22 • The Seven Gates of the Goddess
friends and I are able to share, empathize, and understand each other on a deep level, and not argue about “doing things right” or the aesthetics of ritual practice. There are many mystery paths that get you to the top of the mountain, or the heart of the Underworld, but they all hold several points in common. The experience of it is the most important. I remember speaking to a student regarding healing and past lives. She just didn’t get it at all and argued intellectually about it for the whole class. Once she experienced it directly, she got it and found it a very helpful “mystery” of the healing arts. But until we both had a common vocabulary, it was very difficult to communicate about something so personal.
Greater and Lesser Mysteries The teachings can be divided into two categories, of greater and lesser importance, though where that dividing line occurs is different for different traditions. Generally, the lesser mysteries are the preparations, work, daily skills, and little revelations that lead to the greater mysteries of life, death, love, will, and empowerment. We can think of our initial training, our meditation, and our first rituals as the lesser mysteries. They are powerful and life changing, but they really lead to the large transpersonal experiences of greater mysteries. Those who experience the greater mysteries are often brought into a system of training to help them pass the experience on to the next generation. Some divide the greater and lesser mysteries into the outer court for the lesser and public teachings, and the inner court for the greater and private oath-bound teachings. In essence, the lesser mysteries are the secrets you must not reveal, or at least that was the case in ages past. They are techniques. They can endanger when not used properly, and they can be misunderstood out of the context of mystery training. The greater mysteries are those that cannot be revealed, not because of oaths, but because they are ineffable. You simply cannot express them to those who have not experienced them, and if they have been experienced, there is no need for discussion.
Purification Initiates on the path are prepared for the mysteries through a variety of purification rituals. They are purified in body, mind, and emotions to get a clearer view of the self. Without purification of the consciousness, of the energy field, profound and vision-