Mithraism was one of the great ancient “mystery cults” which flourished in the Graeco-Roman world. Accordingly, it’s teachings were kept secret and passed down mostly by oral tradition. And this secrecy was taken very seriously. In many cases, breaking the secrecy of a mystery cult was punishable by death. It’s for this reason that very little information survives about the beliefs and practices of these mysterious religions. In the case of Mithraism, however, there is an abundance of sculpture and iconography that has survived in great condition because they often built their temples underground.
In his incredibly entertaining and informative book The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries author David Ulansey attempts to decode this iconography in an effort to reveal at least some of the mysteries of Mithraism. Along the way, the reader is drawn into the worldview of the ancients and David’s own quest to uncover the origins of their unique iconography. You’ll learn about Graeco-Roman art, philosophy, myth, religion, and astronomy.
This is all crucial to understanding the origins of our politics, culture and religion, as the author points out:
In addition to the inherent interest of such an enigmatic phenomenon, the study of Mithraism is also of great importance for our understanding of what Arnold Toynbee has called the “Crucible of Christianity,” the cultural matrix in which the Christian religion came to birth out of the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean… Arising at the same time and spreading in roughly the same geographical area, Mithraism and Christianity embodied two responses to the same set of cultural forces. The study of Mithraism therefore provides us with insight into “the road not taken” by Western civilization nearly two thousand years ago—insight, that is, into an unrecognized part of who we are today.
Which is absolutely fascinating to me, as I expect it will be to many of you. This book grew out of the author’s work on his dissertation and, as such, is definitely an academic or scholarly work. However, it has been written in a very approachable style and the author is skilled at taking complex concepts and explaining them in a way that anyone can understand without having prior knowledge or doing additional research. This includes some of the advanced astronomical concepts he introduces which are indispensable keys for understanding ancient culture and monuments.
If your familiar with the work of Graham Hancock, you will find a lot of similarities here. The combination of archeoastronomy, mythology, archeology, etc. to decode ancient mysteries can all be found here and it’s just as engaging and thrilling to read. There is much that I would like to say about the content of the book, however, it is hard for me to say much more without spoiling the author’s intended experience as stated in the preface:
I experienced the years of research and writing on this subject as a gradual unveiling of a mystery. I have therefore tried to recapture some of this experience by allowing the story to unfold step by step, slowly adding separate pieces to a puzzle whose final image does not become clear until the end. This calls for some patience on the part of my readers, but I hope that their patience will be rewarded—as my own efforts were—by a burst of excited recognition when all of the pieces suddenly do fall into place.
This is an extraordinary opportunity for us as readers to not only learn about ourselves and our history and join David on his quest to decode ancient mysteries, but also to actually have the experience of being initiated into a mystery school ourselves. An increasingly rare opportunity in the information age.
I had many bursts of excited recognition while reading this book.
If that sounds interesting to you, you can pick up a copy using the link below.👇
(Link to purchase: The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries)
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Justin
❤️🙏☀️