Illuminist Lodge

From John Opsopaus’s book Pythagorean Theology and The Esoteric Elements, chapter The Water of Life:

Water is also connected with the milk of immortality from Persephone’s breasts, for in the mysteries she is a goddess of joyous rebirth as well as grevious dissolution. For example, on the Bacchic/Orphic gold tablets from Thessaly which date back to the 5th century we read:

I have flown out of the Circle of Heavy Grief

And stepped swift-footed on the Circle of Joy.

I have made straight for the Breasts of the Mistress,

The Queen of the Underworld.

And now I come a suppliant to holy Persephoneia,

That of her grace she send me to the Seats of the Hallowed.

Happy and blessed one, thou shalt be god instead of mortal.

A kid I have fallen into milk.

This alludes to the thrice born Dionysus, who is the horned son of Persephone, according to the Orphics. Therefore the Bacchic initiate emulates the rebirth of Dionysus by sucking the milk of immortality…..”pg 141

A significant hadith describes the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) dreaming he drank a cup of milk until it flowed from his nails, then gave the rest to `Umar ibn Al-Khattab; he interpreted this dream to mean religious knowledge, symbolizing striving to gain it and sharing it, as milk represents pure, nourishing learning. This famous dream, found in Sahih al-Bukhari, highlights the importance of seeking knowledge and passing it to others for benefit.

From Peter Kingsley Ancient Philosophy Chapter 17 The Hero:

“To this evidence we have to add a passage in one of the magical papyri which refers, too, to milk in the process of ritual divinization; and also a strange passage in the Katasterismoi attributed to Eratosthenes, which brings together the themes of suckling milk, of Heracles as prototype for all ‘sons of Zeus’ and the attainment of celestial immortality” pg 266

“Abundance of milk is a characteristic feature of Bacchic imagery, but very typically it is mentioned alongside a reference to wine.” pg 266

“And yet the Thessaly plates help also in another respect, thanks to the explicit evidence they provide for the process of immortalization mentioned on other gold plates being the end result of a sequence of death and rebirth: on them, the refrain about rushing for milk comes just after the initial description of the initiate as ‘coming into being’ or ‘being born’. pg 267

The story of Muhammad, milk, and wine comes from a hadith (saying of the Prophet) where, during his Night Journey (Isra and Mi’raj), two cups—one of wine, one of milk—were offered to him, and he chose milk, with Angel Gabriel explaining that choosing milk was choosing the natural path (Fitrah), while wine would have led his people astray, symbolizing Islam’s prohibition of alcohol and embrace of pure sustenance.

What follows is a recitation of an original poem about the esoteric aspects covered here:

You who knows milk