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Schuré - The Great Initiates – 03 Reconstruction of an Initiation ceremony
Identifier
014121
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Great Initiates – Edouard Schuré
'When the evening of the ordeals arrived, two neocoros, or assistants, led the candidate for the mysteries to the door of the secret sanctuary. They entered a dark corridor without any visible exit. On the two sides of this dismal room, in the torchlight, the stranger saw a row of statues with human bodies and animals' heads-lions, bulls, birds of prey, and serpents-which seemed to watch the progress while they mocked them. At the end of this sinister passage, which was crossed in complete silence, a mummy and a human skeleton stood opposite each other. And with a silent gesture, the two neocoros showed the novice a hole in the wall in front of him. It was the entrance to a corridor so low that it could be entered only by crawling on hands and knees.
"You can still turn back," said one of the assistants. "The door of the sanctuary is not yet closed. If you do not turn back now, you must continue on your way and cannot return."
"I shall go forward," said the novice, summoning all his courage.
He was then given a little lighted lamp. The neocoros turned around and closed the door of the sanctuary with a loud bang.
The novice could no longer hesitate; he had to enter the corridor. Hardly had he eased through by crawling on his knees when he heard a voice at the end of the tunnel, saying, "Fools who covet knowledge and power perish here!" Because of a strange acoustic phenomenon, this sentence was repeated seven times by echoes at various points. Nevertheless, he had to move forward; the corridor became wider, but inclined downward more sharply. At last the daring traveller would find himself before a shaft that led into a hole. An iron ladder disappeared into the latter; the novice took a chance. As he hung upon the lowest rung of the ladder, his frightened gaze looked downward into a terrifying abyss. His poor naphtha lamp that he gripped convulsively in his trembling hand, cast its dim light into endless darkness. 'What should be done? Above him, impossible return; below, a drop into the blackness of awful night. In his distress he noticed a crevice on the right. Stretching forward with one hand on the ladder, and his lamp held out with the other, he would see steps. A staircase! Safety! He climbed upward, escaping the abyss. The staircase cut through the rock in the form of a spiral.
Finally, the aspirant found himself in front of a bronze grating leading into a great hall, supported by huge caryatids. On the wall could be seen two rows of symbolic frescoes. There were eleven groups on each side, softly lighted by the crystal lamps that the beautiful caryatids bore in their hands.