Amazing discovery of Ancient Dwarka under sea

Dwarka also known as Dwarawati in Sanskrit literature is rated as one of the seven most ancient cities in the country. The legendary city of Dwarka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna. It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dwarka has submerged six times and modern day Dwarka is the 7th such city to be built in the area. According to Hindu legend the god Krishna built a city which was ultimately destroyed by rising sea levels. Now archaeologists and Indian Navy divers are investigating underwater ruins at Dwarka on India's western coast, said to be Krishna's city. The new efforts, it is hoped, will settle the debate currently raging over the age and authenticity of the site near the Samudranaraya temple. Divers have collected blocks and samples which will now be dated. Traditional Hindu scholars referencing ancient Hindu scriptures believe the location to be very ancient, originally built many thousands of years ago. Such notions are, of course, vehemently rejected by establishment scientists though they are willing to concede that there is evidence indicating an age of as much as 3500 years.

Of course the date when the city was destroyed would be long after the date of its inception, so a definitive maximum date has not been established. The new study is expected to resolve some of the issues. Archaeologists will now use the carbon dating technique to determine the exact age of the ruins. The earlier excavations, that first began about 40 years ago, had only revealed stones, beads, glass and terracotta pieces.

New Underwater Finds in Sri Krishna's City

New Underwater Finds in Sri Krishna's City

The Remains of Dwaraka :
"The Hindu" --January 19, 1987

Sir,--This refers to the report �Dwaraka expedition finds more remains� reported from Panaji (The Hindu, Jan.1) about the wonders revealed by the fifth archaeological under water excavation recently.

More than a decade back, a very old, small temple within a big temple, believed to be the original �Krishna temple� was unearthed 20 to 30 feet deep, not far off from the location of the present one, by the first surface excavation of the Archaeological Department.

Again, in early 1985, the fourth under-water excavation discovered two submerged sea walls, 20 to 30 feet below the sea-bed a few metres apart�also reported in The Hindu, the same year (1985), how the old Dwaraka Port, once the �gateway� of ancient India, was submerged four to five thousand years ago, was scientifically explained by Mr. C.S. Mahadevan of Madras vide The Hindu, February 21, 1985. Dwaraka was partially submerged according to him in 3031 B.C..

Later in 2700 BC, not only the remaining portion of Dwaraka but even the remaining portion of Lanka, Ravana�s kingdom got submerged in a cataclysm. This explanation is supported by the scientific reasons advanced by him. Due to the tilting of the axis of the earth, generally some of the islands throughout the world submerged.

The submerging of islands is more near the equator up to 30� North or South latitude. So what happened in 3031 BC and 2700 BC and earlier in 12000 BC was due to this tilting of the earth.

This revelation by Mr. Mahadevan�s letter (The Hindu, Feb. 21, 1985) made interesting reading about Dwaraka once ruled by Lord Krishna who was born on July 26, 3112 BC according to him.

N. Bose, Madras

New Finds in Sri Krishna�s City
"The Hindu"-- February 7, 1988

From Our Special Correspondent
Bangalore, Feb.6

The sixth marine archaeological expedition of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, led by Dr. S.R. Rao, Emeritus scientist has claimed the discovery of hitherto unknown features of the legendary Dwaraka of Sri Krishna, submerged by the Arabian Sea 3,500 years ago.

During the current season (November 1987 to February1988 the expedition said it came across the inner and outer gateways of the proto-historic port city, flanked by circular bastions built of massive blocks of sandstone. From the inner gateway a flight of steps led to the Gomati river, the submerged channel of which has been traced over a length of 1.5 km in the seabed.

According to Dr. Rao, the occurrence os smaller three-holed stone anchors of triangular shape weighing 100 to 140 kg suggests that small boats used to sail up the Gomati while the larger ones were moored farther away from the outer entrance gate.

A semi-circular mooring stone with a hole has been found here in situ. The outer wall acted as a pier also. The large three-holed stone anchors (150 to 250 kg) of prismatic shape lying in a row suggest that the jetty was about 1.2 km from the present shoreline , 12 metres below present water line.

Click and drag photo to resize.

The remains of a stone temple within the inner fortifications are indicated by a pillar and moonstone, while a circular stone base with a large hole was used for fixing a wooden flagpost near the outer gate of the port. Perhaps it served as a sign post.

Largest port:

If the number, size and variety of stone anchors are any indication of the size of the port, it can be said that Dwaraka was the largest port of the second millennium B.C. on the Indian Coast. As many as 50 stone anchors are visible. But several hundreds must have been buried in the sediment.

Exploration since 1984 in the Dwaraka waters has been confined to the right bank zone towards the lighthouse of the ancient Gomati channel. The left bank zone remain unexplored for lack of funds and equipment such as sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler.

The PORT-INPMO have extended to the left bank also as indicated by the stone anchors of various sizes. After proto-historic port city was submerged, the site was unoccupied for a long period. Some constructions of the early historic period have come to notice. Among important antiquities found this season in the Dwaraka waters mention may be made of bronze objects such as the bell and arms of Prabhaval and fragments of a marble statue.

They were recovered in a trench dug at 4.6 metres below sea level and seem to belong to the early historic or later period. In the last season and again during the present expedition, parts of the hull of a wooden boat were found.

Data on sea level fluctuations.

Useful data on sea level fluctuations have been collcted during the present expedition. Three wavecut benches were encountered at depths of 11.22 metres, 4.6 metres and 1.34 metres. The proto-historic city was built on the lowest bench, the early historic and the medieval townships on the higher benches. The island of Bet Dwarka, 30 km north of Dwarka, which is also famous as the pleasure resort of Sri Krishna, was connected with the mainland between Otha and Aramda. The reclamation referred to in ancient texts was made in this zone when the sea level was lower 3,500 years ago. The ancient port was four km long on the eastern coast where the landward and seaward fortifications were identified in previous expeditions.

During the current expedition, according to Dr. Rao, a most impressive stone wall 550 metres in perimeter (1 mile plus) was discovered in the intertidal zone of the central sector, not far from BDK V (north sector) where shell workers lived.

To the south of the wall is a rock cut slipway for launching boats. Nine courses of stone masonry of the massive fort wall are still intact at many places. It must have been much higher in ancient times to prevent further erosion by the sea.

The construction technique is interesting. Large trapezoidal blocks built course by course formed the outer shell holding together the rubble filling in the core. This gravity well was specially designed to serve as an anti-erosion structure in the sea, and is certainly a bolder experiment than that of their predecessors, the Harappans.

It served as a pier also. A trial dig in the inter-tidal zone and cliff of the northern sector indicated that the proto-historic settlement was completely washed away by the sea.

Older than Sri Krishna

The occurrence late Harappan artifacts such as chart blacken and perforated vessels suggests the existence of a settlement earlier than the Dwarka of Sri Krishna, to which reference is made in the epic. This we have in Bet Dwarka the Mahabharata (before 1,500 B.C.), the Mahabharata (1500-1400 B.C.) and post Mahabharata (third century B.C. onwards) settlements. The former two were submerged by the sea.

An important achievement of the present expedition is that two young archaeologists have been trained in diving, underwater research, excavation and documentation. They were able to work underwater for 1 � to 2 hours at a stretch, no small achievement for beginners. Thus for the first time scientific diving for archaeological excavation has been introduced by the marine archaeology unit.

Another significant achievement is that the underwater exploration has been filmed.

Mystery behind missing capstone – the Great Pyramid

Mystery behind missing capstone – the Great Pyramid

While observing the Great Pyramid, you’ll observe its apex missing. It top won’t be pointed as it should be. The top part or capstone was the last thing to be placed while constructing the pyramid and also considered the most significant part of the pyramid. Usually the capstone will be highly decorated. The mystery is- Was the great pyramid always without a capstone or was it destroyed or stolen. The number of visitors who visited the pyramid from the ancient past even before Jesus Christ always reported that the pyramid was without the capstone. Maybe it is possible to think that that it was never finished. Looking at other possibility is that capstones might be made of gold and maybe looted. But the problem is that the capstone is usually very large in size. Thus, this capstone would have been huge and weighed a tremendous amount. On the peak you would observe something that looks flagstaff and this was actually placed there by two astronomers in 1874 to show where the Pyramid’s actual peak would have been if finished. No one is able to clarify why the Great Pyramid is built without a capstone.

Capstone

There is a fascinating story related with a visit to the top of the great pyramid. Tourists have climbed the peak as it is not so tough. Same way Sir Siemen’s, a British inventor, climbed to the top with some Arab guides. One of his guides explained the truth that he would hear an acute ringing noise, when he raised his hand with outspread fingers. Siemen tried the same trick by raising his index finger and felt a distinct prickling sensation. When he tried to drinking a bottle of wine, he felt an electric shock. As he was a scientist, Siemen dampened a newspaper and wrapped it around the wine bottle to convert it into a Leyden jar (an early form of a capacitor).Leyden jar became charged with electricity, when he held it above his head. The bottle started emitting Sparks. Frightened Arab guide assumed Siemen was up to some witchcraft and attempted to grab Siemen’s Leyden jar. When Siemen’s detected this, he pointed the bottle towards the Arab and gave him a shock that it blew the Arab to the ground rendering him unconscious. Recovered Arab took off down the pyramid shouting wildly. The peak of the Great Pyramid could create such an electo-static effect. I suggest many interesting experiments should be conducted on the top of the Great pyramid.

Real Mermaids found on the Sea Shores

The mysterious mermaids on land found dead on the shore. A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head, arms, and torso and the tail of a fish. A male version of a mermaid is known as a "merman" and in general both males and females are known as "merfolk". Mermaids are represented in the folklore, literature and popular culture of many countries worldwide.

A strange mermaid-like creature found washed ashore. This variant claims that the mermaid was found on a sea shore may be washed by tsunami. The snap shots show the 'mermaid' lying dead on the shores of the island. Still the mermaid creature remains to be an Unexplained Mystery.

Roopkund Skeleton Lake: A Himalayan Mystery

Roopkund, better known as “Skeleton Lake,” is one of those enticing, far away places with mysterious, strange-sounding names. Located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand in an uninhabited corner of the Himalayan Mountains, the area is known for its enormous grave of between 300-600 skeletons, which carbon-testing originally dated back to the 12th to 15th centuries.

First discovered by a park ranger in 1942, this frozen lake has since been revisited in recent years, when a team of European and Indian scientists converged on the area at the behest of the National Geographic Channel. The site is so isolated that it requires about four days travel from the nearest human settlement.
Their research has uncovered new theories and facts. DNA testing placed the dead into two distinct physical categories; one of short stature and the other significantly taller (perhaps royalty). Their findings also contradicted earlier radio-carbon testing, as it is now known that the skeletons are even older than previously thought, ascribed to the 9th century.

The primary questions are: what killed these people and why were so many of them on such a grueling journey in the middle of nowhere? The skulls reveal fractures, which scientists conclude may have been caused by the impact of very large hailstones. It seems likely that some kind of natural disaster, such as a blizzard or landslide befell them, as that might explain why some of the bodies inside the lake were found intact and preserved under the ice.

While Roopkund is nowhere near any trade routes, scientists now believe that the location may well be along the path of a religious procession known as  “Nanda Jaat Yatra,” which is held every twelve years.

Are the skeletons those of centuries-old religious devotees?
As of now no one can really say, but modern science does appear to be closing in on the secrets hidden for so long in this frozen lake nestled in a remote corner of the Himalayas at an altitude of 16,500 feet.

Skeleton Lake unravels the mystery behind the hundreds of skeletons strewn around the Roopkund Lake at a height of over 16,000 feet in the Garhwal Himalayas. The Roopkund riddle started in 1942, when a forest ranger accidentally unearthed a mass grave in Roopkund Lake. The mystery of Roopkund has intrigued sociologists, historians and anthropologists as well as local people for years. It has become the stuff of myth and legend. Fact and fiction have blended into religious folklore and been carried down the ages. With hundreds of skeletons strewn on the slopes of the Himalayas this colossal tragedy has shaken people worldwide

Unexplained Mystery: The Devil’s Sea (The Dragon’s Triangle)

Located near to the Japanese coast in the Pacific Ocean is the vile vortex of Dragon’s Triangle or the Devil’s Sea. As the title indicates, the area extends as a triangle between Japan and the Islands of Bonin, including a major portion of the Philippine Sea. Such an infamous reputation for this oceanic area has been not gained contemporarily, but exists for decades and even centuries, if some records are to be believed.


Another synonym for the Dragon’s Triangle is the Pacific Bermuda Triangle on account of it being located in the Pacific Ocean. The area has been in news since several decades for unexplained incidences of vanishing of ships.

Vile Vortices
Scientifically speaking, the Dragon’s Triangle is said to be one of the world’s 12 existing vile vortices. Vile vortices are those areas where the pull of the planet’s electromagnetic waves is stronger than anywhere else.

Of the other remaining 11 vortices, the Bermuda Triangle is the most prominent one across the globe.

Origin of the Devil’s Sea Extrasensory Myth & Continuance
To begin with, the term dragon in the oceanic area’s name originates with the Chinese fable about dragons existing below the water surface and hauling in vessels with seamen to satiate their hunger. These fables have originated well before the AD period – 1000 BC era – in-turn resulting in leaving a huge impact with their emphasis on presence of mythical creatures like dragons.
Realistically, since this part of the oceanic area is full of subsea volcanoes, it has been speculated, debated and discussed that the eruptions from these volcanoes could have initiated and substantiated the premise of dragons sucking in ships and its crew to the ocean’s depths.
Although official documentation about the mystery of Dragon’s Triangle started with the publishing of Charles Berlitz’s account of the oceanic arena in the late 80s, the existence of Ma-no Umi as this area is called in native Japanese has always haunted the Japanese from venturing into this part of the ocean right from centuries past.
It is said that the conqueror Kublai Khan tried to make inroads into Japan in the 1200s but failed to do because of loss of his vessels and crew, the latter being 40,000 men, in this triangular area. Similarly accounts emerge about sighting of a lady sitting in a vessel resembling the traditional Japanese equipment for burning incense in the early 1800s. In the later century, the most prominent and documented reports are that of the Japanese research ship Kaio Maru No.5 about whose’ whereabouts was never heard of again in the early 1950s. This research ship was sent to find about the previously missing war-ships which had been reported to have gone missing without any trace in this oceanic arena in the same period.

And while the Japanese authorities had declared this area to be dangerous for marine voyaging and transporting in the year 1950, following the unprecedented incident of the research ship, all efforts to unearth the facts behind the mystery were aborted completely.

Myth Refutals
The strongest rebuttal to Mr. Charles’s published work and the belief that the Devil’s Sea is a mythical area abound with paranormal activities, comes from Larry Kusche. His book – The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved – published in the year 1995 disclaims Mr. Charles’s documentation of the Japanese war-ships gone missing as mere fishing boats.
In his book, Mr. Kusche has also claimed that the research ship sent by the Japanese contained a crew of only 31 people as opposed to the 100 stated by Mr. Charles and was wrecked instead of disappearing completely. The remains of the wreckage were retrieved by the Japanese a few years ago which further rejected Mr. Charles’s claims.
The Pacific Bermuda Triangle might be subjected to numerous theories and suppositions. But in spite of scientific evidences and the mythical aura surrounding the oceanic arena, its continued existence is testimony that certain powers are far beyond the control of men and their equipments however hard, we might try to prove otherwise.

The Mystery of the Dragon

DRAGON: Are dragons merely imagination in the realm of spirituality, or do they have physical existence? (Shioujen Wen/The Epoch Times)

The dragon has been pervasive in all aspects of ancient Chinese culture, and it has become a strong spiritual symbol for the Chinese people. Do dragons really exist? China’s history books have recorded many eyewitness accounts about the appearance of dragons, which makes it enticing to re-examine whether dragons truly exist.
The Miscellaneous Section of the Recording for Ye County from the Qing dynasty states: “In A.D. 1503 [Ming dynasty, 16th year of Emperor Hongzhi's rule], five dragons hovered in the air about 10 li [3 miles] north of the city gate of Ye County, Henan Province. After a long time aloft, they dropped to the ground and were unable to ascend again.
“The sky clouded over, and the sea began churning. A deity in green clothing descended from the sky and was immediately surrounded by the fallen dragons. A moment later, the clouds dispersed and the ocean was tranquil. The five dragons were still unable to fly away. At this time, another green deity descended, and the dragons crawled around him. Suddenly, the sky became dark. Thick clouds and heavy fog reappeared. When the sky finally cleared, the deities and the five dragons were gone.”
The Fortunate, Yet Strange Phenomena Section of the Recording for the Jiaxing Regional Government tells of a similar story: “In September A.D. 1588, a white dragon was spotted on Lake Ping in Pinghu County, Zhejiang Province. It was flying above the lake, illuminating half of the sky with red light.
“Eyewitness Shen Maoxiao, a history-recording officer for the royal court, saw a deity in purple clothes with a golden crown, standing over 30 meters [about 98 feet] tall, between the horns of the dragon. This deity held an object resembling a sword. There appeared a sphere of bright light as large as a dou [a ladder-shaped container for measurement in China] beneath the head of the dragon.”
The same document also records an eyewitness account that took place 20 years after the white dragon sighting in Pinghu County. In July 1608, a white dragon similar to the one on Lake Ping was sighted on the Huangpu River in Songjiang County, Shanghai. There was also a deity standing on the head of the dragon.


The Five Elements Section of the Recording for the Later Han Dynasty later cited by the Strange Phenomena Section of the Recording for Luoyang County, recorded a dragon sighting in the imperial palace. Liu Hong, the emperor of the Dong Han dynasty, had his capital city near today’s Luoyang City in Henan Province; Wenming Palace might be where he lived.
On July 1, A.D. 178, a huge black object fell from the sky into the east courtyard of Wenming Palace. The object was round and resembled the canopy over an ancient carriage. It was over 20 meters (65 feet) long and spun rapidly, giving out light of different colors. The object had a head but no feet and no tail. It looked like a dragon, but might not have been one.
The Five Elements Section of History of the Yuan Dynasty states the following: “In July of Emperor Zhiyuan’s 27th year of rule [August 1290 A.D.], there appeared a dragon near Mount Long in Linxong County, Shandong Province. The dragon was able to make a piece of rock weighing half a ton float in the air.”
In Emperor Jian’an’s 24th year of rule in the Dong Han Dynasty (A.D. 219), a yellow dragon appeared on the Chishui River in Wuyang City and remained there for nine days before it finally left. A temple was built and a stone tablet was erected inside the temple to honor the appearance of the dragon.
In April, Emperor Yonghe’s 1st year of rule, Dong Jin Dynasty (A.D. 345), two dragons, one black and the other white, appeared on Mount Long (which literally translates as Mount Dragon). Murong, the emperor of the Yan Kingdom, led officials of the court to the mountain and held a worship ceremony 200 yards away from the dragons.
Local history books from the Ming and Qing dynasties also contain sightings of dragons. According to the “Recording for the Lin’an Regional Government,” in Emperor Chongzhen’s 4th year of rule (1631 A.D.), a large dragon was sighted on Lake Yilong (which means Lake Strange Dragon), southeast of Shiping County, Yunan Province.
The record states, “The whiskers, feet, and scales of the dragon were above the water, and the dragon was several dozens of meters long.” The dragon might have appeared more than once around Mount Long and Lake Yilong, thus explaining the choice of names for these places.
The “Amended Recording of the Tang Dynasty” recorded that one day in the last year of Emperor Xiantong’s rule, a black dragon fell to the ground within the territory of Tongcheng County and died there from a wound in the throat. The full length of the dragon measured over 30 meters, half of which was its tail.
The tail was flat. Its scales were like those of a fish. The head had two horns. The whiskers by the side of the mouth were over 6 meters long. Its feet, which grew from under its belly, had a red film covering them.
The Seven Books and Scriptures by Long Ying recorded that one day in the last year of Chenghua, Ming Dynasty, a dragon fell down onto the beach in Xinhui County, Guangdong Province. It was beaten to death by the local fishermen. The dragon was as tall as an adult person, and tens of meters in length. It looked very much like the dragon in classical paintings except that its belly was red.
A dead dragon was found by Lake Taibai in Emperor Shaoxing’s 32nd year of rule in the Nan Song Dynasty (1162). It had long whiskers and large scales. The back was black and belly white. Fins grew from the dragon’s back, and two large horns protruded the head. It could be smelled from miles away.


The local people covered it with a mat. The government sent people to hold a worship ceremony at the site. However, after a night of severe thunderstorms, the dragon disappeared. Only a ditch remained where it had been.
The History for the Yongping Regional Government recorded that, in the summer of the 19th year of Emperor Daoguang’s rule (1839), a dragon fell from the sky along the lower reaches of the Luanhe River in Laoting County. The dragon lay inert, covered by flies and maggots. Local people made a shelter for it to protect it from the direct sunlight, and they also drizzled cold water on its body. Three days later, after a night of thunderstorms, the dragon left.

Modern sightings

Several events in the past century were also thought to be sightings of dragons.
In August 1944, hundreds of people from Chenjiayuanzi Village in Fuyu County, south of the Songhuajiang River, surrounded a black animal by the riverbank. Yen Dianyuan, an eyewitness, said that the animal was about 7 meters long and looked like a lizard. Its face was almost the same as that of the dragons in classical paintings, with seven or eight thick hard whiskers. The upper body was over one-third meter in diameter. Its four paws went deep into the sand. Crocodile-like scales covered its whole body.
In the summer of 1953, an unidentified animal fell down from the sky in a place south of Henan Province. According to the description by some of the witnesses, the animal looked like a huge shark. The odor of decay attracted countless flies. If it was a shark, it should live in the deep sea. Why did it fall down from the sky? This case might be related to the historical accounts of dragons dropping from the sky.
On Aug. 4, 2000, there was a downpour over Heishanzi Village in China, and afterward the village was covered by a layer of hot steam. All of a sudden, thick clouds came down from the sky and rolled along above the ground. The people in the village were so scared, for they had never seen this kind of weather before. They stayed inside with all the doors and windows shut.
A young man went outside to see what was going on. Soon he was outside his village, and suddenly he was stunned by the sight of two dragon-like animals, one black and one white, lying on the ground in front of him. He saw that the horns, scales, paws, and tails of the animals were exactly the same as those from the traditional dragon paintings except that their whiskers were shorter. He turned around and ran toward the village as fast as he could, shouting, “Come see the dragons; come see the dragons that have fallen from the sky!”
The news quickly spread through the entire region. Police, government officials, and scholars went to Heishanzi Village to investigate. Police officers dispersed the crowd and left several people assigned to guard the animals.
Later, a gust of wind made the dark clouds roll up and down. When it passed, the white animal had disappeared from under the watchful eyes of the guards. The officials were unable to explain the disappearance, and they were equally frustrated about the black one still on the ground.
A farmer said, “I heard that something like this happened several years ago, and people poured water on the dragons to make them return home.” He asked a few young villagers to fetch several mats and they erected a shelter for the animal. They then hauled water in wheelbarrows to the site and sprayed it on the mats so that the water could drip down on the animal from the mats. As of December 2000, the animal was still alive.
As the sky was getting dark in the evening at 6:10 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2000, in Wusong City, Jilin Province, a beam of unusual light shot from the northwest sky above the city, and it soon became brighter and multicolored. Then, a dragon-like creature appeared. Its mouth, whiskers, paws, and scales could all be seen clearly. The dragon was visible for more than 20 minutes. The bright light eventually dimmed to dark red before it slowly disappeared.
Are dragons merely imagination in the realm of spirituality, or do they have physical existence? It is a mystery to us today.

The only Authentic genuine Yeti (Abominable Snowman) footage

Mysteries Of The Yeti

There are some things in the world that have confused mankind over the ages. Many myths,mythological creatures and lost places have been found in different cultures. Each culture has a different explanation of these strange happening and they have their own legends which keep circulating as generations pass on.
Dragons,Sea Serpents,Centaur, Mermaids are some examples of these mysterious creatures and similarly many places have thought to have been existed like the 'Lost World of Atlantis'. Everyone through out the ages have tried to give there own explanation of these legends and myths, some claim them to be mere stories and others argue about their existence. But the fact is there hasn't been any significant amount of evidence in all these things to really make some one belief about their reality yet the are still popular in our lives.

Yeti foot print found by a Japanese team

There is always a large group of people who strongly believe in the existence of these creatures and stories, mainly because they feel that some things cannot be completely denied. Strange things do exist in this world and many have even experienced them which makes the belief of their existence of these things even stronger.

The Yeti

Like many other creatures that have existed in different historic books and cultures, Yeti is one such being. But Yeti is different from these mythological creatures because it belongs to that class which has been literally seen by some people. Although I can not claim whether anyone has really seen it or not yet there is a large number of people who will tell you about its sightings.

Appearance of Yeti

The Yeti is a kind of abominable snowman that looks like an ape. It belongs to the class of Cryptids, which are creatures that are believed to exist but scientifically, their existence is not confirmed. The most known features of Yeti, which have been known by people are that, it can walk like a man and has long white hairs covereing its whole body. It has a big man like foot which is a major evidence of it existence because many large, man like foot prints have been seen by people in its suppose habitat.

Where Does Yeti Live?

The popular place where the sightings of Yeti have been claimed is the Himalayas. The dangerous and extreme mountainous areas of the Himalayan region is a place where only a handful of local population have been living for centuries. Most of the people that come to this place arrive here for the purpose of mountaineering and hiking. So the reports about its sightings have been mostly registered by these mountaineers who saw its foot prints on high areas of Himalayas. Although many sightings have been reported yet, no one has really witnessed it up close to provide any sufficient evidence about its existence.

Bigfoot and Yeti

There is a close resemblance between existence of the Yeti and the American Bigfoot. The Bigfoot is a similar creature or a cryptid that is believed to live in the North-West region of America. Its main habitat is the forest area of North America. Similar stories like that of the Yeti, have been heard about Bigfoot.
The resemblance between these two cryptids is based on their similar appearance. With long hairy bodies and the common stories of their sighting, both these creatures resemble in their supposed appearance. Although it has been reported that the colour of the Bigfoot is some what dark brownish as compared to white colour of the Yeti.

Yeti Sightings

There has been many events of its sightings and most of them being mentioned in travel accounts of some adventurer. The first stories about Yeti's sightings emerged in the early 19th century when and adventurer B.H Hodgson claimed to have seen a long ape like creature who ran away on seeing his team.
Similar accounts were published about its sightings and man like foot trail, in the late 19th century.
Later in the 20th century when many mountaineers started to move to the Himalayan region, the number of sightings dramatically increased. The most popular of these is one by Eric Shipton in 1951. Eric even took some snaps of the Yeti while his visit but still it was thought to be an inconclusive evidence.
Even Sir Edmund Hillary reported footprints of Yeti during his famous Mount Everest expedition. Soon afterwards many new things started to appear like, hair samples of Yeti, Yeti's feces etc. Many researches were carried out on these specimens and some concluded them to be of something unknown while others related them to some bear or goat specie. This once again made everything inconclusive.

Present Sightings

Presently similar beliefs are being circulated about its existence and recently the most authentic study about them was carried by a BBC team who analyzed a hair sample of Yeti. The hair after DNA test revealed its resemblance to that found by Sir Edmund Hillary during his expedition. A close analysis showed that these hairs belonged to the Himalayan Gorals.
Currently more stories are appearing on the scene and recently a Japanese team claimed to have filmed Yeti on there cameras. Such things continue to trouble scientists and it is really hard to find the authenticity of any of these claims. Lets hope that in the near future we will be sure about Yeti's status.

The only known Authentic genuine Yeti Abominable Snowman footage. This video was taken by two hikers in their 1992 expedition in the Himalayas Mountains of Nepal. This famous clip which is known as the Snow Walker Video, depicts an apelike creature walking on two legs making its way through the snow.

Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries of Tibet

Long closed off and unreachable in its Himalayan fastness, Tibet, the Roof of the World, is always a mysterious land topping the wish list of worldwide travelers. Now it's open to the world. However, there are still too many Tibet mysteries waiting for Tibet travelers and scientists and scholars to explore. This page shows the top ten unsolved mysteries of Tibet.

1. Yeti Mystery

Yeti, the Tibetan name for Abominable Snowman, is an ape-like hairy, biped creature said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Tibet and Nepal. Many expeditions have been organized to track down the elusive Yeti, but none have found more than Yeti footprints and questionable artifacts like scalps and hides.
So far there is no firm evidence to support the existence of the Yeti, but there is no way show that he doesn't exist either. If he indeed lives in the barren, frozen, upper reaches of the Himalayas where few men dare to tread, he may find his refuge safe for a long time to come.

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  Yeti Footprint

2. Gterma Mystery

Gterma is the re-excavated classics, hidden by Bon and Tibetan Buddhists when their religious beliefs were in catastrophe. Gterma includes possession of books, possession of sacred objects, and possession of knowledge.
The most magical part is the possession of knowledge. It refers to Gterma buried deep in people's consciousness. It is said that when a classic cannot be handed down in the event of a disaster, it can be granted by the gods to the depths of a person's consciousness to avoid being lost.
When condition allows, in some mysterious inspiration, the Buddhist scriptures were granted and can be written or recorded to the core, even by some illiterate farmers and herdsmen. This phenomenon is the mystery of Gterma (hidden Tibetan Buddhist scriptures).

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  Gterma - re-excavated classics of Tibetan Buddhism & Bon Religion

3. Shambhala Mystery

Shambhala, also translated as Shangri-La, means "pure land" in Tibetan language. It is the myth of the Buddhist world and the birthplace of Kalachakra teachings. With regard to the existence of Shambhala, there has always been skepticism, and the Shambhala Buddhist scholars think that it is a fictional paradise. Tibetan historical books recorded in great detail the Shambhala. However, if Shambhala, exists or not, is still a mystery.

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  Shambhala - Shangri-La

4. Mystery of Rainbow Body

Rainbow Body is a mysterious phenomenon of Tibetan Buddhism. A lama who has acquired the highest forms of accomplishment can manifest what is called "the rainbow body" or "body of light". It is said that the physical body of those who studied Buddhism very deeply will turn into a rainbow.

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  Phenomenon of Rainbow Body

5. Mystery of Storytellers of King Gesar

Life of King Gesar is a well-known Tibetan heroic epic and is the only living epic in the world today, which has been passed down mainly orally by folk artists. There are still more than 100 folk artists living in Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai provinces, and singing of the great achievement of the Tibetan hero King Gesar.
Among the many folk artists, those who can tell more than one version are claimed to be "divine artists", which means they are inspired by God. Most of the storytellers said that they were summoned by God or King Gesar in a dream, and then they began singing uncontrollably. In Tibet, some illiterate teenagers can suddenly tell the epic of King Gesar with more than one million words. This incredible phenomenon is yet unsolved.

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  Gesar Performer

6. Mystery of Shangshung Kingdom

The ancient Shangshung Kingdom created the earliest civilization of Tibet plateau. It not only invited its unique Shang Shung language, but also served as the birthplace of the Bon religion. The Shangshung Kingdom exerted profound influence on the culture of whole Tibet. However, its mysterious extinction has left many riddles that have not been solved through the ages.

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  Ruins of Shangshung Kingdom

7. Mystery of Guge Kingdom

In the mid-9th century, the Tubo Kingdom collapsed. The descendants established the Guge Kingdom and created a splendid civilization within 700 years. Later in 1630, Guge was overthrown by Ladakh. According to records, the slaughter and predation of the war was not enough to exterminate the Guge civilization. However, it just suddenly vanished like the ancient Mayan civilization.
Today, the ruins of the Guge Kingdom leave us some amazing architecture, ancient paintings, the mysterious Guge Silver Eye, and so on. But why Guge civilization vanished so suddenly and without a clue to trace is still a mystery.

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  Ruins of Guge Kingdom

8. Mystery of Tibetan Shaman

As the host of Tibetan primitive religious worship, Tibetan shamans are said to have the ability to communicate with God and can talk with spirits. Tibetan shaman also enter supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community, to bring guidance to misguided souls and to heal illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. They are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds.
They perform a variety of functions in the social life of Tibetan people: fortune-telling, healing, leading a sacrifice, preserving the tradition by songs and storytelling, guide of souls, etc. However, as time passes, we still know little about shamans - their costumes, heritage, religious objects, spells, altars, witchcraft, divination, etc.

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  Tibetan Shaman

9. Mystery of Mount Everest Flag Clouds

When the weather is pleasant, one can always sees milky white flag-shaped clouds on the top of Mount Everest. Prevailing winds from the west blow the cloud east like a billowing flag attached to the mountain. Ascending airflow caused by the mountains creates the cloud. Blowing snow could also create the cloud.
The Mount Everest flag cloud posture is multifarious, looking like flags that flutter in the breeze sometimes, sometimes like a great wave; Turning into slender and graceful smoke at times. Because the change of the flag cloud can reflect the change in the high air-flows, the Mount Everest flag cloud is known as "the supreme vane of the world".

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  Mount Everest Flag Clouds

10. Mystery of Red Snow

The surface of the Himalayas above 5,000 meters often dots with blood red spots and looks like red snow from afar. These red spots consist of Chlamydomonas nivalis, Chlorococcum infusionum, and other algae. In permanent ice and snow, the highland algae are widely distributed with strong cold resistance and does not die when the temperature is 36 degrees below zero celsius. The algae contain sanguine pigment in their bodies, so they are red in appearance.

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  Red Snow of Mount Everest

the top ten coolest and unsolved mysteries.

the top ten coolest and unsolved mysteries.

Unsolved Mysteries of the World

Bangalore: The world is full of mysteries, many old and mysterious things still make us wonder about human creations and the power of nature. Some of them have been solved with modern technology and research, but there are many manmade and natural things which are still unexplainable and wear that mystery cap. Here are the 10 such mysteries which gives a kick to human brain and modern technology.

1. Sailing stones

Sailing stones are also known as sliding rocks and moving rocks. It all refers to a geological phenomenon where rocks move in long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal involvement.

They have been recorded and studied in a number of places around Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, where the number and length of travel grooves are notable. The force behind their movement is not confirmed and is the subject of research.

2. Iron pillar of Delhi

The Iron Pillar at Delhi is a fascinating piece of architecture well-known for its astonishing resistance to corrosion for over 1600 years. It is also known as Ashokan pillar. It is 7.5 meter tall, weighs approximately 6.5 tonnes and is made up of 98 percent wrought iron of pure quality. The pillar is extremely resistant to corrosion and still now it is in the open air.

3. Lost Inca Gold

The Inca Empire-Atahualpa was captured by the Spanish commander Francisco Pizarro. He promised to release the king if he gets unreal amount of gold. The Inca people collected all the gold. One part of the gold was delivered to Pizarro, but before the other half was delivered, Pizarro killed the king Atahualpa. It is said that people buried the other half of the gold in the mountain cave and it is said to remain there till now. Many have tried to recover the treasure, In 1886 Barth Blake claimed that they found the Incan treasure but sadly died at sea before he got the chance. Others claim to know the site, but no real evidence exists and those who claim to have found it have been unable to relocate the site.

Unsolved Mysteries Ghost Boy Part 2

the conclusion of Unsolved Mysteries Ghost Boy episode

Unsolved Mysteries Ghost Boy

One of the many episodes of Unsolved Mysteries Ghost series, most important enjoy!!!

Ghost of Grace Brown Does a century old murder victim haunt a resort in upstate New York?

Grace Brown

The boat was found overturned

CASE DETAILS

For generations, the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York have been a favorite vacation spot for the famous and the infamous.  One summer night in 1988, several employees of the Covewood Lodge on Big Moose Lake, including Rhonda Bousselot, were approaching the staff lodge.  Rhonda led the pack, unaware that someone, or something, might be waiting inside: 

“I walked into the staff lodge, straight up the stairs with my hand out, reaching for the string, which is how to turn on the light.  As I approached the top of the stairs and just before I was ready to turn on the light, a feeling came over me that somebody was right there.  More or less, I stopped in my tracks and really just didn't move.  I didn't have an overwhelming feeling of fright, but something definitely or someone was there, and it just kind of took my breath away.”

Grace’s ghost haunts the lake

But the real show was outside. According to Rhonda, her friends were witnessing a spine-tingling vision:

“All three of them had the same exact story.  It lingered for just a few seconds, and then moved away. All three of them saw the ghost.  I didn't see anything myself, but I felt that somebody was right there, and it was just a strange feeling.”

But who is haunting Big Moose Lake? People there believe it is the ghost of the young and beautiful Grace Brown.  In 1906, her brutal murder shocked the nation.  Decades later, Hollywood turned the notorious case into a hit film, “A Place in the Sun.” Hollywood portrayed Grace as an unattractive nag.  But in truth, Grace Brown was a naive, lovely 19-year-old who worked at the Gillette skirt factory in Cortland, New York.  It was there, in 1905, that she met the handsome and charming Chester Gillette, the factory owner's nephew.

Author Craig Brandon has written about the infamous Grace Brown murder: 

“Chester Gillette was considered quite a catch by the people in town because he was popular and he was athletic and he was handsome.  I'm sure a lot of women in Cortland were interested in him.”

Chester Gillette was convicted of Grace’s murder

From the start, it was a scandalous romance.  According to Craig Brandon, Chester convinced Grace to see him without a chaperone which, in those days, put her reputation at risk:

“I think she saw him as the ideal person, that he was everything that she wanted.  She was in love probably for the first time in her life, and she wanted to see this through no matter what.”

For Chester, it was a secret affair.  He never took Grace out in public.  He never acknowledged their relationship.  According to Craig Brandon, Chester was frequently seen with other young women, especially those from the town's wealthier families: 

“Her friends were warning her that he wasn't what he seemed to be, that he was something different, and I think that she had no experience with that type of person.  And so she was seeing what she wanted to see rather than what her friends were telling her.”

But Grace could not resist Chester and she soon discovered she was pregnant.  At the time, unwed mothers were outcasts.  Grace begged Chester to marry her, but he stalled as long as he could.  Finally, in July, 1906, Chester took Grace to the Adirondacks.  She assumed it was a wedding trip.  According to Craig Brandon, they rented a rowboat at Big Moose Lake from a man named Robert Morrison:

“Morrison expected them to come back around dinnertime.  And when they didn't come back, he thought that was somewhat suspicious.”

The next morning, Morrison organized a search party.  The rowboat had capsized.  A short distance from it, they found Grace’s body.  Two days later, police found Chester Gillette in a nearby hotel.  At first, he denied even knowing Grace Brown.  Then, he claimed Grace had drowned herself in despair because he didn’t love her anymore.  Few believed him.  He was tried and convicted of first degree murder.  On March 30, 1908, Chester Gillette died in the electric chair.  Had justice been served?  Apparently not enough to satisfy the restless spirit of Grace Brown.

Lynda Lee Macken had her own encounter with Grace Brown a few months after Rhonda Bousselot’s:

“I was walking down toward the lake with my flashlight and the light was getting dimmer and dimmer.  By the time I got to the edge of the lake and the rocks, my flashlight wasn't working.  So I had to turn around and go back… I was awestruck, and not only was I certain that I was looking at a ghost, but I had a very strong feeling of sadness.  She was very sad.”

Was it the ghost of Grace Brown?  Over the years, there have been continual sightings.  And many wonder if her spirit has been trapped at Big Moose Lake since the day she was drowned by her faithless lover.

Black Hope Curse Homes built on top of a cemetery may be cursed.

The Black Hope Cemetery

Human remains were found in the backyard

CASE DETAILS

The Haneys re-buried the remains

Just outside of Houston, Texas, is a neighborhood filled with upscale homes and manicured lawns. In the early 1980s, Sam and Judith Haney settled in at the far western edge of the development. Sam described it as their dream home:

“When we bought the house in Newport, it was the house that we had always been looking for. So, it was the house that we intended to stay at for a long period of time.”

But there was a morbid secret about the Haney’s perfect home, one that soon turned their lives into a never-ending nightmare. Sam said it all began when a mysterious old man showed up at their door with an ominous warning:

“This elderly man told me that he had noticed that we were putting a swimming pool in our backyard and that there was something about our backyard that I needed to know about.  So I followed him around to my backyard and he pointed at the ground and said that there are some graves right here. And he marked a spot on the ground where they were. And I really didn’t know how to react to that. I didn’t know if he was just joking. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to joke about something like that.”

Using a backhoe, Sam decided to see if the man’s alarming claims were true. Sam says it wasn’t long before he hit something:

“And at that point, we stopped with the backhoe and we got down into the hole and continued digging by hand. There were pine boards. When we lifted up the first board, we could see an indentation of a skeleton form. It didn’t take long to figure out that it was  actual human remains.”

The Williams’ discovered they had graves too

Sam immediately called the Sheriff and county coroner who conducted an official exhumation.  Most of the bones had turned to powder.  But 25 fragments were found, some so brittle that they disintegrated when touched.

A second coffin, located alongside the first, hadn’t been disturbed. Inside, two wedding rings were discovered on the frail index finger of the exposed skeleton. Judith Haney was mortified by the discovery:

“They handed me the rings and it was sickening to think that I had desecrated somebody’s grave.”

Wanting desperately to do the right thing, the Haneys decided to find out whose remains were buried in their backyard.  The search led them to a longtime resident named Jasper Norton. 

Years earlier, Norton had dug several graves in the area. He told the Haneys that their home and a dozen others were built on top of an old African American cemetery called Black Hope. The deceased were mainly former slaves. The last burial was in 1939, and as many as 60 people were interred there in paupers’ graves.

Jean decided to dig for the bodies

The two people buried in the Haney’s backyard were Betty and Charlie Thomas. They died during the 1930s and their graves were eventually forgotten.

Judith and Sam Haney made an extraordinary decision.  They reburied Betty and Charlie in their yard, and prayed their spirits would rest in peace.  But, according to Judith, peace was not forthcoming:

“There was a clock in my bedroom and one night it started sparking and putting out a sort of blue glow.”

When Judith checked the clock, she found that it was unplugged. That was only the beginning of the Haneys’ ordeal. On another evening, Sam went to work the night shift, leaving Judith alone:

“I heard the sliding glass door open and I heard what I thought was Sam saying, ‘What you doing?’ Everything was quiet, the sliding glass doors were locked, and I thought, ‘Well, you know, you must be losing your mind.  This really must be getting to you.’ But much to my amazement that’s not where the story ended. In the morning I awoke, went in my closet to get my red shoes, and I could not find them anywhere.”

Sam backed up Judith’s story:

“So, of course, I started looking for them and went through all of her closets where she normally puts things. And we just couldn’t find them. We had walked just a short distance from where the gravesites were and I could see something on the grave. And they were both side-by-side like someone had just picked them up and carried them over and laid them down on the gravesite.”

Even more disturbing to Sam was the realization that this was Betty Thomas’ birthday:

“And I kinda got the feeling that it was like Charlie was giving Betty a birthday present.”

Judith felt she knew what was going on:

“I began to come to the realization that this was not all in my mind and that this had to have some relationship to Betty and Charlie’s graves being disturbed. Their spirits were saying, ‘This isn’t right.’”

The Haneys were not alone. A dozen of their neighbors also reported lights, televisions and water faucets turning on and off, and unearthly sounds and supernatural apparitions. Worse, these bizarre events were becoming malicious.

Like the Haneys, Ben and Jean Williams thought that they had found their suburban paradise when they moved into the same neighborhood. But Jean said she never felt at peace in the house:

“After we moved, in everything changed. When I tried to plant new plants, they just would not live no matter what I did. You know, fertilizer or whatever, they still would not live.  And I constantly had a foreboding feeling, a feeling of things are not right or something bad is about to happen.”

The Williams said that near their flowerbed, sinkholes appeared in the unmistakable shape of a coffin. The Williams would fill them in, only to have them reappear a few days later.  The Williams also felt their ideal home was being invaded by a menacing presence. Random shadows slid along the walls, followed by whispered words and a putrid smell. 

At the time, the Williams’ granddaughter, Carli, lived with the couple. During the blazing heat of summer, Carli said she would stumble into bone-chilling pockets of ice-cold air:

“It would be very, very chilly and you’d have this feeling of foreboding, or just, you know, like something wasn’t right. Anywhere in the house you’d have a feeling that you were not alone. Somebody was watching you. It terrified me to be in the house by myself. The toilets used to flush on their own. As the water went down I could hear, it was almost like conversations. You could hear people murmuring to themselves. It was a presence or spirit or something there. Something that wanted to be heard. Wanted me to know that it was there.”

Jean Williams had no doubt as to the source of the disturbances:

“I absolutely believe that all of these things happened to us because we were on the graveyard, and that we were simply going to be tormented until we left there.”

Ben said he and Jean debated what to do next:

“Me and Jean, we talked it over. And she said, ‘Well what can we do? Walk off and leave it?’  She said, ‘We ain’t got enough money to pay down on another home.’  I said, ‘We’ve always been fighters. We’re gonna stay right here and fight it and try to beat it.’”

According to Ben, it wasn’t long before he got his chance:

“I came home from work around ten after twelve from the midnight shift, and I walked straight to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, and that’s when I seen these two ghostly figures.  And they went straight backwards into the den.  And then they started heading right down the hall to Jean’s. And it was standing right about a foot and a half from the end of the bed. The only thing I really thought of was, ‘They ain’t messing with me wife.’  As I dove through it, I felt a sticky cold sensation in my body.”

Down the street at the Haney’s, Judith said the disturbances caused her life to unravel:

“I was crying all the time. I was frightened. I was scared of doing my daily routine in my own home.”

The Haneys decided to fight back in court. They sued the builder for not disclosing that their home was built over a cemetery, in part, so that everyone would know what was happening at their subdivision. A jury awarded them $142,000 for mental anguish. But a reversal ruled on legal grounds that the developers were not liable. The verdict was thrown out and the Haneys were ordered to pay $50,000 in court costs. Sam Haney recounted the total cost of their ordeal: 
 
“At that point we decided to file bankruptcy. All in all, we ended up losing the case, losing the money, losing the house.”

The Williams also explored legal recourse. But they say that they were told that without definitive proof of a cemetery on their property, nothing could be done. It was then that Jean made a decision that she will forever regret: 

“That was the last straw. You want a body? I’ll show you a body. So, I thought to myself, I can dig about two feet a day and I knew I would reach a body.”

But soon after she started digging, Jean felt ill. Her adult daughter, Tina, volunteered to finish the job. After digging for a half hour, Tina also fell ill. Carli Karluk was there that day:

“I remember her saying that she was, that she felt funny. She was getting dizzy as well. She put the shovel down and she went back inside. And she just laid down on the couch.  She’s like mom, daddy, I don’t feel right. There’s something wrong. The last thing I remember her saying was, ‘Mommy, take care of my baby, take care of my baby.’ And she looked so scared.”

While waiting for paramedics to arrive, Jean tried to keep her daughter conscious:

“Almost immediately her eyes started glazing over. And I was talking to her, trying to talk her out of dying.  ‘Please Tina, talk to me.’  And all this time her eyes were changing until they got to the point where I knew that she wasn’t responding at all.”
 
Tina had suffered a massive heart attack. Two days later she died.  Jean burdened the blame:

“I realize that I had desecrated another grave and now I’m paying. I told Ben, ‘We have to get out of here. It doesn’t matter what we lose, what we had.’ And I knew that if we didn’t, that I was not going to make it, because my fight was gone. I could fight no more.”

The Williams escaped to Montana and later moved back to another house and another neighborhood in Texas. Today they are a happily growing family, no longer plagued by mysterious noises, horrific apparitions or heart-breaking tragedies.

Back in their old neighborhood, none of the current residents have reported any paranormal activity.  No one has ever been able to explain what happened to the Williams or the Haneys.

The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies

Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism

p. 21
WHEN confronted with a problem involving the use of the reasoning faculties, individuals of strong intellect keep their poise, and seek to reach a solution by obtaining facts bearing upon the question. Those of immature mentality, on the other hand, when similarly confronted, are overwhelmed. While the former may be qualified to solve the riddle of their own destiny, the latter must be led like a flock of sheep and taught in simple language. They depend almost entirely upon the ministrations of the shepherd. The Apostle Paul said that these little ones must be fed with milk, but that meat is the food of strong men. Thoughtlessness is almost synonymous with childishness, while thoughtfulness is symbolic of maturity.
There are, however, but few mature minds in the world; and thus it was that the philosophic-religious doctrines of the pagans were divided to meet the needs of these two fundamental groups of human intellect--one philosophic, the other incapable of appreciating the deeper mysteries of life. To the discerning few were revealed the esoteric, or spiritual, teachings, while the unqualified many received only the literal, or exoteric, interpretations. In order to make simple the great truths of Nature and the abstract principles of natural law, the vital forces of the universe were personified, becoming the gods and goddesses of the ancient mythologies. While the ignorant multitudes brought their offerings to the altars of Priapus and Pan (deities representing the procreative energies), the wise recognized in these marble statues only symbolic concretions of great abstract truths.
In all cities of the ancient world were temples for public worship and offering. In every community also were philosophers and mystics, deeply versed in Nature's lore. These individuals were usually banded together, forming seclusive philosophic and religious schools. The more important of these groups were known as the Mysteries. Many of the great minds of antiquity were initiated into these secret fraternities by strange and mysterious rites, some of which were extremely cruel. Alexander Wilder defines the Mysteries as "Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were those of Isis, Sabazius, Cybele, and Eleusis." After being admitted, the initiates were instructed in the secret wisdom which had been preserved for ages. Plato, an initiate of one of these sacred orders, was severely criticized because in his writings he revealed to the public many of the secret philosophic principles of the Mysteries.
Every pagan nation had (and has) not only its state religion, but another into which the philosophic elect alone have gained entrance. Many of these ancient cults vanished from the earth without revealing their secrets, but a few have survived the test of ages and their mysterious symbols are still preserved. Much of the ritualism of Freemasonry is based on the trials to which candidates were subjected by the ancient hierophants before the keys of wisdom were entrusted to them.
Few realize the extent to which the ancient secret schools influenced contemporary intellects and, through those minds, posterity. Robert Macoy, 33°, in his General History of Freemasonry, pays a magnificent tribute to the part played by the ancient Mysteries in the rearing of the edifice of human culture. He says, in part: "It appears that all the perfection of civilization, and all the advancement made in philosophy, science, and art among the ancients are due to those institutions which, under the veil of mystery, sought to illustrate the sublimest truths of religion, morality, and virtue, and impress them on the hearts of their disciples.* * * Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of one God, the resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul, and to lead the people to see the shadow of the deity, in the beauty, magnificence, and splendor of the universe."
With the decline of virtue, which has preceded the destruction of every nation of history, the Mysteries became perverted. Sorcery took the place of the divine magic. Indescribable practices (such as the Bacchanalia) were introduced, and perversion ruled supreme; for no institution can be any better than the members of which it is composed. In despair, the few who were true sought to preserve the secret doctrines from oblivion. In some cases they succeeded, but more often the arcanum was lost and only the empty shell of the Mysteries remained.
Thomas Taylor has written, "Man is naturally a religious animal." From the earliest dawning of his consciousness, man has worshiped and revered things as symbolic of the invisible, omnipresent, indescribable Thing, concerning which he could discover practically nothing. The pagan Mysteries opposed the Christians during the early centuries of their church, declaring that the new faith (Christianity) did not demand virtue and integrity as requisites for salvation. Celsus expressed himself on the subject in the following caustic terms:
"That I do not, however, accuse the Christians more bitterly than truth compels, may be conjectured from hence, that the cryers who call men to other mysteries proclaim as follows: 'Let him approach whose hands are pure, and whose words are wise.' And again, others proclaim: 'Let him approach who is pure from all wickedness, whose soul is not conscious of any evil, and who leads a just and upright life.' And these things are proclaimed by those who promise a purification from error. Let us now hear who those are that are called to the Christian mysteries: Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise, whoever is a fool, and whoever, in short, is miserable, him the kingdom of God will receive. Do you not, therefore, call a sinner, an unjust man, a thief, a housebreaker, a wizard, one who is sacrilegious, and a robber of sepulchres? What other persons would the cryer nominate, who should call robbers together?"
It was not the true faith of the early Christian mystics that Celsus attacked, but the false forms that were creeping in even during his day. The ideals of early Christianity were based upon the high moral standards of the pagan Mysteries, and the first Christians who met under the city of Rome used as their places of worship the subterranean temples of Mithras, from whose cult has been borrowed much of the sacerdotalism of the modem church.
The ancient philosophers believed that no man could live intelligently who did not have a fundamental knowledge of Nature and her laws. Before man can obey, he must understand, and the Mysteries were devoted to instructing man concerning the operation of divine law in the terrestrial sphere. Few of the early cults actually worshiped anthropomorphic deities, although their symbolism might lead one to believe they did. They were moralistic rather than religionistic; philosophic rather than theologic. They taught man to use his faculties more intelligently, to be patient in the face of adversity, to be courageous when confronted by danger, to be true in the midst of temptation, and, most of all, to view a worthy life as the most acceptable sacrifice to God, and his body as an altar sacred to the Deity.
Sun worship played an important part in nearly all the early pagan Mysteries. This indicates the probability of their Atlantean origin, for the people of Atlantis were sun worshipers. The Solar Deity was usually personified as a beautiful youth, with long golden hair to symbolize the rays of the sun. This golden Sun God was slain by wicked ruffians, who personified the evil principle of the universe. By means of certain rituals and ceremonies, symbolic of purification and regeneration, this wonderful God of Good was brought back to life and became the Savior of His people. The secret processes whereby He was resurrected symbolized those cultures by means of which man is able to overcome his lower nature, master his appetites, and give expression to the higher side of himself. The Mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the struggling human creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which, surrounded by the flaming

Click to enlarge
A FEMALE HIEROPHANT OF THE MYSTERIES.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

This illustration shows Cybele, here called the Syrian Goddess, in the robes of a hierophant. Montfaucon describes the figure as follows: "Upon her head is an episcopal mitre, adorned on the lower part with towers and pinnacles; over the gate of the city is a crescent, and beneath the circuit of the walls a crown of rays. The Goddess wears a sort of surplice, exactly like the surplice of a priest or bishop; and upon the surplice a tunic, which falls down to the legs; and over all an episcopal cope, with the twelve signs of the Zodiac wrought on the borders. The figure hath a lion on each side, and holds in its left hand a Tympanum, a Sistrum, a Distaff, a Caduceus, and another instrument. In her right hand she holds with her middle finger a thunderbolt, and upon the same am animals, insects, and, as far as we may guess, flowers, fruit, a bow, a quiver, a torch, and a scythe." The whereabouts of the statue is unknown, the copy reproduced by Montfaucon being from drawings by Pirro Ligorio.
p. 22
ring of lust and degeneracy, lay asleep within his soul. In other words, man was offered a way by which he could regain his lost estate. (See Wagner's Siegfried.)
In the ancient world, nearly all the secret societies were philosophic and religious. During the mediæval centuries, they were chiefly religious and political, although a few philosophic schools remained. In modern times, secret societies, in the Occidental countries, are largely political or fraternal, although in a few of them, as in Masonry, the ancient religious and philosophic principles still survive.
Space prohibits a detailed discussion of the secret schools. There were literally scores of these ancient cults, with branches in all parts of the Eastern and Western worlds. Some, such as those of Pythagoras and the Hermetists, show a decided Oriental influence, while the Rosicrucians, according to their own proclamations, gained much of their wisdom from Arabian mystics. Although the Mystery schools are usually associated with civilization, there is evidence that the most uncivilized peoples of prehistoric times had a knowledge of them. Natives of distant islands, many in the lowest forms of savagery, have mystic rituals and secret practices which, although primitive, are of a decided Masonic tinge.

THE DRUIDIC MYSTERIES OF BRITAIN AND GAUL

"The original and primitive inhabitants of Britain, at some remote period, revived and reformed their national institutes. Their priest, or instructor, had hitherto been simply named Gwydd, but it was considered to have become necessary to divide this office between the national, or superior, priest and another whose influence [would] be more limited. From henceforth the former became Der-Wydd (Druid), or superior instructor, and [the latter] Go-Wydd, or O-Vydd (Ovate), subordinate instructor; and both went by the general name of Beirdd (Bards), or teachers of wisdom. As the system matured and augmented, the Bardic Order consisted of three classes, the Druids, Beirdd Braint, or privileged Bards, and Ovates." (See Samuel Meyrick and Charles Smith, The Costume of The Original Inhabitants of The British Islands.)
The origin of the word Druid is under dispute. Max Müller believes that, like the Irish word Drui, it means "the men of the oak trees." He further draws attention to the fact that the forest gods and tree deities of the Greeks were called dryades. Some believe the word to be of Teutonic origin; others ascribe it to the Welsh. A few trace it to the Gaelic druidh, which means "a wise man" or "a sorcerer." In Sanskrit the word dru means "timber."
At the time of the Roman conquest, the Druids were thoroughly ensconced in Britain and Gaul. Their power over the people was unquestioned, and there were instances in which armies, about to attack each other, sheathed their swords when ordered to do so by the white-robed Druids. No undertaking of great importance was scatted without the assistance of these patriarchs, who stood as mediators between the gods and men. The Druidic Order is deservedly credited with having had a deep understanding of Nature and her laws. The Encyclopædia Britannica states that geography, physical science, natural theology, and astrology were their favorite studies. The Druids had a fundamental knowledge of medicine, especially the use of herbs and simples. Crude surgical instruments also have been found in England and Ireland. An odd treatise on early British medicine states that every practitioner was expected to have a garden or back yard for the growing of certain herbs necessary to his profession. Eliphas Levi, the celebrated transcendentalist, makes the following significant statement:
"The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and charging amylets with their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies were mistletoe and serpents' eggs, because these substances attract the astral light in a special manner. The solemnity with which mistletoe was cut down drew upon this plant the popular confidence and rendered it powerfully magnetic. * * * The progress of magnetism will some day reveal to us the absorbing properties of mistletoe. We shall then understand the secret of those spongy growths which drew the unused virtues of plants and become surcharged with tinctures and savors. Mushrooms, truffles, gall on trees, and the different kinds of mistletoe will be employed with understanding by a medical science, which will be new because it is old * * * but one must not move quicker than science, which recedes that it may advance the further. " (See The History of Magic.)
Not only was the mistletoe sacred as symbolic of the universal medicine, or panacea, but also because of the fact that it grew upon the oak tree. Through the symbol of the oak, the Druids worshiped the Supreme Deity; therefore, anything growing upon that tree was sacred to Him. At certain seasons, according to the positions of the sun, moon, and stars, the Arch-Druid climbed the oak tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle consecrated for that service. The parasitic growth was caught in white cloths provided for the purpose, lest it touch the earth and be polluted by terrestrial vibrations. Usually a sacrifice of a white bull was made under the tree.
The Druids were initiates of a secret school that existed in their midst. This school, which closely resembled the Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece or the Egyptian rites of Isis and Osiris, is justly designated the Druidic Mysteries. There has been much speculation concerning the secret wisdom that the Druids claimed to possess. Their secret teachings were never written, but were communicated orally to specially prepared candidates. Robert Brown, 32°, is of the opinion that the British priests secured their information from Tyrian and Phœnician navigators who, thousands of years before the Christian Era, established colonies in Britain and Gaul while searching for tin. Thomas Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, discourses at length on Phœnician, Carthaginian, and Greek expeditions to the British Isles for the purpose of procuring tin. Others are of the opinion that the Mysteries as celebrated by the Druids were of Oriental origin, possibly Buddhistic.
The proximity of the British Isles to the lost Atlantis may account for the sun worship which plays an important part in the rituals of Druidism. According to Artemidorus, Ceres and Persephone were worshiped on an island close to Britain with rites and ceremonies similar to those of Samothrace. There is no doubt that the Druidic Pantheon includes a large number of Greek and Roman deities. This greatly amazed Cæsar during his conquest of Britain and Gaul, and caused him to affirm that these tribes adored Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Jupiter, in a manner similar to that of the Latin countries. It is almost certain that the Druidic Mysteries were not indigenous to Britain or Gaul, but migrated from one of the more ancient civilizations.
The school of the Druids was divided into three distinct parts, and the secret teachings embodied therein are practically the same as the mysteries concealed under the allegories of Blue Lodge Masonry. The lowest of the three divisions was that of Ovate (Ovydd). This was an honorary degree, requiring no special purification or preparation. The Ovates dressed in green, the Druidic color of learning, and were expected to know something about medicine, astronomy, poetry if possible, and sometimes music. An Ovate was an individual admitted to the Druidic Order because of his general excellence and superior knowledge concerning the problems of life.
The second division was that of Bard (Beirdd). Its members were robed in sky-blue, to represent harmony and truth, and to them was assigned the labor of memorizing, at least in part, the twenty thousand verses of Druidic sacred poetry. They were often pictured with the primitive British or Irish harp--an instrument strung with human hair, and having as many strings as there were ribs on one side of the human body. These Bards were often chosen as teachers of candidates seeking entrance into the Druidic Mysteries. Neophytes wore striped robes of blue, green, and white, these being the three sacred colors of the Druidic Order.
The third division was that of Druid (Derwyddon). Its particular labor was to minister to the religious needs of the people. To reach this dignity, the candidate must first become a Bard Braint. The Druids always dressed in white--symbolic of their purity, and the color used by them to symbolize the sun.
In order to reach the exalted position of Arch-Druid, or spiritual head of the organization, it was necessary for a priest to pass through the six successive degrees of the Druidic Order. (The members of the different degrees were differentiated by the colors of their sashes, for all of them wore robes of white.) Some writers are of the opinion that the title of Arch-Druid was hereditary, descending from father to son, but it is more probable that the honor was conferred by ballot election. Its recipient was chosen for his virtues and

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THE ARCH-DRUID IN HIS CEREMONIAL ROBES.

From Wellcome's Ancient Cymric Medicine.

The most striking adornment of the Arch-Druid was the iodhan moran, or breastplate of judgment, which possessed the mysterious Power of strangling any who made an untrue statement while wearing it. Godfrey Higgins states that this breastplate was put on the necks of witnesses to test the veracity of their evidence. The Druidic tiara, or anguinum, its front embossed with a number of points to represent the sun's rays, indicated that the priest was a personification of the rising sun. On the front of his belt the Arch-Druid wore the liath meisicith--a magic brooch, or buckle in the center of which was a large white stone. To this was attributed the power of drawing the fire of the gods down from heaven at the priest's command This specially cut stone was a burning glass, by which the sun's rays were concentrated to light the altar fires. The Druids also had other symbolic implements, such as the peculiarly shaped golden sickle with which they cut the mistletoe from the oak, and the cornan, or scepter, in the form of a crescent, symbolic of the sixth day of the increasing moon and also of the Ark of Noah. An early initiate of the Druidic Mysteries related that admission to their midnight ceremony was gained by means of a glass boat, called Cwrwg Gwydrin. This boat symbolized the moon, which, floating upon the waters of eternity, preserved the seeds of living creatures within its boatlike crescent.
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integrity from the most learned members of the higher Druidic degrees.
According to James Gardner, there were usually two Arch-Druids in Britain, one residing on the Isle of Anglesea and the other on the Isle of Man. Presumably there were others in Gaul. These dignitaries generally carried golden scepters and were crowned with wreaths of oak leaves, symbolic of their authority. The younger members of the Druidic Order were clean-shaven and modestly dressed, but the more aged had long gray beards and wore magnificent golden ornaments. The educational system of the Druids in Britain was superior to that of their colleagues on the Continent, and consequently many of the Gallic youths were sent to the Druidic colleges in Britain for their philosophical instruction and training.
Eliphas Levi states that the Druids lived in strict abstinence, studied the natural sciences, preserved the deepest secrecy, and admitted new members only after long probationary periods. Many of the priests of the order lived in buildings not unlike the monasteries of the modern world. They were associated in groups like ascetics of the Far East. Although celibacy was not demanded of them, few married. Many of the Druids retired from the world and lived as recluses in caves, in rough-stone houses, or in little shacks built in the depths of a forest. Here they prayed and medicated, emerging only to perform their religious duties.
James Freeman Clarke, in his Ten Great Religions, describes the beliefs of the Druids as follows: "The Druids believed in three worlds and in transmigration from one to the other: In a world above this, in which happiness predominated; a world below, of misery; and this present state. This transmigration was to punish and reward and also to purify the soul. In the present world, said they, Good and Evil are so exactly balanced that man has the utmost freedom and is able to choose or reject either. The Welsh Triads tell us there are three objects of metempsychosis: to collect into the soul the properties of all being, to acquire a knowledge of all things, and to get power to conquer evil. There are also, they say, three kinds of knowledge: knowledge of the nature of each thing, of its cause, and its influence. There are three things which continually grow less: darkness, falsehood, and death. There are three which constantly increase: light, life, and truth."
Like nearly all schools of the Mysteries, the teachings of the Druids were divided into two distinct sections. The simpler, a moral code, was taught to all the people, while the deeper, esoteric doctrine was given only to initiated priests. To be admitted to the order, a candidate was required to be of good family and of high moral character. No important secrets were intrusted to him until he had been tempted in many ways and his strength of character severely tried. The Druids taught the people of Britain and Gaul concerning the immortality of the soul. They believed in transmigration and apparently in reincarnation. They borrowed in one life, promising to pay back in the next. They believed in a purgatorial type of hell where they would be purged of their sins, afterward passing on to the happiness of unity with the gods. The Druids taught that all men would be saved, but that some must return to earth many times to learn the lessons of human life and to overcome the inherent evil of their own natures.
Before a candidate was intrusted with the secret doctrines of the Druids, he was bound with a vow of secrecy. These doctrines were imparted only in the depths of forests and in the darkness of caves. In these places, far from the haunts of men, the neophyte was instructed concerning the creation of the universe, the personalities of the gods, the laws of Nature, the secrets of occult medicine, the mysteries of the celestial bodies, and the rudiments of magic and sorcery. The Druids had a great number of feast days. The new and full moon and the sixth day of the moon were sacred periods. It is believed that initiations took place only at the two solstices and the two equinoxes. At dawn of the 25th day of December, the birth of the Sun God was celebrated.
The secret teachings of the Druids are said by some to be tinctured with Pythagorean philosophy. The Druids had a Madonna, or Virgin Mother, with a Child in her arms, who was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was resurrected at the time of the year corresponding to that at which modern Christians celebrate Easter.
Both the cross and the serpent were sacred to the Druids, who made the former by cutting off all the branches of an oak tree and fastening one of them to the main trunk in the form of the letter T. This oaken cross became symbolic of their superior Deity. They also worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. The moon received their special veneration. Caesar stated that Mercury was one of the chief deities of the Gauls. The Druids are believed to have worshiped Mercury under the similitude of a stone cube. They also had great veneration for the Nature spirits (fairies, gnomes, and undines), little creatures of the forests and rivers to whom many offerings were made. Describing the temples of the Druids, Charles Heckethorn, in The Secret Societies of All Ages & Countries, says:
"Their temples wherein the sacred fire was preserved were generally situate on eminences and in dense groves of oak, and assumed various forms--circular, because a circle was the emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mundane egg, from which issued, according to the traditions of many nations, the universe, or, according to others, our first parents; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris; cruciform, because a cross is an emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent the motion of the Divine Spirit. * * * Their chief deities were reducible to two--a male and a female, the great father and mother--Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belong to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme god and goddess representing the two principles of all Being."
Godfrey Higgins states that Hu, the Mighty, regarded as the first settler of Britain, came from a place which the Welsh Triads call the Summer Country, the present site of Constantinople. Albert Pike says that the Lost Word of Masonry is concealed in the name of the Druid god Hu. The meager information extant concerning the secret initiations of the Druids indicates a decided similarity between their Mystery school and the schools of Greece and Egypt. Hu, the Sun God, was murdered and, after a number of strange ordeals and mystic rituals, was restored to life.
There were three degrees of the Druidic Mysteries, but few successfully passed them all. The candidate was buried in a coffin, as symbolic of the death of the Sun God. The supreme test, however, was being sent out to sea in an open boat. While undergoing this ordeal, many lost their lives. Taliesin, an ancient scholar, who passed through the Mysteries, describes the initiation of the open boat in Faber's Pagan Idolatry. The few who passed this third degree were said to have been "born again," and were instructed in the secret and hidden truths which the Druid priests had preserved from antiquity. From these initiates were chosen many of the dignitaries of the British religious and political world. (For further details, see Faber's Pagan Idolatry, Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma, and Godfrey Higgins' Celtic Druids.)

THE RITES OF MITHRAS

When the Persian Mysteries immigrated into Southern Europe, they were quickly assimilated by the Latin mind. The cult grew rapidly, especially among the Roman soldiery, and during the Roman wars of conquest the teachings were carried by the legionaries to nearly all parts of Europe. So powerful did the cult of Mithras become that at least one Roman Emperor was initiated into the order, which met in caverns under the city of Rome. Concerning the spread of this Mystery school through different parts of Europe, C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, says:
"Mithraic bas-reliefs cut on the faces of rocks or on stone tablets still abound in the countries formerly the western provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany, still more in France, and in this island (Britain) they have often been discovered on the line of the Picts' Wall and the noted one at Bath."
Alexander Wilder, in his Philosophy and Ethics of the Zoroasters, states that Mithras is the Zend title for the sun, and he is supposed to dwell within that shining orb. Mithras has a male and a female aspect, though not himself androgynous. As Mithras, he is the ford of the sun, powerful and radiant, and most magnificent of the Yazatas (Izads, or Genii, of the sun). As Mithra, this deity represents the feminine principle; the mundane universe is recognized as her symbol. She represents Nature as receptive and terrestrial, and as fruitful only when bathed in the glory of the solar orb. The Mithraic cult is a simplification of the more elaborate teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), the Persian fire magician.

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THE GROUND PLAN OF STONEHENGE.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

The Druid temples of places of religious worship were not patterned after those of other nations. Most of their ceremonies were performed at night, either in thick groves of oak trees or around open-air altars built of great uncut stones. How these masses of rock were moved ahs not been satisfactorily explained. The most famous of their altars, a great stone ring of rocks, is Stonehenge, in Southwestern England. This structure, laid out on an astronomical basis, still stands, a wonder of antiquity.
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According to the Persians, there coexisted in eternity two principles. The first of these, Ahura-Mazda, or Ormuzd, was the Spirit of Good. From Ormuzd came forth a number of hierarchies of good and beautiful spirits (angels and archangels). The second of these eternally existing principles was called Ahriman. He was also a pure and beautiful spirit, but he later rebelled against Ormuzd, being jealous of his power. This did not occur, however, until after Ormuzd had created light, for previously Ahriman had not been conscious of the existence of Ormuzd. Because of his jealousy and rebellion, Ahriman became the Spirit of Evil. From himself he individualized a host of destructive creatures to injure Ormuzd.
When Ormuzd created the earth, Ahriman entered into its grosser elements. Whenever Ormuzd did a good deed, Ahriman placed the principle of evil within it. At last when Ormuzd created the human race, Ahriman became incarnate in the lower nature of man so that in each personality the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil struggle for control. For 3,000 years Ormuzd ruled the celestial worlds with light and goodness. Then he created man. For another 3,000 years he ruled man with wisdom, and integrity. Then the power of Ahriman began, and the struggle for the soul of man continues through the next period of 3,000 years. During the fourth period of 3,000 years, the power of Ahriman will be destroyed. Good will return to the world again, evil and death will be vanquished, and at last the Spirit of Evil will bow humbly before the throne of Ormuzd. While Ormuzd and Ahriman are struggling for control of the human soul and for supremacy in Nature, Mithras, God of Intelligence, stands as mediator between the two. Many authors have noted the similarity between mercury and Mithras. As the chemical mercury acts as a solvent (according to alchemists), so Mithras seeks to harmonize the two celestial opposites.
There are many points of resemblance between Christianity and the cult of Mithras. One of the reasons for this probably is that the Persian mystics invaded Italy during the first century after Christ and the early history of both cults was closely interwoven. The Encyclopædia Britannica makes the following statement concerning the Mithraic and Christian Mysteries:
"The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the identification of the object of adoration with light and the sun; the legends of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and the ark; the representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy water and the communion; the sanctification of Sunday and of the 25th of December; the insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed on abstinence and self-control; the doctrine of heaven and hell, of primitive revelation, of the mediation of the Logos emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, the constant warfare between good and evil and the final triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe--[these] are some of the resemblances which, whether real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its resistance to Christianity,"
The rites of Mithras were performed in caves. Porphyry, in his Cave of the Nymphs, states that Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the first to consecrate a cave to the worship of God, because a cavern was symbolic of the earth, or the lower world of darkness. John P. Lundy, in his Monumental Christianity, describes the cave of Mithras as follows:
"But this cave was adorned with the signs of the zodiac, Cancer and Capricorn. The summer and winter solstices were chiefly conspicuous, as the gates of souls descending into this life, or passing out of it in their ascent to the Gods; Cancer being the gate of descent, and Capricorn of ascent. These are the two avenues of the immortals passing up and down from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth."
The so-called chair of St. Peter, in Rome, was believed to have been used in one of the pagan Mysteries, possibly that of Mithras, in whose subterranean grottoes the votaries of the Christian Mysteries met in the early days of their faith. In Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins writes that in 1662, while cleaning this sacred chair of Bar-Jonas, the Twelve Labors of Hercules were discovered upon it, and that later the French discovered upon the same chair the Mohammedan confession of faith, written in Arabic.
Initiation into the rites of Mithras, like initiation into many other ancient schools of philosophy, apparently consisted of three important degrees. Preparation for these degrees consisted of self-purification, the building up of the intellectual powers, and the control of the animal nature. In the first degree the candidate was given a crown upon the point of a sword and instructed in the mysteries of Mithras' hidden power. Probably he was taught that the golden crown represented his own spiritual nature, which must be objectified and unfolded before he could truly glorify Mithras; for Mithras was his own soul, standing as mediator between Ormuzd, his spirit, and Ahriman, his animal nature. In the second degree he was given the armor of intelligence and purity and sent into the darkness of subterranean pits to fight the beasts of lust, passion, and degeneracy. In the third degree he was given a cape, upon which were drawn or woven the signs of the zodiac and other astronomical symbols. After his initiations were over, he was hailed as one who had risen from the dead, was instructed in the secret teachings of the Persian mystics, and became a full-fledged member of the order. Candidates who successfully passed the Mithraic initiations were called Lions and were marked upon their foreheads with the Egyptian cross. Mithras himself is often pictured with the head of a lion and two pairs of wings. Throughout the entire ritual were repeated references to the birth of Mithras as the Sun God, his sacrifice for man, his death that men might have eternal life, and lastly, his resurrection and the saving of all humanity by his intercession before the throne of Ormuzd. (See Heckethorn.)
While the cult of Mithras did not reach the philosophic heights attained by Zarathustra, its effect upon the civilization of the Western world was far-reaching, for at one time nearly all Europe was converted to its doctrines. Rome, in her intercourse with other nations, inoculated them with her religious principles; and many later institutions have exhibited Mithraic culture. The reference to the "Lion" and the "Grip of the Lion's Paw" in the Master Mason's degree have a strong Mithraic tinge and may easily have originated from this cult. A ladder of seven rungs appears in the Mithraic initiation. Faber is of the opinion that this ladder was originally a pyramid of seven steps. It is possible that the Masonic ladder with seven rungs had its origin in this Mithraic symbol. Women were never permitted to enter the Mithraic Order, but children of the male sex were initiates long before they reached maturity. The refusal to permit women to join the Masonic Order may be based on the esoteric reason given in the secret instructions of the Mithraics. This cult is another excellent example of those secret societies whose legends are largely symbolic representations of the sun and his journey through the houses of the heavens. Mithras, rising from a stone, is merely the sun rising over the horizon, or, as the ancients supposed, out of the horizon, at the vernal equinox.
John O'Neill disputes the theory that Mithras was intended as a solar deity. In The Night of the Gods he writes: "The Avestan Mithra, the yazata of light, has '10,000 eyes, high, with full knowledge (perethuvaedayana), strong, sleepless and ever awake (jaghaurvaunghem).'The supreme god Ahura Mazda also has one Eye, or else it is said that 'with his eyes, the sun, moon and stars, he sees everything.' The theory that Mithra was originally a title of the supreme heavens-god--putting the sun out of court--is the only one that answers all requirements. It will be evident that here we have origins in abundance for the Freemason's Eye and 'its nunquam dormio.'" The reader must nor confuse the Persian Mithra with the Vedic Mitra. According to Alexander Wilder, "The Mithraic rites superseded the Mysteries of Bacchus, and became the foundation of the Gnostic system, which for many centuries prevailed in Asia, Egypt, and even the remote West."

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MITHRAS SLAYING THE BULL.

From Lundy's Monumental Christianity.

The most famous sculpturings and reliefs of this prototokos show Mithras kneeling upon the recumbent form of a great bull, into whose throat he is driving a sword. The slaying of the bull signifies that the rays of the sun, symbolized by the sword, release at the vernal equinox the vital essences of the earth--the blood of the bull--which, pouring from the wound made by the Sun God, fertilize the seeds of living things. Dogs were held sacred to the cult of Mithras, being symbolic of sincerity and trustworthiness. The Mithraics used the serpent a an emblem of Ahriman, the Spirit of Evil, and water rats were held sacred to him. The bull is esoterically the Constellation of Taurus; the serpent, its opposite in the zodiac, Scorpio; the sun, Mithras, entering into the side of the bull, slays the celestial creature and nourishes the universe with its blood.

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THE BIRTH OF MITHRAS.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities

Mithras was born out of a rock, which, breaking open, permitted him to emerge. This occurred in the darkness of a subterranean chamber. The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem confirms the theory that Jesus was born in a grotto, or cave. According to Dupuis, Mithras was put to death by crucifixion and rose again on the third day.