The Mithras Liturgy
 

The following excerpt is taken from ‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’. By Payam Nabarz, Inner Traditions, 2005. http://www.innertraditions.com/isbn/1-59477-027-1
 

“I concentrated my attention on the constellation Bear (Ursa Minor) and I observed that it formed seven apertures through which God was showing himself to me. My God! I cried, what is this? He said to me: “These are the seven apertures of the Throne. . . .” Every night, I continued afterward to observe these apertures in Heaven, as my love and ardent desire impelled me to do. And lo! One night, I saw that they were open, and I saw the divine Being manifesting to me through these apertures. He said to me, “I manifest to you through these openings; they form seven thousand thresholds (corresponding to seven principal stars of the constellation) leading to the threshold of the angelic pleroma (malakut). And behold I show myself to you through all of them at once.”
-“Visions of the Pole,” in the Sufi Ruzbehan of Shiraz, 1209.

The Mithraic Liturgy that follows occupies lines 475–834 of the Greek Magical Papyrus of Paris (350 C.E.). The Mithraic Liturgy contained in the Greek Magical Papyri was discovered in Thebes in Egypt. Its writing is has been attributed to work of a magician of the fourth century C.E., but Professor Betz has suggested that two hunded years would be a reasonable estimate for the total time necessary to pull all of its parts togther. The estimates by the scholar Dietrerich (1866–1908) is that the Mithraic Liturgy originated in 100 C.E., followed by Egyptian influence 150–200C.E., and final development by magicians 200–300 C.E. This text is the earliest authenticated complete magical writing in the West that bears a connection to Mithras. It is, in effect, a single spell and only sheds light on the workings of one magician, a Mithraic initiate (one who was perhaps involved with several other cults). The liturgy clearly demonstrates that Mithras was a deity invoked alongside other deities and was by no means puritan in any way. We see how Ananke (Goddess of Necessity), Pronoia (Providence), and Psyche (Soul) are invoked along with Mithras for the particular magical working of the writer.

This liturgy is used extensively in the modern revival of Mithraism. The version presented here is based on that of G.R.S. Mead, from A Mithraic Ritual, published in 1907.*1 For a very recent and excellent detailed academic analysis of the Mithraic Liturgy, see Professor Hans Dieter Betz’s The Mithras Liturgy: Text,Translation and Commentary (2003). Supplementary help in gaining insight into the vision of the Mithras Liturgy can be found in Professor Henry Corbin’s Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, especially Chapter Three, “Midnight Sun and Celestial Pole.”2

 
Illustration of the Mithras Rotating altar side A. Replication of a find from Heddernheim, in the archaeological museum Frankfurt/Main. The original from the second century after Christi birth is in the museum Wiesbaden. Photo from www.philozoe.com/ mithras_abandoned.html

Preparation for Performing the Mithras Liturgy
Create an altar to Mithras, including a statue or drawing of him. Arrange for your altar to include symbols and elements from all different aspect of the Mithraic mysteries. Here are some examples:
Raven or crow feathers for Corax
A lamp and a veil for Nymphus
A sword for Miles
A sistrum (rattle) and some honey for Leo
Honey can also be used for Perses
A large white candle for Heliodromus
A staff and a bowl for Pater
 

Arrange a time and space in which you will not be interrupted when performing the following ritual. To begin, clap your hands or shake your rattle seven times, and light seven white candles or small lamps; and then place some incense on your incense burner. You can arrange the seven lights in the shape of the seven stars of the Plough/Ursa Minor, to represent the leg of the bull that Mithras holds to move the heavens.
Alternatively, use fourteen candles—seven white and seven black. Arrange the seven black candles on the left of the altar in the shape of the seven stars of the Plough constellation. On the right of the altar, arrange the seven white candles in shape of the Pleiades constellation. The seven white candles represent the seven Fates or Virgins that are part of the rite. The seven black candles represent the seven Black Bulls or Pole Lords, which are also part of the rite. The seven Fates, which have been described as having the faces of asps have been suggested by one scholar (Gundel) to be the seven Hathors (Egptian cow goddesses). This puts forward the interesting vision that the magus, during his ascent in the rite, flies through a corridor or choir of seven black bulls (male) facing seven white cows (female). Mithras descends from the realm of the gods, or the eigth gate, to meet the ascending magus within this sacred bovine conduit, which suggests an additional meaning to the Mithras-Bull symbology.

The ascent of the soul during the rite, according to Prof. Meyer in the Ancient Mysteries, 3 has seven stages:
1. The four elements;
2. The lower powers of the air;
3. Aion and his powers;
4. Helios, the Sun;
5. The seven Fates;
6. The seven Pole-Lords;
7. The highest god, portrayed as Mithras. Upon meeting Mithras, divine revelation is received.

It is worth noting that in the story of Simorgh (chapter 5), the hero of the story Khorshid (Mithra) descends seven floors by jumping on the black ox by mistake. If he had jumped on the white ox, it would have raised him up seven floors. Later in the story, when finally Prince Khorshid (Mithra) meets Simorgh and asks her for her help, she tells him to ask for the meat of seven bulls, and to make seven leather bags out of their hides, with which to carry water. As they make their ascent, Khorshid gives her a bull’s carcass when she asks for water, and one of the seven leather bags when she asks for meat, as she has instructed him to do. Their ascent through seven levels is completed by consuming the bodies of the seven bulls.

During the rite, you declare your name and also your mother’s name. Your declaration as a son or daughter of your mother connects you and reminds you that you are born of a Mother Goddess. Regarding the utterance of “Silence,” John Matthews, in his version of the liturgy in Choirs of the God, writes:
“Silence is a translation of the Greek Sige, which represents the supernatural Mother of all things. Thus by invoking her in this way, the candidate is allowing the presence of the divine feminine to enter the ritual as a foundation upon which to build. The “masculine” speech is thus framed by “feminine” silences.”4

Regarding the “hiss” and “puff,” though it is not clear what these involve, they are most likely similar to yogic breathing techniques. One approach is to breath in deeply with lips almost closed so your breath makes a “hiss,” and then breath out with a bellowing “puff.” Repeating this in a circular breathing fashion has an interesting effect.

The Voces Magicae in the rite are the sounds of ee, o, oe, and so forth, are to be made according to the Latin pronunciation as follows:
e or ee = ay
o or oo = oh
i or ii = ee
u = oo
a = ah
These chants begin at the top and descend through the scale.5

The † symbol in G.R.S. Mead’s version of the Mithraic Liturgy, which is used here, refers to various potential magical words from Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, or glossolalic (speaking in tongues). G.R.S. Mead excluded these words in his 1907 edition (below) presumably for simplification. My recommendation is that once the reader has become comfortable with performing the version here, he or she should move on to one of the editions by Professor Meyer or Professor Betz 6, which include all the magical sounds and words.
 
The full-scale reconstruction of the Temple to Mithras at Carrawburgh, at the Museum of Antiquities and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. Museum of Antiquities' also have a Virtual Mithraeum. http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/archive/index.html
 

I.
[The Father’s Prayer]
O Providence, O Fortune, bestow on me Thy Grace—imparting these the Mysteries a Father only may hand on, and that, too, to a Son alone—his Immortality—[a Son] initiate, worthy of this our Craft, with which Sun Mithras, the Great God, commanded me to be endowed by His Archangel; so that I, Eagle [as I am, by mine own self] alone, may soar to Heaven, and contemplate all things.
II.
[The Invocatory Utterance (Logos)]
1. O Primal Origin of my origination; Thou Primal Substance of my substance; First Breath of breath, the breath that is in me; First Fire, God-given for the Blending of the blendings in me, [First Fire] of fire in me; First Water of [my] water. The water in me; Primal Earth-essence of the earthy essence in me; Thou Perfect Body of me—N.N. [your name], son of N.N. (fem.)[your mother’s name]—fashioned by Honoured Arm and Incorruptible Right Hand, in World that’s lightless, yet radiant with Light, [in World] that’s soulless, yet filled full of Soul!
2. If, verily, it may seem good to you, translate me, now held by my lower nature, unto the Generation that is free from Death; in order that, beyond the insistent Need that presses on me, I may have Vision of the Deathless Source, by virtue of the Deathless Spirit, by virtue of the Deathless Water, by virtue of the [Deathless] Solid, and [by virtue of] the [Deathless] Air; in order that I may become re-born in Mind; in order that I may become initiate, and that the Holy Breath may breathe in me; in order that I may admire the Holy Fire; that I may see the Deep of the [New] Dawn, the Water that doth cause [the Soul] to thrill; and that the, Life-bestowing Æther which surrounds [all things] may give me, Hearing.
3. For I am to behold to-day with Deathless Eyes—I, mortal, born of mortal womb, but [now] made better by the Might of Mighty Power, yea, by the Incorruptible Right Hand—[I am to see to-day] by virtue of the Deathless Spirit the DeathlessÆon, the Master of the Diademins of Fire—I with pure purities [now] purified, the human soul-power of me subsisting for a little while in purity; which [power] I shall again receive transmitted unto me beyond the insistent Bitterness that presses on me, Necessity whose debts can never go unpaid—I, N.N. [your name], son of N.N. (fem.) [your mother’s name]—according to the Ordinance of God that naught can ever change.
4. For that it is beyond my reach that, born beneath the sway of Death, I should [unaided] soar into the Height, together with the golden sparklings of the Brilliancy that knows no Death.
5. Stay still, O nature doomed to Perish, [nature] of men subject to Death! And straightway let me pass beyond the Need implacable that presses on me; for that I am His Son; I breathe; I am!
III.
[The First Instruction]
1. Take from the [Sun-]rays breath, inhaling thrice [as deeply] as thou canst; and thou shalt see thyself being raised aloft, and soaring towards the Height, so that thou seem’st to be in midst of Air.
2. Thou shalt hear naught, nor man nor beast; nor shalt thou see aught of the sights upon the earth, in that same hour; but all things thou shalt see will be immortal.
3. For thou shalt see, in that same day and hour, the Disposition of the Gods—the Ruling Gods ascending heaven-wards, the other ones descending. And through his Disk—the God’s, my Father’s—there shall be seen the Way-of-going of the Gods accessible to sight.
4. And in like fashion also [shall be seen] the Pipe, as it is called, whence comes the Wind in service [for the day]. For thou shalt see as though it were a Pipe depending from His Disk; and toward the regions Westward, as though it were an infinite East Wind. But if the other Wind, toward the regions of the East should be in service, in the like fashion shalt thou see, toward the regions of that [side,] the converse of the sight.
5. And thou shalt see the Gods gazing intently on thee and bearing down upon thee. Then straightway lay thy dexter finger on thy lips and say:
IV.
[The First Utterance]
O Silence! Silence! Silence!
The Symbol of the Living God beyond Decay.
Protect me, Silence! †!
Next “hiss” forth long: Sss! Sss!
Then “puff” saying: †!
And thereon shalt thou see the Gods gazing benignly on thee, and no longer bearing down upon thee, but proceeding on the proper order of their doings.
V.
[The Second Instruction]
When, then, thou see’st the Upper Cosmos clean and clear, with no one of the Gods (or Angels) bearing down on thee, expect to hear a mighty thunder-clap so as to startle thee. Then say again:
[The [Second] Utterance (Logos)]
1. O Silence! Silence!
I am a Star, whose Course is as your Course, shining anew from out the depth †.
Upon thy saying this, straightway His disk will start expanding.
2. And after thou hast said the second utterance—to wit, twice Silence and the rest—“hiss” twice, and “puff” twice; and straightway shalt thou see a mighty host of stars, five-pointed, emerging from His Disk, and filling all the Air.
3. Then say again:
O Silence! Silence!
And when His Disk is opened [fully] out, thou shalt behold an infinite Encircling and Doors of Fire fast closed.
Straightway set going then the utterance that follows, closing thy eyes:
[The Third Utterance (Logos)]
1. Hear me, give ear to me—N. N.[your name], son of N.N. (fem.) [your mother’s name]—O Lord, who with Thy Breath hast closed the Fiery Bars of Heaven; Twin-bodied; Ruler of the Fire; Creator of the Light; O Holder of the Keys; Inbreather of the Fire; Fire-hearted One, whose Breath gives Light; Thou who dost joy in Fire; Beauteous of Light; O Lord of Light, whose Body is of Fire; Light-giver [and] Fire-sower; Fire-loosener, whose Life is in the Light; Fire-whirler, who sett’st the Light in motion; Thou Thunder-rouser; O Thou Light-glory, Light-increaser; Controller of the Light Empyrean; O Thou Star-tamer!
2. Oh! Open unto me! For on account of this, the bitter and implacable Necessity that presses on me, I do invoke Thy Deathless Names, innate with Life, most worshipful, that have not yet descended unto mortal nature, nor have been made articulate by human tongue, or cry or tone of man:
Ëeö · oëeö · iöö · oë · ëeö · ëeö · oëeö · iöö · oëëe · öëe · öoë · ië · ëö · oö · oë · ieö · oë · öoë · ieöoë · ieeö · eë · iö · oë · ioë · öëö · eoë · oeö · öië · öiëeö · oi · iii · ëoë · öuë · ëö · oëe · eöëia · aëaeëa · ëeeë · eeë · eeë · ieö · ëeö · oëeeoë · ëeö · euö · oë · eiö · ëö · öë · öë · öë · ee · ooouiöë!
3. Utter all these with Fire and Spirit once unto the end; and then begin again a second time, until thou hast completed [all] the Seven Immortal Gods of Cosmos.
When thou hast uttered them, thunders and crashings shalt thou hear in the Surround, and feel thyself a-shake with every crash. Then once more utter Silence! [and] the utterance [following it].
4. Thereon open thy eyes; and thou shalt see the Doors thrown open, and the Cosmos of the Gods that is within the Doors; so that for joy and rapture of the sight thy Spirit runs to meet it, and soars up.
Therefore, hold thyself steady, and, gazing steadily into thyself, draw breath from the Divine.
When, then, thy Soul shall be restored, say:
VIII.
[The Fourth Utterance]
1. Draw nigh, O Lord!
Upon this utterance His Rays shall be turned on thee, and thou shalt be in midst of them.
2. When, then, thou hast done this, thou shalt behold a God, in flower of age, of fairest beauty, [and] with Locks of Flame, in a white Tunic and a scarlet Mantle, wearing a Crown of Fire. Straightway salute Him with the Salutation of the Fire:
IX.
[The Fifth Utterance]
1. Hail Lord! O Thou of mighty Power; O King of mighty Sway; Greatest of Gods; O Sun; Thou Lord of Heaven and Earth; O God of Gods! Strong is Thy Breath; strong is Thy Might!
O Lord, if it seem good to Thee, make Thou announcement of me unto God Most-high, who hath begotten and created Thee!
2. For that a man—I N.N. [your name], son of N.N. (fem.) [your mother’s name], born of the mortal womb of N.N. (fem.) [your grandmother name], and of spermatic ichör, yea, of this [ichör], which at Thy Hands to-day hath undergone the transmutation of re-birth—, one, from so many tens of thousands, transformed to immortality in this same hour, by God’s good-pleasure, of God transcendent Good—, [a man, I say,] presumes to worship Thee, and supplicates with whatsoever power a mortal hath.
3. Upon this utterance He shall come to the Pole, and thou shalt see Him moving round as on a path.
Then gaze intently, and send forth a prolonged “bellowing,” like to a horn-note, expelling the whole breath, with pressure on the ribs, and kiss the amulets, and say first to that upon the right:
X.
[The Sixth Utterance]
Protect me! †!
When thou hast uttered this, thou shalt behold the Doors thrown open, and, issuing from the Depth, Seven Virgins, in byssus-robes, with serpent-faces, and golden sceptres in their hands. These are they who are the so-called Heaven’s Fortunes (Tychai).
When thou dost see these things, make salutation thus:
XI.
[The Seventh Utterance]
1. Hail Heaven’s Seven Fortunes, Virgins august and good, ye sacred ones who live and eat with †! Ye holiest Protectors of the Four Supports!
Hail thou, the First, †!
Hail thou, the Second, †!
Hail thou, the Third, †!
Hail thou, the Fourth, †!
Hail thou, the Fifth, †!
Hail thou, the Sixth, †!
Hail thou, the Seventh, †!
2. There come forth others, too—Seven Gods, with faces of black bulls, in linen loin-cloths, with seven golden fillets on their heads. These are the so-called Heaven’s Pole-lords.
And in like fashion unto each of them thou must make salutation with his special name.
XII.
[The Eighth Utterance]
1. Hail Guardians of the Pivot, ye, sacred sturdy Youths, who all, at once, revolve the spinning Axis of Heaven’s Circle, ye who let loose the thunder and the lightning, and earthquake-shocks and thunder-bolts upon the hosts of impious folk, but [who bestow] on me, who pious am and worshipper of God, good-health, and soundness of my frame in every Part, and proper stretch of hearing and of sight, and calm, in the now present good-hours of this day, O mighty Ruling Lords and Gods of me!
Hail thou, the First, †!
Hail thou, the Second, †!
Hail thou, the Third, †!
Hail thou, the Fourth, †!
Hail thou, the Fifth, †!
Hail thou, the Sixth, †!
Hail thou, the Seventh, †!
2. Now when they [all] are present in their order, here and there, gaze in the Air intently, and thou shalt see lightnings down-flashing, and lights a-quiver, and the earth a-shake; and [then] a God descending, [a God] transcending vast, of radiant Presence, with golden Locks, in flower of age, [clad] in a Robe of brightness, with Crown of gold [upon His Head], and Garments [on His Legs], holding in His Right Hand the golden Shoulder of the Calf.
This latter is the Bear that moves the Heaven[-dome], and changes its direction, now up now down, according to the hour.
Then shalt thou see lightnings leap from His Eyes and from His Body stars.
3. Straightway send forth a “bellowing” prolonged, with belly-pressure, to start thy senses going all together prolonged unto the very end, kissing again the amulets and saying:
XIII.
[The Ninth Utterance]
†, [O Lord] of me—N. N. [your name]—abide, with me, within my Soul! Oh! Leave me not! For † bids thee [remain].
And gaze intently on the God, with “bellowing” prolonged, and thus salute Him:
[The Tenth Utterance]
Hail Lord, Thou Master of the Water! Hail, Founder of the Earth! Hail, Prince of Breath!
O Lord, being born again, I Pass away in being made Great, and, having been made Great, I die.
Being born from out the state of birth-and-death that giveth birth to [mortal] lives, I now, set free, pass to the state transcending birth, as Thou hast stablished it, according as Thou hast ordained and made the Mystery.
 

Further reading:
‘The Mysteries of Mithras: The Pagan Belief That Shaped the Christian World’ By Payam Nabarz, (with a Foreword by Caitlín Matthews). ISBN: 1-59477-027-1, Inner Traditions, 2005.

References:
*For the original, unaltered translation of the Mithraic Liturgy, see Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), PGM IV, 475–829.
An online academic analysis of the Mithraic Liturgy is available see: http://www.hermetic.com/pgm/mithras-liturgy.html

1. G. R. S. Mead, in A Mithraic Ritual (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing, 2001), 18–33. (Originally published in 1907.)
2. Corbin, Henry. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. New Lebanon, N.Y.: Omega Publications, (1994), 39-60.
3. Meyer, Marvin W. The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, (1987), 212.
4. John Matthews, ed. Choirs of the God: Revisioning Masculinity (London: Mandala, 1991), 148.
5. Mogg Morgan, Tankhem: Meditations on Seth Magick, (Mandrake of Oxford, 2003), 174.
6. Betz, Hans Dieter. The “Mithras Liturgy” Text, Translation, and Commentary. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.