Exploring and explaining the Mysteries of Eleusis for the modern age
The birth of this site lies in the Eleusis Challenge to share and collaborate world-wide expertise to decipher the secret of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Enter, join this journey into the past, into the heart of human experience.
The Mysteries were celebrated until 395 AD when the walls of the sanctuary in Eleusis were breeched by Alaric’s hordes. For millennia before that, thousands of Initiates received a mystical experience. Revealing the Mysteries was considered an act of impiety punishable by death. This accounts for classical authors’ reticence on this matter.
Exploring Ancient Creativity and Consciousness
A tale of an interior and exterior journey over the course of a year through myth, mysticism, Mysteries, madness, and the Middle East.
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The Eleusinian Mysteries, ancient initiation rituals held in honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, induced an artificial crisis in participants that led to a profound change in consciousness — metanoia.
The following notes are from a Psychology of Mystical And Religious Experience Seminar presented by Todd Swanson in Abiquiu, New Mexico in June 2006.
The role of women in the Eleusinian Mysteries, particularly in the early phases of the rituals, was likely significant, as suggested by the association with Demeter, a goddess deeply tied to agriculture and fertility — both realms traditionally linked to women in ancient Greece.