Podcast episode
May 21, 2018
Episode 34: Mystery and Initiation in Plato
The concept of initiation is at the heart of many of the currents of western esotericism, but, just as we have seen in the case of ‘mysticism’, the idea of ‘initiation’ has its origin in the ancient rituals of the Græco-Roman mystery-cults, but has evolved in the esoteric context into something far different to the ritually-based change of status which was a primary social function of initiation into the historical mysteries. The evolution of the concept of initiation is complex and doesn’t follow a single, simple logic, but there is a common element in many of the models of initiation that we find in esoteric thought: namely, that initiation is the acquisition of a special, often a transformative, kind of knowledge.
How do we get from rituals conferring a special social status to knowledge conferring a special spiritual or philosophical wisdom? The first place to look, as so often, is the dialogues of Plato.
Works Discussed in this Episode:
- Apuleius Metamorphoses Book 11, 27
- Aristotle on the Eleusinian mysteries: Synes. Dio 10.48a = de philosophia fr. 15 Ross: καθάπερ ̓Αριστοτέλης ἀξιοῖ τοὺς τελουμένους οὐ μαθεῖν τι δεῖν ἀλλὰ παθεῖν καὶ διατεθῆναι, δηλονότι γεγομένους ἐπιτηδείους.
- Clarke, E. C.; Dillon, J. M. and Hershbell, J. P., 2003. Iamblichus on The Mysteries. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, GA. pp. xx-xxi
- Gill, Christopher, trans., 1999. Plato: The Symposium. Penguin, London.
- Marinus Procl. 13 in Edwards 2000, 76.
- Plutarch: On Isis and Osiris (77.382d-e): θιγόντες ὅλως τῆς περὶ αὐτὸ καθαρᾶς ἀληθείας οἷον ἐν τελετῇ τέλος ἔχειν φιλοσοφίας νομίζουσι . Note the word-play on τελετῇ and τέλος, blending conceptions of ‘perfection’, ‘consummation’ present in both terms, and importing one of ‘initiation’ into the latter; cf. Pl. Phædrus 249c8-10. Καθαρᾶς ἀληθείας , in this context, is an echo of the mystery theme of purification.
- Proclus: on Proclus’ use of initiatory language in his commentary on the Republic of Plato, see Lamberton 1995, 146.
- Theon Smyrnæus, Hiller, E. (Ed.), 1878. Expositio rerum mathematicarum ad legendum Platonem utilium. Teubner, Leipzig. 14.18 ff.
Recommended Reading:
On Plato Specifically:
- Des Places, E. D. (1964). ‘Platon et la langue des mystères’. In: (Ed.), Annales de la faculté des lettres et sciences d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence.
- Riedweg, C., 1987. Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon, und Klemens von Alexandrien (Untersuchungen zur Antiken Literatur und Geschichte, 26). de Gruyter, Berlin/New York, NY. generally 2-69; Symposium 2-29; Phaedrus 30-69.
On Platonism Generally:
On philosophy as initiation in Platonism, see generally
- Pépin 1984, 29; Dillon 1982, 74-5.
Also of interest:
- Banner, N., 2018. Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus. The University Press, Cambridge.
- Bidez, J. (1919). ‘La liturgie des mystères chez les néo-platoniciens’, Bulletins de l’academie royale de Belgique : 415-430.
- Clinton, K. (2003). ‘Stages of Initiation in the Eleusinian and Samothracian Mysteries’. In: Cosmopoulos, M. (Ed.), Greek Mysteries: The Achaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults, Routledge.
- Dillon, J. (1982). ‘Self-Definition in Later Platonism’. In: Meyer, B. & Sanders, E. (Ed.), Self-Definition in the Græco-Roman World, SCM Press.
- Edwards, M. J., 2000. Neoplatonic Saints: the Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.
- Froidefond, C. (Ed.), 1988. Plutarch: Oevres Morales Vol. V Part 2: Isis and Osiris. Les Belles Lettres, Paris. The introduction has much useful discussion of Greek ideas of mystery in the context both of philosophy and of Egyptian religion.
- Lamberton, R. (1995). ‘The “Aporrhetos Theoria” and the Roles of Secrecy in the History of Platonism’. In: Stroumsa, G. G. & Kippenberg, H. G. (Ed.), Secrecy and Concealment: Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near-Eastern Religions, Brill, Leiden.
- Mylonas, G. E., 1961. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton University Pres, Princeton, NJ.
- Pépin, J. (1984). ‘L’Arcane Religieux et sa transposition philosophique dans la tradition platonicienne’. In: (Ed.), La Storia della Filosofia come Sapere Critico, Angeli.
- Van Nuffelen, P. (2007). ‘Words of Truth: Mystical Silence as a Philosophical and Rhetorical Tool in Plutarch’, Hermathena : 9-39.
- Van Nuffelen, P., 2011. Rethinking the Gods: Philosophical Reading of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Andrea Williams
November 11, 2025
Thank you for this illuminating discussion—your exploration of “Mystery and Initiation in Plato” resonated deeply. I’d like to share how I’ve lived this passage in practice:
Reading Phaedrus 250b–256d through lived experience, I found that Plato’s image of the “winged soul” is not an abstraction but a phenomenology of inner initiation. Each passage unfolded as a stage of remembrance: from longing and shadow to beauty, union, and finally peace.
What began as a search for an external beloved revealed itself as the soul’s dialogue with its own divine counterpart—the masculine and feminine principles seeking harmony within. In that sense, the mystery is not hidden ritual but consciousness rediscovering its wholeness.
Plato’s initiation is thus experiential rather than doctrinal: an awakening of the heart’s vision where wisdom and love converge. The wings of the soul are not instruments of escape, but the breath of awareness itself—allowing one to walk through the world awake, every step an act of love.
Andrea Williams
November 12, 2025
Listening to “Mystery and Initiation in Plato” while reading Phaedrus 257d–259d opened a vivid reflection on what initiation truly means. Rather than an external rite, initiation revealed itself as an inner turning—the soul’s first act of listening to its own vibration.
To me, initiation begins when we stop seeking knowledge from without and start hearing the first note within. That note is both descent and ascent—the moment when the heart cracks open, light enters, and perception begins to shift into a new octave of understanding. The dialogue’s tension between writing and living speech mirrors this process: when words lose connection to their living source, they become hollow; when they arise from the moving soul, they become instruments of remembrance.
From this episode I understood Plato’s mysteries as a continuum of admiration and surrender—to admire the note is to honor beauty; to follow it into silence is to enter the mystery itself. The silence is not absence, but continuation—the soul and the song becoming one.
Thank you for illuminating how Plato’s dialogues act as initiatory dramas. This perspective invites us to approach philosophy not only as study, but as living participation in the music of the soul.
— Andrea Williams