Derived from the Middle English word mysterie, from the Latin word mysterium, or from the Ancient Greek μυστήριον (mustḗrion, “a mystery, a secret, a secret rite”), from μύστης (mústēs, “initiated one”), from μυέω (muéō, “I initiate”), from μύω (múō, “I shut”).

Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown. 

The truth behind this endeavor remains a mystery – it is something with an obscure or puzzling nature. A particular event of randomness in the life of Brian. The second decade of the Rosary concerns the sorrowful mysteries, such as the perpetual war of mankind.

A secret religious celebration, to which none were admitted except those who had been initiated dating back to the Eleusinian mysteries.

In The Arts Without Mystery, Denis Donoghue argues that modern society’s commitment to science and rational explanation has tended to bleed the arts of their most powerful asset—what he calls their “mystery”—and has thus rendered them “safe” and, in an important sense, beside the point. If we give the term “mystery” a wide berth, it is difficult not to agree. For if the arts were once valued as vehicles of truth, articulating insights that transcend our conceptual grasp, they are no longer. The modern conception of reality has relieved the arts of this lofty charge, relegating them to the status of “superior amusements,” mere aesthetic games.

The opium of art.

The triumph of science would appear to have routed all other explanations of reality. No longer does astrology or alchemy or magic have the power to explain the world to us. 

Yet at one time each of these systems of belief, like religion, helped shed light on what was dark to our understanding. The occult arts have also never disappeared. We humans have a need for mystery and a sense of the infinite.

Order the 'Mystery'-Issue here