Seminars and Events

Talks and Workshops:

Dr. Cort conducts an all-day Seminar (details below):

The Mysteries
Spiritual Initiation in Western Mythology and Scripture

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He also presents talks on various topics including:

The Sacred Feminine in the Bible

Restoring a Sense of Meaning:
Myth and Scripture as a Rite of Initiation

The Reconciliation of Science and Religion

How the Standardized Test Movement is
Degrading our Children's Education


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To arrange for an event near you,
please contact
Dr.Cort@AndrewCort.com
Dr. Andrew Cort, D.C., J.D., is an
award winning author and speaker
in the fields of Religion, Spirituality,
Mythology, History, Holistic
Healing, and how they relate to
Contemporary American Culture.
To Arrange a Speaking Event
or to find out about scheduled
events near you, contact
dr.cort@andrewcort.com
Spiritual Initiation in Western Mythology and Scripture
A Workshop with Andrew Cort


Introduction and Schedule:

Greek Myths, the Bible, the Qur’an, and other written and oral Traditions,
when studied internally and symbolically (rather than just externally and
historically), are ‘How-To Manuals’ for Spiritual Initiation. For example,
Genesis describes Seven Levels of Creation flowing downward from Divinity
to Materiality (i.e., down into ‘Egypt’). The stories that follow, which describe
‘the Return to the Promised Land’, are allegorical instructions for returning
the soul up the Seven Levels and ‘home’ to God. Everything that happens –
the wars, the joys, the obstacles that are overcome – must all occur deep
within one’s own soul.” In today’s Seminar, we are going to study the Manual.

The Greek Mysteries were annual festivals, ceremonies, and rites of initiation
into the higher degrees of spiritual wisdom. “The design of the Mysteries,”
wrote Plato, “is to lead us back to the perfection from which, as a principle,
we first made our descent.”

The most famous of these were the Mysteries of Eleusis, a city not far from
Athens. They included two major stages of initiation: the Lesser Mysteries,
which were dedicated to the goddess Persephone and portrayed the ‘Fall’ of
humanity; and the Greater Mysteries, which were dedicated to her mother,
the goddess Demeter, and portrayed the soul’s ‘Return’ to divinity.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were open to virtually everyone, and during the two
thousand years that they were celebrated, thousands of men, women, slaves,
foreigners, common folk and illustrious public figures (including Plato, Cicero,
Augustus Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, and many others),
all made the holy pilgrimage to Eleusis.

As preparation for the greater initiation to come, the Lesser Mysteries
revealed the stark truth of our unpurified souls, imprisoned within the body,
hypnotized by the world of the senses. Through stories, music, rituals, and
theatrical performances, the initiates experienced the horrifying abduction
and imprisonment of their own souls and the descent into the world of matter
and illusion, which is symbolized by the abduction of the goddess Persephone
and her imprisonment in the realm of Hades.

The critical teaching of the Lesser Mysteries was that we will only be worse
off after death, unless we take steps during this life to turn our longing for
the illusions of the senses into a longing for the truths of the spirit -- for this
is Hades, the descent has already taken place, and if our soul sleeps through
our physical life it may continue to sleep through all eternity,
passing back and forth from birth to birth, from sleep to sleep,
from meaningless dream to meaningless dream.

The Lesser Mysteries taught the initiates what had to be done and why. The
Greater Mysteries showed them how to do it: that is, they taught a method for
the return to a state of divine ‘Being’, the return to a state of spiritual
enlightenment. The Greeks symbolized this inner journey as ‘Persephone’s
return to Olympus’. Other traditions have called it the ‘return to the Promised
Land’, ‘the resurrection of the soul’, the ‘quest for the Holy Grail’,
and many other names.


Schedule

I. THE LESSER MYSTERIES: The Soul’s Descent into Matter

1. The Seven Sacred Levels of Being
2. Adam and Eve
3. Participation Theater: “The Descent of Persephone”

II. THE GREATER MYSTERIES: The Soul’s Return to Divinity

A. LOW ‘DO’

1. Opening Meditation: A Wish

B. ‘RE’ (Purifying the Body)

1. Participation Theater: “Demeter and Hecate”
2. What is a “Soul”?
3. Three Awakening Exercises
(Self-Remembering, Self-Observation, and Relaxation)
4. The First Sacrament: Baptism Ritual

C. ‘MI’ (Purifying the Mind)

1. Three Ideas to Challenge the Rigidity of Mind
(Noetic Thinking, Is Truth Relative? What is Knowing?)
2. Five Scriptural Lessons for the Mind
3. Participation Theater: “Demeter and Helios”
4. The Second Sacrament: Confirmation Ritual

D. ‘THE LOWER THRESHOLD’

1. Mount Sinai
2. Blowing the Shofar
3. Participation Theater: “Demeter Comes to Eleusis”
4. The Lord’s Prayer
5. Blood
6. The Ouroboros: Breathing Exercise
7. A Ritual of Rebirth

E. ‘FA’ (Fusing the ‘Above’ and the ‘Below’)

1. Participation Theater: “The Temple in Eleusis”
2. Temples, Sacred Marriage, and Meditation
3. Drumming Meditation
4. The Third Sacrament: Sacred Marriage Ritual

F. ‘SOL’ (Purifying the Heart)

1. Participation Theater: “Demeter Enters Her Temple”
2. The Sacred Feminine
3. Divine Mother Meditation
4. Sacrifice
5. The Fourth Sacrament: Confession Ritual

G. ‘THE UPPER THRESHOLD’

1. Participation Theater: “The Temptation of Demeter”
2. Forty Years Across the Wilderness (Guided Visualization)
3. The Battle of Uhud
4. The Muslim Call to Prayer
5. Phinehas the Dragon Slayer

H. ‘LA’ (The Steward of the Mysteries)

1. Participation Theater: “Persephone Comes to Eleusis”
2. The Priest
3. Meditation on The Parable of the Prodigal Son
4. The Fifth Sacrament: Ordination Ritual

I. ‘SI’ (The Dark Night of the Soul)

1. Participation Theater: “the Divine Gathering”
2. A Meditation on Unity
3. The Crucifixion
4. Mercy
5. The Sixth Sacrament: Extreme Unction Ritual

J. HIGH ‘DO’

1. The Seventh Sacrament: Communion