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Lunar beasts (part three)

February 10, 2007 at 4:05 pm by mahud

1. Lunar Beasts (part 1)
2. Lunar Beasts (part 2)
3. Lunar Beasts (part 3)
4. Lunar Beasts (part 4)
5. Lunar Beasts (part 5)
6. Lunar Beasts (part 6)
7. Lunar Beasts (part 7)
8. Lunar Beasts (part 8 )

Cosmic Release in the Mysteries of Mithras

Those initiated into the mysteries of Mithras achieved cosmic release by way of the revolving planets, which appear in Mithraic Iconography, each planet (Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Moon, and Sun) according to Celsus (Origen: Against Celcus 6:22), corresponding with a ladder of seven celestial gateways, surmounted by an eighth gateway, most likely transcendent of the celestial realm.

“Those initiated into the mysteries of Mithras achieved cosmic release by way of the revolving planets”

The so-called Mithras Liturgy mentions that the pathway of the visible gods (i.e: the planets), is illuminated by the disc of the sun, the emblem of the indestructible god and gateway to the realm of the gods beyond (545-625). According to Jerome (Letter ‘to Laeta’ 107:2), there were eight stages of initiation (raven, bridegroom, soldier, lion, Perseus, sun, Crab, and father), presumably corresponding with the eight gateways.

The Cosmic Cave

In antiquity, numerous writers claim that the mysteries of Mithras took place within a cave and the god himself was born from a rock. Mithraic temples, called Mithraea (known collectively as Mithraeum), were windowless underground structures, evidently imitative of natural caves, and particularly of the mythological cave that enclosed the cosmos. In certain Mithraea, pumex stone was used to imitate the natural appearance of a cave, stars were painted on the ceiling, and the use of artificial light to replicate the heavenly bodies have all served to create the illusion of the celestial realm, according to Mithraic cosmology.

The Simultaneous Birth of Mithras and Creation

Statues depict Mithras birth, fully grown, from a rock, sometimes enclosed by a coiled serpent, reminiscent of the Orphic creation myth of the birth of the double-sexed being Phanes (Meaning ‘light’, also known as Protogonus ‘firstborn’, among other names), hatched from a serpent entwined cosmic egg. The rock-born motif appears to represent a paradoxical double truth, that Mithras birth within the cosmos and the cosmic creation itself were simultaneous events.

The dual manifestation of the divine

Also associated with the Mithraic cult was the statue of a lion-headed figure (leontocephaline), whose body was entwined by a spiraling serpent.

“Also associated with the Mithraic cult was the statue of a lion-headed figure, whose body was entwined by a spiraling serpent.”

This statue, I believe, represents both the lunar-temporal reality, corresponding with the revolving (serpentine) planetary path leading to cosmic release, and the solar-eternal reality, corresponding with the eighth gate mentioned by Celcus, as the indestructible lion’s head. The serpent also corresponds with the image of the Ouroboros that encircles the world, that in Greek mythology was Oceanus, who himself appears frequently in Mithraic iconography.

Cosmic sacrifice of the Bull

The central mystery involved Mithras slaying a bull within a cosmic cave. Leading up to this image of cosmic sacrifice is a sequence of iconic images of Mithras capturing and wrestling the bull.

“The central mystery involved Mithras slaying a bull within a cosmic cave.”

The bull slaying scene itself, known as the Taruoctony, depicts Mithras with his left knee pressed down upon the beast’s arched back, while With his left hand the god pulls back the bull’s head by the nostrils, and cuts the creature’s throat with a knife. The posture of the bull is reminiscent of the waxing crescent moon, while the god himself (the eternal god born within the temporal realm), is like the rising sun.

Lunar-Solar Symbolism

Other creatures accompany the sacrifice, including a crab and scorpion attacking the bull’s genitals (castration motif), and a dog and serpent attacking the bull’s bleeding throat. To the left and right of the bull slaying scene stand the twin torch bearers, Cautes and Cautopates, dressed Persian style like Mithras, with Phrygian caps.

Above Cautes, whose torch points upwards (towards the realm of life) is an image of sol, the sun, who is sometimes riding an ascending chariot, while above Cautopates, whose torch points downwards (towards the realm of death), is Luna, goddess of the moon, sometimes riding a descending chariot drawn by bulls. Luna is also often depicted wearing a lunar headdress reminiscent of bull horns, and it is surely no coincidence that Mithras pulls back the head of the bull, as if transfixed and staring directly towards the moon, while the god himself looks towards the sun.

Mithras the Source of the Sun’s Power

In various iconic representations, both Mithras and Sol are shown together, and Mithras himself was called Deus Sol Invictus. In one scene Mithras and Sol are sitting together partaking in a meal, possibly of bull flesh. In another scene Sol kneels before Mithras, and it seems apparent that the sun derives it’s power from Mithras himself.

The combined lunar-solar aspects of the god, represented in the leontocephaline, are distinct in the Taruoctony, and there is no other evidence that Mithras himself was ever thought to be both the lunar bull who is slain, as well as the solar god who slays. We find a similar distinction in the Zoroastrian creation myth (see part one). However, more ancient mythologies recognize no distinction between the slayer and the slain.

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