The core of the tradition can be found at the Bakcheion. Regardless of one’s involvement one should familiarize oneself with the material there. 

Guests and all others are Xenoi, “strangers, outsiders.”

Laity are Philoi, “friends of the tradition.”

Students are Akousmatikoi, “listeners, one who is receiving the tradition.”

Those who have undergone the general initiation are Mystai. Each Way has its own additional initiation or series of initiations. 

We have two grades of religious specialists: Boukoloi, “cowherders” and Orpheotelestai “experts in Orphic rites.”

The Boukolos has a general proficiency in the tradition, can lead communal rites and assist their Orpheotelest but cannot teach classes or perform initiations.

To become a Boukolos one must undergo specialized training by an Orpheotelest, receive the general initiation, and take classes on the following texts:

• Revelry: A Journey Through the Dionysian Year
• Tending the Bull: A tradition of Dionysian devotion 
• Hunting Wisdom: A Bacchic Orphic Diviner’s Manual
• Masks of Dionysos: Getting to Know the God Through His Heroes and Heroines
• Spirits of Initiation: A Study of the Toys of Dionysos

One does not need to have completed Boukolos training to become a Mystes, although it is recommended.

The Orpheotelest is a general religious specialist, community leader, instructor in the tradition, initiator, and has mastered one or more of the Ways of the tradition. Each Orpheotelest is independent and autonomous in how they oversee their strain of the tradition, though they have lineage obligations to the Orpheotelest who trained them, as their Akousmatikoi, Mystai and Boukoloi do to them.

Although one must master at least one of the Ways to become an Orpheotelest, one does not have to be either a Boukolos or Orpheotelest to undergo this specialized training. Training in more than one Way is permitted, though not required. Each Way has its own title which one earns upon completion of training. 

• Green Way = alchemy, plant lore, and entheogens. (Rhizotomoi, “Root-cutters”)
• Purple Way = sacred theater, ritual construction, organizing festivals. (Technitai, “Artists”)
• White Way = recitation of hymns, prayers, and incantations. (Hymnodai, “Hymn-singers”)
• Red Way = mastery of a range of ecstatic rites. (Bakchoi, “Frenzied Ones”)
• Black Way = everything pertaining to the Black Sun mysteries. (Nyktipoloi, “Night-roamers”)
• Gold Way = eschatology, funerary rites, hero cultus. (Choephoroi, “Libation-bearers”)