Personal experience of the divine—Mystery Worship
Pagans didn't just worship through the Civic Religions. Many also practiced a form of personal religion, depending on a private decision and aiming at some form of salvation through closeness to the divine.

Why the mess? POCM 2007

The rites of this worship were called "Mysteries" (from the Greek word for "initiation"). Mystery initiates worshiped Gods of the Civic religions, but with private, personal ceremonies. There were Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, Mysteries of Dionysus, Mysteries of Eleusis, and so on.

The Mysteries answered the personal longing for closeness with the divine that the Civic Gods and abstract philosophers didn't.

They date from at least 1,500 BC. Modern scholarship calls the Mysteries of each God a "Mystery Religion," as if they were separate, isolated sects. That's an anachronism. The Mysteries were not separate religions. They did not worship jealous Gods. They were just another side of the ancient world's fluid polytheism. You could be—and people were—initiated in the Mysteries of Isis, and the Mysteries of Dionysus, and the Mysteries of Eleusis. And of course the Mysteries weren't exclusive—you could sacrifice to Isis at the town's civic festival and also participate in Her mysteries.

Count 'em. What you're liable to read about nowadays are the big name mysteries, those of Eleusis, Isis and Osiris, Dionysus and a few others. That may make you think mystery religions were isolated, eccentric cults, something only a few people knew about. In fact the mysteries were mainstream religion. Effectively everyone in Athens (of course we don't have census statistics) was initiated into the great Mysteries of Eleusis. Joining mysteries was just part of the culture. And there were hundreds of mystery religions—world class mainstream scholar Walter Burkert estimates 600. Mystery religions were simply integral to ancient Mediterranean culture.

Features The Gods of the Mystery religions had differing names and myths, but the faiths themselves had features in common:
	their Gods died and came back to life;
	they were personal religions entered into voluntarily via initiation ceremonies that reenacted the God's death and rebirth and were often described by ancient writers as giving rebirth and salvation (some Mysteries saw salvation as temporary and earthbound—salvation from illness or shipwreck; but other Mysteries offered initiates the salvation of eternal life) and
	their Gods have miraculous power to heal illness;
	initiates took food and drink in ceremonies that reenacted a holy meal established by the God;
	they had secret teachings brought the faithful closer to an understanding of God.

As I said, the Mystery Religions are an established part of modern religious scholarship. We know that they existed, when and where, we know their Gods and their myths—all from the pens the ancients themselves. For example, Pagan writers wrote about a Pagan Mystery God "incognito, disguised as a man"; Pagan Gods dying and being reborn with the meaning that "the God is saved, and we shall have salvation."; initiation ceremonies described as "a voluntary death"; sacred meals; ceremonial washing; Pagan miracles; the Pagan God who changed water into wine; the Pagan version of the great flood. And much more.

If you're interested in discovering more about the Mysteries from the writings of the ancients themselves, The Ancient Mysteries; A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts is a good place to start

Mystery Religions in the Ancient World
by Joscelyn Godwin

	A fine general introduction to the ancient mystery religions, each chapter focused on a particular God.
	Dozens of black and white photos of related statues, mosaics, etc.

A good introduction to the mysteries

Available at Amazon.com

A sourcebook of extended quotations from ancients, all dealing directly with the Pagan mystery religions.

Who you gonna trust?  The ancients. Believing scholars shade the facts in favor of the myth.  Non-believers exaggerate and make up facts and connections as a way to attack the church. 

So who are you going to trust?  That's up to you.  I trust the ancients—people alive back when Christianity began, and before. That's what this book is about.

This is a sourcebook, a collection of primary documents—excerpts from ancient authors who wrote about Pagan religion and early Christianity.  It's a great collection, with the original text of most of the standard ancient references to the pagan mystery religions.

This is a powerful book. You'll discover firsthand, right from the pens of the ancients themselves,  that Dionysus came to earth "incognito, disguised as a man"; that Pagan Gods died and were reborn with the meaning that "the God is saved, and we shall have salvation."; that pagans had initiation ceremonies seen as "a voluntary death", sacred meals shared with the God, ceremonial washing, Pagan miracles, a Godman who changed water into wine, and a Pagan version of the great flood.  And much more.  

An important book that no serious student will be without. Highly recommended.

Available at Amazon .com.

The Mysteries
Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks
edited by Joseph Campbell

Twelve essays from the 1930s and 40s dealing with the ancient Mystery religions. Lots of Poindexter stuff.

Not a good introduction. Worth reading if you're an advanced student.

Available at Amazon.com

The Golden Ass
or The Metamorphosis
by Apuleius

The ancients had novels (who knew?!), and this is one of them.  And, believe it or not, it's a fun read, lighthearted, funny, and well written. The story moves.  For the boys: it even has explicit sex. Amazing.  Who knew?!

The story is about Lucius' adventures after he gets turned into a donkey.  The first ten chapters are just fun, not related to the Pagan origins.

Chapter eleven is about Lucius in Egypt, and his study and initiation into the mysteries of Isis and Osiris (he's a man again by this point).  For the ancients these mysteries were sacred secrets—believers would and did die rather than reveal them.  Apuleius' novel is the only surviving text that comes close to describing the mystery initiation ceremony.  Apuleius also says initiation brought salvation:

"The keys of hell and the guarantee of salvation were in the hands of the goddess, and the initiation ceremony itself a kind of voluntary death and salvation through divine grace."

And the good thing is, you don't have to believe me, you can read it for yourself. Available at amazon.com

Early Gentile Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background
by Doctor of Divinity Arthur Darby Nock

	the leading non-borrowing scholar- apologist admits deep similarities between the Pagan mystery religions and Christianity.
	The canonical believers' reasons why each and every one of those similarities doesn't count.

First published in 1928 and reissued and updated in 1964, this is the canonical refutation of the late 19th and early 20th century scholarly claims that Christianity borrowed from Paganism.  This essay is widely cited as an authority, "Dr. Nock has refuted the German School. . .", and the arguments Nock developed here are the same ones believers use today.

The Eucharist ... is in line with contemporary mysteries, which purported to represent the sufferings and triumph of a god, in which his worshipers sympathized and shared....The Eucharist is a mystery, as mysteries were then understood, and Christianity, the heir of Judaism, has also an essential spiritual continuity with Hellenistic religion.
[pg 72]

Nock was also a committed Christian, a Doctor of Divinity who wasn't about to admit Christianity borrowed from Paganism, so for every similarity he comes up with a reason the similarity doesn't count.

The 1964 Harper Torchbook edition is expanded with Nock's later thoughts and arguments. 

It is out of print, but often available used through Amazon

Greek Religion
by Walter Burkert

	Here's a surprise, a book by a world renown expert that's well organized and easy to read.
	Ancient Greek religion, feature by feature

This book is organized by feature- of- religion:  ritual, the Gods, Heroes, the dead, polytheism, the mysteries, and philosophy-religions.  That gives you a compare and contrast look at, for e.g. baptism or, blood sacrifice across the culture.  So the book complements the cult by cult organization of Finegan and Turcan.

Available at Amazon.com