Faith & RitualGreek → English
Mysticism
/ˈmɪstɪsɪzəm/noun
The pursuit of direct union with the divine through contemplation or ecstatic experience.
The Greek roots
μυστικός
mystikós
of the mysteries, secret
Literally: “belonging to the initiated”
Follow a root:μυστικός1 word
The story of the word
A μύστης was an initiate, someone admitted to the rites at Eleusis, and the verb behind the word, μύω, means to close the lips or the eyes. Silence was the whole point: what was seen at Eleusis could be undergone but not reported, and the penalty for telling was death. English assembled mysticism in the eighteenth century, long after Christian writers had turned that closed mouth into an inward gaze.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
mysterymysticmystagogymyopia
In a sentence
Her thesis compares Rhineland mysticism with the Sufi poets.
There is a long argument about whether Plotinus counts as mysticism or as philosophy.