Ok so I looked up the keyword
Orphic brotherhood and this is what I found in the UB
The Eleusinian mysteries grew up within the Olympian pantheon, a Greek version of the worship of fertility; Dionysus nature worship flourished; the best of the cults was the Orphic brotherhood, whose moral preachments and promises of salvation made a great appeal to many.
and now this quote from
http://www.octc.kctcs.edu/crunyon/e261c/09-NT-Augustine/TroubledEmnoire.htmD. Spread of Mystery Religions (Mithracism, Christianity); Communal partaking of sacred food or drink common; often food was thought to takeon, by santification, the powers of the god, which were then magically conveyed to the communicant; Each of the great cults had "mysteries" associated wth them and all assumed the possibility of magic; Preachers claiming divine inspiration traveled from city to city, performing apparently miraculous cures
1. Tammuz : still hailed in towns of Syria with the cry, "Adonis is risen," and his ascension into heaven was celebrated
2. Dionysus:
a. Greeks continued to commemorate his agony, death, and resurrection
b. Orphicism--influenced by hindu and Pythagorean ideas, the Orphic cult taught throughout Greece that the soul is imprisoned in a succession of sinful bodies and can be released from this degrading reincarnation by rising in ecstatic union with Dionysus. At their gathering, the Orphic brotherhood drank the blood of a bull sacrificed to--and identified with-- the dying and atoning savior
3. Demeter: initiates mourned with the goddess the snatching of her daughter into Hades, and meanwhile lived on consecrated cakes and a mystic mixture of flour, water, and mint; on ther third night a religious drama represented the resurrection of Persephone, and the officiating priest promised a rebirth of every purified soul; the Eleusian rites required initiates to confess sins, abstain for a time from certain foods, bathe for spiritual as well as physical cleansing, and then offer an animal sacrifice
Google search Orphic Symbol Reproduction based on an Orphic seal, 3rd century AD.
http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/christ/xt-sbd.htmHere is some Orphic writings
TAUGHT THE ROAD TO THE LOWER WORLD
(The Funerary Gold Plates)
[Plate from Petelia, South Italy, fourth-third century B.C.]
Thou shalt find to the left of the House of Hades a spring,
And by the side thereof standing a white cypress.
To this spring approach not near.
But thou shalt find another, from the Lake of Memory
Cold water flowing forth, and there are guardians before it.
Say, 'I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven;
But my race is of Heaven (alone). This ye know yourselves.
But I am parched with thirst and I perish. Give me quickly
The cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory.'
And of themselves they will give thee to drink of the holy spring-
And thereafter among the other heroes thou shalt have lordship.
[Plate from Eleuthernai in Crete, second century B.C.]
I am parched with thirst and I perish-Nay, drink of me (or, But give me to drink of)
The ever-flowing spring on the right, where the cypress is.
Who art thou?.....
Whence art thou?-I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven.
[Plate from Thurii, South Italy, fourth-third century B.C.]
But so soon as the spirit hath left the light of the sun,
Go to the right as far as one should go, being right wary in all things.
Hail, thou who hast suffered the suffering. This thou hadst never suffered before.
Thou art become god from man.
A kid thou art fallen into milk.
Hail, hail to thee journeying the right hand road
By holy meadows and groves of Persephone.
[Three more tablets from Thurii, of roughly the same date as the previous One. ]
I come from the pure, pure Queen of those below,
And Eukles and Eubuleus, and other Gods and Daemons.
For I also avow that I am of your blessed race.
And I have paid the- penalty for deeds unrighteous,
Whether it be that Fate laid me low or the gods immortal
Or . . . with star-flung thunderbolt.
I have flown out of the sorrowful, weary circle.
I have passed with swift feet to the diadem desired.
I have sunk beneath the bosom of the Mistress, the Queen of the
underworld.
And now I come a suppliant to holy Persephoneia,
That of her grace she send men to the seats of the Hallowed.
Happy and blessed one, thou shalt be god instead of mortal.
A kid I have fallen into milk.
From here
http://mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/171.htmlI thought the above was absolutely fascinating and in my mind. I can see reflections of the Adamson heritage in distant reflection of this Orphic writings and distant views of the rapture when man becomes gods so to speak.
The lake of Memory, sipping from the waters of the lake of memory sounds like a distant past to once paradisaical place like 1Eden but also could mean the future as well, like in this journey sipping out of the Lake of Memory literally.
Here is some information about the Orphic Brotherhood.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pr/pr06.htmThe Orphic Brotherhood and Monasticism.
http://www.idahomonks.org/sect301.htmAnother Link
http://www.iamuniversity.ch/Orpheus-Founder-of-the-GreekAnother Link
http://www.carnaval.com/orpheus/orpheus-history.htmSevens
