mystagogue

[ mis-tuh-gawg, -gog ]

noun

1. someone who instructs others before initiation into religious mysteries or before participation in the sacraments.
2. a person whose teachings are said to be founded on mystical revelations.

mystagogue

/ ˌmɪstəˈɡɒdʒɪk; ˈmɪstəˌɡɒdʒɪ; ˈmɪstəˌɡɒɡ /

noun

1. (in Mediterranean mystery religions) a person who instructs those who are preparing for initiation into the mysteries

Derived Forms

• mystagogy, noun
• ˌmystaˈgogically, adverb
• mystagogic, adjective

Other Words From

• mys·ta·go·gy [mis, -t, uh, -goh-jee, -goj-ee], mys·ta·go·gue·ry [mis, -t, uh, -gaw-g, uh, -ree, -gog-, uh, -], noun
• mys·ta·gog·ic [mis-t, uh, -, goj, -ik], mysta·gogi·cal adjective
• mysta·gogi·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of mystagogue¹

1540–50; < Latin mystagōgus < Greek mystagōgós, equivalent to mýst ( ēs ) ( mystic ) + ágōgos -agogue

Word History and Origins

Origin of mystagogue¹

C16: via Latin from Greek mustagōgos, from mustēs candidate for initiation + agein to lead. See mystic

Example Sentences

Now, everyone knows everything, and the glance into the kitchen of cinema has made us at once suspicious and nostalgic—suspicious of the mystagogue with the secret recipe, nostalgic for the comforts of home and for the transparency of the storyteller at the hearth.

From The New Yorker

Henri Bergson is a mystagogue, and all mystagogues are mythomaniacs.

From Project Gutenberg

Mystagogue, 78, 99, 253, 269 Mysteries, 6, 76, 92, 145, 158, 230, 269, 284, 287.

From Project Gutenberg

Superstition With Philosophy so ready to be our mystagogue and to lead us into the true knowledge of divine goodness, and with so helpful a theory to explain away all that is offensive in traditional religion, faith ought to be as easy as it is happy and wholesome.

From Project Gutenberg

And it is an incident worth noticing here, that, in the case of Mayence, virgin-mother of the God-sired Hesus of the Druids, the ancient traditions of the country, more than two thousand years old, represent her body as being enveloped in light, and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, corresponding exactly to the apocalyptic figure described by the mystagogue, St. John, in the twelfth chapter of his Revelation.

From Project Gutenberg