Throughout the ages, the desire for answers has spurred humankind’s interest in discovering wisdom and truths: Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of my soul—do I even possess a soul? Sometimes these questions cannot be answered by traditional religious structures and their hierarchies. To fill this void, mystery traditions were established. Both Eastern and Western Mystery traditions strive to bring the seeker closer to Deity while establishing a path of spiritual evolution. Attempting to avoid dogma as a path to salvation, Mystery Religions offer direct experience in order to allow the speeker to absorb spiritual truths.
The Western Mystery Tradition is really the history of humanity’s spiritual evolution. This evolution is described aptly described by John and Caitlin Matthews in their book, Walkers between the Worlds, as having occurred in two phases, the Native and the Hermetic. The Native Tradition, occurring when humankind lived largely in tribes, includes our earliest religious impulses during the prehistory known as the foretime. This is the phase of human consciousness in which individuals moved from a tribal, to an individual consciousness. In the Hermetic tradition (which has its earliest roots in Gnostic and Egyptian impulses) the individual evolves from individual consciousness to cosmic consciousness. As we examine the historical arch of this journey, we can include the practices of shamanism and also alchemy (the magician in his solitary abode) as well as the rites of the Dionysian and Orphic Mystery cults. Underlying all these diverse concepts is the universal wisdom referred to as the “Sophia Perennis"
Wicca can be seen as the latest step along the paths of the Western Mystery tradition. Blending Native tradition elements, pagan deities and worship according to the cycles of the year while including Hermetic impulses such as the summoning of the four elements and the casting of a magick circle, Wicca is a synthesis of the Native and Hermetic-the two great streams of the Western Mystery tradition.
In the Shadowfolk Tradition, we see our work as occurring within this framework of Western mystical thought; we embrace both scholarship and practical application to bring us in touch with our mystical forbearers and their wisdom.
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