Samothracian Mysteries

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Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Paleopolis (Samothrace)

The Samothracian mysteries were located on the mountainous and watery Greek island of Samothrace (Σαμοθράκη "Thracian Samos"), situated in the Thracian Sea of the northern Aegean. In these mysteries the Great Gods, the Kabiri (Greek: Κάβειροι "the Great", Latin: Cabiri), were worshipped. According to mythological tradition, they were chthonic gods of both sexes from Asia Minor and servants of the Great Mother, the Kabeiro, whom the Greeks identified with Rhea, the mother of the gods, but also with Demeter, Hecate and Aphrodite. They were actually the esoteric side of Ceres (the Kersa), Demeter, the world of becoming. Compared to the Great Mother, they appeared like dwarfs, yet they were called Megaloi Theoi, "Great Gods". Of the four traditional names of the gods known from mysteries of the Kabirs, probably from Thebes, Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos and Kadmilos, it was claimed that they signified Persephone, Demeter, Hades and Hermes. The Greek prefix axios, which occurs in these names, means worthy. The name Kabiren is not of Greek origin, but derives from the mountain Kabeiros in the landscape of Berekyntia, which belonged to the Phrygian mother of the gods. Only later did they make Samothrace their sacred mystery island. At this time Orpheus was also their disciple. They were invoked as saving gods by sailors in distress.

The Kabiri are closely connected with the becoming of man. Goethe had already sensed this and therefore lets them appear in the second part of his Faust tragedy in the Classical Walpurgis Night where the Homunculus is to become a homo, a human being:

„In this way, however, Goethe shows that he had a deep and meaningful conception of the Kabiri of Samothrace, that he had a feeling for the fact that these Kabiri were revered in ancient times as the guardians of those forces which are connected with the becoming of man, with the genesis of man. So Goethe touches on the highest by calling up from the time of atavistic clairvoyance the images of those divine powers that are connected with the becoming of man.

The Greek view itself already referred to very old things when it spoke of the mysteries of Samothrace. And we may say that in contrast to all the various ideas of the gods and the connection between man and these gods that the Greeks had, the ideas about the deities of Samothrace and the Kabirian deities pervaded everything. And the ancient Greek was convinced that he had received a conception, an idea, of human immortality through that which had entered the Greek consciousness as a legacy of the Samothracian mysteries. The Greek thought that he owed the idea of human immortality, that is, of man's belonging to the spiritual-mental universe, to the influence of the Samothracian Kabiri mysteries.

Thus Goethe wants to say at the same time: Perhaps the abstract human idea of the Homunculus comes together with the real forces of human development when, in a bodiless state, the impulses are grasped which the Greek thought of as connected with his Kabiri of Samothrace.“ (Lit.:GA 273, p. 201f)

„Outwardly, they are again simple sea gods. Samothrace - as the Greeks knew - was surrounded by the most terrible, earthquake-like storms in relatively recent times. So the demons of nature had ruled here in such a monstrous way that it was still like a historical memory for the ancient Greeks. And in the forests, in the dense, then dense forests of Samothrace, was hidden the mystery of the Kabiri. Among the various names given to the Kabirs are those where one Kabir is called Axieros, the second Axiokersos and the third Axiokersa, Kadmilos the fourth. Then one had such a vague feeling that there was a fifth, sixth and seventh. But in essence, man's spiritual gaze was focused on the first three Kabiri. The old ideas of the Kabiri were really the mystery of the human becoming. And actually, he who has been initiated into the sacred mysteries of Samothrace should come to the view: What corresponds in the spiritual world, viewed spiritually, to that which happens here on earth when a human being comes into being for a soul that embodies itself on earth, when a human being becomes a human being in the succession of generations? - So to speak, the spiritual correlate of the human birth should be seen in the spiritual world. Through this vision Goethe believed he could make the homunculus into a homo in the idea. But the initiate of the Samothracian mysteries was also to be introduced to this vision.“ (Lit.:GA 273, p. 202f)

Rudolf Steiner pointed out that the total of seven Kabiri correspond to the seven members of the human being. The first three represent the bodily sheaths, which consist of the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body. The fourth Kabir, Kadmilos, represents the human I. The other three "are to be inquired in Olympus" (Goethe) and refer to the higher spiritual members of being Manas, Buddhi and Atma - and "there lives also probably the eighth, of which no one thought yet!"

„In the Samothracian mysteries, for example, they taught: There are four Kabiri; three of them always kill the fourth. - But actually they thought that man had a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body and an I. The physical body is first of all a physical corpse that falls prey to death. The etheric body dissolves in the cosmic, the astral body also dissolves in a certain way, as I have described in my "Theosophy". If the I does not save its self-consciousness by participating in the spiritual, then the three also kill the I and drag it down into mortality. In the Mysteries, people sought to save the immortality of the human being. It was not imagined that one could acquire immortality through prayers; it was not imagined that one could merely passively relate to immortality and the like, but it was imagined that those who were initiated, through the special transformation of their soul being, through their awakening, through the awakening of their I, got over the danger of not grasping themselves in the spirit and thus having to go the way of their mortal body.“ (Lit.:GA 205, p. 48f)

The Kabiri, designed as jugs according to Rudolf Steiner's sketch.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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