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 ) ( 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

The arch mystagogue, Home, though by no means a clever man, was never detected in fraudulent productions of fetishistic phenomena.

From The Making of Religion by Lang, Andrew

Nevertheless he was no anarchist and no mystagogue; and even where he was defective, his defect has commonly been stated wrongly.

From The Victorian Age in Literature by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)

Thus, with Piero for mystagogue, we enter an inner shrine of deep religious revelation.

From Renaissance in Italy Volume 3 The Fine Arts by Symonds, John Addington