religion during the time of Christianity. Each mystery religion went through changes and took on different forms in different cultural settings. However, the mystery religions all had the following five common traits:
             1) With each mystery cult was an annual vegetation cycle in which life is renewed each spring and dies each fall. Mystery cults found this to be symbolic in nature with growth, death, decay, and rebirth.
             2) Each cult made use of secret ceremonies or mysteries connected with some type of an initiation. Part of the ceremony wqas that they passed on a "secret" that included information about that particular god or goddess. Usuall the secret was how to achieve unity with that deity, This knowledge was unattainable by outsiders of the cult.
             3) Each centered around a myth in which the deity returned to l
             ...