The Unity of the World
In the Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated in ancient Greece, the great goddess was the centre of Greek religion.
These secret rituals maintained "the unity of the world"; their annual celebration was therefore of vital importance.
The initiates were regarded as superior beings because they had received a vision of life after death. The secret they were bound to keep was so strict that the rite has never come to be known with exactitude.
It is known that they experienced a triple revelation:
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Persephone had given birth in fire to a son, the Aeon
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A beatific vision of the maiden
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A vision of an ear of wheat with the promise of a new life
These rituals were practised for 2,000 years and came to an end in the time of the Visigoths, when King Alaric sacked Eleusis in 396.