Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"well-known104 Bacchic Mysteries.like an oyster to its shell."*Upon thisbeautiful passage Proclus observes, u That theinitiation and epopteia [the vailing and therevealing] are symbols of ineffable silence,and of union with mystical natures, throughintelligible visions, f Kat yap TJ [locate, xai YJ* Phcedrus, 64.t PROCLUS :Theology of Plato, book iv. The following readingis suggested:"The initiation and final disclosing are a symbolof the Ineffable Silence, and of the enosis, or being at one anden rapport with themystical verities through manifestations intuitively comprehended."The jxofjsis, muesis, or initiation is denned by E. Pococke asrelating to theBuddhist Moksha, final and eternalhappiness, the liberation of the soul from the body and its exemption from further transmigration." For all mystce therefore therewas a certain welcome to the abodes of the blessed. The termcTioTTtEia, epopteia, applied to the last scene of initiation, he derives from the Sanscrit, evaptoi, an obtaining; the epopt beingregarded as having secured for himself or herself divine bliss.It is more usual, however, to treat these terms as pure Greek;and to render the muesis as initiation and to derive epopteia fromsrcoircojjiai. According to this etymology an epopt is a seer orclairvoyant, one who knows the interior wisdom. The terms inspector and superintendent do not, to me, at all express the idea,and I am inclined, in fact, to suppose with Mr. Pococke, that theMysteries came from the East, and from that to deduce that thetechnical words and expressions are other than Greek.Plotinus, speaking of this enosis or oneness, lays down a spiritualdiscipline analogous to that of the "Mystic Orgies Purify your:soul from all undue hope and fear about earthly things ; mortify