The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident

98:5.1The Phry­gian and Egyp­tian mys­ter­ies even­tu­ally gave way be­fore the great­est of all the mys­tery cults, the wor­ship of Mithras. The Mith­raic cult made its ap­peal to a wide range of hu­man na­ture and grad­u­ally sup­planted both of its pre­de­ces­sors. Mith­ra­ism spread over the Ro­man Em­pire through the pro­pa­gan­diz­ing of Ro­man le­gions re­cruited in the Lev­ant, where this re­li­gion was the vogue, for they car­ried this be­lief wher­ever they went. And this new re­li­gious rit­ual was a great im­prove­ment over the ear­lier mys­tery cults.

98:5.2The cult of Mithras arose in Iran and long per­sisted in its home­land de­spite the mil­i­tant op­po­si­tion of the fol­low­ers of Zoroaster. But by the time Mith­ra­ism reached Rome, it had be­come greatly im­proved by the ab­sorp­tion of many of Zoroaster’s teach­ings. It was chiefly through the Mith­raic cult that Zoroaster’s re­li­gion ex­erted an in­flu­ence upon later ap­pear­ing Chris­tian­ity.

98:5.3The Mith­raic cult por­trayed a mil­i­tant god tak­ing ori­gin in a great rock, en­gag­ing in valiant ex­ploits, and caus­ing wa­ter to gush forth from a rock struck with his ar­rows. There was a flood from which one man es­caped in a spe­cially built boat and a last sup­per which Mithras cel­e­brated with the sun-god be­fore he as­cended into the heav­ens. This sun-god, or Sol In­vic­tus, was a de­gen­er­a­tion of the Ahura-Mazda de­ity con­cept of Zoroas­tri­an­ism. Mithras was con­ceived as the sur­viv­ing cham­pion of the sun-god in his strug­gle with the god of dark­ness. And in rec­og­ni­tion of his slay­ing the myth­i­cal sa­cred bull, Mithras was made im­mor­tal, be­ing ex­alted to the sta­tion of in­ter­ces­sor for the hu­man race among the gods on high.

98:5.4The ad­her­ents of this cult wor­shiped in caves and other se­cret places, chant­ing hymns, mum­bling magic, eat­ing the flesh of the sac­ri­fi­cial an­i­mals, and drink­ing the blood. Three times a day they wor­shiped, with spe­cial weekly cer­e­mo­ni­als on the day of the sun-god and with the most elab­o­rate ob­ser­vance of all on the an­nual fes­ti­val of Mithras, De­cem­ber twenty-fifth. It was be­lieved that the par­tak­ing of the sacra­ment en­sured eter­nal life, the im­me­di­ate pass­ing, af­ter death, to the bo­som of Mithras, there to tarry in bliss un­til the judg­ment day. On the judg­ment day the Mith­raic keys of heaven would un­lock the gates of Par­a­dise for the re­cep­tion of the faith­ful; where­upon all the un­bap­tized of the liv­ing and the dead would be an­ni­hi­lated upon the re­turn of Mithras to earth. It was taught that, when a man died, he went be­fore Mithras for judg­ment, and that at the end of the world Mithras would sum­mon all the dead from their graves to face the last judg­ment. The wicked would be de­stroyed by fire, and the righ­teous would reign with Mithras for­ever.

98:5.5At first it was a re­li­gion only for men, and there were seven dif­fer­ent or­ders into which be­liev­ers could be suc­ces­sively ini­ti­ated. Later on, the wives and daugh­ters of be­liev­ers were ad­mit­ted to the tem­ples of the Great Mother, which ad­joined the Mith­raic tem­ples. The women’s cult was a mix­ture of Mith­raic rit­ual and the cer­e­monies of the Phry­gian cult of Cy­bele, the mother of At­tis.