A Modern Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

Part II: A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and Its Mysteries

Chapter 3: The Mysteries Continued, Part 2

Introduction: The ancient mysteries guide the soul through a perilous descent into its chaotic depths, purifying it to reveal divine wisdom. This section explores the transformative journey past deceptive apparitions, led by the rational intellect’s golden light.

The Soul’s Perilous Descent

Plato likens the soul’s descent into the “oblivious realms of generation” to an earthquake, shaking its core with nature’s convulsions. Psellus describes two types of visions in the Chaldaic rites: “suspections,” mere apparitions of light or figures, and true divine revelations. The Oracle warns, “If you see such a light, do not heed it or its voice, for these are false, born of the soul’s passions.” These apparitions, like the poet’s satyric Pan in monstrous disguises, affright seekers, as Virgil depicts Aeneas, trembling yet resolute, facing shadowy forms.

This “pneumatic vehicle,” the soul’s imaginative essence, condenses like clouds, forming deceptive images—demons, beasts, or human shapes—that haunt the mysteries’ initiatory stage. Proclus explains, “Before the gods’ presence, terrestrial demons appear, drawing unpurified souls to matter, separating them from truth.” Only through purification do initiates enter the temple’s inner sanctum, receiving divine illumination and shedding their illusory garments.

The Alchemical Purification

The alchemists’ “Mercury of Philosophers” emerges from this purified spirit, freed from the chaotic “Black Saturn” or “Urinus Saturni,” a fetid, heavy essence that Sendivogius uses to nurture the soul’s solar and lunar aspects. This is the “mineral tree,” bearing transformative waters, as another adept notes: “From my sea rise clouds, bearing blessed waters to irrigate the earth and bring forth herbs and flowers.” Hermes urges, “Extract the shadow and obscurity from the ray, purifying the watery, corrupted nature until its redness shines.” This process, visiting “the interiors of the earth rectifying,” yields the true medicine—the philosopher’s stone.

The soul, likened to Plato’s marine Glaucus, deformed by foreign weeds, appears beastly until purified. Vaughan describes this chaotic essence as ever-changing, like clouds driven by wind, persecuted by the “fire of nature”—the rational light of the mysteries. Raymond Lully calls it “fugitive spirits condensed in monstrous shapes,” moving unpredictably, yet holding the seed of divine wisdom when purified.

The Rosicrucian Allegory

A Rosicrucian letter illustrates this journey: “In the earth’s center lies a mountain, small yet great, soft yet hard, far yet near, invisible by divine providence. It holds treasures beyond worldly value, guarded by cruel beasts and ravenous birds. Only the worthy, through self-labor, can reach it. Go at midnight, armed with courage and prayer, following a guide who appears unbidden.” This guide, a divine light, leads to the mountain’s heart, where the soul confronts its chaotic depths, requiring heroic resolve to prevail.

Closing: This section unveils the mysteries’ descent into the soul’s chaotic depths, purifying deceptive apparitions to reveal divine wisdom. The transformative journey continues, promising deeper revelations of the Theurgic art in our next post.