire, Phrygia, where so many religions
were manufactured at one time or another, took Mithra up and built a cult
about him. They gave him his Phrygian cap which one always sees on his
statues, and they incorporated in his rites the use of the dreadful "taurobolium,"
which was a baptism in the blood of a healthy young bull. In the course of
time this gory ceremony became the very center and climax of the Mithraic
ritual, and made a profound impression on the hordes of poor slaves and
ignorant men who flocked into the mithrea, as the Mithraic houses of worship
Mithra was never able to make his way into Greece (the same thing could be
said of Egypt, where the competition among religions was very severe) but it
happened that he borrowed something from Greek art. Some unknown Greek
sculptor, one of the shining geniuses of his nation, made a statue of Mithra
that served ever afterwards as the orthodox likeness of the god, who was
depicted as a youth of overflowing vitality, his mantle thrown back, a
Phrygian cap on his head, and slaying a bull. For hundreds of years this
statue was to all devout Mithraists what the crucifix now is to Roman
Catholics. This likeness did much to open Mithra's path toward the west, for
until this his images had been hideous in the distorted and repellant manner
so characteristic of Oriental religious sculpture. The Oriental people, among
whom Mithra was born, were always capable of gloomy grandeur and of religious
terror, but of beauty they had scarcely a touch; it remained for the Greeks to
recommend Mithra to men of good taste.
After the Macedonian conquests, so it is believed, the cult of Mithra became
crystallized; it got its orthodox theology, its church system, its philosophy,
its dramas and rites, its picture of the universe and of the grand cataclysmic
end of all things in a terrific day of judgment. Many things had been built
into it. There were exciting ceremonies for the multitudes; much mysticism for
the devout; a great machinery of salvation for the timid; a program of
militant activity for men of valour; and a lofty ethic for the superior
classes. Mithraism had a history, traditions, sacred books, and a vast
momentum from the worship of millions and millions among remote and scattered
tribes. Thus accoutered and equipped, the young god and his religion were
prepared to enter the more complex and sophisticated world known as the Roman
II - HOW MITHRA
FOUND HIS WAY TO ROME
When Mithridates Eupator - he who hated the Romans with a virulency like that
of Hannibal, and who waged war on them three or four times - was utterly
destroyed in 66 B.C. and his kingdom of Pontus was given over to the dogs, the
scattered fragments of his armies took refuge among the outlaws and pirates of
Cilicia and carried with them everywhere the rites and doctrines of Mithraism.
Afterwards the soldiers of the Republic of Tarsus, which these outlaws
organized, went pillaging and fighting all round the Mediterranean, and
carried the cult with them everywhere. It was in this unpromising manner that
Mithra made his entrance into the Roman world. The most ancient of all
inscriptions is one made by a freedman of the Flavians at about this time.
In the course of time Mithra won to his service a very different and much more
efficient army of missionaries. Syrian merchants went back and forth across
the Roman world like shuttles in a loom, and carried the new cult with them
wherever they went. Slaves and freedmen became addicts and loyal supporters.
Government officials, especially those belonging to the lowlier ranks, set up
altars at every opportunity. But the greatest of all the propagandists were
the soldiers of the various Roman armies. Mithra, who was believed to love the
sight of glittering swords and flying banners, appealed irresistibly to
soldiers, and they in turn were as loyal to him as to any commander on the
field. The time came when almost every Roman camp possessed its mithreum.
Mithra began down next to the ground but the time came when he gathered behind
him the great ones of the earth. Antoninus Pius, father-in-law of Marcus
Aurelius, erected a Mithraic temple at Ostia, seaport of the city of Rome.
With the exception of Marcus Aurelius and possibly one or two others all the
pagan emperors after Antaninus were devotees of the god, especially Julian,
who was more or less addle-pated and willing to take up with anything to stave
off the growing power of Christianity. The early Church Fathers nicknamed
Julian "The Apostate"; the slur was not altogether just because the young man
had never been a Christian under his skin.
Why did all these great fellows, along with the philosophers and literary men
who obediently followed suit, take up the worship of a foreign god, imported
from amidst the much hated Syrians, when there were so many other gods of home
manufacture so close at hand? Why did they take to a religion that had been
made fashionable by slaves and cutthroats? The answer is easy to discover.
Mithra was peculiarly fond of rulers and of the mighty of the earth. His
priests declared that the god himself stood at the right hand of emperors both
on and off the throne. It was these priests who invented the good old doctrine
of the divine right of kings. The more Mithra was worshipped by the masses,
the more complete was the imperial control of those masses, therefore it was
good business policy for the emperors to give Mithra all the assistance they
could. There came a time when every Emperor was pictured by the artists with a
halo about his head; that halo had originally belonged to Mithra. It
represented the outstanding splendour of the young and vigorous sun. After the
Roman emperors passed away the popes and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church
took up the custom; they are still in the habit of showing their saints
Mithraism spread up and down the world with amazing rapidity. All along the
coast of northern Africa and even in the recesses of the Sahara; through the
Pillars of Hercules to England and up into Scotland; across the channel into
Germany and the north countries; and down into the great lands along the
Danube, he everywhere made his way. London was at one time a great center of
his worship. The greatest number of mithrea were built in Germany. Ernest
Renan once said that if ever Christianity had become smitten by a fatal malady
Mithraism might very easily: have become the established and official religion
of the whole Western World. Men might now be saying prayers to Mithra, and
have their children baptised in bull's blood.
There is not here space to describe in what manner the cult became modified,
by its successful spread across the Roman Empire. It was modified, of course,
and in many ways profoundly, and it in turn modified everything with which it
came into contact.
Here is a brief epitome of the evolution of this Mystery. It began at a remote
time among primitive Iranian tribesmen. It picked up a body of doctrine from
the Babylonian star worshippers, who created that strange thing known as
astrology. It became a mystery, equipped with powerful rites, in the Asia
Minor countries. It received a decent outward appearance at the hand of Greek
artists and philosophers; and it finally became a world religion among the
Romans. Mithraism reached its apogee in the second century; it went the way of
all flesh in the fourth century; and flickered out entirely in the fifth
century, except that bits of its wreckage were salvaged and used by a few new
cults, such as those of the various forms of Manicheeism.
III - THE
MITHRAIC THEORY OF THINGS
After overthrowing its hated rival, the early Christian Church so completely
destroyed everything having to do with Mithraism that there have remained
behind but few fragments to bear witness to a once victorious religion. What
little is accurately known will be found all duly set down and correctly
interpreted in the works of the learned Dr. Franz Cumont, whose books on the
subject so aroused the ire of the present Roman Catholic Hierarchy that they
placed them on the Index, and warned the faithful away from his chapters of
history. Today, as in Mithra's time, superstitions and empty doctrines have a
sorry time when confronted with known facts.
The pious Mithraist believed that back of the stupendous scheme of things was
a great and unknowable deity, Ozmiuzd by name, and that Mithra was his son. A
soul destined for its prison house of flesh left the presence of Ormuzd,
descended by the gates of Cancer, passed through the spheres of the seven
planets and in each of these picked up some function or faculty for use on the
earth. After its term here the soul was prepared by sacraments and discipline
for its re-ascent after death. Upon its return journey it underwent a great
ordeal of judgment before Mithra. Leaving something behind it in each of the
planetary spheres it finally passed back through the gates of Capricorn to
ecstatic union with the great Source of all. Also there was an eternal hell,
and those who had proved unfaithful to Mithra were sent there. Countless deons,
devils and other invisible monsters raged about everywhere over the earth
tempting souls, and presided over the tortures in the pit. Through it all the
planets continued to exercise good or evil influence over the human being,
according as his fates might chance to fall out on high, a thing imbedded in
the cult from its old Babylonian days.
The life of a Mithraist was understood as a long battle in which, with
Mithra's help, he did war against the principles and powers of evil. In the
beginning of his life of faith he was purified by baptism, and through all his
days received strength through sacraments and sacred meals. Sunday was set
aside as a holy day, and the twenty-fifth of December began a season of
jubilant celebration. Mithraic priests were organized in orders, and were
deemed to have supernatural power to some extent or other.
It was believed that Mithra had once come to earth in order to organize the
faithful into the army of Ormuzd. He did battle with the Spirit of all Evil in
a cave, the Evil taking the form of a bull. Mithra overcame his adversary and
then returned to his place on high as the leader of the forces of
righteousness, and the judge of all the dead. All Mithraic ceremonies centered
about the bull slaying episode.
The ancient Church Fathers saw so many points of resemblance between this cult
and Christianity that many of them accepted the theory that Mithraism was a
counterfeit religion devised by Satan to lead souls astray. Time has proved
them to be wrong in this because at bottom Mithraism was as different from
Christianity as night from day.
IV - IN WHAT
WAY MITHRAISM WAS LIKE FREEMASONRY
Masonic writers have often professed to see many points of resemblance between
Mithraism and Freemasonry. Albert Pike once declared that Freemasonry is the
modern heir of the Ancient Mysteries. It is a dictum with which I have never
been able to agree. There are similarities between our Fraternity and the old
Mystery Cults, but most of them are of a superficial character, and have to do
with externals of rite or, organization, and not with inward content. When Sir
Samuel Dill described Mithraism as "a sacred Freemasonry" he used that name in
a very loose sense.
Nevertheless, the resemblances are often startling. Men only were admitted to
membership in the cult. "Among the hundreds of inscriptions that have come
down to us, not one mentions either a priestess, a woman initiate, or even a
donatress." In this the mithrea differed from the collegia, which latter,
though they almost never admitted women as members, never hesitated to accept
help or money from them. Membership in Mithraism was as democratic as it is
with us, perhaps more so; slaves were freely admitted and often held positions
of trust, as also did the freedmen of whom there were such multitudes in the
latter centuries of the empire.
Membership was usually divided into seven grades, each of which had its own
appropriate symbolical ceremonies. Initiation was the crowning experience of
every worshipper. He was attired symbolically, took vows, passed through many
baptisms, and in the higher grades ate sacred meals with his fellows. The
great event of the initiate's experiences was the taurobolium, already
described. It was deemed very efficacious, and was supposed to unite the
worshipper with Mithra himself. A dramatic representation of a dying and a
rising again was at the head of all these ceremonies. A tablet showing in bas
relief Mithra's killing of the bull stood at the end of every mithreum.
This, mithreum, as the meeting place, or lodge, was called, was usually cavern
shaped, to represent the cave in which the god had his struggle. There were
benches or shelves along the side, and on these side lines the members sat.
Each mithreum had its own officers, its president, trustees, standing
committees, treasurer, and so forth, and there were higher degrees granting
special privileges to the few. Charity and Relief were universally practised
and one Mithraist hailed another as "brother." The Mithraic "lodge" was kept
small, and new lodges were developed as a result of "swarming off" when
membership grew too large.
Manicheeism, as I have already said, sprang fr the ashes of Mithraism, and St.
Augustine, who did so much to give shape to the Roman Catholic church and
theology was for many years an ardent Manichee, an through him many traces of
the old Persian creed found their way into Christianity. Out of Manicheeism,
or out of what was finally left of it, came Paulicianism, and out of
Paulicianism came many strong medieval cults - the Patari, the Waldenses, the
Hugenots, and countless other such developments. Through these various
channels echoes of the old Mithraism persisted over Europe, and it may very
well be, as has often been alleged, that there are faint traces of the ancient
cult to be found here and there in our own ceremonies or symbolisms. Such
theories are necessarily vague and hard to prove, and anyway the thing is not
of sufficient importance to argue about. If we have three or four symbols that
originated in the worship of Mithra, so much the better for Mithra!
After all is said and done the Ancient Mysteries were among the finest things
developed in the Roman world. They stood for equality in a savagely
aristocratic and class-riddled society; they offered centers of refuge to the
poor and the despised among a people little given to charity and who didn't
believe a man should love his neighbour; and in a large historical way they
left behind them methods of human organization, ideals and principles and
hopes which yet remain in the world for our use and profit. It a man wishes to
do so, he may say that what Freemasonry is among us, the Ancient Mysteries
were to the people of the Roman world, but it would be a difficult thing for
any man to establish the fact that Freemasonry has directly descended from
those great cults.
[Note: Kipling, who has never wearied of handling themes concerned with
Freemasonry, often writes of Mithraism. See in especial his Puck of Pook's
Hill, page 173 of the 1911 edition, for the stirring Song to Mithras.]
WORKS CONSULTED IN
PREPARING THIS ARTICLE
The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, Vol. II, Waite. The Book of Acts,
Expositor's Bible. Mystery Religions and the New Testament, Sheldon. Roman
Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, Sir Samuel Dill. The Works of Franz
Cumont. Le Culte de Mithra, Gasquet. On Isis and Osiris, Plutarch. Life of
Pompey, Plutarch. Annals, Tacitus. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
Mythrasliturgie, Dielitch. De Corona, Tertullion. History of France, Vol. V,
Vol. VI, Vol. VII, Duruy. Neoplatonism, Bigg. Roman Society in the Last
Century of the Western Empire, Sir Samuel Dill. Menippus, Lucian. Thebaid,
Statius. See bibliography in Hasting's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,
Vol. VIII, p. 752. Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. III, p. 109; Vol. IV, p.
32; Vol. XIII, p. 90. The History of Freemasonry, Vol. I, Gould.
Mackey's Encyclopedia-(Revised Edition):
Allah, 46, Babylon, 89. Egyptian Mysteries, 232-233. Egyptian Priests,
Initiations of the, 234. Gnostics, 300-301. Legend, 433. Manichaeans, 462.
Mithras, Mysteries of, 485-487. Mohammed, 488. Mysteries, Ancient, 497-500.
Mystery, 500. Myth, 501. Myth, Historical, 501. Mythical History, 501.
Mythology, 501. Myth, Philosophical, 501. Ormuzd, 539. Persia, 558 Pike,
Albert, 563. Roman Colleges of Artificers, 630-634.
Vol. 1, 1915. - Symbolism, The Hiramic Legend, and the Master's Word, p.
285; Symbolism in Mythology, p. 296.
Vol. II, 1916. - Masonry and the Mysteries, p. 19; The Mysteries of Mithra,
p. 94; The Dionysiacs, p. 220; The Mithra Again, p. 254; The Ritual of
Ancient Egypt, p. 285; The Dionysiaes, p. 287.
Vol. III, 1917. - The Secret Key, p. 158; Mithraism, p. 252; Vol. IV, 1918.
- The Ancient Mysteries, p. 223.
Vol. V, 1919. - The Ancient Mysteries Again, p. 25; The Eleusinian Mysteries
and Rites, pp. 143, 172; The Mystery of Masonry, p. 189; The Eleusinian
Mysteries and Rites, pp. 218, 240.
Vol. VI, 1920. - A Bird's-Eye View of Masonic History, p. 236.
Vol. VII, 1921. - Whence Came Freemasonry, p. 90; Books on the Mysteries of
Isis, Mithras and Eleusis, p. 205.
Vol. VIII, 1922. - A Mediating Theory, p. 318; Christianity and the Mystery
Religions, p. 322.