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Title: Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries by Thomas Taylor ISBN: 1-56459-976-0 Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: "I'm dead, and they're talking about wheat...".
Comment: Crudely put, the major thrust of Joseph Campbell's and Jung's work was the unity of the human psyche throughout the world - that the ancient religions and traditions are psychologically relevant.

Neither man, however, was an adept of these systems, by which term I mean, neither pursued these systems to their obviously implied conclusions, instead contenting themselves with the (what is now) non-controversial conclusion of psychological relevance. Jung was obviously at a loss to understand alchemical terms coherently, contenting himself with interpreting alchemy in Freudian and his own terms. Campbell maintained that God no longer speaks to mankind because He never DID speak to mankind...

Thomas Taylor, on the other hand, "the Great English Pagan", was thoroughly versed in the Platonic and Neoplatonic traditions, and although he lacked the benefits of 20th century scholarship, not only approached the essentially same conclusions as Campbell and Jung, but FURTHER concluded that there DID exist at one time, a religion of INVOCATION.

There are numerous examples from both reliable, trustworthy witnesses (Plato, Plutarch, Iamblichus, Proclus), and old sources -the Bible included (e.g., the Witch of Endor summoning the spirit of Samuel for King Saul), which argue for this conclusion. Modern Rosicrucians and Golden Dawn adepts concur, arguing for a dramatic reappraisal of what we understand by the term "RELIGION".

Taylor concurs with Campbell that the Christian religion has inadvertently charted strange and unknown seas by its insistence on the historicity of its symbolism. Unlike Campbell, he is virulently anti-Christian, not only in the Nietzschean sense that Christianity has undermined true Spirituality by its insistence on the fallen nature of the physical world, but also because he considers it a selfishly-motivated and bizarre perversion of the Old Religions.

This translation is to be highly commended as it is Taylor's. Secondly, as usual, Taylor provides voluminous footnotes which are very helpful in acquiring a basic understanding of the Mysteries of Eleusis, with its central sacrament of wheat, analogous to the Eucharist of the Catholic mass and symbolic of the spiritually dead rising from the tomb of the body..

A very good and engaging Taylor volume, but like all his works, it tends to raise more questions than it answers. If you enjoy this, you will also want to read Taylor's "Iamblichus on the Mysteries".