Closed Entrance to the Temple of Mithra SOLAR (Part 1 0f 3)

 

Closed Entrance to the Temple of Mithra SOLAR (Part 1 0f 3)

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes

''Either he [Mithras] is the Sun, the brightest planet, or he is a SOLAR DEITY''

(Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 1-4)

For the spiritual and initiatory tradition of the Ancient Mysteries, Mithra is the ancient Indo-Iranian god associated with the millenary Mitra-Varuna binomial, The Protector of Celestial Light and Truth.

It is recognized enormous influence received and assimilated in the constructive Masonic currents of the Middle Ages and a cult of the Sun that begins in a personal and individual process in the darkness of a sacred cave.

That is the Path or Path to the light whose characteristics evoke the Journey in search of the Solar sperma and initiatory.

A stage of ritual purification is represented in the Theatre or Liturgical Drama through rigorous tests of the Elements=Fire-Air-Earth-Wind in 7 gradations under an iconographic astrological sky in celestial signs.

Sacred ritual performed in a theatrical way between the hidden sacred caves-mitreo = model of Lodge -, initiatory place when managing to climb the 7 planetary steps and staircase to the Hyper cosmic Sun = (one Platonic Hyper cosmic).

(David Ulansey)

So, the origin of the ladder of 7 degrees corresponding to 7 planets and 7 steps of the mystical staircase of Mithra = (Mehr=love, sun, friend).

On the other hand, the learner travels in his initiatory process the trajectory of the Sun = Sun Omnipotenti Mithrae.

The caves in the Mithreo were adorned with astrological motifs and astronomical emblems.

Mithras=Sun and mediator illustrates the initiate-apprentice through 7 solar Degrees that the 'Soldier of Mithra' has to follow to reach the Phrygian cap, a sword and the Crown=''Mithras is my Crown.''

Mithras is Sun-God=Deo-Soli undefeated Mithra.

Ancestral wisdom for the achievement of the 'Phrygian cap' following the masters of the 'initiatory caves', original place that has to pass the initiate to the Mysterica of Mithra. ...

''the Mithraic cave not only displayed the zodiacal and other constellations, and marked gates at the four equinoctial and solstitial points of the zodiac''... (1)

Potentate god of light is that some ancient millenary lines or expressive arteries call Mitrá, God of the vast pastures, of the justice of the thousand ears and ten thousand eyes.

It embodies the mythical stellar formula-, God who as a combatant is launched, in the company of the Sun, in a solar carriage of white horses, God of the aurora or warrior god.

(Avesta, Collection of Sacred Texts of Ancient Persia)

In the rich archives of Bogazkoy=(Boghazkeui), in a Treatise of 1380 or fourteenth century BC.C., -between a Hittite king and the king of Mitani in the Euphrates-, old references to Mitrá already appear among examples of faithful oaths before his powerful ritual-theurgical presence=Mitráváruna, Ind(a)rah,Nasatya.

In this sense the ritual form and powerful duality of the Vedic binomial Mithra-Varuna=(u-ru-va-na) guaranteed in their presence the Mithra Pact=contract or oath.

And so, they bestowed through their "Given Word" prodigious and salutary goods in health and fertility.

Mitrá is the exclusive solar light representative from the very origins of the complex Prevedic, Vedic and post-Vedic mythology, consecrated -structurally- between the formal theology of a strict Cosmic and moral Order.

Mithra and Varuna maintain the Cosmic Order.

Mithra was invoked every time a contract or agreement is granted.

Recall that El Toro was assimilated from archaic cultures to hurricane and thunder in epiphany of fertilizing force.

It is curious to note that in Pale eastern cultures power and bull were synonymous, and breaking the horn represented breaking its Power.

Already present tauromorphic and its power in protohistoric rites and myths from India foreseen in the third millennium BC.C.

Predravidian, Dravian and Indo-Aryan all venerated the bull.

"Bullfighting images abound in the temples of Siva..."

"It is also worth mentioning the origin of the Semitic and Greco-Latin terms for bull... which confirms the unity of that religious complex."

His representation from Ur was "the god by whom one swears." (2)

Certainly, Mitrá is the custodian of the sap of the solar fire and the halo of Light that from above shines above the sky similar to Helios bullfighting in full struggle -always airy and Invictus-, to penetrate the darkness of the cosmic grotto. Initiatory grotto that will turn out to be a faithful image of the uterus or model of the cosmos.

According to Porphyry (234-305 Neoplatonic philosopher), the images of the Mysterica of Mithra in the underground Temples are based on concepts of complex astrology and astronomy.

Faithful origin and ontological beginning of all mysterium tremendum and initiatory process to achieve the KARA or conical cap and the 'candys'=loose tunic... Tradere leontica, heliaca et Patrica. Audi-Vide-Tace

Recall that the initiatory tradition of Mithra was respected among military and officers of Rome.

(2 to 5 d.C.)

The initiations in the Light and Solar Mysteries of Mithra, then resemble the representative model on a microcosmic scale of endless complementary duality and, eternally... Antagonistic.

Manifest macrocosmic duality between two cyclical universal forces in infinite opposition.

It is the ontological duality and coincidentia oppositorum cosmological ambivalent and changing.

"The two, Mithra and Varuna"; and ancient couple, as evidenced, before our era and far from India, their presence, also in double dual ...". (3)

Transcendent in the reception potential of the universal Macrocosmic fluid of X'varenah = (X'varr, X'varenah), embodied as a powerful seminal liquid or solar fire (Blood of the Bull) of hidden soteriological purpose.

Mithra is interested in the earthly by that which is close to man and his theurgic contracts.

His sympathetic and theurgical magic "breaks" "knots" and also, removes obstacles.

It facilitates alliances and treaties since it is its own internal nature that of a friendly, benevolous, reassuring and truly progressive 'being' according to Dumezil.

In the power of the Mithraic scorpion resides "the spiritual power"- (Ananda Coomaraswamy)-, deposited and captured in that precise cosmological moment of renewal in "the moment" cyclic taurotesticular to rescue and recover the unity lost through the astrological force of the scorpion.

Masterfully expressed in a beautiful and rich iconographic trajectory reflected and immersed in the eschatological teaching or astrosexual initiatory entheos of Mithra when learning to "kill" the Celestial Bull.

"The Xvarr of God is simply his semen," says Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin.

To kill the Celestial Bull is a birth and death as a universal renovatio and Supreme Power!

Taurus rules the throat and neck.

The sacred sword of Mithra (Orion) enters the neck of Taurus powerfully!

Symbolically from here is born the solar astronomical liturgical drama with multiple and complicated scenes in 'acting' stages within the grotesque grotesque.

Mithra distributes blessings by bestowing fruitfulness.

It clearly points to the regeneration of the stone.

Dispensing sunlight grants health and vigor. Therefore, it protects the initiated.

We must learn to SEE = mantis, with the EYE of Mithra.

"The divine revelation may be received in the form of myth(muthos). Such a myth is to be used properly, because its surface is only a "VEIL" or "SCREEN (parapetasma), behind which another, metaphysical truth lies awaiting its inspired hermeneus."(4)

If we do not go through ecstasy and assimilate tradition through rigorous and initiatory stages = (kata ten aporreheton theorian), in planetary forms of descent and ascension; we cannot receive in just property the sacred Phrygian Cap.

The blood of the Celestial Bull is also, equinoctial solstitial seed of the Life of the Cosmos.

And, at the same time, River of Fire.

The Mysteries of the god Mithra are ancient.

His name in Vedic-Mithra, Avestan-Mithra, Old Persian-Mithrist or Mehr, Myhr, Myer, Mihr, Mher.

Resulting in etymology related and associated with agreements, contracts, common agreements and alliances.

"Mithras is a very old Indo-Iranian deity, attested from the Bronze Age onward and worshiped wherever Iranian tradition came to dominate. His name means "the middle on in the sense of "treaty," "promise of allegiance." (5)

Its connotations are varied and associated with the treaties and promises of the alliances or, the Mitrá.

For this reason, linguistic evidence of origin is present in the Avéstico-one of the oldest languages of the Indo-European family-, in Zend and in the old Bactrian of western Iran.

Both the Vedic Mithra and the Iranian Can be associated with the Light as a potent Solar divinity.

Consequently, in Vedic Mitrah would turn out to be "friend" "friendship" and, in late Sanskrit it can then mean "friend."

Similarly, in new Persian "Mehr" is love and friendship.

(Encyclopedia Iranica)

Mitrá is a Solar Ariana Deity communing with the most dignified personification and deification of the concept of Alliance or Contract.

In this historical context and in certain astronomical classifications and interpretations, it is associated with the planet Venus as a morning or night star.

On the other hand, Zoroastrian sources use the Mihr root, already understood as a firm and inescapable contract and promise.

"There are quite a number of close agreements in the vocabulary used in connection with the Avestan Mitra and the Vedic Mitra."

(Encyclopedia Iranica)

We can observe that the ancient identification of Mithra and the Sun is first attested by certain Greek sources. (6)

Strabo who states that in his work the Persians call the Sun by the name of Mithra.

On the other hand, it is thus that A.G. Mackey comments:

"But the Persians, who first practiced his mysteries, assumed him the god of the sun, and worshipped him as the god of light."

That sunlight is represented in the Templar East as a vital fluid = the solar seminal X'varr emanating from the force of Mithra as primordial Fire from which all things are born. (7)

Mithra Solar (Part 1 of 3)

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes

Bibliography: 1.

1. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogmas, p.413.

2. M. Eliade, Treatise on the History of Religions, pp. 102-104.

3. Georges Dumezil, Myth and Epic, 1968.

4. Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism, Algis Uzdavinys, p.16.

5. Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, pp.6,7.

6. Strabo, first century AD.c., Geographica, 15.13.732.

7. Mackey, Encyclopedia Masonry, p.1015.

Closed Entrance to the Temple of Mithra SOLAR (Part 2 0f 3)

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes

''Either he [Mithras] is the Sun, the brightest planet, or he is a SOLAR DEITY''

(Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 1-4)

Thanks to archaeological and iconographic sources in ancient India, extending to the remote borders of ancient China, the solar divinity of Mithra was known and appreciated.

M. Eliade comments:

"Indeed, in ancient India, to the social classes of the Brahmins (priests, sacrifices') ... correspond Varuna and Mithra." For the rest, the prestigious researcher tells us, that already by 1380 BC., in a Hittite Treatise, the duality Mitra and Varuna appear. (8)

(Eliade M., Volume I, History of Religious Beliefs, p. 256)

This Vedic Mithra that as part of a very complicated Hindu Pantheon, resurfaces triumphantly as an auxiliary or "friend" of Varuna.

Both as maintainers of the cosmic order, and Mitrá, as the spirit of the firmament is established as the faithful ally of Ahura Mazda.

(Robert Turcan, 82)

It seems beyond doubt that it is the Solar Deity invoked by Artaxerjes II Mnemon= (c.436-358a.c.).

And by Darius III who invokes the Sun Mithra and fire before the battle.

Here is presented abundant spiritual iconography, coherent and of precise chronological location.

The same defined and geographically indicated and identified going back to ancient Mesopotamia in association with the Solar god Shamas or, to the seventh month of Samas.

Millenary iconographic tradition that arrives late in Rome, with the initiatory and labyrinthine astronomical taurabolium, complete and mature.

But it is not only that, but it also manifests minoico-cretences characteristics in genuine decoration in grottoes and constant recurrent motifs of double axes =(labrys), stylized horns of TORO.

They are horns of CONSECRATION - (Eliade) - and resurrection or change of serpentine skin. (9)

(Dictionary of Religions, M. Eliade, pp. 153-154)

Cult also staged in Grottoes (Kamares, Psykhro), similar to that carried out in the Mithraea or Mitreo of the port of Ostia, in Italy.

Previous evidence of the philosophy and soteriology of the cult (Turcan 1975) or initiatory work in caves, can be found in the extraordinary mural painting of the cave of Doktar-e-Noservan in Afghanistan.

Therefore, something as early as the 7th century BC.C., this according to Grenet, 2003.

Or, even in clear direct association with the astrological phenomenon of the arrival of the sun in Aries and with the authentic celebration of the festival of the sun = (Biruni, Atar al-Bakiya).

Later Mithraic mysteries are associated with initiatory 7 degrees and are akin to certain astrological and astronomical correspondences.

"Mithras, says Porphyry, presides over the Equinoxes, seated on a Bull... The equinoxes were the gates through which souls passed to and from, between the hemisphere of light and that or darkness."(10)

(A. Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 413)

Curiously, December 25 is the Solstitial Feast of the one born from the Petra Genetrix or Brute Stone.

Nomen invictum Sol Mithra... Soli Omnipotenti Mithrae.

It is worth emphasizing that it is personified in its mysteries subtly, arduous processes of ascension of the soul through the Mithraic ladder or 7 steps towards the 7 celestial zodiacal spheres.

(Pike;7,851)

All this allows us to affirm that his teachings conceal a significant and valuable map of the Mystical Cross of the Cosmos.

(Pike,505)

Or, better, they point to an astronomical directional chart, along with their consummate group of related constellations.

"The Mithraic tauroctony, then, was apparently designed as symbolic representation of the astronomical situation that obtained during the Age of Taurus."(11)

(David Ulansey, The Origins of Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford, 1989)

In any case they would be the Corvus, Korax or raven = Mercury, Nymphus or Nymph to Venus, Miles, soldier = Mars, Leo, lion = Jupiter, Perses, Persian = Moon, Heliodromus, corridor of the sun = Sun, and Pater, Father = Saturn.

"All the planets know to the Ancients were distinguished by the Mystic Cross", ...

(Pike,505)

It is striking that in the Ravenna Mosaic of the sixth century A.D., astrologers or Magi wear the Mithra initiatory cap or Phrygian cap (the Kara or conical cap and the Candys or loose tunic of the 'candidate').

The divinity of Mithra Petrogenus is undoubtedly born from the internal composition of the rough or brute stone-December 25.

In the Mithreos of Dura Europus and in San Clemente of Rome, the symbol of the grotto is directly associated with the zodiacal belt fused within the rite with the "image of the Cosmos", according to Porphyry.

As you can see; The Master of the Purple Mantle or Patres Sacrorum Mithraíco -taught pure liturgical memorization-, the harsh sorrows, dangerous trials and prolonged fasts, in a rigorous and well-elaborated dramatic staging of an entire cosmic phenomenon updated and to happen.

Or rather, it was possible to internalize through proven liturgical effects, the process of spiritually substantiating the astrological and sidereal phenomenon.

Which suggests that the constellations of the serpent, the dog and the bull were studied liturgically and internalized "lived" with great depth and severe rigor. (12)

(II Taurus, from a manuscript of a al –Sufi's book of constellations- Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Marsh 144, p.96)

"It is this phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes that provides the KEY to unlocking the secret of the astronomical symbolism of the Mithraic tauroctony.

For the constellations pictured in the standard tauroctony have one thing in common: namely, they all lay on the celestial equator as it was positioned during the epoch immediately preceding the Greco-Roman ''Age of Aries''.

During that earlier age, which we call the ''Age of Taurus'', lasting from around 4,000 to 2,000 B.C., the celestial equator passed through Taurus the Bull (the spring equinox of the epoch), Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion (the autumn equinox): that is precisely the constellations represented in the Mithraic tauroctony."(13)

(David Ulansey, Oxford University)

Mithra in her carriage evokes an ancient and powerful solar and astrological wisdom.

Mithra is my only crown!

The initiate has to achieve the rescue of his internal sunlight from the Degree of Crow = 1 to the Pater = 7.

The Mysterica of Mithra is executed by means of the birth of the God SOL=Petrogenes or emerging from the Sacred Stone=Petra Genetrix together with symbolic elements of High theurgical of the magus-priest=serpent, scorpion, Krater, León and Toro.

All of them, astrological-astronomical symbols assimilated in a hierarchy of initiatory degrees.

('Birth Stone' showing Mithras and a 'reverse' zodiac, 2nd or 3rd century A.D., from Housesteads on the Roman Wall-Museum of Antiquities of the University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne).

"Other such representations of Mithras with zodiacs are found, for example, at the Wallbrook Mithraeum in London and at Modena.''(14)

(Jim Tester, A History of Western Astrology, p. 104)

As long as it is possible to prepare ourselves spiritually to thus – initiatory – receive the zodiacal mantle and make an agreement or alliance with it.

Naked and bandaged, kneeling and "tied" to a rope behind our backs to receive the PILEUS = Phrygian cap.

It is impossible to determine how many thousands of baptismal purifications, 'water lustrations or consecrations of sacred words' in each planetary sphere of the cavern, were received in fraternal communion or in glorious agape of the ritual banquet in the spelaeum or spelunca.

So it was in the Ancient Mysteries, and so it must be.

"The picture presented by the mysteries of Mithras is totally different... All seems to center on the initiations performed by secret clubs. The best parallel, which is often invoked, may be the MASONS, whose clubs began to flourish rather rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic in the eighteen century and persist to the present day.

In some respects, the mysteries of Mithras are closer to the general type of secret societies with initiation rituals''... (15)

(Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, pp. 41, 42)

Closed Entrance to the Temple of Mithra SOLAR (Part 2 0f 3)

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes

Mithraism arrives belatedly through Asia Minor and enters mature iconographically when it settles in the Mystery with its Greco-Roman assimilations in Rome(60BC).

Versed in fruitful astrological Mysteries, expensive and precious for aristocratic, hierarchical and military princes, he is received in the Mithraeums that extended to the aromatic and incense East.

Solar and initiatory spirituality that prodigious, prolific and fruitful in defined Mithraic symbols spread in multiple Indo-Iranian Persian-Babylonian-Roman influences, until it managed to establish itself solidly in the most remote confines of the known world = (Mitrah is an important deity in the history of Iran).

Archaeology has found countless iconic sites of worship that extend some of them, from the second century AD.C., all the way to Britain.

And that we can show them both in Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Syria, Israel and Italy.

The scholarly researcher M.J. Vermaseren, has managed to collect valuable 'quarry of information' and solid contribution to iconographic studies of Mithra = Corpus Inscrptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae, 1956-1960.

Controversies will not be lacking, and many will try to devalue the enormous and important legacy of F. Cumont.

(The Mysteries of Mithra, London, 1903)

There are also elements of the ritual use of hallucinogens =''fungal zoomorphism'' among the practices of high initiation-ritual theurgy in the Mithreos.

But in honor of the truth, each of these researchers enriches and enlightens us on the glorious path of seeking the Light and dispelling the darkness.

Mithra is born from the Solar Cosmic Egg!

"The poet Statius is the one who, around 80-90, makes the first mention of the tauroctony God: "Mithra, who, under the rocks of the Persian den, dominates the horns of the rebellious bull."

(Robert Turcan, Eastern Religions in the Roman Empire, pp. 81-93)

Freemasonry still has a long way to go to investigate and thus expand its initiatory perspective.

For the Masonic research scholar Albert Gallatin Mackey: "None of the Ancient Mysteries provides more interesting topics of inquiry for the Masonic student, than those of the Persian god Mithra."

(A. G. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume III, p.1014)

The Path of Mithra is Solar Path of transcendence=7 experienced by the initiate through the 'eschatological vision of killing the Bull', and provoked by certain 'ritual intakes' that progressively culminate in the Vision of 'ascension' through the planetary spheres, path to the inner sun and personal of initiatory hierarchy.

Sol=Mithras is considered in terms of the solar ascension and spirit of the firmament preserving the Order, the Truth and the Covenant before the ARA or Altar.

The iniciate walks towards the SOL=Santissimus ORDO!

Mithra Solar

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes

Bibliography: 1.

1. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogmas, p.413.

2. M. Eliade, Treatise on the History of Religions, pp. 102-104.

3. Georges Dumezil, Myth and Epic, 1968.

4. Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism, Algis Uzdavinys, p.16.

5. Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, pp.6,7.

6. Strabo, first century AD.c., Geographica, 15.13.732.

7. Mackey, Encyclopedia Masonry, p.1015.