David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler. If you no longer wish to receive these letters, please let us know at info@Lorian.org.
Mystery Schools
Last October, my friend and fellow spiritual teacher, William Bloom, who lives in Glastonbury, England, sent out one of his regular “e-letters” (his equivalent to my David’s Desk) about what a contemporary Mystery School might look like. This in turn prompted a podcast conversation in January between Lorian faculty and board member James Tousignant and me about how Lorian fit the criteria that William outlined and might thus be considered a modern Mystery School.
The word “school” is familiar and ordinary; schools abound everywhere. Precede “School” with “Mystery,” though, and suddenly a patina of glamor is added. There is a sense of a place and a curriculum shrouded in secrecy and reserved for a special few. There is a promise of gaining knowledge and learning skills not available to the ordinary public and of initiation into the hidden wisdom and powers underlying creation itself.
Much of this glamor has arisen in the past two hundred years. Historians know that the ancient Mystery Schools of Greece and Rome provided a combination of theological training, ceremony, and self-development, the “Mysteries” being insights into the spiritual nature of humanity and our relationship to nature and to the Divine within all things. Because of a scarcity of detailed knowledge about just what went on and what was taught in many of the Mystery Schools, the idea of “Mystery School” can become a screen on which people can project their own fantasies and desires. There is no doubt that the idea of a “Mystery School” has been used, especially in America, to enhance the commercial attractiveness of otherwise ordinary programs of metaphysics and pop psychology, particularly when veiled behind a curtain of secrecy to add to the glamor.
William, though, is European and not American, and perhaps has not been so influenced by these commercial dynamics. He is also not so interested in the theology and cultural beliefs. He is more influenced by the lived experience of ceremonies and practices that induct participants to feel, sense and cooperate with subtle realms and beings. For William, the heart of any Mystery School is a process where the aspirant is supported through rites and energy exercises to enter altered states of consciousness and experience archetypal and angelic states. For William, the challenge of a contemporary Mystery school is to translate the underlying principles and practices into an accessible form available to everyone who feels called to explore them.
There is important teaching in the Mystery Schools about the spiritual nature of the individual and of the world that enable a person to be a blessing to themselves and to bring blessing into the world. There is wisdom about the wholeness of the world and of ourselves and there are skills that can implement that wisdom, all of which are greatly needed to heal the toxicity in our societies today. This knowledge, this wisdom, these skills could be called “Mysteries” in the sense that they partake of the mystery of who we are and what the world is as manifestations of sacredness. But they are no longer hidden. As William says in his e-letter, “the core secrets of the Mystery Schools are now open knowledge…commonplace in movies, television shows and books.” Both science and psychology, as well as mystical practice and spirituality, have taken down many of the veils that once made the deep truths about ourselves and the world mysterious. Not that there isn’t more to discover and learn, but now we can do so openly as part of life itself, not behind the secret walls of an institution.
What once were the Mysteries might now be called “applied holistic living,” living in a manner that blends both the physical and non-physical sides of our nature and of the world. Indeed, the function of any true Mystery school is not to revel in mysteries but to make the world less mysterious, more known, more understood in ways that enhance our ability to work collaboratively with the forces of creation because we are one of those forces. The function of a Mystery school is revelation and empowerment.
This is what we seek to do in Lorian, and it also is a hallmark of William’s work. In fact, by invitation of the Shift Network, William has been invited to create a “contemporary Mystery school” that fulfills the criteria he set forth in his e-letter. Happily, he is doing so, and there are few people as qualified as he is. I’m delighted to bring his work to your attention.
William calls the curriculum he is creating “Experiential Metaphysics,” offering a certification at the end of one year and, I gather, the possibility of a further Masters program. If you would like to know more about it, please go to his website.
This month the recorded conversation is between William, James, and myself. Enjoy!
An Experiment
One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.