What I mean by "Mystery" Cult
Lovers of the Mysteries are welcome here
Dear Reader,
Hello! Happy Monday! Here’s a poem for you…
Mysteries, Yes
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
– Mary Oliver
I’ve always been a lover of the Mysteries – mystery schools, mystery traditions, mystery cults. The Eleusinian Mysteries, the Orphic Mysteries. What were they? No one really knows.
The word “mystery” comes from the Greek “mysterion” referring to something secret; rites and rituals as ships carrying us deeper into the endless sea of reality, through swells of consciousness, cresting waves of the divine.
During the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece, the rites of Demeter and Persephone – initiates were sworn to secrecy. No one who participated was allowed to write about or even speak of these rituals.
Only a few fragmentary images have made their way to us, imagine:
…long processions of initiates winding their way from Athens, entering the vast smokey darkness of the initiatory chamber, drinking entheogenic elixirs. A priestess raises a sheaf of wheat, a cult of thousands cowers in amazement. Splendor fills the room.
When the attendees left, they were no longer afraid of death.
I mean, who doesn’t want to go to that party?
The Mysteries are traditions anchored to the bottomless questions:
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Why are we here?
What happens after we die?
What were we before we were born?
What is consciousness?
Where does life come from?
What exists beyond the edge of the universe?
Why is there suffering?
When I look into the eyes of another being, my mother, my lover, the other, who is looking back at me?
Questions like these are mystery Matrushka dolls. We might crack open an answer, but there will always be another doll of a question inside.
To be a devotee of the Mysteries is to be in a cult of awe, and humility before the powers of all life.
We, here in Mystery Cult make a commitment to marveling.
Though the answers to the Mysteries can never be found, by their very nature, we know that the Mysteries are real. For example:
We don’t know what happens when we die, but death is still all too real.
We don’t know what consciousness is, and yet we all experience it.
We live in a society that has organized itself around distracting us from perceiving these Mysteries.
It’s too scary to think about, and knowing they’re real might make us rebel against work. We’re supposed to avoid the Mysteries, shop instead, watch TV instead.
But the Mysteries still exist. They always attend to us.
What I love about witchcraft is that, through practice, we can develop our capacity to be with the Mysteries without hiding. That capacity to adore, rather than shun or turn from, those vast forces is what gives witches their power.
The gods of witchcraft are made of Mysteries and they’re everywhere, within and around us.
You are in the cult of the fathomless powers of the universe with no beginning and no end, the cult of life and death and rebirth, the cult of beauty and ecstasy.
You are in a Mystery Cult. Hail and Welcome.
Yours ever,
Amanda
P.S. Secret reveal: did you know my first ever name for this work I’m now doing was not Oracle of Los Angeles? It was Los Angeles Mystery Project!! Way back in 2010! I still have the parked URL. It has a cool acronym (LAMP, I mean, what’s not to love??). But I feel like Mystery Cult has more cunt in it - I mean that in a good way. Cunt as in bold, fearless, powerful AF.
*P.P.S. Scholarship subscriptions are available for those in financial need. Email us at guardian@oracleoflosangeles.com and we’ll get you sorted out. x
Upcoming Mystery Cult Events
Friday, 8/11/23, 12:30pm PT: Live Chat on Substack. Topics: How it’s going with our Lion’s Gate Spells; what to do if your spells go awry or don’t get the results you want; witchcraft theology.
Note: Make sure you download the Substack App so that you can participate in the chat.
If you can’t be there, you’ll be able to read through it later. But do try and come if possible so that you can participate.
Wednesday, 8/16/23: New Moon in Leo [Witch Guide Download - includes weekly bite-sized ideas for maintaining your practice].
Thursday, 8/24/23, 6pm PT: Language of the Birds Reading Group. Reading TBD. (8/23/23 Sun enters Virgo)
Wednesday, 8/30/23, 6pm PT: Full Super Blue Moon in Pisces Ritual. Trance-work and intuition practice. Put it in your calendar.
Lion’s Gate Creative Abundance Spell Updates
First of all… woah NELLY! Have you all been feeling the effects of the Lion’s Gate spell as powerfully as I have?
[Note: I’m talking about the Lion’s Gate spell we began at last week’s Full Moon Ritual]
I’ve had some major breakthroughs in my creative work without even trying. Things I’ve been trying to figure out for LITERALLY YEARS have cracked wide open.
I love this spell because the results I get always surprise me.
In fact…