Project Proposal

The underlying idea that I would most like to explore with my final paper is the idea of mysteries. However, I don't want to try and unravel any certain mystery that has been mentioned or alluded to in the Manuscript Found in Saragossa but the very concept of mysteries. The best way that I know to try and explain my project is to just write the introduction that has/will be my jumping point for the rest of my paper. So this is what I have so far. I think that I have given a pretty good idea of the areas I want to focus on.

            When one thinks of the word initiation, I am sure that the image of painful and horrifying tasks comes to mind. But once again society has bastardized a term that was used in ancient Greece to mean something very much different. The idea of initiation is not one meant to scare but instead to prompt the initiates into a certain state of mind.

            Many different religions use the term initiation to mean to gain knowledge, not to punish. “In this fragment Aristotle concludes that initiates into the mysteries do not learn anything, but rather have an experience and are put in a certain state of mind (Meyer 12). A few of the ancient religions that incorporated formal initiation rituals are the Eleusinian mysteries and the mysteries of Dionysus as well as Christianity. All three of these systems of beliefs were not necessarily designed to teach people but were “an eye-opening experience that transcended earthly realities and mundane learning” (Meyer 12).  As you can see the

            The rituals of initiation have been performed throughout centuries of literature. One prime example of how initiation takes place in the mundane to create the extraordinary is in The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. The reader is taken through pages and pages of the mundane, even boring, lives of characters.  However, if the reader is intuitive she will see that the mundane is what allows the extraordinary to be able to occur. It is not from the great moments of life that transcendence is created but through the difference of the natural and supernatural moments. This can also be seen in Little, Big. Both of these amazing novels lead to the same realization. If the reader is able to figure out this by the end then that same reader should be intuitive enough to realize that he/she just went through an initiation into the world of mysteries. The reader may not have a particular mystery that they wish to focus on but they have finally been able to see “sacred objects previously hidden from sight” (Meyer 11).

The concept of mysteries is hard to define in any way that makes sense for someone who has not experienced an initiation process themselves. However, the intriguing part of the process is that everyone at some point has gone through an initiation; they just didn't know it at the time. Acclimating to any new job, environment, or culture creates an initiation. In fact, almost everyone who is reading this has been initiated into MSU. According to my findings, initiation happens when someone makes the conscious choice to experience something while being in a certain state of mind, at least according to Aristotle. 

My primary sources of information and guidance will come from The Ancient Mysteries A Sourcebook by Marvin W. Meyer, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter by Helene P. Foley, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki, and Little, Big by John  Crowley. There may be more texts that I later add but as of right now my research and investigations will center around these four items.