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Mystery Schools and Religious Movements Catalogue Ancient to Today

Mystery Schools and Religious Movements: a Catalogue from Antiquity to Today lists, as fully as we can, the initiatory schools, mystery cults, esoteric orders and unusual religious movements of history and of the present — each with its dates, founder or centre, core teaching and status today. It is a catalogue, described neutrally in each movement's own terms; describing a group is not endorsing it, and groups that ended in harm are named as such. For the themes behind them, see Mystery Schools. Alpha — additions welcome.

1. Mystery cults of the ancient world

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Where / when !! Centre of the teaching !! Status

|-

| Eleusinian Mysteries || Eleusis, Greece; c. 1500 BCE?–392 CE || Demeter and Persephone; initiates promised a better lot after death; the rite was never revealed || ended under Theodosius

|-

| Samothracian Mysteries || Samothrace; Archaic–4th c. CE || the Great Gods (Kabeiroi); protection at sea || ended

|-

| Orphic mysteries || Greece, S. Italy; 6th c. BCE– || Dionysus–Zagreus myth, the soul's purity, gold leaves for the dead || ended; texts survive (Derveni papyrus, gold tablets)

|-

| Dionysian / Bacchic mysteries || Greek and Roman world || ecstatic rites of Dionysus; suppressed in Rome 186 BCE (Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus) || ended

|-

| Pythagorean brotherhood || Croton, S. Italy; 6th c. BCE || number as the order of the cosmos, transmigration, silence and diet rules || ended; revived as Neopythagoreanism

|-

| Mysteries of Isis || Egypt → Roman world; 3rd c. BCE–4th c. CE || initiation as death and rebirth (Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11) || ended

|-

| Magna Mater (Cybele and Attis) || Phrygia → Rome 204 BCE || the mother goddess, the dying Attis, the taurobolium || ended

|-

| Mysteries of Mithras || Roman Empire; late 1st–4th c. CE || seven grades, the bull-slaying, cave temples || ended

|-

| Hermeticism || Egypt (Greek texts, 1st–3rd c. CE) || Corpus Hermeticum; knowledge (gnosis) of the divine mind || revived from 1463 (Ficino) to today

|-

| Gnostic schools || Mediterranean; 2nd–4th c. CE || Valentinians, Sethians, Basilideans; salvation by gnosis; the Nag Hammadi library || ended (texts found 1945)

|-

| Neoplatonist theurgy || Syria, Athens; 3rd–6th c. CE || Iamblichus, Proclus: ritual union with the gods || ended (school closed 529)

|-

| Essenes and Therapeutae || Judaea; Egypt; 2nd c. BCE–1st c. CE || communal purity, a solar calendar; the Dead Sea Scrolls community (debated link) || ended

|}

2. Living traditions with closed or initiatory cores

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Since !! Notes

|-

| Mandaeans || 1st–3rd c. CE (Iraq, Iran) || Gnostic baptists who honour John the Baptist; priestly initiation; still living, now largely in diaspora

|-

| Yazidis || 12th c. (roots older) || Kurdish faith around Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel; hereditary castes (sheikhs, pirs, murids); still living

|-

| Druze || 11th c. (Egypt, Levant) || a closed faith: no converts since 1043; the uqqal (initiated) and juhhal; still living

|-

| Alawites and Nusayris || 9th–10th c. || initiatory Shi'i esoteric tradition; still living

|-

| Nizari Ismailis || 1094– || the Alamut castles ("Assassins" of legend); today led by the Aga Khan

|-

| Sufi orders (tariqas) || 12th c.– || initiation by a master; Mevlevi (whirling), Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chishti; living

|-

| Kabbalah circles || 12th c. Provence; 16th c. Safed (Isaac Luria) || Jewish mystical tradition; living

|-

| Zoroastrian priesthood (mobeds) || ancient || hereditary priesthood with initiation (navar); living

|}

3. Medieval and early modern Europe

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Dates !! Notes

|-

| Bogomils || 10th–15th c. (Balkans) || dualist; crushed

|-

| Cathars || 12th–14th c. (Languedoc) || dualist Perfecti; destroyed in the Albigensian Crusade and Inquisition

|-

| Brethren of the Free Spirit || 13th–15th c. || mystical freedom from sin; persecuted

|-

| Knights Templar || 1119–1312 || military order, dissolved by the Pope; its "secret teachings" are later legend

|-

| Rosicrucians || manifestos 1614–1617 || a legendary brotherhood of Christian Rosenkreuz; inspired many later orders

|-

| Freemasonry || first Grand Lodge 1717 || initiatory degrees using the builders' guild and Solomon's Temple; living worldwide

|-

| Bavarian Illuminati || 1776–1785 || Enlightenment secret society; banned; later the stuff of conspiracy legend

|-

| Martinism / Élus Coëns || 1760s– || Martinez de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin; living

|-

| Swedenborgians (New Church) || 1787– || Emanuel Swedenborg's visions of heaven and the spiritual sense of Scripture; living

|}

4. The nineteenth century

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Founded !! Notes

|-

| Shakers || 1774 (America) || celibate communal sect, ecstatic dance; a few members remain

|-

| Harmony Society, Ephrata Cloister, Oneida || 1732–1880 || celibate or communal utopian sects; ended

|-

| Latter-day Saints || 1830 (Joseph Smith) || temple endowment rites; living worldwide

|-

| Spiritualism || 1848 (Fox sisters) || contact with the dead through mediums; living

|-

| Theosophical Society || 1875 (Blavatsky, Olcott, Judge) || Ascended Masters (Mahatmas), root races, synthesis of religions; living

|-

| Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn || 1888 || ritual magic grades; split by 1903; successor orders living

|-

| Ordo Templi Orientis || c. 1904 || later led by Aleister Crowley (Thelema, 1904); living

|-

| Baháʼí Faith || 1863 || progressive revelation; living worldwide

|-

| Mazdaznan || c. 1890s (Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish) || neo-Zoroastrian diet and breathing; small

|}

5. The twentieth century

{| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Founded !! Notes

|-

| Antoinism || 1910, Belgium (Louis-Joseph Antoine) || healing by faith; temples in Belgium and France; still living

|-

| Anthroposophy || 1912 (Rudolf Steiner) || spiritual science; Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming; living

|-

| Universal White Brotherhood || 1900s, Bulgaria (Peter Deunov) || sunrise prayers, Paneurhythmy dance; living

|-

| AMORC (Rosicrucian Order) || 1915 (H. Spencer Lewis) || mail-order Rosicrucian lessons; living

|-

| Moorish Science Temple of America || 1913/1925 (Noble Drew Ali) || Moorish identity and Islam for Black Americans; living

|-

| Self-Realization Fellowship || 1920 (Paramahansa Yogananda) || Kriya Yoga; living

|-

| Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way" || 1910s–1949 || self-remembering, sacred dances; groups living

|-

| Builders of the Adytum || 1922 (Paul Foster Case) || Tarot and Qabalah; living

|-

| Caodaism || 1926, Vietnam || a synthesis faith honouring Victor Hugo among its saints; millions of followers

|-

| Fraternitas Saturni || 1926, Germany || Saturnian magic lodge; living

|-

| Nation of Islam || 1930 (W. D. Fard, Elijah Muhammad) || see Origin Myths of Race and Ancestry Yakub Blumenbach and the Aryan Myth; living

|-

| Rastafari || 1930s, Jamaica || Haile Selassie as messiah, Ital diet, sacramental ganja; living

|-

| "I AM" Activity || 1930s (Guy and Edna Ballard) || Ascended Masters, Saint Germain met on Mount Shasta, decrees; the Ballards' 1944 fraud case (United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78) set the rule that courts may not judge the truth of religious beliefs; still active

|-

| Santo Daime || 1930s, Brazil (Mestre Irineu) || ayahuasca sacrament; living

|-

| Native American Church || 1918 (incorporated) || peyote sacrament; protected by federal law

|-

| Umbanda || 1908, Brazil || African, Indigenous, Catholic and Spiritist; living

|-

| Wicca || 1954 (Gerald Gardner) || initiatory witchcraft; living

|-

| Aetherius Society || 1955 (George King) || messages from cosmic masters; living

|-

| União do Vegetal || 1961, Brazil || ayahuasca (hoasca) sacrament; won Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita (2006) under RFRA

|-

| Summit Lighthouse / Church Universal and Triumphant || 1958 (Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet) || from the "I AM" line; Ascended Masters; diminished, still active

|-

| Eckankar || 1965 (Paul Twitchell) || soul travel; living

|-

| Raëlism || 1974 (Claude Vorilhon) || creation by extraterrestrial Elohim; living

|-

| Unarius || 1954 || UFO and past-life teachings; living

|}

6. Movements that ended in harm

Named so the record is complete:

7. Esotericists who influenced politics

Influence, not endorsement — several of these fed movements that did great harm, and that is stated.

8. Patterns

Sources

Filed under  Religion and practice