While the uninitiated masses made offerings to and worshiped the exoteric face of individual deity(ies) and the Solar Hero(s) of the prevailing mythology in an attempt to gain worldly favors and a rewarding afterlife, the initiates of the Mysteries recognized in these mythological images and storylines symbolic concretions of greater esoteric truths.[27] Under the doctrine of Pythagorean Unity and the divinity of the human soul, the initiates of such traditions sought to achieve apathanatismos (‘deification of the Self’) by aligning themselves with – and becoming – the Solar Hero.[28] This was accomplished by a life-long devotion to the Mysteries and their teachings where the mythological narratives of the Solar Hero were revealed as parallel allegories to the spiritual development of man. These Mysteries were committed to instructing the initiate in the disciplinary techniques and practices to silence the desires of material orientation and to experience the subtle realities through awakening the Divine Seed of the Heart.[29] Via the magical and meditative practices of self-identification with the deity and the vibration of vowel mantras and other voce magicae as preserved in the P.G.M., the initiate learned to transform his/her perspective to one of transcendent Unity (read Alpha = Omega) and elevate their consciousness to a higher ontological level of experience …we may say, that such practices were intended to liberate the initiate from the confines of space-time and to evoke a transformation in the initiate’s sense of Self from mere mortal to living God.