mbol of his resurrection from the mystic
tomb wherein he was buried during one stage of initiation; for we
know that the initiation was often regarded as the commencement of
a fresh life, as a new birth. Apuleius says, "I celebrated the
most joyful day of my initiation as my natal day."

Faber argues, from the very close similarity of all the
differently named Mysteries, that they were all Arkite, all
derived from one mass of traditions reaching from Noah and
embodying his history.43 The asserted fact of general resemblance
among the instituted Mysteries is unquestionable; but the
inference above drawn from it is unwarrantable, even if no better
explanation could be offered. But there is another explanation
ready, more natural in conception, more consistent in detail, and
better sustained by evidence. The various Mysteries celebrated in
the ancient nations were so much alike not because they were all
founded on one world wide tradition about the Noachian deluge, but
because they all grew out of the great common facts of human
destiny in connection with natural phenomena. The Mysteries were
funereal and festive, began in sorrow and ended in joy, not
because they represented first Noah's sad entrance into the ark
and then his glad exit from it, but because they began with
showing the initiate that he must die, and ended with showing him
that he should live again in a happier state. Even the most
prejudiced advocates of the Arkite theory

42 Procopius, in his History of the Gothic War, mentions a curious
popular British superstition concerning the ferriage of souls among
the neighboring islands at midnight. See Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie,
kap. xxvi. zweite ausgabe.

43 Mysteries of the Cabiri, ch. 10: Comparison of the Various
Mysteries.

are forced to admit, on the explicit testimony of the ancients,
that the initiates passed from the darkness and horrors of
Tartarus to the bliss and splendors of Elysium by a dramatic
resurrection from burial in the black caverns of probation to
admission within the illuminated hall or dome of perfection.44
That the idea of death and of another life runs through all the
Mysteries as their cardinal tenet is well shown in connection with
the rites of the celebrated Cave of Trophonius at Lebadea in
Boeotia. Whoso sought this oracle must descend head foremost over
an inclined plane, bearing a honey cake in his hand. Aristophanes
speaks of this descent with a shudder of fear.45 The a