I'm writing a book, and as part of that I'm looking into old mystery cults. Unfortunately I am having difficulty finding scholarly sources... Most things that come up either look like a work of fiction, are connected to the modern occult scene, or appear the be works of Christians teaching the evils of idolatry. None of which are what I'm looking for.
So to be specific I am looking for good, scholarly books on mystery cults found in ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc. Preferably that go into good detail of the mechanics of how they worked.
I recently did an extended essay (for school, so not the most rigorous in terms of sources) on mystery cults. Alhough I never actually read any of these books, the books I found myself running across when looking for quick and easy sources were:
- Bremmer, Jan (2014). Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World
- Johnson, Sarah. Ancient Religions
- Keller, PhD, Mara Lynn (2009-04-01). "Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries".
- This guy called 'Roller' came up on a lot of websites, I have no idea who she/he is though
- Walter Burkert, a German scholar of Greek mythology and cults, he's probably your best bet
My essay was on Greek mystery cults, so I can't help you outside of Greece. I would say for things like Hermetics (later cults etc) it's going to be very difficult to seperate modern and ancient ideas surrounding them.
Anyway, I hope this was at least somewhat helpful (but I guess it is from a kid at school, haha).