Long time, and real-time guitar hero Joe Satriani has a new CD out which is blowing me away. One of the things I’ve always loved about Satch is his music is both ‘listenable’ and inspiring. He’s not nearly as technical as Steve Vai or Yngwie, but more beautiful and melodic. And did I mention inspiring? First song on the CD is titled Musterion which is based on a hungarian minor scale (impressed?). And it’s a fantastic tune built around an idea he had about an ‘internal mystery.’ According to ol’ Satch, he was attracted to the title because it is a Greek word which was used to denote false spiritual doctrines until Paul turned it around in the NT.

Essentially, Paul uses it to say that, in Satch’s words, ‘the only way you can understand the stories of the New Testament is [by being] touched by the Divine. And it’s that sort of enlightenment that helps you ‘decode’ these stories and understand the true mystery (musterion) of faith.’

In a nutshell, a ‘musterion’ was a sort of ‘closed truth’. In Paul’s day, musterion was a kind of technical term utilized by the "mystery religions" which referred to a secrets concealed by strange customs and ceremonies and confided only to those initiated into the "mystery cult".  You kinda had to be in the club to know the secret handshake… such as "a secret rite," "secret teaching”, etc….

IOW, it’s not like a mystery novel, but refers to something hidden in former times, but now made known. Not something learned by ‘eye’ or ‘ear’ but by ‘heart’. Paul describes the mystery of Christ as the [musterion] which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints. When God illuminates our heart at conversion, he gives ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 4:6)

Listen to or watch a short podcast here. Pick any of the songs to watch/hear a clip and an interview with Professor Satch.

Then run to iTunes and pick it up.