Mithraism
225
MENTIONS
61
EPISODES
50
PODCASTS
Search complete. 225 mentions across 61 episodes found for "Mithraism".
Sep 13, 2026
OlympiaHOST
Mithra continued to travel and passed to the Roman world when Rome was expanding fast to the eastern Mediterranean in the first century BC and AD.
OlympiaHOST
The encounter between this originally Iranian deity and Roman society produced a new phenomenon, the development of Mithraism, the cult of Mithra in Rome, and in many parts of the Roman Empire.
OlympiaHOST
In this context, Mithra was renamed Mithras, with an S.
OlympiaHOST
But the figure worshipped in this cult had very little, almost nothing to do with the original Iranian Mithra.
OlympiaHOST
Mithraism was a mystery religion centered on Mithras.
OlympiaHOST
But why a mystery religion? What does it mean? A mystery religion was a religious practice or a religious school of the Greco-Roman world that was secret and secretive.
OlympiaHOST
Only initiates could participate in this.
OlympiaHOST
It came with friends and acquaintances that could be useful outside to conduct business, for example.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Here were gathered the priests and worshippers of the Egyptian Isis, the virgin mother of Osiris, the god who rose again after his crucifixion to gladden the earth with his splendor.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
Here might be seen the adorers of the Persian sun god Mithras, born at the winter solstice and growing in strength until he wins his victory over the powers of darkness after the vernal equinox.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
But this idea of the death and resurrection of the Lord of Light was no new importation brought in by the theology of Egypt or Persia.
Pamela NagamiNARRATOR
The story of the Egyptian Osiris was repeated in the Greek stories of Sarpedon and Memnon, of Tithonos and Asclepias, Asclepius, of the Teutonic Balder and Woden Odin.
Andrew M. HenryHOST
The Greeks use words like orgia, mysteria, or teletai to describe these religions, usually translated as mystic rites, mysteries, or initiations.
Andrew M. HenryHOST
Some of the most well-known mysteries include the aforementioned mysteries of Eleusis, the mysteries of Samothrace, the cult of the goddess Magna Mater, the cult of Mithras, and of course, the cult of Isis.
Andrew M. HenryHOST
The worship of Isis was established in Greece as early as the 300s BCE.
Andrew M. HenryHOST
An inscription from Athens mentions Egyptians building a sanctuary for her there.
Brandon KrollGUEST
So 365-
Tom ThompsonHOST
'Cause Mithra was a cult, or like Ma- the Mithraism was a cult back in the day.
Tom ThompsonHOST
Like we t- we touched upon Saturnalia a couple-
Brandon KrollGUEST
Okay
1 HR 5 MINS LATER
Brandon KrollGUEST
So when Christ died, you're telling me he was dead for three days? God was dead for three days.
Brandon KrollGUEST
That is what you're telling me.
Brandon KrollGUEST
God was killed by Satan, which is Mithraism.
Brandon KrollGUEST
He... [laughs] That you wanna slay the bull of heaven? No.
Justin SledgeHOST
It's a theory for how we got here and how to get back.
Justin SledgeHOST
And finally, right, in the magical literature, right, we have the Mithras liturgy, perhaps, in my opinion, the most outstanding piece of magical technology from the ancient world.
Justin SledgeHOST
In the Mithras liturgy, again, we have the combination of both liturgy and magic in the form of some kind of herbs.
Justin SledgeHOST
We don't know what the famous cantritis herb that may have been psychedelic in some kind of way.
Justin SledgeHOST
We don't know because we don't know what the cantritis root was.
Justin SledgeHOST
But in the Mithras liturgy, you literally float.
Justin SledgeHOST
You physically experience floating.
Justin SledgeHOST
They describe the phenomenology of floating to the heavens, and you are able to penetrate into the world of the divine, and that is the role of what's going on in the Mithras liturgy in the Greek Magical Papyri.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
At the time of Confucius' birth, five celestial sages entered the house, whilst vocal and instrumental music filled the air.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
Mithras, the Persian savior, was visited by wise men called Magi at the time of his birth, and was presented by them with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
And the same story is told by Plato in relation to the birth of Socrates.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
While it is claimed for all the world's saviors that they were born by virgins and begotten by God, genealogies of royal descent are traced for them through the husbands of their mothers in a most illogical manner.
1 HR 51 MINS LATER
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
It is an inseparable unity, though three in form.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
The inhabitants of China and Japan, most of whom are Buddhists, worship God in the form of a trinity.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
The Persians have a similar triad composed of Ormuzd, the creator, Mithras, the son, and Ahriman, the destroyer.
Louise J. BellNARRATOR
The ancient Scandinavians likewise worshiped a triple deity who was yet one God and consisted of Odin, Thor, and Frey.
JinHOST
The cardinal points.
JinHOST
Right, but what is more Mithraic? What is more Mithraic than upholding the treaty relationship between you and your invisible relatives?
Doc InfernoGUEST
Absolutely.
Doc InfernoGUEST
So, like I said, you know, just to circle back a little bit about the, you know, the ancestors is that I think it's unfortunate.
KozlowskiHOST
Zarathustra is also, you know, a reference to this great Zoroastrian prophet and priest.
KozlowskiHOST
Zarathustra was the one who delivered the truth of Mithras, again, the sort of, like, early, like, secret sect of the ancient Romans, as well as the sort of foundation of the Roman understanding of the Zoroastrian religion.
KozlowskiHOST
He is the one who passes on the dualism that will become the sort of foundation for Gnosticism.
KozlowskiHOST
Again, there's a lot of a lot of richness to this association, some of which Nietzsche is just not aware of.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The various floors of the Tower of Olympus represent the orbits of the planets.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The ascent of the philosophers from one floor to another also parallels certain rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the rites of Mithras wherein the candidate ascended the seven rungs of a ladder or climbed the seven steps of a pyramid in order to signify release from the influences of the planetary governors.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Man becomes master of the seven spheres only when he transmutes the impulses received from them.
speaker_0NARRATOR
He who masters the seven worlds and is reunited with the divine source of his own nature consummates the Hermetic marriage.
2 HRS 59 MINS LATER
speaker_0NARRATOR
The Tau cross is preserved to modern Masonry under the symbol of the T-square.
speaker_0NARRATOR
This appears to be the oldest form of the cross extant.
speaker_0NARRATOR
The Tau cross was inscribed on the forehead of every person admitted into the mysteries of Mithras.
speaker_0NARRATOR
When a king was initiated into the Egyptian mysteries, the Tau was placed against his lips.
speaker_3NARRATOR
To men who had wearied of the myths of the poets, who could draw no more inspiration from their Apollo and Hyperion, but still had the habits and the craving left by their old gods, a fresh breath of reality came with the entrance of Helios Aikeatos Mithras, Mithras the unconquered sun.
speaker_3NARRATOR
But long before the triumph of Mithraism as the military religion of the Roman frontier, Greek literature is permeated with a kind of intense language about the sun, which seems derived from Plato.
speaker_3NARRATOR
In later times, in the fourth century AD, for instance, it has absorbed some more full-blooded and less critical element as well.
speaker_3NARRATOR
Secondly, all the seven planets.
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