The Mithras Liturgy
The “Mithras Liturgy,” as it is commonly called, is a ritual instruction from the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri. Despite its name, it is usually considered neither Mithraic nor a liturgy.[1] According to the text, it is an immortalization ritual (Greek: apathanatismos). The ritual provides detailed instructions on how to obtain a visionary ascension to the heavens, where one can observe divinities. One then encounters the supreme god, Helios Mithras, and becomes—temporarily—immortal. The ritual has no parallels in the magical papyri or other ancient sources; it stands alone as a unique representative of what was likely a secret and esoteric ritual. It is an important text, as it offers insight into a type of personal religious experience that was sought and experienced in antiquity, but of which no other record survives.
The text represents a part of a much longer, 36-page papyrus codex, known as the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris.[2] The codex was brought from Egypt to Europe by Giovanni Anastasi (1780–1857), who claimed it had been discovered in Thebes. It is dated to the fourth century CE on paleographic grounds, but was compiled from a variety of earlier magical texts from different parts of Egypt. The text represents a final product written after many years of development and scribal copying; its earliest form may have been composed as early as 100 CE.[3] The author is anonymous, and the text is written throughout in the first-person so that it could be recited by any ritualist; a placeholder was used in the text where the magician would insert their own name.
Such a ritual took place, according to its instructions, either alone or with an assistant; like other texts from the magical papyri, it shows signs of being part of a secretive tradition.[4] The ritual reflects typical Roman-period religious synthesis, featuring Greek and Egyptian gods, terms from popular philosophical schools, and astrology. The ritual’s intended effects were many. First, to see a hierarchy of divine beings, who would then test the ritualist; only someone with the precise instructions of the text could be found worthy to pass through the ordeals. Next, the practitioner was rewarded with the experience of direct communion with the highest god, Helios Mithras. The ritualist would then receive a revelation from the god in hexameter. The ritualist came away sanctified, having for a time become immortal and having attained an ecstatic union with the divine.[5]
The mystic union described in the Mithras Liturgy is an example of a phenomenon depicted throughout the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri. Recent scholarship has argued that such magical rituals and their goals of divine union played a formative role in the thinking of the Neoplatonic philosopher and “father of Western mysticism” Plotinus.[6] The latter’s unique theories about mystic union with God were, in turn, deeply influential on later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticism. Thus, the type of divine union depicted in the Mithras Liturgy holds an important place in the history of mysticism.
Since its first publication in 1888, the bibliography on the Mithras Liturgy has grown to an enormous size. Scholars have debated whether its religious origins were primarily Egyptian, Mithraic, or Greek, and the extent to which it is connected to contemporary religious phenomena like the Hermeticists and theurgists.[7] More recently, scholars have formulated arguments that the ritual involved mind-altering drugs, inhaled when the ritualist is instructed to breathe in the rays of the sun (see Source, below).[8] This hypothesis would have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of spiritual experiences in the ancient world.
The Mithras Liturgy had a significant reception in the 20thcentury. The 1903 German translation of the text by Albrecht Dieterich had a major impact on Carl Jung: In 1906, one of Jung’s patients described a vision containing imagery that Jung believed was identical to the symbolism of the Mithras Liturgy. The episode was foundational in Jung’s formulation of the concept of the collective unconscious.[9] The text has not been without interest to modern esotericists, as the first English translation of the text was produced by G.R.S. Mead, a prominent Theosophist and personal secretary to Helena Blavatsky.[10]
Source
The selections below are translated from the Greek text of PGM IV.539–728, printed in Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae.[11]
The ritualist begins by reciting an invocation to the god, asking to be born again. The spell then provides instructions for the expected vision:
Draw in breath from the rays three times, drawing up as much as you can, and you will see yourself being raised up and ascending on high, so that you appear to be in the middle of the air. You will hear nothing either of man or any other animal, nor will you see anything concerning mortals upon the earth in that hour, but you will see all that is immortal. For you will see the divine arrangement of that day and of that hour, the presiding gods rising up to heaven, and the others descending. And the course of the visible gods will appear through the disk of god, my father.[12]
The ritualist then sees gods rushing towards him; he is instructed on how to pacify these gods through a magical gesture and series of magical names. Further invocations cause further visions: the expanding sun, a series of stars, and finally a closed gate. A long spell is recited to cause the gate to open.
And you will see the gates opened and the world of the gods, which is within the gates, so that, because of the pleasure and joy of the spectacle, your spirit gathers and ascends. Standing, then, at once draw the spirit from the divine into yourself, while gazing intently.[13]
Another series of invocations lead to further visions: a youthful god, the seven Fates, and finally the seven celestial gods, to whom are given a long greeting.
And once they [sc. the seven celestial gods] are present, here and there, in their order, gaze intently into the air and you will see lightning descending and flashing lights, and the earth shaking, and an immensely large god descending, having a bright countenance—a golden-haired youth, in a white tunic, golden wreath, and trousers, holding in his right hand a golden shoulder of a calf. [14]
Notes
[1] Franz Cumont, “Un fragment de ritual d’initiation au mystère,” Harvard Theological Review 26, no. 3–4 (1933): 151–60, 158; but see Radcliffe G. Edmonds, “Did the Mithraists Inhale?—A Technique for Theurgic Ascent in the Mithras Liturgy, the Chaldaean Oracles,a nd Some Mithraic Frescoes,” Ancient World 32, no. 1 (2000): 10–24.
[2] In the modern corpora of magical papyri, the codex is designated PGM IV and GEMF 57.
[3] Hans Dieter Betz, The “Mithras Liturgy”: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 9.
[4] Hans Dieter Betz, “Secrecy in the Greek Magical Papyri,” in Secrecy and Concealment: Studeis in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions, ed. Hans Kippenberg and Guy Stroumsa (Brill, 1995).
[5] On the temporary nature of the ritualist’s immortalization: Radcliffe G. Edmonds, “There and Back Again: Temporary Immortality in the Mithras Liturgy,” in Conversion and Initiation in Antiquity, ed. Birgitte Secher Bøgh (Peter Lang, 2015).
[6] Zeke Mazur, “Unio Magica: Part I: On the Magical Origins of Plotinus’ Mysticism,” Dionysius 21 (2003):23–52. For the quotation see, J. Rist, Plotinus: The Road to Reality (Cambridge University Press, 1967), 213.
[7] For an overview of the debates and insights, see Korshi Dosoo, “Media, the Magi, and the Memorandum of Aeëtes: Notes on the Mithras Liturgy,” in New Approaches to the Great Paris Magical Codex: From PGM IV to GEMF 57, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar (De Gruyter, 2026), 239–49.
[8] Christopher H. Bull, The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus (Brill, 2018), 417–424, and Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2022), 36–42.
[9] Rondald D. Huggins, “C. G. Jung, J. J. Honegger, and the Case of Emil Schwyzer (The ‘Solar Phallus’ Man),” Phanês 4 (2021): 82–151.
[10] G. R. S. Mead, AMithriac Ritual, Echoes from the Gnosis 6 (The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1907).
[11] Karl Preisendanz, ed., Papyri Graecae Magicae = Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1928–1931; repr., rev. by Albert Henrichs, Stuttgart: Teubner, 1973–1974; Munich and Leipzig: K. G. Saur, 2001), 90–96.
[12] Ibid., PGM IV.537–549, ἕλκε ἀπὸ τῶν ἀκτίνων πνεῦμα γʹ ἀναϲπῶν, ὃ δύνα[ϲ]αι, καὶ ὄψῃ ϲεαυτὸν ἀνακουφιζόμενον [κ]αὶ ὑπερβαίνοντα εἰϲ ὕψοϲ, ὥϲτε ϲε δοκεῖ[ν μ]έϲον τοῦ ἀέροϲ εἶναι. οὐδενὸϲ δὲ ἀκούϲει [ο]ὔτε ἀνθρώπου οὔτε ζῴου ἄλλ<ου>, οὐδὲ ὄψῃ οὐδὲν τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς θνητῶν ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ, πάντα δὲ ὄψῃ ἀθάνατα· ὄψῃ γὰρ ἐκείνηϲ τῆϲ ἡμέραϲ καὶ τῆϲ ὥμαϲ θείαν θέϲιν, τοὺϲ πολεύονταϲ ἀναβαίνονταϲ εἰϲ οὐρανὸν θεούϲ, ἄλλουϲ δὲ καταβαίνονταϲ. ἡ δὲ πορεία τῶν ὁρωμένων θεῶν διὰ τοῦ δίϲκου, πατρόϲ μου, θεοῦ, φανήϲεται
[13] Ibid., PGM IV.624–629, καὶ ὄψῃ ἀνεῳγυΐαϲ τὰϲ θύραϲ καὶ τὸν κόϲμον τῶν θεῶν, ὅϲ ἐϲτιν ἐντὸς τῶν θυρῶν, ὥϲτε ἀπὸ τῆϲ τοῦ θεάματοϲ ἡδονῆϲ καὶ τῆϲ χαρᾶϲ τὸ πνεῦμά ϲου ϲυντρέχειν καὶ ἀναβαίνειν. ϲτὰς οὖν εὐθέως ἕλκε ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου ἀτενίζων εἰϲ ϲεαυτὸν τὸ πνεῦμα
[14] Ibid., (PGM IV.692–700), ὅταν δὲ ἐνϲτῶϲιν ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα τῇ τάξει, ἀτένιζε τῷ ἀέρι καὶ ὄψῃ κατερχομένας ἀϲτραπὰς καὶ φῶτα μαρμαίροντα καὶ ϲειομένην τὴν γῆν καὶ κατερχόμενον θεὸν ὑπερμεγέθη, φωτινὴν ἔχοντα τὴν ὄψιν, νεώτερον, χρυϲοκόμαν, ἐν χιτῶνι λευκῷ καὶ χρυϲῷ ϲτεφάνῳ καὶ ἀναξυρίϲι, κατέχοντα τῇ δεξιᾷ χειρὶ μόϲχου ὦμον χρύϲεον
Bibliography
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———. The “Mithras Liturgy”: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Studien Und Texte Zu Antike Und Christentum 18. Tübingen; Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
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Bull, Christian H. The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
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Edmonds, Radcliffe G. “Did the Mithraists Inhale?—A Technique for Theurgic Ascent in the Mithras Liturgy, the Chaldaean Oracles, and Some Mithraic Frescoes.” Ancient World 32, no. 1 (2000): 10–24.
———. “At the Seizure of the Moon. The Absence of the Moon in the Mithras Liturgy.” In Prayer, Magic and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, edited by S.B. Noegel, J.T. Walker, and B.M. Wheeler. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.
———. “The Faces of the Moon: Cosmology, Genesis, and the Mithras Liturgy.” In Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions, 1st ed., edited by Ra’anan S. Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
———. “There and Back Again: Temporary Immortality in the Mithras Liturgy.” In Conversion and Initiation in Antiquity, edited by Birgitte Secher Bøgh. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015.
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———. Greek and Egyptian Magical Formularies: Text and Translation, Vol. 2. Forthcoming. Gordon, Richard. “‘Probably Not Mithras.’ Review of H.D. Betz: The ‘Mithras Liturgy.’” The Classical Review 55, no. 1 (2005): 99–100.
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———. “Unio Magica: Part II: Plotinus, Theurgy, and the Question of Ritual.” Dionysius 24 (2004): 29–56.
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———. A Mithriac Ritual. Echoes from the Gnosis 6. London and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1907.
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Matthew Andrews
Matthew Andrews is a PhD Candidate in Classics at Princeton University. His interests lie in ancient Mediterranean religion, with a particular focus on magic during the Roman and Late Antique periods. For his dissertation, he examines the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri, exploring the role and status of magicians in Roman Egypt and their lived religious experience. He is a research assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he contributes to the project “Transmission of Magical Knowledge,” dedicated to reediting, translating, and publishing the magical papyri. He received master’s degrees in Classics from both Princeton University and the University of Cambridge.
