This is an excellent piece on Eleusis, in which psychedelic rituals were held as part of Ancient Greece's dominant religion. The Telesterion ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, "to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate") was a great hall and sanctuary in Eleusis, one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Eleusis was a deme of ancient Attica, belonging to the phyle Hippothoöntis. It owed its celebrity to its being the chief seat of the worship of Demeter and Persephone, and to the mysteries celebrated in honour of these goddesses, which were called the Eleusinia, and continued to be regarded as the most sacred of all the Grecian mysteries down to the fall of paganism, brought about by the Church and the Goths, who destroyed it under the pretext that it was 'witchcraft', 'pagan' or 'occult'. In 170 AD, the Temple of Demeter was sacked by the Sarmatians but was rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was then allowed to become the only lay person ever to enter the anaktoron. As Christianity gained in popularity in the 4th and 5th centuries, Eleusis's prestige began to fade. The last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian, reigned from 361 to 363 after about fifty years of Christian rule. Julian attempted to restore the Eleusinian Mysteries and was the last emperor to be initiated into them. The Roman emperor Theodosius I closed the sanctuaries by decree during the Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire about 30 years later, in 392 AD. The last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in 396 AD, when Arian Christians under Alaric, King of the Goths, destroyed and desecrated the old sacred sites. The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was an old agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period. The mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. Similar religious rites appear in the agricultural societies of Near East and in Minoan Crete. Through psychedelics, the ritual's initiates were afforded a glimpse into a transcendent reality-something experienced by almost all the great figures of Classical antiquity (the big three philosophers [Socrates, Plato, Aristotle], emperors, playwrights, orators), as well as common people, regardless of sex or social class. The initiates journeyed in spirit from the Telesterion to visit Persephone and Hades in Elysium. Discoverer of LSD (acid) Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann shortly before his death at the age of 102, wrote: ‘Only a new Eleusis could help mankind to survive the threatening catastrophe in Nature and human society and bring a new period of happiness.’ Something happened at this sanctuary of Eleusis that gave hope and meaning to humankind for two millennia. As the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote: ‘For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries.’ Cicero credited the psychedelic ancient mystery enacted at Eleusis as the essential impetus for the evolution of humankind’s rise from savagery to civilized modes of life: “we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope.” The great hall of initiation at Eleusis was an architectural similitude of a cave, whose antiquity as a motif can be traced back to the Paleolithic when humans first rose above the beasts as Homo spiritualis; not sapiens; but with the first inklings of spirituality, a remembrance of forgotten dreams. The cave was the womb of Gaia, the vulva to a world beyond and a gateway for birth into this realm of ordinary living. Plato used the ancient motif as his Allegory of the Cave. What the Telesterion offered was release from the Cave of ordinary seeing through chemical intervention. The initiates for the ceremony drank a special potion, called the kykeon or ‘mixture,’ whose ingredients in water were the wild fleabane and the cultivated barley. It was intended as a magical mediation of all the mythical structural polarities. It was a visionary brew, or entheogen of some kind. A common weed in the fields provides the answer. Tares looked identical to grain. It has the reputation of being intoxicating because of the fungal growth or ergot that grows on it, a source of the visionary LSA, similar to LSD. The Eleusinian Mysteries is an assimilation of the Thracian mushroom cult and the Indo-European haoma sacrament. Ergot represents the seed of the seedless mushroom and hence a further mediation as the entheogen of the kykeon. Both ergot and some Amanita mushrooms, moreover, are deadly poisons; both require expert knowledge to access the visionary potential. The current 'War on Drugs', officially announced by the corrupt US president Richard Nixon, is a futile battle against plants. Eleusis had its drug problem, also, when it was found that people were 'abusing' the sacred potion as a recreational drug. 'Abuse' deprives the entheogen of its sanctity. Psychedelics are best used spiritually, not recreationally. Shortly before his death Albert Hofmann wrote to Steve Jobs, who had claimed that LSD was: “A positive life-changing experience for me.” Hofmann asked: “I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.” Similarly, Francis Crick reported discovering DNA after an experience with LSD. Kary Mullis discovered the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with the aid of LSD. As Terence McKenna said, “Psychedelics provide a totally different view of reality.” Hofmann called LSD his problem child. The entheogen lets you see that what you thought was a myth is reality. Recent research suggests that the Thracian entheogen played a role in the visionary experience of Pythagoras in discovering the fundamental structures of mathematics and music. A digital recreation of the Telestrion can be found at 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey : How To Sneak Into Eleusis Telesterion # Acquire Level 19 Pilgrim Hoodie'. th-cam.com/video/vmZpZl1UnyQ/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for an excellent video! Very interesting. I hope all the people of Athens & Europe respect their huge history. Never forget our common past and religion, these myths live forever. 🌿🏺🌿🏺🌿🏺🌿
Wow, truly appreciated this video - great information and no egocentric selfie videos of you walking around. I'm facinated by this place and you just convinced me to go!
Thank you! This is an excellent video with beautiful details about the Eleusinian Mysteries
This is an excellent piece on Eleusis, in which psychedelic rituals were held as part of Ancient Greece's dominant religion.
The Telesterion ("Initiation Hall" from Gr. τελείω, "to complete, to fulfill, to consecrate, to initiate") was a great hall and sanctuary in Eleusis, one of the primary centers of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Eleusis was a deme of ancient Attica, belonging to the phyle Hippothoöntis. It owed its celebrity to its being the chief seat of the worship of Demeter and Persephone, and to the mysteries celebrated in honour of these goddesses, which were called the Eleusinia, and continued to be regarded as the most sacred of all the Grecian mysteries down to the fall of paganism, brought about by the Church and the Goths, who destroyed it under the pretext that it was 'witchcraft', 'pagan' or 'occult'.
In 170 AD, the Temple of Demeter was sacked by the Sarmatians but was rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was then allowed to become the only lay person ever to enter the anaktoron. As Christianity gained in popularity in the 4th and 5th centuries, Eleusis's prestige began to fade. The last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian, reigned from 361 to 363 after about fifty years of Christian rule. Julian attempted to restore the Eleusinian Mysteries and was the last emperor to be initiated into them. The Roman emperor Theodosius I closed the sanctuaries by decree during the Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire about 30 years later, in 392 AD. The last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in 396 AD, when Arian Christians under Alaric, King of the Goths, destroyed and desecrated the old sacred sites.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was an old agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period. The mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. Similar religious rites appear in the agricultural societies of Near East and in Minoan Crete.
Through psychedelics, the ritual's initiates were afforded a glimpse into a transcendent reality-something experienced by almost all the great figures of Classical antiquity (the big three philosophers [Socrates, Plato, Aristotle], emperors, playwrights, orators), as well as common people, regardless of sex or social class. The initiates journeyed in spirit from the Telesterion to visit Persephone and Hades in Elysium.
Discoverer of LSD (acid) Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann shortly before his death at the age of 102, wrote:
‘Only a new Eleusis could help mankind to survive the threatening catastrophe in Nature and human society and bring a new period of happiness.’
Something happened at this sanctuary of Eleusis that gave hope and meaning to humankind for two millennia. As the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote: ‘For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries.’
Cicero credited the psychedelic ancient mystery enacted at Eleusis as the essential impetus for the evolution of humankind’s rise from savagery to civilized modes of life: “we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope.”
The great hall of initiation at Eleusis was an architectural similitude of a cave, whose antiquity as a motif can be traced back to the Paleolithic when humans first rose above the beasts as Homo spiritualis; not sapiens; but with the first inklings of spirituality, a remembrance of forgotten dreams. The cave was the womb of Gaia, the vulva to a world beyond and a gateway for birth into this realm of ordinary living. Plato used the ancient motif as his Allegory of the Cave. What the Telesterion offered was release from the Cave of ordinary seeing through chemical intervention.
The initiates for the ceremony drank a special potion, called the kykeon or ‘mixture,’ whose ingredients in water were the wild fleabane and the cultivated barley. It was intended as a magical mediation of all the mythical structural polarities. It was a visionary brew, or entheogen of some kind. A common weed in the fields provides the answer. Tares looked identical to grain. It has the reputation of being intoxicating because of the fungal growth or ergot that grows on it, a source of the visionary LSA, similar to LSD.
The Eleusinian Mysteries is an assimilation of the Thracian mushroom cult and the Indo-European haoma sacrament. Ergot represents the seed of the seedless mushroom and hence a further mediation as the entheogen of the kykeon. Both ergot and some Amanita mushrooms, moreover, are deadly poisons; both require expert knowledge to access the visionary potential.
The current 'War on Drugs', officially announced by the corrupt US president Richard Nixon, is a futile battle against plants. Eleusis had its drug problem, also, when it was found that people were 'abusing' the sacred potion as a recreational drug. 'Abuse' deprives the entheogen of its sanctity. Psychedelics are best used spiritually, not recreationally.
Shortly before his death Albert Hofmann wrote to Steve Jobs, who had claimed that LSD was: “A positive life-changing experience for me.” Hofmann asked: “I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.”
Similarly, Francis Crick reported discovering DNA after an experience with LSD. Kary Mullis discovered the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with the aid of LSD. As Terence McKenna said, “Psychedelics provide a totally different view of reality.” Hofmann called LSD his problem child. The entheogen lets you see that what you thought was a myth is reality. Recent research suggests that the Thracian entheogen played a role in the visionary experience of Pythagoras in discovering the fundamental structures of mathematics and music.
A digital recreation of the Telestrion can be found at 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey : How To Sneak Into Eleusis Telesterion # Acquire Level 19 Pilgrim Hoodie'.
th-cam.com/video/vmZpZl1UnyQ/w-d-xo.html
Brilliant information thank you!
Wonderful summary of Eleusis.
Great work, thanks for the video!
Nice tour ¡¡¡ Thanks and I want to lisen the voice of the Goddes
Demeter daughter is Persephone not kore … kore means daughter or maiden ….
Thank you for the information.
Well done thank you! Im going tomorrow. This will help a lot.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the video. I hope that you had fun exploring this amazing place.
@@gaiasrootsllc thank you. I found the whole experience otherworldly and profound. I will have to go back.
Thank you for an excellent video! Very interesting. I hope all the people of Athens & Europe respect their huge history. Never forget our common past and religion, these myths live forever.
🌿🏺🌿🏺🌿🏺🌿
I’m glad that you enjoyed the tour 😀 This place has a special spot in my heart.
Well done! Thank you.
Wow, truly appreciated this video - great information and no egocentric selfie videos of you walking around. I'm facinated by this place and you just convinced me to go!
Thank you for the compliment. I highly recommend going. It’s truly an under appreciated piece of history.
This is a great video.
Thank you! I'm glad that you enjoyed it.