mystagogue

American  

[mis-tuh-gawg, -gog] / ˈmɪs təˌgɔg, -ˌgɒg /

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.

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mystagogue British  

/ ˌmɪstəˈɡɒdʒɪk, ˈmɪstəˌɡɒdʒɪ, ˈmɪstəˌɡɒɡ /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

• mystagogic adjective
• mystagogical adjective
• mystagogically adverb
• mystagoguery noun
• mystagogy noun

Etymology

Origin of mystagogue

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

Example Sentences

Marshall McLuhan, the 1960s' mystagogue of the media, has proposed something of an explanation�or at any rate, a suggestive metaphor for the collision that has occurred in Indochina.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, who began life as a drawing teacher and is now chief mystagogue of National Socialism, spends much of his time in private sanatoria.

From Time Magazine Archive

U and e are both silent in the words rogue, brogue, fugue, eclogue, prologue, apologue, epilogue, intrigue, fatigue, synagogue, demagogue, pedagogue, decalogue, catalogue, mystagogue, picturesque, burlesque, grotesque, pique, casique.

From Guide to the Kindergarten and Intermediate Class and Moral Culture of Infancy. by Mann, Mary E.

But the mystagogue succeeds because he gets himself misunderstood; although, as a rule, he is not even worth misunderstanding.

From All Things Considered by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)

They who wish to pay their devotions at the shrine cannot do better than take with them Gregorovius, as cicerone and mystagogue.

From Old Calabria by Douglas, Norman