Original subtitles

I spent a good portion of my early acting career

treading the boards in theatres like this one.

It's a profession full of superstitions.

For instance,

a theatre is never supposed to be completely dark,

so...

the ghost light remains on stage, lit,

even when no one is around.

Whistling back stage?

Completely forbidden.

And there's a certain Shakespearean play

whose name must never be uttered within these walls.

You only become privy to these rules

when you work in a theatre.

Many religions keep secrets too.

Some have a hidden hierarchy of knowledge

available only to higher officials.

Why do religions shroud themselves in secrecy?

I mean, why would they obscure holy wisdom?

Or,

do divine secrets actually...

bring us closer to god?

I am going to peer behind the curtain of hidden cults.

They used music to drown out the cries.

I'll see how secrets triggered one faith's battle for survival.

Your leaders were imprisoned by the French.

And spread dangerous rumours about another.

Christians drank the blood of children.

Oh my.

I'll witness the rebirth of the sun...

So let's give a rousing cheer for the returning sun god.

And a long suppressed faith.

Yeah!

Learn about decoding divine secrets.

God encoded secrets of reality in this Torah.

And seek a hidden pathway to enlightenment.

Could I get a mantra?

I doubt you get any mantras.

I'm starting my quest outside of Naples, Italy...

in a city whose secrets were buried in ash in 79 AD,

Pompeii.

Historian, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill,

is taking me to an ancient home

that Mount Vesuvius froze in time.

So, push through the leaves, Morgan,

and you're gonna get an eye full of something amazing.

That is the Villa of the Mysteries.

That's lovely. That is terrific.

Soon after archaeologists unearthed the villa in 1909,

they realized it held clues

to one of the most secretive religious sects in history,

the Cult of Dionysus.

So, Morgan, you've got to see this.

This is the Room of the Mysteries.

Oh, my goodness.

-This... -Oh my goodness.

is the most extraordinary painted room

in any Roman house that I know.

And there is the god, Dionysus.

The Greeks called him Dionysus,

the Romans called him Bacchus.

And you see, he's sort of, he's slumped,

because he's the god of wine,

he's the god of drink and he's had some.

He looks a little bit stoned.

He's way, way out of it.

Then around, are all these scenes that are

somehow associated with the Cult of Dionysus.

Uh, huh.

Dionysus was the god, not just of wine,

but also of fertility,

theatre and ecstasy.

Ancient Roman writers told stories of wine fuelled orgies,

Bacchanalia, held in his honour.

The Cult of Dionysus,

what's the purpose of it?

Huh.

Is it...

Is it a religious thing or?

It's absolutely a religious thing.

But most religious practices in the Roman world,

are about how you hold the community together.

This is not about the whole community, it's for the initiated,

for the chosen few who have dedicated themselves to this.

You actually have to go through a process

to join that type of cult.

What happened in the Cult of Dionysus

remained shrouded in almost total mystery for two millennia,

until the frescoes in this room

saw the light of day.

Many historians believe

they show the secret initiation rites

of a young woman into the cult.

Where does it begin?

Probably, reading left to right,

begins there with a woman walking into the scene.

The woman arrives fully clothed,

but after a child reads from what might be a sacred text,

we see her more scantily clad,

possibly bringing an offering of food for the god.

Then some sort of, is this a ritual cleansing,

some sort of preparation?

I think this is the scene that really tells us

that it's something to do with mysteries.

It's incredibly rare

to depict someone, like turning your back to the camera.

And that's concealing something.

Oh.

It's something secret going on.

After this scene,

we lose track of the initiate for a while.

But when she reappears,

she's in a different state of mind.

She's looking at something that's happening over here,

with an expression of horror on her face.

This woman,

she has a whip in her hand,

which appears to be about to descend

on the back of this lady here, who has a bare back.

Her head in another woman's lap,

giving her comfort and support.

And the fact there's another naked woman,

dancing and she's got...

Those bells, so it's bing, ding, ding.

In her hand and one of the things they complained about this cult,

was that they used the sound of music to drown out...

the cries of the people.

You've got this basket down below,

but in this winnowing basket,

is a very large object covered with a veil.

And we can be absolutely certain

that what is being revealed is a phallus.

Oh.

Because the phallus

is so strongly connected with Dionysus.

The phallus was the supreme symbol of the god of fertility.

What role it played in the initiation rites,

what secrets were revealed when it was uncovered,

are not recorded here

and by the next fresco,

the mood has changed completely.

Here, we have a girl preparing, apparently, for marriage.

That way of doing your hair into separate locks,

was part of a Roman tradition of preparing your hair

for the wedding ceremony.

Okay.

And she has two Cupids on either side...

and one is holding up...

Probably a mirror of some sort.

The marriage seems to imply the end of the initiation.

The woman is now ready to devote herself to Dionysus

and be part of his cult.

This is just fascinating to end all fascinations.

Uh, huh.

But,

I count 17 women,

where are the men?

So, I think this is as it's meant to be.

It's a women's cult.

Across the Greco-Roman world,

women seem to have accounted for most

members of the Cult of Dionysus.

Perhaps it wasn't just a place to lose one's self in wine.

It may have been a place where women made the rules.

Of course,

we will never really know.

You know why a mystery is called a mystery?

No.

It's a Greek word.

Mustes is someone who has been initiated,

and the word muo in Greek means,

'Keep your mouth shut.'

Once you're initiated,

you can't reveal what you have seen.

The Dionysiac cult

used wine and sex to get closer to their gods.

But it seems that the secrecy of their faith

helped them to connect, not just to the divine,

but to one another.

It allowed initiates,

especially women,

to worship away from the prying eyes of Rome.

Their secret religion

set them free.

Secrets are designed to conceal,

but sometimes the very presence of a secret,

draws unwelcome attention.

I'm in southern Vietnam,

travelling toward the Cambodian border

in the province of Tay Ninh.

This is the spiritual home of Cao Dai,

a religion that was once banned by the government,

but now is practised in plain view

by over four million Vietnamese.

It's epicentre is the Holy See Temple,

in the City of Tay Ninh.

I'm meeting with Cao Dai's esteemed archbishop,

Le Phuong Hong and his interpreter, Nguyen Tuan Em.

-Hello. -Yeah, good morning.

-Hello. -How are you?

Thank you. And you?

Very well and thank you very much.

-Yeah. -Big question.

The eye, what does it mean?

This is amazing!

There are nine steps,

representing the nine stages in heaven.

Ah-ha!

And you can see,

there are 18 columns surrounded by dragons.

Are these saints?

They are representing the religions combined of Caodaism.

There was a message from God

to unite the branches of the religion.

Of religion.

And you can see, in the middle,

the first one is Buddha

and then on the left hand side,

you can see Lao Zi, representing Taoism,

and this is Confucius.

And then Jesus Christ representing Christianity.

Ah-ha, that is him.

And now is time for the service

and we would like to go upstairs

and we show you where you can see the service.

Excellent.

As I watch the congregation

being marshalled into precise formation,

I can't help thinking that Caodaism

has almost militaristic overtones.

It's a hint of the religion's secret past

and its battles with governments

that grew into outright war.

The Cao Dai religion,

an unusual blend of eastern and western faiths,

appears to be flourishing in Vietnam.

Across the country there are almost 400 temples.

Followers worship openly,

but it wasn't always that way.

I've been offered an audience with Cao Dai's

senior cardinal, Thuong Tom Thanh,

to understand the religion's secretive history.

How do you do, sir.

Very pleased to meet you.

Can you give me...

a brief history of the religion?

The purpose of Caodaism is...

to unite the traditions of all religions in the world.

Caodaism was established in Vietnam in 1926,

and Vietnam, at that time,

was under the control of the French administration.

I understood that some of your leaders

were imprisoned by the French. Is that so?

There was some misunderstanding

between the French

and Caodaism at the time.

The leader was arrested and sent in exile...

for five years.

But after that,

when they understood the purpose of this religion,

the French administration let His Holiness

to be returned into Vietnam.

But Cao Dai's struggles did not end with the French.

In 1943, they took up arms against Japanese invaders.

The Cao Dai army,

established a semi-autonomous state in the Mekong Delta,

that survived for a decade after the Japanese left.

When the Communists took control of Vietnam in 1975,

Caodaism was banned for more than two decades.

It wasn't just because the government

feared Cao Dai's military history,

or its blending of faiths from all over the world.

It was also because of the secret ceremony

that lay at the heart of the religion.

So those mediums

were used to establish the religion.

Those mediums received the messages from God

to establish and write out the religious regulations,

the constitutions

and now we use those as the basis of Caodaism.

The details of what happened in these seances is still secret,

known only by high dignitaries.

What is known,

is that there were always two mediums

controlling some sort of instrument;

someone to read the instrument,

and a secretary to write down the message.

When the Vietnamese government made it legal

to practice the Cao Dai religion in 1997,

one of the conditions was

that seances would remain banned.

So, are these mediums chosen by God today?

All the former mediums

have fulfilled their duties and now they return with God.

All the regulations and doctrines have been

written down by God through mediums.

Now, all we have to do is just

follow the rules and carry on?

And we all try for peace and independence in the world.

Got it.

The followers of Cao Dai say

they no longer need secret seances to spread

their message of universal humanity, love and justice.

What was once the most sacred part of their worship

is now history and the religion is thriving.

Being forced to hide something

sometimes helps us to learn to get along just fine without it.

But some religions keep secrets,

because they believe they are too powerful to be revealed,

except to those with years of training.

I'm in Kathmandu, Nepal,

to learn about a branch of Buddhism called Vajrayana,

or The Diamond Vehicle.

It is the final level of Buddhist teachings,

known as an accelerated path to enlightenment.

Here at the Kopan Monastery,

I'm meeting one of their head monks,

Geshe Thubten Jinpa.

-Hi, Morgan. -Hello, Jinpa.

-Welcome to Kopan. -Thank you so much.

-Thank you. -Thank you. Thank you.

Come see.

I take you to the monastery, okay?

I want to try to learn more

about their rapid pathway to enlightenment.

Some of the mantras the monks will chant today,

are said to contain the sacred power of enlightened beings.

They recite them to invoke those divine energies and

advance toward their own enlightenment.

Okay.

These mantras are not for my ears.

In the hills above Kathmandu,

only the faintest sound of Buddhist monks

chanting a secret mantra

escapes the temple doors.

This only makes me more curious.

Why all the secrecy?

If it will lead to enlightenment,

why not reveal it to all?

'Diamond Vehicle', Jinpa.

Why do you use that term, 'diamond?'

It really cuts through,

like you use a sort of a

diamond to slice the glass.

Yes.

And it pierce the wrong conceptions.

So that's why we call it 'diamond.'

If you are a student and you are starting out,

you could get into the Diamond Vehicle?

First, we have to get well trained for that,

so when Buddha taught this, The Diamond Vehicles,

He reveal it to the some particular, special students.

Why must these mantras be kept secret?

So without that proper training,

so you will misuse of that mantra

and it bring harms to others and as well as yourself.

As well to yourself.

These monks have had years of training in meditation.

They believe learning a secret mantra,

without such preparation,

risks actually increasing their negative thoughts,

taking them further away from enlightenment.

So, Jinpa,

what are the real requirements in terms of

trying to gain enlightenment?

So the very first requirements is the motivations.

Motivation?

Now, Jinpa,

I'm fairly intelligent myself,

so my question is,

could I get a mantra?

Uh, oh, wait.

Okay, is this on...

-Yeah. -Is on?

Okay, oh, sorry, sorry.

Mantra?

I know you are very smart but,

I doubt you'd get any mantras.

Ha ha!

Ha ha ha!

Oh no, I'm just joking.

There is different degrees of mantras.

The one mantras, which always brings goods to everyone,

whether you have the pre-required training or not.

So I can share that with you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Traditionally,

a mantra can only be given by a guru

to a monk who is in the process of becoming his disciple.

Jinpa, however, will make an exception,

since he considers me a spiritual friend.

The mantra that we're going to work together

He is the Buddha of compassion.

Compassion Buddha.

So, this mantra helps

us to enhance all that compassions

to the universe.

So I am going to give you the mantra,

so you can generate motivation to yourself,

for the goodness of all the living beings.

So, as I say the mantra, you try to repeat.

Om...

Om.

-Mani... -Mani.

-Padme... -Padme.

-Hum. -Hum.

So, you visualize that on my crown

there's a Buddha of compassion.

So there's a radiance of light sending towards you,

with this all good heart in the form of light.

Okay?

So repeat for final time. Om...

-Om. -Mani...

-Mani. -Padme...

-Padme. Hum. -Hum.

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani padme hum.

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani padme hum...

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani padme hum.

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani padme hum...

As I chant the mantra,

I am trying to see the light dissolving into my body

and imagine it filling me with love

and compassion.

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani padme hum.

Om Mani padme hum. Om Mani...

As we recite the mantras togethers,

so you feel so much compassion and love

generated within you,

then sending this all love

towards the all the sentient being.

Secrecy isn't always a way to protect a faith from outsiders.

It also provides in the faithful

a hunger for...

divine knowledge.

To learn a secret mantra at Kopan,

a monk must study the methods of

Vajrayana Buddhism for many years.

Some secrets are the reward of a lifetime of work.

Shows how precious enlightenment is.

As precious as a diamond.

Devotees of many faiths

make a lifelong quest for divine knowledge,

but that knowledge is not always deliberately withheld.

Sometimes, it is hidden in plain sight.

In the south of France,

in the city of Carpentras,

there is an unassuming building that houses

one of the oldest synagogues in the country.

Journalist, Nelufar Hedayat,

has come here to explore the secrets

of the mystical Jewish Kabbalah.

She is meeting scholar, Julien Darmon.

Julien!

Absolute pleasure to see you.

-Pleased to meet you. -How are you?

Delighted to meet you.

The pleasure's all mine.

Wow.

Indeed, huh?

It's not what I expected.

It's beautiful.

When we say Kabbalah, what do we mean?

What is it that you study?

Kabbalah is the method of plunging the depth

of the Torah, over every letter,

every word and they retrieve,

through combinations of letters,

secrets that tell us,

stories that happened before the creation of time.

Can you show me? I'd love to see this.

Of course I can show you.

So, this is the actual text of the Torah, hand written.

This is the literal word of God.

This is the literal word of God.

So, where should we start?

Well, we should start at the beginning

with the verse saying,

'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.'

So the very first word

which we would usually translate as

'at the beginning'

does not necessarily mean that.

It reads 'bereishit.'

Bereishit.

And literally it means 'at the beginning of.'

And Kabbalah says that at the beginning of what?

Good question.

And there is a hint in the way the word is written.

Bereishit.

So if you rearrange the letters,

bereishit...

can also be read,

'berit-esh'

which means 'covenant of fire.'

Ah, the covenant of fire.

That means first that this text

is not just information,

it's something that binds you to God.

Another reading,

bereishit

has, at its root, the word 'rosh'

which is, like in Arabic, ras,

which means the head.

Ras, yes.

So, what it alludes to,

is that before God

created the world by speaking,

he thought the world.

Why is it important that God said

'the head' or thought before he said the words?

We usually translate, 'In the beginning

God created the heavens and the Earth.'

But in Hebrew, the order is

'In the beginning he created God

and the heavens and the Earth.'

We can read this text as meaning that

the first thing that God created,

was not the heavens and Earth,

but he created his own manifestation to the world.

This is astonishing.

So I might as well have

an infinite number of these parchments,

because that's how many meanings there are here.

But, Julien, why would God

make it so difficult to understand?

When you start reading texts that way,

you become humble.

You say,

'I have to study and study and study more'

and what I understand now

'is not the final word of the Bible.'

To an outsider,

the endless decoding of Kabbalah may seem like a fool's errand.

But I think it's more about the journey than the destination.

Many religions are an attempt to explain the infinite,

the universe in finite terms.

But, what better way to give yourself

over to the mystery of the eternal

than a quest with no end?

Secrecy can be part of a faith's allure,

or surround a religion's birth,

or entice the believers to find the pathway to enlightenment.

But sometimes,

a faith is forced to hide underground.

Oh my.

And secrets can smear its name.

Below Rome's cobblestone streets,

there is still evidence of an ancient, secret sect,

one that was rumoured to drink blood

and perform human sacrifice.

Religious scholar, Bruce Chilton,

is taking me to a house

that was hidden under a fourth century church

for 1500 years.

It's named after two men, who were executed

for being part of an illegal cult.

John and Paul...

were two young men,

who had worked in the family

of the Emperor Constantine.

They were ardent Christians.

In the year 361 a new emperor came to power,

the Emperor Julian.

He decided,

I'm going to get rid of this sect of Christians.

I'm going to treat it as a superstition,

a cult...

and as a result of that,

John and Paul were beheaded

at Julian's order.

Bruce, are you telling me that...

this place was buried under the basilica for 1500 years?

It's all underneath the basilica

and you can see this whole complex

was really quite high.

-Bruce. -Yeah?

You're not getting us lost, are you?

I hope I'm not getting us lost.

Oh, my. Look at this.

These are the remains of a house church

dating to the fourth century.

Here, wealthy Roman Christians

practised their faith in secret.

So a Christian family

could come here

and pray in private?

What you looked for was a safe place,

where you could gather with others

and go about your celebration of Christ's presence

in the Eucharist.

The Eucharist,

a meal that remembered and celebrated Jesus' last supper,

was the central part of early Christian worship.

The sharing of Jesus' body and blood

in the form of bread and wine

was their act of communion

with God and one another.

But some outsiders saw it in a different light.

When you practice in secret,

especially in the Roman world,

you open yourself up to the possibility

of all kinds of rumours circulating.

-Rumours? -Rumours.

Or course.

That Christians in rooms like this one,

practised orgies.

That they drank the blood of children.

In the imaginations of the Romans,

Christians drank actual blood,

not the metaphorical blood of Christ.

It was a libel used to incite fear

and reprisal against this upstart sect.

How do rumours like that get started, I wonder?

They get started, because the rumour,

what is now called the Blood Libel,

is always very effective to use against people you hate.

And if people you hate,

because they're concerned about oppression,

practice in secrecy,

then that secrecy is used against them.

Here's the question.

How safe was it?

Although the families were wealthy,

and they protected Christians,

they also had to use a kind of code

in their artwork

to support Christianity

without advertising Christianity.

Just on this wall,

is a figure, she's a woman

called the Orante,

which means,

'the woman who prays.'

And you notice that she has her hands outstretched?

Right.

We can't actually say whether she is a Christian lady

or a pagan lady,

and I think that was part of the point.

That the room could be accessible to everyone,

but Christians would find a safe home here,

where they could worship.

I see.

This code may have helped ordinary Christians

blend in with their pagan neighbours,

but it did not help prominent Christians like John and Paul.

We're now in the special installation

for the martyrs, John and Paul.

We can't prove

that they were buried here,

but we do know

that since the fourth century,

this has been used as the place,

where they were venerated.

Christianity obviously got past this period.

How?

The Emperor Julian led the Roman army in battle

against the Persians,

but he was killed.

Oh, oh.

His place was taken by the Emperor Jovans,

and Jovans decided, I'm going back,

not only to tolerate Christianity,

but even to prefer Christianity.

It's hard to believe that

Christianity was once a small, secret faith,

practised in the shadows.

But secrecy actually gave Christianity strength.

Its followers venerated Jesus, who died opposing Rome.

Oppression only fed the movement.

And once it was set free,

it travelled to every corner of the globe.

Hmm.

Christianity...

flourished after a few centuries of Roman suppression,

but other faiths weren't as quick to recover.

There is one that, only now,

is coming back into the light.

On the eve of the Winter Solstice,

journalist Sal Masekela

is travelling to the English village of Stanton Drew.

He's come to witness a celebration

that was banned for almost two millennia.

-Hello. -Hello!

How are you, sir? Nice to meet you, sir.

It's lovely to meet you.

First thing I see is that this pub is called the Druid's Arms.

Do the Druids have their own pub?

Alas, no.

But there's some interesting stuff to see.

Alright.

Please come.

Ronald Hutton is an expert

in the pre-Christian religions of the British Isles.

We're really not having a beer?

-Alas, no. -Alright.

Wow.

You just walked back around

five and a half thousand years

to the New Stone Age.

That's why this village is called Stanton, Stone Town.

There are just ancient, huge stones everywhere.

What does the Druid belief system...

look like? How would you explain it?

Druids essentially hold the Earth itself,

the natural world, to be sacred.

So they have a profound relationship with the land itself.

What happened to the ancient practice that it went away?

The Romans came and conquered most of Britain

and they suppressed the practice of Druidry.

Then along came Christianity

and suppressed it in turn.

And it was dormant for about 1000 years.

But as the power of the church waned in the 18th century,

the enigmatic stone circles here and across the British Isles,

began to draw people back to Druidism,

to revive an extinct religion.

What about the principles of Druidry, do you think,

made it something that people got curious about

and wanted to revive?

Because Druidry provides one way of reconnecting

modern people with things from which they often feel cut off.

From the land and the natural world,

from the past,

especially the remote past.

It gives them roots.

And just as Stonehenge comes into

alignment with the rising sun on the Winter Solstice,

modern Druids across the country are preparing to celebrate

the rebirth of the sun,

including here in Stanton Drew.

Sal, may I introduce you to my two druid friends,

Adrien and JJ.

Hi, JJ. I'm Sal. Nice to meet you.

Lovely to meet you, Sal.

What's the significance of the mistletoe?

Obviously, during the Christmas holiday,

you know, kissing under the mistletoe.

What does it mean in the Druid culture?

I think the clue is in, the Druid term for it is 'all heal'

and I think, traditionally,

our ancestors understood the power

and the wisdom inherent in this plant.

Because it sits between heaven and earth.

It never touches the ground.

And how will it be used in the ceremony tomorrow?

We honour the mistletoe and then we offer it

to the earth.

It's fertilizing the earth.

So, the getting of the mistletoe,

what do we need to do?

So it's not about just coming and taking and going.

It's about this tree will gift us

the mistletoe,

the mistletoe will then gift people that hope.

It's been a long, hard winter,

you know, so it's all gonna change!

The sun's only round the corner!

We can do this! We can do this!

It's coming! It's not far away now.

Now bless this tree,

symbolic of all the trees in this orchard,

with the element of fire.

-You gonna go first? -Yeah.

You go up.

Chuck it out. Oi! Got it, great.

Hey, well done.

So the trick is not to let it hit the ground.

Why is that?

Because, once it hits the ground,

the fertility goes into the earth.

Right.

Yeah, so the healing power,

its potency is contained

in the fact it's never touched the ground.

The other thing about it is,

you notice that in the depths of winter,

this is still green and berried.

This is still fertile,

it's still vibrant, it's at its height.

Yeah.

It's almost as if Druidry was like the original environmentalism.

I think it is very much so, from where we come from.

It's at the heart.

Instead of man being separate from nature,

everything is connected.

Well, thank you.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

It's an hour before dawn,

on the shortest day of the year.

Around 200 Druids assemble

at Stanton Drew's 5,000 year old stone circle,

rekindling a ceremony that must have taken place,

thousands of times before.

As we gather as we always do,

in love and light,

to honour the birth of the Mabon,

the new Sun king,

who will be seen to be moving back across these heavens,

bestowing new life upon the lands.

As the sun creeps toward the horizon,

there's a sense here, that Druidry

is finally making its way out of the shadows.

Across the world,

20,000 people have joined the Druid movement,

driven by a need to reconnect with the Earth,

and the numbers are growing.

I am the spirit of mistletoe.

Mistletoe is the sperm of the gods,

impregnating the Earth

to bring forth

fresh life in abundance.

I bring healing and protection,

for the body

and for the spirit

and life

renewed for the Earth.

The Sun stands still,

so let's give a rousing cheer

for the returning Sun god.

Yeah!

Yeah!

I'm always in awe

of the richness of the world around me.

I can't help but marvel

at how all of this came to be.

Well,

if there were no mystery to life,

there would be no need for faith,

no room for divine secrets.

The promise of access to those secrets inspire religions,

encourages people to dig deeper into their faith.

Secrets protect believers in times of oppression

and keep them alive,

until their message can take root in fertile ground.

We can never expect to know the mind of God,

but we can work

to get closer to it.

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