In Friday's lecture, Dr. Sexson stated that "going to class is as religious an experience as the initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries." At the time, I was of course skeptical. I don't think my brain has quite adapted to the notion of seeing everything in terms of the past. However, after I opened up my notebook and began to review what I had written in class, the quote I hastily scribbled down earlier struck me in a completely different way. I began to see how the Greek's ritual of vague phrases and exclusive initiation is not so different from the patterns our society enacts subconsciously every day. According to pantheon.org (which is a very helpful site by the way) the purpose of the Eleusinian Mysteries was "[...]a fulfilling and happy afterlife."
When I read this, Dr. Sexon's quote became crystal clear. The Eleusinian Mysteries were not some far-fetched, primitive ceremonies. They were simply a different version of the exact same things humans are still doing to this day. Instead of participating in an exclusive ritual devoted to the grain and fertility goddess, we now devote our time to an institution which will teach us to circumvent the dependence on supernatural beings and create the crops ourselves.
Humans are still searching for that "fulfilling and happy afterlife" as well. The act of going to any relgious institution for spiritual enlightenment is the same exact concept as what took place in the Eleusinian Mysteries. How is muttering a few words and enacting a scene any more extravagent or abusrd than the singing, shouting, and dancing that goes on every Sunday morning around the world? To answer my own question, it's not. I'm sure the religious practices of today would have been equally if not more confusing to the Anceint Greeks then their mysteries are to us. It's just our circumstantially bound perspective that makes the Eleusinion Mysteries seem so abstract and unrelated to our own ideas of religion and ritual.
Well, on that note I'm gonna go to sleep because I have a long day of rituals beginning in about 5 hours. Peace.
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