Halend Metsk

"Due to the cult’s secretive nature, the exact details of these initiation rituals are still largely unknown. But we know they involved various trials and challenges that tested the initiate’s courage and devotion. Communal meals were also an important part of Mithraic ritual practice, possibly involving the consumption of bread and wine in a way that parallels the Christian Eucharist." Source(s): Ancientpedia

Mithraism Amongst Aryans "Mitra's religion prevailed for some 2000 years among Aryans. In 66 CE King Tirdad introduced it to Nero and up till 325 CE it was the official religion of the Roman Empire." Source(s): Iran Chamber Society

Halend Metsk: A New Path (Some Notes on Religious Progression and Regressive Thought) A lot of modern-day Pagans shoot their own revival efforts in the foot by not allowing their traditions and religious systems to be continuously developed as they are resurrected. They often may claim that "old is better, original is better", and so on. In their minds, the face of pre-Abrahamic traditional religions are static expressions of the human race with unmoving pieces – similar to a broken clock that never gets repaired, that never sees the light of day on architectural progression and advanced sophistication. But traditions in and of themselves are not static, not permanently stuck in a timezone. Religions are meant for progression: traditions as the base, which become the core essence of what is deemed most meaningful, while the external applications become added or subtracted, enhancing the richness of the spirituality attached to it. Not all Pagans are thinking regressively, but this sentiment is nonetheless too common. Something new is not necessarily subversive. Something old is not necessarily of the richest purity. The path of the Metskish-Runen is something forward-thinking, rather than a changeless orthodoxy. However, its basis lies in the past, as the form of a faith being resurrected from the faith those many Hellenized and Romanized Teutons (Germanics) would have held many centuries ago. The impurities are being put through a machine of purification. A new voice is being ushered. An emanation of the divine Mithraic spirit, once more, has been presented. The gospel is slowly arising. This is what it means to be pious.

"It is tempting to identify the Roman Mithras with the Persian Mithra, except that there is no known Persian legend or text about Mithra killing a bull or being associated with other animals. On the other hand, there is a story of Ahriman, the evil god in popular developments of Zoroastrianism, killing a bull. It is also hard to explain how the Sun-god Mithra would come to be worshipped in the windowless, cave-like mithraeum." Source(s): Crystalinks

"It is tempting to identify the Roman Mithras with the Persian Mithra, except that there is no known Persian legend or text about Mithra killing a bull or being associated with other animals. On the other hand, there is a story of Ahriman, the evil god in popular developments of Zoroastrianism, killing a bull. It is also hard to explain how the Sun-god Mithra would come to be worshipped in the windowless, cave-like mithraeum." Source(s): Crystalinks

"Roman Mithraism appears to be the only religion where it is customary to represent the god killing a bull." Source(s): WeirdItaly

A Note on Orphic Mithraism "Mithras, like the youthful Phanes, shows characteristics of Chronos on representations from the north of England. He who at Sarmizegetusa was called 'the begetter of light', was given at Housesteads the title saecularis, eternal, a word related to saeculum." Source(s): The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies

Shapeshifting Foemen When one encounters the malevolent forces of the Shender (Ariman), they take on many forms, sometimes having nonhuman animal heads or bare skulls, frequently roaming as strange-looking, otherworldly creatures. They are cunning and can transform. They feed off of sinful acts and whenever man is given to sensual addictions.

"Christians copied many details of the Mithraic mystery-religion, explaining the resemblance later with their favorite argument, that the devil had anticipated the true faith by imitating it before Christ’s birth. Some resemblances between Christianity and Mithraism were so close that even St. Augustine declared the priests of Mithra worshipped the same deity as he did." Source(s): Esoteric Theological Seminary of the Esoteric Interfaith Church [Disclaimer: The Esoteric Interfaith Church does contain many repeated unfounded claims about the nature of Mithraism, so one should exercise careful discernment when reading their information.]

"Some researchers equate Mithra with the Sun but the overwhelming majority of researchers see a difference between these two. The latter opinion is also supported by Greco-Roman authors such as Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarchos, Arrianos and Curtius Rufus." Source(s): Association for Iranian Studies

The gates at Greater Haven (the place of immortality) await with Errandghasts that guard its impenetrable entrances.

Seek to purify that which is prone to impurities: how you speak to others, how you behave in the public, even how you think. Wake up and think, for instance, that "Today, I will use less profane language. Tomorrow, I will donate a small sum to a reputable charity. And by next year, I shall have overcome binge-drinking." By actively wanting to make our unclean versions of ourselves clean again, we attain more splendors of Ascension and render reverence to the Lord of the Ages. This is not much different from reading a piece of self-improvement literature.

This future begins with the past.

The Skyclad Spirit There is occasional nudity present within scenes of depictions of the initiation rites and mythology of the Greco-Roman mystery-cults: especially in the Mithraic Mysteries, among some are the ones featured in paintings at Capua, Italy, where each initiate is naked while bound and blindfolded, with a clothed initiator shown nearby. Source(s): Gresham College

"One of the first modern attempts to understand the Tauroctony was made by Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont, who looked to Mithras’s Persian origins for an explanation.  Writing in 1896, he theorized that the image depicts a famous scene from Persia’s Zoroastrian religion, in which a “primordial bovine” is slain.  The death of the god-like bovine brings about new species of grain and populates the earth with new animal life.  In some Mithraic temples, the bull’s tail does appear to be turning into wheat, lending some support for this explanation." Source(s): Artifacts

The Greco-Roman Sacrificial Record "In ancient religions, indeed, sacrifice was the most obvious way of crossing the boundary between the human and the super-natural world. It is the offering of blood, or life, to the gods, that gave sacrifice its efficacy." Source(s): Archivio di Filosofia [Publisher: Accademia Editoriale, Author: Guy G. Stroumsa]

Mithraic Manifestations Mitrá, a Vedic god associated with oaths, gave inspirational rise to the Mithra yazata in Zoroastrianism and to the Mithras in Greco-Roman civilization. Source(s): Language Humanities