Mystery Schools
The Zoence Mystery School operates via the special events and geocosmological pilgrimages. These will be found listed under Events, which show the programme of events for each year. All these are part of a greater mystery that Zoence is acting out, playing its role in the World Mystery as an act of service.
The Mystery
The word 'mystery', derived from the Greek word mysteria, refers to a play in which the truths of life are hidden but can be revealed through participation in the play.
The greatest mystery is that of life itself, in which we are all, as Shakespeare noted, actors on the stage of the world. However, the question is whether we are conscious of it or not, and whether we are good actors or not. If the answer is yes, then ultimately we not only discover the truth in an illuminating way but can learn to co-author the play.
Mystery Schools
Not surprisingly, for millennia it has been noted that we need help in this, not only to perceive that life is a mystery and we are actors in it, but also to understand it, discover our roles, perform our parts well and become co-authors. For this, mystery schools exist: the idea being to give each student a direct apprehension of truth by experiencing it by means of a particular mystery, rather than just acquiring academic knowledge.
Academic knowledge is an important preparation for the mysteries, augmenting and helping to elucidate the mystery experience; but it is the illuminating experience of the mystery that comprises the real knowledge of truth. For this reason academies and mystery schools go hand in hand with each other, complementing each other; and so it is with Zoence.
Mystery School Events
During a Zoence Mystery School Event we take participants into a mystery. The event is always located in a special part of the landscape that is part of a landscape temple. We create and set up an outer mystery story based on the wisdom principles and our knowledge of the landscape and its mythology or mystery. Then, once that is in operation, besides enjoying what that produces we look out for the inner or hidden story that usually emerges as a divine gift, sometimes in surprising ways. This inner story may emerge just for each person, or for the whole group, or for something even greater, or for all three.
We construct the programme and outer mystery based on our knowledge of the Wheel of Life and process of life, which includes the sequence of alchemical elements and degrees of initiation, so as to give participants an experience by which they might understand further the mystery of life and of themselves, as also of the land and its mystery.
The themes that are taught separately in the Zoence Academy are woven together in these Zoence Mystery School Events in varying degrees and in ways appropriate to the place and people attending, the aim being to increase knowledge, find moments of illumination, to be of service by loving and appreciating each other, our environment and others, and to have fun!
